OUR CALL TO WORSHIP
Last week as I was walking my dog a verse came to my mind: “The earth is the LORD’s and everything in it…” I had not memorized this phrase, nor do I recall a song that would grab me the way this phrase did. I shrugged it off and continued the canine ritual.
A few days ago I had a dream. It was an unusual dream for me to have, though I have had a lot of bizarre dreams in the last year. This one stands out. I dreamt that someone had found a large box in the basement of some undisclosed building and had called me to take a look at it. Inside the large crate was another box but covered in gold and crafted intricately by skilled hands. I knew right away that we had found the lost Ark of the Covenant.
I know this is strange but bear with me. As I examined the Ark there was a tingling in my body, an excitement that I felt even though I was dreaming. This was the throne of God; this gold box represented the presence of the Lord. In the crazy conjuring of my brain that goes with dreaming I exclaimed “God sat here!” Opening the lid on the Ark (how we dared do so is beyond me) I gazed upon objects that Moses must have laid in the bottom. The dream left me with a great feeling of worship long after I had woken up.
When I came to the office on Tuesday I had no idea what to preach today. All of the ideas that I considered left me with no peace whatsoever. Then the verse “The earth is the LORD’s and everything in it…” came to mind. How odd, I thought. But when I found the Psalm of origin, Psalm 24, and studied it, I discovered that it was a Psalm celebrating the return of the Ark to Jerusalem.
I have obeyed the still small voice and want to bring us all into the presence of the LORD. This Psalm teaches us to train our gaze on God as we live and serve him in the world that He made for us. As we enter a new year of serving the LORD as a church this is our call to worship.
1. Worshipping our Creator God
The Ark of the Covenant had been a major frustration for the Philistines who had captured it from Israel. So they gave it back. We all know how David danced at the head of the procession as the Ark was brought to Jerusalem. He also wrote this Psalm to sing as they climbed Mount Zion bringing the Ark home to its rightful place.
“The earth is the LORD’s and everything in it. The world and all its people belong to him. For He laid the earth’s foundations on the seas and built it upon the ocean depths” (vv. 1-2).
David began where an Israelite would typically begin, praising the Creator of all things. This is a confession that all wealth and fertility of the earth are not for man’s exploitation but for God’s satisfaction and glory. In worship it is the right place to begin. There is a sense of security knowing that our world belongs to God.
That day that I walked my dog, I stepped out onto the road and felt uneasiness, an unexplained anxiety. It was like some danger was lurking out there. If you watch the news you can easily grow anxious about our world. A double murder in a small town of Manitoba is too close to home. A missing child in Toronto, another Canadian soldier killed, a world of wars, diseases and viruses, hundreds of people killed in an earthquake…these things can break our resolve to be hopeful, to believe that there is good in the world.
When I went but ten steps the verse came to me, “The earth is the LORD’s and everything in it…” And I was at peace. This is my Father’s world and nothing happens here that he does not know about. Every person is his; every creature is his. If anyone or anything harms you it is comforting to know that you are not lost; the owner knows exactly where you are.
Some things are too big for us to worry about. A missing child is a tragedy, a murder is horrible, but we have a God who is responsible for this world. He will bring justice to it in his way. He is the Creator and we are the created. We must leave things in his creative hands and concentrate our efforts on trusting him and praising him.
2. Worshipping our Holy God
As the procession headed up the hill with the Ark, David was struck with the awe of this moment. He wanted to take the Ark to its rightful place, to the holy place, but who is qualified to do such a holy task?
The question is posed this way: “Who may climb the hill of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place?” (v. 3). From ancient times hills were places of worship. In the prehistoric mind to stand on a hill was to be close to God. So here in David’s trek they literally climbed a hill to stand before the throne of God, to come into his presence.
The question poses a problem, however. Who is worthy to stand before a holy God?
The answer David gives is this: “He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false” (v. 4).
Clean hands are hands that do not have blood on them. The LORD told his people through Isaiah that bloodied hands hinder prayer, “When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; even if you offer many prayers I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood…” (Is. 1:15). This is not only a reference to murder but to all evil deeds. Paul wrote, “I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing” (1 Ti. 2:8). Clearly unresolved anger with each other bloodies our hands and makes us unable to approach God respectfully.
Clean hands are an indication of a pure heart. We need clean hands to serve and a pure heart to drive that serve. A pure heart is a heart that wants what God wants.
A pure heart does not lift up his soul to an idol. To lift up the soul is to put our trust in something, to put our confidence in something for our security. How easy it is to do that. We can put our faith in our RRSPs for retirement and find that they are worthless in 20 years. Meanwhile we claim to worship the Creator and mock his ability to sustain us at the same time. RRSPs are necessary, don’t get me wrong, but to trust in them or any monetary vehicle is to set up an idol. The mark of a pure heart is its desire to know God and recognize idols.
To swear by what is false is to flat out lie. We cannot tell lies and then come before God and worship him. Our motives are twisted if we think we can worship a truthful God while the spittle of lies is fresh on our lips.
These requirements are daunting. If we look beyond the mere exercise of reading them and consider that we must be this to approach a holy God, we ought to tremble. Psalm 15 heaps more of the impossible on this requisite. (Read Psalm 15).
How can anyone worship God when God requires these qualities in his worshippers?
To worship is not only to sing songs and lift holy hands in prayer. To worship is to serve the Living God. We are beginning Sunday School and Clubs and other programs in a short while. How can we teach or lead or learn in the name of God with dirty hands, or impure hearts, or idolatry or lies muddying our lives? We are an impure people.
Let me tell you another dream I have. This is not the kind that I have while I am sleeping; this is the wide awake kind. My dream is that one day I will preach a message that would lead to a great repentance. Everyone would know it’s not my words but the Holy Spirit who spoke. Hearts would break and tears would flow; confession of dark sins would tumble out and people would be healed of those sins. That’s my dream.
This may sound crazy. But then I would know that God’s word is having effect. Maybe it’s selfish on my part, I don’t know. I do know that I desire the Lord’s presence to be felt in every heart and corner of this church.
A. W. Tozer said, “I believe we ought to have again the old biblical concept of God which makes God awful and makes men lie face down and cry, ‘Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty. That would do more for the church than everything or anything else.”
An experience of meeting the Holy God of Heaven would result in such sorrow for us. It would be a good and cleansing sorrow. For as Paul said when he wrote to the Corinthians, “…the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death” (2 Co. 7:10).
Who may ascend the hill of the LORD? Who can approach his Holy presence? Under the regulations David has put forth? None of us.
Only the holy can approach the Holy One. Only Jesus can approach God on his own merits. His hands were clean. His heart was pure. His face was towards His Father alone. His lips spoke only truth.
The writer of Hebrews tells us that only Jesus could enter the holy presence of God by his own shed blood. And through our confession of this truth we too may enter as the writer says, “How much more then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!” (Heb. 9:14).
Such people may seek God and worship in his presence. Are we a generation of seekers? Are we a people hungry for a holy God? Are we yearning to serve God through faith in Christ? We say we are but the Spirit tells me there is a need for repentance in this generation.
3. Worshipping our Victorious God
Victory can be lost on a people living in enemy territory. It is nevertheless, Victory. “Lift up your heads, O you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle” (vv. 7-8).
Derek Kidner wrote something that puzzled me. He said, “If the earth is his (1-2) and he is holy (3-6), the challenge of the ‘ancient doors’ is not an exercise in pageantry, but a battle cry for the church.” I didn’t understand this until I realized that Jesus is the only one who can open the doors.
The doors could be metaphor. In reality they were the doors of the walls to Jerusalem, the holy city. But the doors could be the barrier to repentance; they could be old, creaky and rusted shut; they could be the door to our hearts sealed with much too much unconfessed sin. And as we approach a year of service in Christian Education or committee work or prayer and witnessing, we may find people with closed doors to our work and message.
Here comes the King of glory, Jesus Christ, the one we serve and worship and he wants to have a presence in these lives. For we read in the beginning that “The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world and all who live in it…” Each heart belongs to him. So he beckons us to cry, “Open up in the name of the King!!!”
Who is this king? It is Jesus who won the battle on the cross and can win the battle for your soul, for the battle belongs to the LORD!
Whether you are a sound technician, a SS teacher or custodian remember you are first and foremost a servant of the LORD. And Jesus told Peter concerning the Church “…on this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell will not overcome it” (Mt 16:18). No gate will remain closed to the gospel, so serve the LORD with your gift and know that he is victorious through you.
This is our spiritual worship.
Conclusion
This is our call to worship. We serve the King of glory. He created us and he deserves our worship as the Creator of all that lives around us. He is holy and he deserves to have holy people serve him through faith in Jesus Christ. He is victorious and he deserves to have people serve him who trust in him that he has won the battle.
There is a beautiful little quote I want to leave you with which sums up some of the things we have talked about today:
C.S. Lewis said, “The gospel means we can stop lying to ourselves. The sweet sound of amazing grace saves us from the necessity of self-deception. It keeps us from denying that though Christ was victorious, the battle with lust, greed, and pride still rages within us. As a sinner who has been redeemed, I can acknowledge that I am often unloving, irritable, angry and resentful with those closest to me. When I go to church I can leave my white hat at home and admit I have failed. God not only loves me as I am, but also knows me as I am. Because of this I don’t need to apply spiritual cosmetics to make myself presentable to Him. I can accept ownership of my poverty and powerlessness and neediness.”
How can we help but worship a God who allows us to come to him in such a poverty stricken way, as ourselves, honest and humble. This is what the church ought to look like.
Praise God he still calls us to worship and serve him. By the grace of Jesus Christ this is our worship.
AMEN
