The LORD’s Day as the Market Day of Our Soul

Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

Exo 20:9-11

In Puritan England the market day was the chief business and social day of the week. Farmers, craftsmen, merchants, and housewives would come from the surrounding country-side and villages to buy and sell. Believing that God has appointed the Lord’s day for especially important transactions with God, the Puritans called the Sabbath ‘the market day of the soul’.

By referring to the Sabbath as ‘the market day of the soul’, the Puritans reminded us that God gave us this day above all other days, to conduct spiritual commerce. The purpose of the Fourth Commandment is to free us from our daily business so that we may do busness with Him on the ‘market day of the soul’.

(Pipa 42-43)

Today, let us thank the LORD for He has set a day where His people can really rest upon Him. Let us not take the LORD’s day for granted. God calls us to rest in Him with His people on His appointed day. May we be delighted to worship Him in Spirit and in truth found in Christ alone.

Let us pray for our pastors. Yes, they need prayers! Pray that the LORD may grant them reverence, knowledge, faithfulness, and fearlessness as they stand to herald the goodness. Pray that the LORD may give them peace, especially for those who may be experiencing dark providences as they fulfill their duty.

Blessed LORD’s Day!

Reference:

Pipa, Joseph A. The Lord’s Day. Geanies House, Fearn, Ross-Shire, Great Britain, Christian Focus Publications, Guernsey, Channel Islands Guernsey Press Co Ltd. [Manufacturer, 1997.

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