IT’S A NEW THING!
Psalm 98:1-9
S: Worship
C: Worship is exciting.
Th: Live the Difference
Pr: WE ARE TO WORSHIP WITH ENTHUSIASM.
?: How?
KW: Demonstrations
TS: We will find in our study of Psalm 98 three demonstrations of how to worship with enthusiasm.
The _____ demonstration is…
I. SING A NEW SONG (1-3)
II. MAKE A JOYFUL NOISE (4-6)
III. JOIN ALL OF CREATION (7-9)
PA: How is the change to be observed?
· Celebrate the person of God!
· Keep your perspective with praise.
· Keep singing about the new things God is doing.
Version: ESV
RMBC 08 August 04 AM
INTRODUCTION:
Sometimes, it is hard to generate enthusiasm.
For example…
ILL Notebook: Enthusiasm (boring lectures)
A professor at the University of Pennsylvania was known for giving boring, cliché-ridden lectures.
At the beginning of one semester, an innovative class breathed new life into the course by assigning baseball plays to each hackneyed phrase.
For example, when the professor said, "On the other hand," that counted as a base hit. "By the same token" was a strike out; "and so on" counted as a stolen base. Divided into two teams by the center aisle of the lecture hall, the students played inning after inning of silent but vigorous baseball.
On the last day of class, the impossible happened: the score was tied and bases were loaded. Then the batter hit a home run! The winning team stood and cheered wildly.
Though deeply appreciative, the professor later was quoted as wondering why only half of the students had been enthusiastic about his lectures.
Well, as we can see, enthusiasm doesn’t always occur naturally.
TRANSITION:
Today, though, we are going to talk about the relationship of enthusiasm and worship.
For…
1. When we “live the difference” it is observed in our worship.
When we “live the difference” the Holy Spirit makes in us, there is a difference in how we worship.
Did you notice the Scripture that we used for our “call to worship” today?
This psalm which is our study today is filled with enthusiasm.
It is as if the psalmist is ready to fly out of his seat as he is writing.
He is so excited that he can hardly contain himself.
And he gives us an excellent example, that…
2. WE ARE TO WORSHIP WITH ENTHUSIASM.
One of my favorite quotes about worship comes from Vance Havner:
“A lot of services start at 11:00 sharp and end at 12:00 dull!”
Well, worship is not to be dull.
This is why effort is put in the design of the services.
And though they rarely come out perfectly per the design…Scripture texts, music and their words, prayers, specials and the order they are put in, are carefully thought out, with the hope and desire that there might be something for everyone, across the generations.
This being so, we shouldn’t approach it carelessly.
When we gather for corporate worship, this is a time to offer God our best, not our leftovers.
If we come into our time together tired and distracted because we have not adequately prepared, we are not going to be able to offer ourselves as living sacrifices, which is our spiritual worship.
We are not going to be able to love and desire Him as we ought.
Sometimes, though, we really are caught in a rut.
One of the saddest things I hear from Christians is, “I have heard it all before.”
When a Christian says this, they have lost their enthusiasm.
They have lost their spiritual eyes.
They are bored and stuck.
They are frozen in their past.
And they need help.
They need a refresher when it comes to worship.
So, how do we accomplish this, then?
Well…
3. We will find in our study of Psalm 98 three demonstrations of how to worship with enthusiasm.
OUR STUDY:
I. The first demonstration is SING A NEW SONG (1-3).
Oh sing to the LORD a new song,
for he has done marvelous things!
His right hand and his holy arm
have worked salvation for him.
The LORD has made known his salvation;
he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations.
He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness
to the house of Israel.
All the ends of the earth have seen
the salvation of our God.
1. We never need grow tired in our praise.
The psalmist doesn’t want us to miss this most important aspect of worship.
There is always something new to sing about.
Wait a minute, though…
When you read the psalms, don’t you find that the themes are repeated over and over?
There is a lot of talk about God’s faithfulness.
We read a lot about God’s love and righteousness.
There is a lot of victory over evil.
There is a steady diet about God’s salvation.
These themes are repeated time and again.
Is there anyway to keep these things fresh?
Yes, there is an answer…
We are able to sing a new song to the Lord when we are living in the midst of God’s blessings.
But you have to have the spiritual eyes to see them.
You have to be before the Lord, really living in the relationship with the Lord daily.
And when you do, it gets really exciting.
ILL personal
This past Tuesday, while I was running soccer camp at Hickory Hill, I had some free time, and JJ had told me that the van’s gas tank was close to empty. So, during my free time, I decided to go fill the tank.
And I remember thinking to myself on the way, “Why am I doing this now? There is no hurry. I could do this on Friday.” But on I went anyway. Filled up the tank, which was really empty – with less than a gallon left, and returned to the camp.
I didn’t think a thing about it for the rest of the day, that is, until about 11:55 PM, when Sam walked into my room to wake me up, “Paul, can you drive your van to Darien Lake? The bus didn’t show up to get the kids and we are getting a caravan of vehicles together to go get them.”
So off we went, six vehicles in a row off to Darien Lake. And as I was driving, it occurred to me what a blessing the Lord had been to me that day. If had not gotten the gas, I would not have been able to help. He had urged me to go so that He could use me.
Yes, it was a small matter. But it was a blessing just the same. And I discovered that as I was driving along on Rt. 77, I was singing to the Lord a new song!
You see, God is always at work.
God is always faithful to His people.
We just need to have the spiritual perception to see it.
So, let’s not forget…
2. God is powerful!
The old song is one that is characterized by complaining, grumbling and defeat.
The old song is characterized by darkness and ignorance.
But the new song is of victory.
We celebrate today because God is moving.
We recognize our dependence on Him and rejoice in the resulting love and security.
We have light and understanding.
We have the knowledge that the victory is always His.
We are people of joy because…
3. God seeks for the eternal joy of His people.
God seeks for your eternal joy.
He has sought for your salvation.
We have such a great reason to be flying out of our seats with praise.
But what is also truly amazing, is that this truth can become so redundant that we seem unaffected by it.
This is truly a tragedy and we are not let this happen.
Don’t let grace go by unappreciated.
For, He is continually faithful.
He is continually loving.
He is continually delivering.
So sing a new song today!
It may be an old message, even an old truth, but when you sing it today, it is today’s new song.
It is worth singing, because He has done marvelous things!
II. The second demonstration is MAKE A JOYFUL NOISE (4-6).
Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth;
break forth into joyous song and sing praises!
Sing praises to the LORD with the lyre,
with the lyre and the sound of melody!
With trumpets and the sound of the horn
make a joyful noise before the King, the LORD!
1. We are to bring what we have to the Lord.
So, maybe you are thinking today, “You know, I don’t really have that great of a voice. In fact, I have trouble carrying a tune and people usually grimace when they hear me sing.”
Anybody like that here?
Well this verse is for you…
Make a joyful noise!
You see, it is better to make noise, to shout joyfully, than to be silent.
We are to communicate God’s blessings.
Each one of us is responsible to do so.
The next phrase in the psalm includes three imperatives.
We are called on to burst, to rejoice, and to sing.
The NIV has freely translated it, “burst into jubilant song with music.”
The good news about our Creator, our Lord, our Savior…is so great…we should feel as if we are about to burst.
We can’t hold it back.
We use everything we have to give Him praise.
ILL Notebook: Music (guitar solo)
An anthropologist was assigned to Borneo, where he found a guide with a canoe to take him up the river to the remote site he where he would make his collections. At noon on the second day of travel up the river they began to hear drums. "What are those drums?" asked the anthropologist, knowing he was in cannibal country.
The guide turned to him and said "No worry. Drums OK, but very bad when they stop." They both went ghostly pale when the drums suddenly stopped. The guide crouched in the belly of the canoe and covered his ears.
"Do as I do! Very important!" intoned the guide with great urgency.
"Why? What does this mean?" asked the panicked anthropologist.
"Drums stop! Next come guitar solo!"
Well, we are to bring what we have before the Lord.
And…
2. We are to bring a vibrancy of music before the Lord.
The Hebrew liturgy is a noisy affair.
Jewish worship is not quiet.
And it uses a variety of musical instruments.
In this text, stringed and brass instruments are encouraged.
The horn, a ram’s horn, is also encouraged.
Worship is not meant to be a silent affair.
This is why I love the fact that we have such a variety here.
I love the organ, especially when it is opened up to give God praise.
I love the brass!
I love it when our instrumentalists lead us in worship, whether it is the clarinet, flute, trombone or French horn.
I love it when our band plays, the keyboard, the drums, and even the guitars!
Because for each…the goal is absolutely the same…it is to glorify God.
III. The third demonstration is JOIN ALL OF CREATION (7-9).
Let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
the world and those who dwell in it!
Let the rivers clap their hands;
let the hills sing for joy together
before the LORD, for he comes
to judge the earth.
He will judge the world with righteousness,
and the peoples with equity.
1. We are to celebrate with the variety of God’s creativity.
We are not to miss that the creation is ever speaking of a Creator.
Its design shouts it over and over again to us.
All we need to do is to stop, look, and consider.
And we will then see that nature echoes and reverberates the joy of its Creator.
The sea roars with delight, as the waves of the ocean offer its thunderous applause.
The mountains lift their heads speaking of their Creator.
The animal life, over and over again, speak of the creativity of their Designer.
This being so, also note this…
2. We are to rejoice in the diversity of His people.
Just as creation is different, so are we His people.
We have been given different personalities.
We have differing spiritual gifts.
Add on to that our gender, our race, our cultural and social backgrounds, we are a diverse group.
But in the midst of all this diversity (which should help us keep our sense of humor), God calls on us to be unified.
We are to join all of creation, enthusiastically, in the praise and worship of our God.
Why?
Because we can rest in who God is.
You see…
3. We are to rest in God’s righteousness.
Yes, injustice and evil seem to have their days, but…
But it is a short day compared to eternity.
For our God is the King of kings.
He is the Lord of lords.
And in Him resides perfectly peace, justice, righteousness, and happiness.
ILL Notebook: Music (His Eye Is on the Sparrow)
The following is a story written by John Thomas Oaks, called “The Sparrow at Starbucks: the song that silenced the cappuccino machine.”
It was chilly in Manhattan but warm inside the Starbucks shop on 51st Street and Broadway, just a skip up from Times Square. Early November weather in New York City holds only the slightest hint of the bitter chill of late December and January, but it’s enough to send the masses crowding indoors to vie for available space and warmth.
For a musician, it’s the most lucrative Starbucks location in the world, I’m told, and consequently, the tips can be substantial if you play your tunes right. Apparently, we were striking all the right chords that night, because our basket was almost overflowing.
It was a fun, low-pressure gig - I was playing keyboard and singing backup for my friend who also added rhythm with an arsenal of percussion instruments. We mostly did pop songs from the ’40s to the ’90s with a few original tunes thrown in. During our emotional rendition of the classic, "If You Don’t Know Me by Now," I noticed a lady sitting in one of the lounge chairs across from me. She was swaying to the beat and singing along.
After the tune was over, she approached me. "I apologize for singing along on that song. Did it bother you?" she asked.
"No," I replied. "We love it when the audience joins in. Would you like to sing up front on the next selection?"
To my delight, she accepted my invitation.
"You choose," I said. "What are you in the mood to sing?"
"Well. ... do you know any hymns?"
Hymns? This woman didn’t know who she was dealing with. I cut my teeth on hymns. Before I was even born, I was going to church. I gave our guest singer a knowing look. "Name one."
"Oh, I don’t know. There are so many good ones. You pick one."
"Okay," I replied. "How about ’His Eye is on the Sparrow’?"
My new friend was silent, her eyes averted. Then she fixed her eyes on mine again and said, "Yeah. Let’s do that one."
She slowly nodded her head, put down her purse, straightened her jacket and faced the center of the shop. With my two-bar setup, she began to sing.
Why should I be discouraged? Why should the shadows come?
The audience of coffee drinkers was transfixed. Even the gurgling noises of the cappuccino machine ceased as the employees stopped what they were doing to listen. The song rose to its conclusion.
I sing because I’m happy; I sing because I’m free. For His eye is on the sparrow And I know He watches me.
It was a holy moment.
When the last note was sung, the applause crescendoed to a deafening roar that would have rivaled a sold-out crowd at Carnegie Hall. Embarrassed, the woman tried to shout over the din, "Oh, y’all go back to your coffee! I didn’t come in here to do a concert! I just came in here to get somethin’ to drink, just like you!" But the ovation continued. I embraced my new friend. "You, my dear, have made my whole year! That was beautiful!"
"Well, it’s funny that you picked that particular hymn," she said.
"Why is that?"
"Well . ..." she hesitated again, "that was my daughter’s favorite song."
"Really!" I exclaimed.
"Yes," she said, and then grabbed my hands. By this time, the applause had subsided and it was business as usual. "She was 16. She died of a brain tumor last week."
I said the first thing that found its way through my stunned silence.
"Are you going to be okay?"
She smiled through tear-filled eyes and squeezed my hands. "I’m gonna be okay. I’ve just got to keep trusting the Lord and singing his songs, and everything’s gonna be just fine."
She picked up her bag, gave me her card, and then she was gone.
Was it just a coincidence that we happened to be singing in that particular coffee shop on that particular November night? Coincidence that this wonderful lady just happened to walk into that particular shop? Coincidence that of all the hymns to choose from, I just happened to pick the very hymn that was the favorite of her daughter, who had died just the week before? I refuse to believe it.
God has been arranging encounters in human history since the beginning of time, and it’s no stretch for me to imagine that he could reach into a coffee shop in midtown Manhattan and turn an ordinary gig into a revival. It was a great reminder that if we keep trusting him and singing his songs, everything’s gonna be okay.
Yes, injustice and evil seem to have their days, but…
But it is a short day compared to eternity.
For our God is the King of kings.
He is the Lord of lords.
APPLICATION:
So, let us…
1. Celebrate the person of God.
Let us be truly be a church that worships, for worship is the expression of the vibrancy of our relationship with Him.
In the letter to the Ephesians, Paul writes…
…be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ…
For when we do this, something great happens for us.
We keep our perspective on life as a whole.
So…
2. Keep your perspective by praising Him.
Praise keeps our perspective when the stress of life surrounds us.
We may be suffering losses.
It may be that life is not going the way we want it to.
We may want to lament and whine.
Yet, it’s not the way out.
The sign in my office, “Thou shalt not whine” must be a standard we must follow, for the remedy of the difficulties of life is praise.
You see, praise expands the borders and boundaries of our lives.
We are freed from our present circumstances and given the ability to face the hard stuff, because we know that He is the Lord of all.
So, enthusiastically…
3. Keep singing about the new work He is doing in you and around you.
Psalm 98
Sing to GOD a brand-new song.
He’s made a world of wonders!
He rolled up his sleeves,
He set things right.
GOD made history with salvation,
He showed the world what he could do.
He remembered to love us, a bonus
To his dear family, Israel — indefatigable love.
The whole earth comes to attention.
Look — God’s work of salvation!
Shout your praises to GOD, everybody!
Let loose and sing! Strike up the band!
Round up an orchestra to play for GOD,
Add on a hundred-voice choir.
Feature trumpets and big trombones,
Fill the air with praises to King GOD.
Let the sea and its fish give a round of applause,
With everything living on earth joining in.
Let ocean breakers call out, "Encore!"
And mountains harmonize the finale —
A tribute to GOD when he comes,
When he comes to set the earth right.
He’ll straighten out the whole world,
He’ll put the world right, and everyone in it.
from THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language
© 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson
BENEDICTION: [Counselors are ]
Sing a new song – and worship with enthusiasm – because when God is at work in our lives, there is always something new to sing about.
Make a joyful noise – and worship with enthusiasm – because what God is doing is too good and too great to keep silent about.
Join all of creation – and worship with enthusiasm – because in the end God will set all things right, He is truly the King of kings and Lord of lords.
Now to him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy – to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.
RESOURCES:
The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Vol. 5, Willem A. VanGemerem
Tyndale Commentary, Derek Kidner
Exploring the Psalms, William MacDonald
The Treasury of David, Charles Spurgeon
“God Is Constantly Delivering Us from the Various ‘Imprisonments’ of Life”, Jerry Morrissey
“New Song of Celebration”, Paul Apple
“Learn to Sing a New Song”, Peter Langerman
