Everyone agrees that the Ten Commandments are an abiding summary of the moral law of God. And we all agree that a society that honors this divine law code will be uniquely blessed by God. That’s abundantly clear when we think of the commandments about the sanctity of life (not committing murder) and the sanctity of sex (not committing adultery) and the sanctity of truth (not bearing false witness). Our society would quickly degenerate into a horror of anarchy if these were not widely observed.
But what about the fourth commandment: the sanctity of the sabbath? It’s oddly inconsistent for Christians to insist that the Ten Commandments all have abiding authority today, except for the fourth commandment! But this is the one that pre-dates all the others. It goes back to the very beginning of human life, as we read in the early chapters of Genesis that God rested on the seventh and blessed that day. The Sabbath was a creation ordinance long before the Mosaic law code.
There are those who wrongly suggest that Jesus has set aside the Old Testament laws. He certainly did so with regard to the ceremonial law (as is clear from the book of Hebrews) and the civil law (we are no longer the Jewish state as a theocracy). But even dispensationalists, who tend to disregard the continuing use of the Old Testament, uphold the other nine commandments. When Jesus “worked” on the sabbath, He was not setting aside the fourth commandment. He was rejecting the Pharisees’ perversion of the law. His healing and plucking grain on the sabbath is the basis for the Westminster standards’ phrase about “deeds of necessity and mercy” being legitimate on this day of rest.
And if this commandment is still in effect, why do we observe it now on the first day of the week rather than on the seventh? The answer is that we see in the New Testament that Christians, led by the Holy Spirit, quickly shifted to the first day to celebrate the fact that Jesus rose from the dead on the first day of the week. The Old Testament seventh day sabbath celebrated God’s completion of creation. And now in the New Testament we celebrate the Lord’s Day on the first day of the week to mark God’s making a new creation through faith in the risen Savior.
But now the main question is this. If we are still to sanctify this day, should we do so with a rigid list of all the things we can’t do on that day, making it a miserable day in which joy is strikingly absent, and actually turning it into a day of labor, by working hard to make sure we don’t break it by doing something we shouldn’t!? No, the sabbath (and now the Lord’s Day) is a gift from God. It’s a gift that gives us rest from the labors of the week, and gives us time to worship and rest and pursue spiritual disciplines and engage in mercy ministry and in fellowship with other believers.
That’s the mood conveyed in the sabbath blessings promised in Isaiah 58:13-14, a mood of joy.
“If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the Lord honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly; then you shall take delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
That’s clearly what God desires from us in our use of this gift that He has given to us, one day in seven in which we can pause to spend quality time with Him, finding this to be a joyful highlight of our week, because of the special joy we find in it. As we do so, we remember the charge in Hebrews not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together (Hebrews 10:25). And we need to remind ourselves that Sunday is not our day to pursue what we want, but it is the Lord’s Day (it belongs to Him!) in which He has invited us to deepen our joy in Him, as a preview of heaven’s eternal sabbath (Hebrews 4:4-11).
This is one of the ways Christians ought to be visibly different from the culture in which we live. For most people, Sunday is a day for sleeping in late, a day for shopping, a day for catching up on yardwork, and of course a day for sports with all the entertainment options on television and in the stadium. Once again, our focus ought to be not on what we can’t do on the sabbath, but rather on all things we can do in the day of rest afforded to us. And that rest must always have at its heart the resting we enjoy as we gather in corporate worship to celebrate the work that Jesus has done for us. Add to that the benefits that have traditionally been enjoyed by observing the entire day as the Lord’s, beginning with our gathering for morning worship in the Lord’s house, and concluding the day with gathering for evening worship in the Lord’s house, as too few do today!
Certainly one of the best hymns for us to sing to remind ourselves of these wonderful truths about the fourth commandment is “O Day of Rest and Gladness.” The lyrics were written by Christopher Wordsworth (1807-1885), the nephew of the famed English poet William Wordsworth, who with Samuel Taylor Coleridge helped launch the Romantic Era in English literature with their 1798 publication “Lyric Ballads.” Christopher was born at Lambeth, near London, and was educated at Winchester School and Trinity College, where he was renowned as both a scholar and an athlete. He was ordained as an Anglican priest in 1833, serving first as headmaster at Harrow School from 1836 to 1850, and then as minister at Stafford-in-the-Vale in Berkshire from 1850 to 1869.
In 1862, he published a collection of 117 original poems (including 82 by other authors), in which “O Day of Rest and Gladness” was number one. With slight alterations, it was used in the 1868 appendix to the 1861 “Hymns Ancient and Modern.” In 1869, Wordsworth served briefly as archdeacon of Westminster and was then made Bishop of Lincoln, a position he held for fifteen years. A recognized theologian and Greek scholar, he wrote a commentary on the entire Bible, published in 1870, and a “Church History,” published in 1883, among other works. His belief about hymns as he described it was that “it is the first duty of a hymn to teach sound doctrine and thence to save souls.” He died at Harewood in Lincoln, England.
The hymn “O Day of Rest and Gladness” is unique in that it is not addressed as praise to God, or as encouragement to one’s self, or as instruction directed toward others. Rather, for the most part it is actually addressed to a personified Sabbath Day as if it were a living being, paying tribute to its character and the benefits it affords to those who observe it. Notice how often the text speaks of “thee,” as if the day has ears to hear and a heart to perceive. It’s not until the final stanza that the singer steps back and speaks about the day objectively, before concluding in typical Anglican fashion with doxological praises to the three persons of the holy Trinity.
In stanza 1, we respond to the themes of joy and gladness which should attend to the observance of this wonderful gift of God. This is a creation ordinance that originated in the joy and gladness of the Garden of Eden, a time free from “care and sadness.” When we gratefully and obediently observe the fourth commandment, we are joining our souls spiritually with saints and angels who are presently enjoying heaven’s sabbath, and singing “Holy, holy, holy” to our Triune God.
O day of rest and gladness, O day of joy and light,
O balm of care and sadness, Most beautiful, most bright;
On thee, the high and lowly, Through ages joined in tune,
Sing Holy, holy, holy, To God, the great Triune.
In stanza 2, we connect directly to the origin of the sabbath in God’s having rested from His labors on the seventh day, and calling the seventh day blessed. The first day of that creation week was when God created light (Genesis 1:1-5). And it was on the first day that Christ, the light of the world, rose from the dead, achieving victory over death for Himself and for all those who are “in Him” (Mark 16:9). More than that, it was on the first day of the week that the Holy Spirit was sent from heaven to empower the apostles (Acts 2:1-4).
On thee, at the creation, The light first had its birth;
On thee, for our salvation, Christ rose from depths of earth;
On thee, our Lord victorious, The Spirit sent from Heav’n,
And thus on thee most glorious A triple light was giv’n.
In stanza 3, we have the beginning of a series of analogies that point to the blessings that the sabbath brings. It offers a haven of safety from the cares and pressures and sources of tension and anxiety that buffet our souls, like a port that offers safety from storms to ships that shelter there. It also brings us a unique beauty in the midst of the ugliness that sin has imposed on the world, much like resting in a beautifully landscaped garden “intersected with streams of Paradise.” A third imagery is found as the sabbath is compared to “a cooling fountain in life’s dry, dreary sand.” How often do we feel like we are emotionally and spiritually “dry,” needing the refreshment and spiritual “re-hydration” that the sabbath brings? And a fourth imagery comes with the reference to Mount Pisgah. It was from that lofty position that Moses looked into the promised land (Deuteronomy 34:1-3), though he was not permitted to enter himself. In contrast, the sabbath is that Mount Pisgah for us to be able to look ahead into heaven. But unlike Moses, we are guaranteed entrance because of Jesus’ atonement on our behalf.
Thou art a port protected From storms that round us rise;
A garden intersected With streams of paradise;
Thou art a cooling fountain In life’s dry, dreary sand;
From thee, like Pisgah’s mountain, We view our promised land.
In stanza 4, we have another image, one that assures us of our access into God’s presence even now, before we actually enter into heaven. Jacob’s “ladder” was probably a vision of something like the ancient ziggurats, the “step pyramids” of the middle eastern nations. That vision for Jacob was a picture that even though he was alone and helpless and fearful of his future, the Lord was coming down to aid and guide him on his journey home. Heaven was coming down to him. The sabbath is like that ladder that assures us that God has come down to us in Christ, and draws near to us in our corporate worship. Each sabbath then becomes a reason to make us “gladder” as we are “nearer to Heav’n, our eternal home.” And as “a day of resurrection,” it points us to our resurrection, walking even now in newness of life.
Thou art a holy ladder, Where angels go and come;
Each Sunday finds us gladder, Nearer to Heav’n, our home;
A day of sweet reflection, Thou art, a day of love,
A day of resurrection From earth to things above.
In stanza 5, we are called to remember God’s provision of daily manna in the wilderness. As Israel was a weary nation, so are we, living as we are in this current wilderness before our ultimate entrance into the promised land. How does “the heav’nly manna fall” on us? In the preaching of God’s Word! That’s how the Holy Spirit bring us Jesus, who gives the bread of life, having promised the beatitude of blessing for those who hunger and thirst after righteousness (Matthew 5:6). As a silver trumpet called the Israelites to gather (Numbers 10:1-3), so the Spirit calls us to gather to receive more of the Gospel light and the living water.
Today on weary nations The heav’nly manna falls;
To holy convocations The silver trumpet calls,
Where Gospel light is glowing With pure and radiant beams;
And living water flowing, With soul-refreshing streams.
In stanza 6, we step back to speak about the sabbath, rather than, as in previous stanzas where we were speaking to the sabbath. It is an ordinance in which God dispenses grace to us, strengthening our souls for the journey ahead of us, a journey which we end with our joining with the spirits (souls) of those who have gone before us. And in typical Anglican fashion, the hymn concludes with a “Gloria Patri,” singing praises to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
New graces ever gaining From this our day of rest,
We reach the rest remaining To spirits of the blest.
To Holy Ghost be praises, To Father, and to Son;
The Church her voice upraises To Thee, blest Three in One.
While this song has been set to several tunes, most hymnals have used one (MENDEBRAS) arranged in 1839 from a German melody by the American church musician, Lowell Mason (1792-1872). After serving as music director at Independent Presbyterian Church in Savannah, he moved to Boston where he established “singing schools.” As a result of that, he is regarded as the father of American music education. Our hymnals are full of tunes he has provided for our singing.
Here is video of the singing of several stanzas of Wordsworth’s hymn.