“Oh come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the Rock of our salvation! Let us come into His presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to Him with songs of praise! For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In His hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are His also. The sea is His, for He made it, and His hands formed the dry land. Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our maker! For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand. Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. For forty years I loathed that generation and said, ‘They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.’ Therefore I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.'” (Psalm 95)
“Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.” (Psalm 32:1-4)
On this Sixth Sabbath, Palm Sunday, let us rejoice in the Lord and cry out, “Our God is an awesome God!” We worship today. This is a day that the Lord has made for us to enjoy fellowship with Him. That is how we know that only those who know the God who Created Sabbath can experience its benefits. We cannot reap the rewards of God’s “rest” and “refreshment” unless our hearts are right with Him. The celebration described in Psalm 95 is beautiful but closes with the hard reality that those whose hearts have gone astray from the Lord will not enjoy the rest God has to offer. David describes his lack of rest in Psalm 32 when he holds on to his sin. He doesn’t experience the blessing of forgiveness and is miserable.
Sabbath is not only for perfect people. No, Sabbath is for forgiven people. It can only be experienced when we come before the Lord…confess our sins and shortcomings to Him and accept His tender mercy and grace. Enjoy your palm Sunday today. Celebrate the forgiveness you have through Jesus Christ our Lord!