LOVING GOD THROUGH WORSHIP
Living a Life of Love – 3
Psalm 95
March 19, 2006
INTRODUCTION:
Today we will be continuing in our series titled “Living a Life of Love.” In week one our theme was love your spouse. Last week our theme was love each other and this week our theme is love God. How do we express love to God? One of the primary ways we express our love to God is through acts of worship and devotion. And so this morning we are going to look at how we should be “Loving God Through Worship.”
A.W. Tozer said, “Worship is the missing jewel of the church.” Someone once said, “We have become a generation of people who worship our work, work at our play and play at our worship.” Certainly the worship of the Almighty God of the universe is worthy of more of an effort than that. So this morning we are going to be looking at Psalm 95 in an effort to learn more about how to worship God. In Psalm 95 we find seven elements of worship and I have put these into an acrostic spelling out the word W.O.R.S.H.I.P. in order to help make them more memorable.
Let’s begin by reading Psalm 95 and then we will go back through it and I will highlight these seven principles.
Psalm 95
1 Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD;
let us shout aloud to the Rock of our
salvation.
2 Let us come before him with thanksgiving
and extol him with music and song.
3 For the LORD is the great God,
the great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are the depths of the earth,
and the mountain peaks belong to him.
5 The sea is his, for he made it,
and his hands formed the dry land.
6 Come, let us bow down in worship,
let us kneel before the LORD our Maker;
7 for he is our God
and we are the people of his pasture,
the flock under his care.
Today, if only you would hear his voice,
8 “Do not harden your hearts as you did at
Meribah,
as you did that day at Massah b in the
wilderness,
9where your ancestors tested me;
they tried me, though they had seen what
I did.
10 For forty years I was angry with that
generation;
I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts go
astray,
and they have not known my ways.’
11 So I declared on oath in my anger,
‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ”
W – WORSHIP GOD PROPERLY – ON HIS TERMS.
I think that it is significant that this Psalm begins not with an invitation to worship, but with a summons to worship:
1Come
It may only be one word, but it is an important word – it is a powerful word. We are being summoned to come into the presence of the Almighty to perform our acts of worship before him. This summons is given three times in the Psalm. In verse one we read: “Come, let us sing.” Then in verse two it says: “Let us come before him with thanksgiving”. And finally in verse six we read: “Come, let us bow down in worship”.
Worship is not something that is optional for God’s people. Rather it is something that is specifically requested of them – even required of them. This summons is significant because it shows that we are not to worship God on our own terms, but on his terms. He does not come to us, but we are to come to him.
Two young boys were walking down the street in downtown Minneapolis when out from an alley ran a Rottweiler and attacked one of the boys. The other boy grabbed a 2x4 lying near the alley and beat the dog to death and saved his friend’s life. A reporter from the Minneapolis Star Tribune got wind of the story and requested an interview from the first boy. He ran the story on the front page and the headline read: “Vikings Fan Bravely Saves Friend’s Life From A Rabid Rottweiler.” The boy called the reporter and said, “I’m not a Vikings fan.” The reporter said, “Well, I just thought that since you are from Minneapolis that you would be a Vikings fan. I’ll correct the mistake in tomorrow’s paper.” The next day the front page read: “Timberwolves Fan Bravely Saves Friend’s Life From Rabid Rottweiler.” The boy again called the reporter and said, “I’m not a Timberwolves fan either!” The reporter asked, “Are you a fan of sports at all?” The boy said, “Yes. In fact, I am a die-hard Green Bay Packer’s fan.” The reporter agreed to note the change in the next day’s newspaper. The next day the front page read: “Redneck Idiot Kills Faithful Family Pet!” That was the reporter’s viewpoint and of course it was a rather biased viewpoint all though in this part of the country there just might be few people who would be sympathetic to it.
Well, just like that everyone’s take or viewpoint on worship is different. Ask a Pentecostal; an Anglican; an Episcopalian; a Catholic; a Wesleyan; a Methodist; ask younger person; or an older person and you will probably come away with as many different views as the number of people you asked. However, the point I want to make this morning is that your take on worship is relatively irrelevant. For it is only God’s viewpoint on worship that really matters.
Very few, if any, of the differences in viewpoint that would have been given by the aforementioned people would have anything to do with theology. Most of us probably have a high degree of agreement on what it means to worship God, but may differ greatly when it comes to the style in which we prefer to worship God. The good news is that nowhere in the Scriptures does God prescribe a particular style of worship as the correct style.
Gary Thomas noticed that many Christians were stuck in a worship rut. He raised the question, “Since God has intentionally made us all different, why should everyone be expected to love (worship) God the same way?” Gary has discovered that for 2,000 years Christians have used many different paths to enjoy intimacy with God. In his book Sacred Pathways, Gary identifies nine ways that people draw near to God:
· Naturalists express love for God best when they are outdoors.
· Sensates express love for God best when all their senses are engaged.
· Traditionalists express love for God best when they are able to stick close to ritual, symbols, and familiarity.
· Ascetics express love for God best in solitude and simplicity.
· Activists express love for God best when they are battling injustice and evil.
· Caregivers express love for God best through caring for those who hurt.
· Enthusiasts express love for God best by experiencing celebration.
· Contemplatives express love for God best through adoration and meditation.
· Intellectuals express love for God best when their mind is fully engaged.
Perhaps as I read through that list you were able to identify the way that you prefer to worship God. The way that is most natural for you. But please note that none of those ways has anything whatsoever to do with right or wrong or good or bad. They are just different ways of worshiping God and expressing love to him through being the kind of person that God made you to be. There are lots of different ways to worship God and there are lots of different styles in which to worship God. And they are all acceptable as long as you come to him on his terms because his terms do not dictate style or methodology. But I want to take the rest of this message to look at six things that his terms do dictate.
O – OVERFLOW WITH GOD’S PRAISE.
1Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. 2Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song.
When our love and gratitude for God fills our lives to the point where it simply overflows – that is worship. John Piper, pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, puts it this way: “We also believe that our joy shows the supremacy of God’s value. If His greatness is the basis of our joy, then our joy is the evidence of His greatness. God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.”
One commentator notes: “The praise consists of a popular outburst of joy using all the available means of expressing love and loyalty to the Lord.” Note that this commentator says that we are to use “all available means” to express our worship and love to God. There is not just one way that is the right way.
Eugene Peterson, author of The Message, said, “Worship does not satisfy our hunger for God – it whets our appetite. Our need for God is not taken care of by engaging in worship – it deepens. It overflows the hour and permeates the week.” When we are truly worshiping God we are overflowing with his praise whatever form that may take.
R – RECOGNIZE GOD’S POSITION.
3For the LORD is the great God, the great King above all gods. 4In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. 5The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.
Here the Psalmist is showing us that the Lord is deserving of our overflowing expression of praise for him. He is worthy of our worship and deserving of our devotion. Why? He is worthy because he is “the great King” who rules and reigns as sovereign over the entire universe. The other nations of the world may each have their own deities, but these nations understood that their gods’ power were limited by the sphere of each nations rule. Not so with the God of the Israelites. His rule crossed the continents and spanned the seas. His dominion extended from the depths of the valleys to the peaks of the mountains. All territory lay within his kingdom and so he reigns as “the great King above all gods.” He is the King of Kings and the Lord of lords and we need to recognize his lofty position as he sits atop the spiritual universe and give him the honor he deserves.
Governor Alfred Smith of New York illustrated how we should see God:
Governor Alfred Smith was invited to make a speech at a convention dinner. He discovered when he arrived at the convention banquet hall that the predominately out-of-state audience had – to quote Gov. Smith – a “super sillious, condescending, semi-enibriated interest in him”. They thought that Alfred Smith was kind of fun joke, and his insight into what they must have been thinking about him was verified when the toastmaster gave the governor a “flippant, jocous introduction climaxed by the phrase, ‘And now, boys, I give you a great guy, Al Smith.’” Not very formal or respectful to say the least.
Now Governor Smith was the last guy in the world to insist on idle ceremony, or on empty formality, but on this occasion he sensed an affront not only to himself personally, but also to his office and his heritage, and he made his point briefly and tersely. He said, “Gentlemen, when I was a little boy on the east side, my father took me to see a great civic parade. I held his hand tightly as battalion after battalion of marching infantry came by. And then suddenly my father stiffened. I almost felt a tingling pride thrilling his being. Swiftly he said, ‘Son, take off your hat. The governor of New York is passing by.’ I took off my hat. Gentlemen, the governor of New York bids you good night.” And with that he walked out the door.
Are we sometimes guilty of treating God like that? We may be able to worship God in many different ways, but none of them have anything to do with treating God flippantly – with failing to give him his proper respect. An angel in the book of Revelation made the connection between respecting God and worship when he said, “Fear God and give him glory… Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water” (Revelation 14:7). “Fear God and give him glory”. For if God does not sense the appropriate note of respect in our worship he may well walk out the door just like Gov. Smith.
S – SUBMIT TO GOD AS HIS POSSESSION.
6Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker; 7afor he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care.
We are “under his care” and so we are to “bow down” and “kneel before” our God. We have just finished looking at the greatness and the majesty of our God. We have seen the high and lofty position, which he holds, and so our submission to this “great King” is well warranted.
And as we look at this passage closely we see that our submission is not demanded for the benefit of God. He is not on some egomaniacal power trip. Rather we are to submit to God because to do so is actually in our own best interest. Note that we are under God’s care. By submitting then we are simply presenting ourselves to God and allowing him to meet our needs. Now I am certainly not suggesting that we should worship God just for what we can get out of it. For that attitude is certainly foreign to genuine worship. But there is nothing wrong with recognizing that there are in fact benefits to worshipping God. When we submit to him he provides for us – he cares for us. However, when we refuse to submit to him we are losing out on all the benefits of having the Lord as our Shepherd. Let me paraphrase the Shepherd’s Psalm for those who refuse to submit to God’s care:
The Lord is not my Shepherd, I lack everything. I am always on the other side of the fence looking in at the green pastures. I can never get to the quiet waters and so my soul is dry and barren. I always take the wrong path and get lost. Every time I go through the dark valley I live in fear for I am all alone and there is no one to comfort me. I eat the crumbs underneath the table of my enemies. There is no oil for my head and my cup is always empty. Surely wickedness and hate will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will be cast out of the house of the Lord forever.
Not quite as comforting as the original is it? When we refuse to submit to the Lord’s care all of the comfort is sucked right out of the Shepherd’s Psalm. So submit to the Lord first and foremost because he is worthy of your worship and deserving of your devotion and secondly for the sake of your soul.
H – HEAR GOD’S PROCLAMATION.
7bToday, if only you would hear his voice,
“If only you would hear his voice.” If only you would listen to his instructions. If only you would follow his directions. If only you would heed his commands. Just think of the grief humankind could spare itself if we would only learn to listen.
Vince Lombardi was one of the winningest coaches who ever coached in the NFL. Once, after losing a game, he called for a team meeting in the locker room. As he faced these seasoned, hardened men who knew the game of football inside and out, he held up a football and announced, “Men, this is a football!” He then began to remind them of some of the fundamentals of the game and said, “Men, we must get back to the basics.” Lombardi knew the importance of never forgetting the basics – the fundamentals of the game. He believed that the strength of their game lay in the foundations of football – the very basics.
The secret to living a successful Christian life – the secret to living a life of love – the secret to worshiping God – likewise lies in the fundamentals – in the very basics. And one of the most basic tenets of Christianity is that you have to listen to God. And you have to play the game by the rules – you have to live life God’s way and you can only do that if you listen to his teaching.
Paul warned his young protégé, Timothy, about this when he wrote: “The time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear” (2 Timothy 4:3).
Too many people today only want to listen to what they want to hear. Too many people today, even in many parts of the church of Jesus Christ, want to pick and choose which parts they like. But the teachings of the Bible are not mix-and-match. And this all leads directly to the next principle:
I – IMPLEMENT GOD’S PLAN.
The whole purpose in listening to God is so that you can implement his plan. You hear God’s word so that you can heed word.
8“Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the wilderness, 9where your ancestors tested me; they tried me, though they had seen what I did.
Let me give a bit of a history lesson here. The name “Meribah” means “contending.” And the name “Massah” literally means “testing.” These names both refer to the same actual, historical place where the Israelites had contended with or tested God through their grumbling and complaining.
This particular incident is recorded for us Exodus 17:1-7. The Israelites were journeying through the desert on their way from Egypt to the Promised Land and rather than trusting in God to provide for them they instead began to grumble and complain. They had camped in a place called Rephidim and it turned out that there was no water source there. In Exodus 17:3 the Bible says: “The people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said ‘Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?’” And the story concludes in verse seven: “And he [Moses] called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the LORD saying, ‘Is the LORD among us or not?’”
And the real problem was that it was not just this one incident, but this one incident “symbolize(d) a whole generation of faithless Israelites.” Some may say that we are being too hard on these poor Israelites. After all, if you were stuck in the desert with no water you would be upset too. Well, if we look back to our text in Psalm 95, we will see the real problem. In verse nine God says, “they tried me, though they had seen what I did.” They had seen all of the mighty miracles that God had done – the plagues that he had sent upon the Egyptians – the Red Sea parting so that they could walk through on dry land. Even though they had seen the mighty power of God first hand their first reaction when faced with a problem was to believe that God had now abandoned them and therefore to grumble and complain.
How often do we respond to problems like that? Is your first response to a problem – “God can take of this”? Or is it to whine and complain like the Israelites? Let me tell you that grumbling and complaining is the exact opposite of worship. You can’t worship when you are whining. You can’t glorify God when you are grumbling. They are completely opposite attitudes.
The further problem is that the faithlessness of the Israelites directly resulted in their refusal to implement God’s plan. When they got to the borders of the promised land they found it occupied by giants living in well-fortified cities and they didn’t believe that God could deliver the land into their hands and so they refused to even try. Instead they just sat around grumbling and complaining about God.
If we jump ahead in our text to verse ten we read the result of their refusal to implement God’s plan.
10aFor forty years I was angry with that generation;
For forty years God was angry with them. He is referring to the forty years that he made them wander in the wilderness until every last one of the generation of those who had refused to implement his plan was dead. And then when they were gone he delivered the land into the hands of that generation’s children.
True worship is a matter of obedience. Leonard Sweet, in his book “Aquachurch,” writes: “Our pews are occupied by people who want to be moved, but who don’t want to move.” In other words, our pews are occupied by people who want to be moved emotionally, but who don’t want to move obediently. Someone once said, “Worship always leads to action.” True worship must always lead to the implementation of God’s plan and purpose for our lives. So let’s come to Sunday morning worship not simply wanting to be moved emotionally, but with a commitment to move forward obediently. And that attitude has to do with how we prepare for worship, which leads to the final principle.
P – PREPARE YOUR HEART TO ENTER GOD’S PRESENCE.
Ultimately the problem behind all of the Israelites’ others problems was that they had a heart condition.
10For forty years I was angry with that generation; I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they have not known my ways.’ So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’”
“Their ‘hearts,’ a metaphor for their inner being, were corrupt; and the people repeatedly proved that they did not love the ways of God.” The problem was that their hearts had gone astray – their hearts had not been properly prepared.
The author of Hebrews quotes from Psalm 95 verses 7b through 11. And then he comments in Hebrews 3:12 saying, “See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.” Some people are born with heart defects – hereditary problems that have been passed down to them from their parents. Likewise we have all been born into this world having a spiritual heart condition. But the good news is that this verse says that there is something that we can do about it. We can see to it that we don’t have a “sinful, unbelieving heart.”
The author of Hebrews makes much of the fact that verse seven of our text says, “Today, if only you would hear his voice.” The point being that it is not too late for us today. Those in the past disobeyed the voice of the Lord and they suffered the consequences, but today we still have the chance to hear and heed the voice of the Lord. We can make sure that we don’t repeat the mistakes of that generation. While that generation was barred from entering God’s rest Hebrews tells us that the potential of entering that rest is still available to us today.
In Hebrews 4:9-11 the Bible says, “There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for those who enter God’s rest also rest from their own work, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience.”
Again we see the issue of obedience, but we also see that this requires us to “make every effort.” Worshiping God isn’t something that comes to us naturally and, therefore, it isn’t easy. It requires us to “make every effort.” We need to work at preparing our hearts to come into the presence of God. The first step of that preparation is humbling ourselves and confessing our sins and asking God’s forgiveness, which was made possible through the cross of Christ, and inviting Jesus into our hearts. The first step is in becoming a Christian for nonbelievers simply cannot truly worship God. They may be able to worship other things, but they cannot worship God.
However, worship still doesn’t always come automatically for those of us who are believers. We cannot simply cruise into church on autopilot and expect to have a meaningful encounter with God. We need to be intentional about preparing our hearts for worship whether it be the Sunday morning worship service or anytime of personal worship throughout the week.
I know that Sunday morning can be chaotic especially for those of you who have children to get ready and for those of you who have responsibilities in the church on Sunday morning. Sometimes I long for the days when I was in Bible college and I could just pull on my clothes and go to church and plop down and “enjoy” the service. But all of these things just mean that we have to learn to be even more intentional about preparing for worship.
I’m not talking about anything major. At least not majorly difficult, but nonetheless, majorly important. I’m talking about something as simple as breathing a prayer: “God, help me to quiet my heart and to hear from you. Help me to focus my wandering thoughts on you for the next hour.” I’m talking about something like listening to praise and worship music at home while you get dressed for church or while driving here in your car. It need not take long, but take the time to prepare your heart to enter God’s presence and you might just be amazed at how much more you sense his presence.
CONCLUSION:
A parable is told of a community of ducks waddling off to duck church one Sunday to hear their duck preacher. After they waddled into the duck sanctuary, the service began and the duck preacher spoke eloquently of how God had given the ducks wings with which to fly.
He pounded the pulpit with his beak and said, “With these wings, there is nowhere we ducks can not go! There is no God-given task we ducks cannot accomplish! With these wings we no longer need walk through life. We can soar high in the sky!”
Shouts of “Amen!” were quacked throughout the duck congregation.
The duck preacher concluded his message by exclaiming, “With our wings we can fly through life! WE … CAN … FLY!!! More ducks quacked out loud AMENS! in response.
Every duck loved the service. In fact all the ducks that were present commented on what a wonderful, powerful message they had heard from their duck preacher … and then they left the church and waddled all the way home.
How often do we waddle to church, waddle through our worship and then waddle back out the same way we waddled in? It doesn’t have to be that way. Begin to put these seven principles into practice and you will begin to express genuine love for God through your worship.
SMALL GROUP DISCUSSION GUIDE
“A Call to Worship”
Psalm 95
March 22, 2006
OPEN IT:
Complete the following statement: “I am a member of the __________ generation.” Why do you think your generation has that name? What is the significance of that name?
DIG INTO IT:
Read Psalm 95:1-5 and answer the following questions:
a) What role, if any, should enthusiasm play in our worship services? (1) Why?
b) Why do you think the Psalmist called God “the Rock of our salvation”? (1)
c) What should we never come into God’s presence without? (2) Why do you think this is so important?
d) Is verse 3 an acknowledgement that there are in fact other “gods” albeit lesser gods? Why or why not?
e) What gives God the right to claim everything as his? (5)
Read Psalm 95:6-7a and answer the following questions:
a) Verse six calls for us to bow down. Is this requiring a physical act or state of the heart? Explain your answer.
b) What is the Lord’s “pasture”?
Read Psalm 95:7b-11 and answer the following questions:
a) What happened at Meribah and Massah? (See Exodus 17:1-7)
b) What does it mean to “harden your hearts”?
c) How do we enter God’s rest? (See Hebrews 4:7-11)
REFLECT ON IT:
1. How do you personally find “rest” in the Lord when you find yourself in the midst of difficult circumstances?
2. Should God have been more forgiving and/or understanding of the generation of Israelites that grumbled in the desert?
3. How do you think God views whiners and complainers in the church today?
4. How do you prepare your heart for worship? How should you?
PRAY ABOUT IT:
How can we pray for you?
Name: Need:
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