Psalms 125, 129, 130 and 133
(If you feel this sermon is helpful, you are welcome to visit www.danachau.com for a free online course.)
To teach on true worship without teaching on how to arrive at true worship is to give a man or a woman a picture of a delicious cuisine and then to expect him or her to create the cuisine without a recipe. Almost none would succeed, and those who would succeed, would have also benefited from the recipe.
Over the next four Sundays, I want to give us the recipe to arrive at true worship. After that, I hope to bring us a picture of true worship. The recipe prepares us to honor God, as He deserves, Monday through Sunday. We will identify at least seven ingredients in the Biblical recipe for true worship from the book of Psalms. (For those who don’t know, the word psalms means "songs of praise" or "songs sung with music accompaniment." In other words, psalms are the lyrics to songs once sung in praise to God.)
We will cover Psalms 120 to 134 over the next four weeks. These 15 psalms are known as the "songs of ascents." Some believe these could be fifteen songs for the fifteen steps of the temple on which the Levites sang these songs. Others believe these songs were sung at the three annual festival processions, as people ascended to Jerusalem.
In both cases, these are songs that prepared the singers to worship God, and by looking at the content of these songs, we can discover seven Biblical ingredients for preparing us to worship God. In order to remember these ingredients, I will list them in an acrostic, using the word, "prepare" - P.R.E.P.A.R.E. These ingredients prepare us for true worship of God.
In worship as in life, preparation makes the difference between success and failure. Most of us want to succeed in school, in work, in marriage, in family and in worship of God, but if we do not prepare ourselves to succeed, we will almost certainly fail. Consider the years of education and continuous training many receive for our profession, and consider the minutes of education and lack of continuous training for our marriage, family life and worship of God.
We should not be surprised when we read of a 50% divorce rate in our country currently. We also should not be surprised when we read that on average less than 20% of the people in a Sunday Worship Service ever sense God’s presence. If we do not prepare ourselves to succeed, we will almost certainly fail.
The FIRST ingredient to true worship is "pursuing peace with believers." The "P" in PREPARE is "pursuing peace with believers." We find this ingredient listed in Psalms 125 and 133.
Psalm 125:2 reads, "As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people both now and forevermore."
Psalm 133:1-3 read, "How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity! It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, running down on Aaron’s beard, down upon the collar of his robes. It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion. For there the LORD bestows his blessing, even life forevermore." Unity of God’s people brings God’s blessings.
When we pursue peace with believers, we prepare for true worship of God. Jesus said in Matthew 5:23-24, "Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift."
When I served as a student leader at the Asian American Christian Fellowship, one of the three student leaders I worked with rarely ever carried out her responsibilities, or at least it seemed that way to me. I remember she dropped by my apartment to tell me she again had not done what she had agreed to do. I told her it was okay, and that I understood her situation.
When she left, I began to feel on all the doors in my apartment. My roommate asked me what I was doing, and I told him I was trying to find a door I couldn’t kick through. My anger against her had been building up for several months.
My anger and frustration with this gal robbed me of any joy in serving and worshipping God. When I explained my situation to my pastor, he told me I had to ask her to forgive me of my anger against her. When I asked her to forgive me, she was at first hurt to discover I was angry with her, but I was freed from my anger, freed to really care for her, and freed to serve and worship God with joy.
Now we don’t ask for forgiveness as a way to point out another person’s mistakes or simply to unburden ourselves. We ask for forgiveness because we really need to be forgiven of our offense against the person. The goal is to make right our relationships, not to make others see we are right.
The Apostle Peter writes, "Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers. (1 Peter 3:7)" To prepare for true worship, husbands, love your wives.
Someone asked me this week whether I consciously plan out what I say to my wife on a regular basis. I didn’t answer, because I had to think about it. The answer is that I do more and more planning of what I say now than I did early in my marriage.
I used to think that I was being honest and authentic by being thoughtless with my words. Then I read Zig Ziglar’s book, "Courtship after Marriage," where he reminded me that if I could put forward my best before I was married, I could also put forward my best after I am married. Putting our best forward means different things for different couples. For me, putting my best forward means being thoughtful and generous to my wife with kind words, with my time and with my money. In so doing, we not only improve our marriage, but we improve our prayer life with God.
The Apostle Paul writes, "Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity (Colossians 3:12-14)."
Are there people in this room with whom you need to make right your relationship? Are there people in your family, in your work or in your neighborhood with whom you need to make right your relationships? You might come to church, but you won’t truly worship God until you make right your relationships with other believers, as much as you can help it.
Some actions to pursuing peace with believers include working out your differences and not allowing anger to build up, asking for forgiveness when you have hurt someone, and forgiving the other person as Christ forgave you. Unless you pursue peace with other believers, you have not prepared for true worship.
The SECOND ingredient to true worship is "repenting of sin and selfishness." The "P" in PREPARE is "pursuing peace with believers." The "R" in PREPARE is "repenting of sin and selfishness." We find this ingredient listed in Psalms 129 and 130. Repenting means turning away from something and then turning toward something else.
Psalm 129:5 reads, "May all who hate Zion be turned back in shame." To say this in the positive, when we turn away from shameful ways, we can turn toward God’s righteousness.
Psalm 130:3-8 read, "If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared. I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning. O Israel, put your hope in the LORD, for with the LORD is unfailing love and with him is full redemption. He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins."
It’s not hard to turn toward a God who loves us that much. Unless we repent or turn away from our sins and selfishness and turn toward God and His righteousness, we will not offer true worship, whether in our private times with God or in corporate gatherings on Sundays.
2 Chronicles 7:14-16 read, "...if my [God’s] people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there."
We cannot possibly be planting wickedness in our minds or with our mouth and our actions Monday through Saturday and then expect to harvest true worship in God’s presence on Sunday. Do we think that God doesn’t know what we do outside of Sunday morning worship? Do we think that God doesn’t care about what we do outside of Sunday morning worship? Don’t deceive yourself.
The God of the Bible sees all that we do, at school, at work, at home, in your car, and He is not obligated to meet with us just because we show up at church on Sundays. He obligates Himself to forgive those who humbly agree that they have sinned and who are willing to turn from selfishness to God. In the presence of such people, God makes His dwelling.
Do you want to turn away from your sins and selfishness? Will you humble yourself to seek help? I’m not talking about quick-fix solutions or perfecting you. I’m talking about going to God’s Word, the Bible, together to find help to turn away from your sin and selfishness and turn to seek God and His solutions for progressive character transformation.
There may be sins in our lives that no one else knows about, but don’t forget that God sees all and knows all. Amos 3:3 reminds us, "Do two walk together unless they have agreed to do so?" In other words, do not agree with the sins of the world if you expect to walk with God. True worship requires that we turn away from our sins and selfishness and turn toward God and His righteousness.
Next week, we will continue our preparation for true worship by looking at two or three more ingredients from the other eleven psalms of ascents.
Someone tells the story about two brothers who were farmers; one lived on top of the mountain with his wife and five kids, while the other unmarried brother lived at the base of the mountain. When harvest time came, the brother on top of the mountain looked down to the base of the mountain and thought, "My brother is single, and he has no one to help him plant and harvest his farm. He must be quite lonely also. I will take a fraction of my harvest and bring it to him so that he can be encouraged."
Meanwhile, the brother at the base of the mountain looked up to the top of the mountain and thought, "My brother has a wife and five kids to feed. He works so hard, and he may still not have enough for his family. I will take a fraction of my harvest and bring it to him so that he can be encouraged."
Both brothers began their journey on the same morning, each hauling a fraction of his harvest to bring to the other. By late afternoon, both brothers arrived on the road halfway from the top and the base of the mountain. When each discovered what the other intended to do, their hearts were so encouraged that they built an altar at that very place to worship God.
True worship is not separate from daily life, but true worship flows out of a daily right and healthy relationship with God and with one another in everyday life.
(If you feel this sermon is helpful, you are welcome to visit www.danachau.com for a free online course.)
