Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 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 the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

Lord, You are so gracious and kind! You remember our frame, that we are but dust, and so you gave to all mankind, by Your own example of resting after Your six days of creating, the blessing of a day, every week, of resting from our labors. If that was needed even before we fell into sin, how much more do we need it now, when not only the sin of Adam but also our own sins weigh us down, and when not only our sins but also your curse in judgment on them make the ground resist our efforts, bearing thorns and thistles, so that it is by the sweat of our brow that we eat bread! And, having given that blessing to all people of all nations simply because we are made in Your image, You also gave your chosen people, the children of Abraham, not just the gift of the Sabbath that you gave to everyone but a command to keep the Sabbath holy, remembering that they had been slaves in Egypt before You brought them out with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. So You intended Israel be an example to the rest of the world of the blessings that come with remembering and sanctifying the Sabbath. You tell us that when we “call the Sabbath a delight, and the holy day of the LORD honorable,” when we honor it, not going our own ways or seeking our own pleasure or talking idly, then we shall “take delight in” You, and You will make us “ride on the heights of the earth” and feed us with the “heritage of Jacob.” We long for those blessings, Lord, so teach us to remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. And then remind us, too, that You gave the Sabbath not only for us but also for livestock that might serve us, and even for the land that we cultivate. Teach us to use this earth and everything in it in ways that honor You, that don’t abuse but enhance it, that we might properly fulfill Your mandate that we be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and rule over everything in it—enhancing its fruitfulness, its beauty, and its safety, to Your glory and the benefit of our neighbors. In that way let us demonstrate love for You and love for our neighbors, we pray. In the name of Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath, we pray, amen.