Worship – Psalm 95

Our reading for today is going to be taken from the Psalms, chapter 95.

Psalms 95 · chapter mention

And you follow along.

Oh, come, let us sing to the Lord.

Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.

Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving.

Let us make a joyful noise to him who sing.

Let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise.

For the Lord is a great God, and a great king above all gods.

In his hand are the depths of the earth.

The eyes of the mountains are ease also.

The sea is eased, for he made it.

And his hands formed the dry land.

Oh come, let us worship and bow down.

Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker, for He is God.

He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture and the keep of His hand.

Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as at Meribel, as on the day at Masa in the wilderness, when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.

For forty years I loaded that generation and said, They are a people who go astray in their hearts, and they have not known my ways.

Therefore I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest.

This week and next, we are doing a short, just a two-parter in worship.

We're between bigger series.

And the reason we're doing that is because everyone worships.

But the important question for us today is what do you worship and how do you worship?

When you think of worship, uh, you might think of Frank Sinatra singing to his lover, You are all I worship and adore.

Some of us worship education, maybe uh it's we worship knowing more, bettering ourselves, gaining knowledge.

Likewise, some of us then worship our career.

Some of us worship our status or our material wealth.

If you're an Irish man, you probably worship your mother.

How wrong is that?

We'll see.

We'll see.

But this Psalm, Psalm 95, is a resounding and enthusiastic call to worship.

And what it's urging us to do, I hope you can see, it's pretty clear.

It's sing to the Lord, make a joyful noise to him, worship, bow down and kneel before him.

But as we spend time in it, what we'll actually see is that this Psalm is what it's calling us to is not only actions of worship, but to have hearts that worship God, to have lives given completely to him.

And what you do with this Psalm has consequences.

Not merely for whether you sing louder on a Sunday or if you sing at all on a Sunday.

Not only whether you're joyful here when we gather, but it has consequences for what motivates you to live.

Knowing God and hearing Him completely transforms our whole lives such that we become true worshipers.

Not only as we gather here today, but in every moment of our lives.

So have Psalm 95 open there in front of you in your Bibles.

If you have a physical Bible, just pop up in the middle of the Bible and you're pretty much there.

If you can have it on your phone, uh that's good too.

So I want us to look at that because key to this transformed life, this life transformed by knowing the gospel, by knowing God.

Key to that transformed life in Psalm 95 is the word for throughout.

We're called to burst forth with praise and then to bow down before God because of who he is.

Let me read from verse 1.

Oh, come, let us sing to the Lord, let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation, let us come into his presence with thanksgiving, let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise.

For the Lord is a great God and a great king above all gods.

In his hand are the depths of the earth.

The heights of the mountains are his also, the sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.

And then from verse six, we're called to worship again.

But listen out for the four.

So verse six says, Oh, come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker, for He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand.

We're called to worship God for who He is, for something.

There's a reason for it.

It's for who He is, but it's it's it's we're we're not only called to worship God in general, we're called to worship Him above all else.

So maybe some of you are considering whether God should be a part of your life at all.

Maybe some of you have said, God is my highest allegiance, but maybe, you know, we know in our own lives we don't do that all the time.

Why would we make him our highest allegiance?

Well, it's because he is above all and is over all as a great God and a great king over all gods.

He's the almighty God of the universe, the creator of all things.

Thinking about the people who read this first, the people who would have been around then, some people in the ancient world thought that the gods ruled the depths of the earth.

But no, God holds the depths in his hand.

Some also thought that the gods dwelt on the tops of mountains, but no, God owns them too.

He's the supreme authority over all, the great ruler of all, and the creator of all things, including those other things that we might give our lives to.

It's important we don't miss that when gods are spoken about here, it is relevant for us too.

We can't dismiss this just because we don't have gods made of wood or stone in our houses and there aren't too many temples around Dublin with idols in them, though it's something that some of you will have encountered in your home countries, your home cultures, and it is increasing in frequency here.

But what these gods represented security, comfort, health, more things, they still offer themselves as things we give ourselves today.

These gods offered meaning.

They promised people that their lives would be worth living if they sacrificed to them, yet they failed miserably.

And the same is true for us today.

We go after things that offer us security.

We give much of our lives to the pursuit of comfort and health, sometimes more than we offer ourselves to anything else.

Just think about how easily work, relationships, or comfort can shape our schedule more than Christ.

We offer our time, our skills, our thoughts, and our relationships to what we think will give us meaning and a purpose, yet we're left feeling empty.

The Almighty God of the universe, the creator of all things, he's king over all these things.

And so he should be worshipped above all else.

We should esteem him higher than all.

We should make him the king over our lives.

We should be doing whatever he wills.

So take whatever it is that motivates you, whatever you're giving your life to, and then see God way up here, above all, over all, and worship him.

Those things that you pursue: money, pleasure, power, career, comfort, status, they're actually all minuscule in comparison to him.

And they shouldn't be given the place we often give them, which is up here over him, but rather seeing God for who he truly is.

And what this Psalm is calling us to do is to see him as he truly is, as that great God, that great king above all gods, creator of all things, we should then lead lives that honor and glorify him above all else.

When we don't do that, when we don't esteem him above all else, it's like if we put the person who came second or third or anywhere down the line of a race, if we put them on the top step of the podium and we praise them more than the person who won, wouldn't it be ridiculous for the prize for coming first was less than for coming second or third?

If one of us here in the room went and represented Ireland or our own country in the Olympics and came last in whatever race it was or whatever event it was, we would all be so proud of you.

You can be confident in that.

And we probably talk about you more than the winner.

But that's not how it would be for everyone else.

Everyone else is going to be talking about the winner and praising them, and rightly so.

The person who wins goes on the top step to be honored above the rest.

So it is with God.

We honor him above all else by singing to him, by making a joyful noise to him and coming into his presence with thanksgiving.

We worship God above all else, for he is the Almighty.

God also calls us and he calls you to worship him because we are his.

We worship God because we are his.

If the homecoming is on a Sunday, it'll be worse than the marathon going through the city today.

You won't be able to get in and out of the city centre during the homecoming.

And again, even if you don't like that sport, even if you don't watch that sport, there's an honor and appreciation you can give from a distance.

But when it's your team, it's a whole other level of excitement and pride.

You feel like you're there, you feel like you're playing, you feel like you've won.

Now translate that to worship of God.

We worship God as the great king over all, but we also worship him because he's ours.

He's our God and we are his people.

He's our shepherd.

The one who protects and provides for us, gently leading and guiding us.

He's not uh uh he's not that distant being to be worshipped from afar.

He's close.

And he's our maker.

He ought to be worshipped as the almighty creator of the universe, but also as the one who has made us.

He knows us intimately, and he gives us meaning and purpose.

He's counted each and every hair on your head.

We worship all the more because we are his and he is ours.

Worship God for who he is, and we worship God because he is the rock of our salvation.

In a world of so much change, he's the solid foundation on which we stand.

There's so many things around us that are shaky.

The circumstances of our lives, they move and waver.

It's like it's like trying to walk across a rope bridge on a windy day.

Or maybe you're one of those people who won't stand on those grates or those doors on this on the street that open up for the like the kegs go under the bar.

Are you one of those people who avoids those, or if there's glass on the ground, you can see what's underneath, you won't stand on it.

I get that.

We want to stand on solid ground.

On Christ, the solid rock, I stand.

All other ground is sinking sand.

We worship God because he is our rock.

He's solid.

But what does it mean for him to be the rock of our salvation?

Well, he's the one who saves us.

Salvation, he saves us.

For the people of Israel, for whom this was originally written, God had saved them from slavery in Egypt.

That's what's being talking about, that's what being what's being spoken about, that's what's happening in the second half of the Psalm.

But the rock of the of salvation here is literally talking about how God provided water for them in the wilderness from a rock.

He literally saved them by giving them water from a rock.

He's their rock of salvation.

God is the one who saves his people.

Hear that.

God is the one who saves his people consistently, constantly, and certainly.

And do you see Jesus here?

Jesus is the one who gives the water of life.

In his earthly ministry, he offered living water to the woman at the well.

And he continues to offer that water to us.

Water that gives life.

Water that saves.

He Jesus is the rock from whom water springs.

He's the rock of our salvation.

Worship God for He is our sure salvation.

So we've seen that we worship God for who He is, but how should we worship God then?

The Psalm points us to three ways that we should worship.

We worship God with joy, with thanksgiving, and with humility.

Worship God with joy, thanksgiving, and humility.

Seeing God as the Almighty Creator, knowing Him as our Maker, our God, our shepherd, our rock, we then respond out of that reality.

You see, that that's that foundation, and we respond out of that.

That's how we do that.

We we respond out of that in worship.

We joyfully sing songs of praise.

We give him thanks in all things and we're humble before him.

This is how we respond to who he is.

We are a people who are saved by him, so we live accordingly.

How should we respond to the one who saved us, to the rock of our salvation?

Well, it's with exuberant praise, like the Psalm says, and singing with a joyful noise.

Do you ever take time to stop and dwell on what God has done in Christ for you?

Take time to ponder the truth of the gospel.

Next Sunday, before you come to church, remind yourself that Jesus has saved you.

He has redeemed you.

He's bought you with a price, with the price of his blood.

And then we we respond in exuberant and joyful praise.

One hymn, a wonderful hymn, expresses it like this: Praise Him, praise Him.

Jesus, our blessed Redeemer.

For our sins he suffered and bled and died.

He, our rock, our hope of eternal salvation.

Hail him, hail him.

Jesus the crucified.

Sound his praises.

Jesus who bore our sorrows.

Love unbounded, wonderful, deep and strong.

Praise him, praise him.

Tell of his excellent greatness.

Praise him.

Praise him ever in joyful song.

What marvelous words.

But how can we praise him joyfully forever?

Maybe you're thinking, Peter, that sounds nice and all, but isn't it just hyperbole?

It's a poem, it's a hymn.

Surely this isn't for me now in this circumstance.

Do you know what I'm going through at the moment?

I can't be expected to make a joyful noise.

Well, this is absolutely for you.

Because we make a joyful noise not based on our circumstances, not based on what we've done.

We make a joyful noise because of who he is, which is unchanging.

He is the rock of our salvation.

We praise him for that, not only when the mood takes us.

One of the things that encourages me and builds my faith up the most when we sing together is hearing the voices of people I know who are having a difficult time.

But they sing anyway.

They praise God because He has saved their souls.

They often don't know what the coming week will bring, yet they worship the rock of their salvation.

So when you come to church, don't let circumstances determine whether you sing or not.

We sometimes sing through tears.

Rejoice.

When you cry to him, he hears your voice.

He will wipe away your tears.

Rejoice.

In the midst of suffering, he will help you sing.

Rejoice.

Being absolutely sure that God is unchanging, that he is your savior.

You can sing with joy through tears and through the hardest of times.

So worship God with joy, unshakable for salvation.

And the psalmist says to come into his presence with thanksgiving.

We've been invited before the Lord God Almighty to meet him face to face.

What else would we do except give him thanks for life and breath, for blessing and grace, for mercy and for salvation, as we've already said.

But we give him thanks simply for drawing us to himself, for allowing us to come before him.

When we go to someone's house for dinner or when kids have birthday parties, we bring a gift.

You give the gift because you've been invited, not in order to get the invite.

Maybe you're a bit like that though, and I don't know if you keep a tab on gifts that have been given so you can equal it in return or even exceed it.

But we don't give to God like that.

We don't give so that we receive.

That's a false gospel.

We bring our thanks to him because we meet with him, because we gaze upon his beauty, and our mouths overflow with gratitude.

We give him thanks that we know him.

We give him thanks for bringing us into his presence.

We give him thanks that in the Lord Jesus we behold him face to face.

And we worship him humbly.

He's our maker.

So we kneel before him.

We come boldly to him because we've been saved, we've been made sons and daughters of the king, but we don't come with arrogance or boasting in ourselves.

We come with an attitude of humility, a posture of bowing down, not necessarily literally, but we lay down any pride that we might have.

We acknowledge that we are his, but we trust that he is our shepherd.

We owe our very existence to him.

He's our maker, and so we should worship him humbly.

He knows us intimately, he cares for us perfectly.

He lay down his life for us as the good shepherd.

Jesus gave his life for his sheep.

He gave his life for us.

So we adopt a humble posture before him in worship.

He lay his life down for us.

So we lay our lives down for him.

You see, the worship called for here in this Psalm, the worship each Christian is called to.

In fact, what every person is called to do is to give their whole life to him, to offer it, their life as an act of worship.

Seeing all that God has done, knowing him as our God, our maker, our shepherd.

There is no other response but to give him everything, to sing praises to him joyfully, week after week, day after day, but also to lay our lives down for him, to bring glory to him in every moment of our lives, in everything that we do.

This is the sort of transformation that comes about in those who know their Maker, in those who've been saved by Him.

We offer ourselves completely to Him.

If you don't do that, if you don't think that God is worthy of your whole life, if you give Him Sunday mornings and maybe a midweek, but you don't give Him anything else, if you're holding on to things that you know you shouldn't, then I urge you to look at Him, to behold Him, to recognize that He is your Maker, to recognize Him as your God, to know with the certainty with which Christ's blood saves, and to submit yourself entirely to Him.

This is what true worship looks like: a life given entirely to the one who lay His life down for you.

That's what's going on at the end of the Psalm here.

It gives us a clue as to why you might not give your life fully to God.

We're called to worship God with hearts that rest in him.

That's our final point.

Worship God with hearts that rest in him.

Firstly, here, worship is a matter of trust.

What this Psalm is referring to is when the Israelites were in the wilderness in Exodus 17.

God had just rescued them from slavery.

He had walked them through the Red Sea on dry land.

He'd given them manna, bread he miraculously provided from heaven.

He made some bitter water sweet so that they could drink it.

They'd been ransomed by God.

They had seen his redemptive work.

They'd been forgiven by him before for their grumbling.

Yet just a short time later, they failed to trust that God would sustain them.

They didn't rest in him.

They didn't trust that he was with them, that he was present with them.

So they tested him instead of worshiping.

They didn't trust that he was the creator of all things, who had already miraculously provided food and water.

So they quarreled instead of worshiping.

They didn't trust that he was their shepherd, who would guide and protect them, even in the wilderness.

So they tested him instead of worshiping.

They didn't trust that he was their maker, who knew their every need, and that he would provide.

So they quarreled against him instead of worshiping.

The place was called Meribah, which means quarreling, and Masa, which means testing, because the people quarreled against God and they put him to the test.

The people didn't trust God.

They failed to see who he was.

They didn't rest in his salvation.

They didn't worship him.

They didn't hear his voice properly.

When a baby is crying because they're hungry, if they hear their mother's voice, it can completely settle them because they know food is coming.

They know the voice and they trust the one to whom the voice belongs.

And Jesus says that about sheep.

He says that about his sheep.

He says, My sheep hear my voice.

I know them and they follow me.

The people of Israel in the wilderness may have heard a voice, but tragically, they didn't recognize it as his voice.

God wasn't their shepherd.

They didn't submit to him as their maker.

They didn't see him as the great king above all gods.

They wanted to go back to their former lives instead, back to the gods of Egypt, despite the fact that God had shown his power over them in the Ten Plagues.

Worship is about much more than music and instruments.

It's about much more than our mood and our feelings.

Worship is an expression of trust.

Trust that God is our life.

That there is nothing more that we could want than Him to dwell with Him and to rest in Him.

It really comes down to the fact that worship is a matter of the heart.

That trust we have comes from the very core of who we are, from our hearts.

The people here, instead of worshiping God and trusting Him, went astray and they hardened their hearts.

That's what God calls them out for here.

He's angry because of their hearts.

Despite the fact that they'd seen what God had done, even though they seemed to be following him, their hearts were not right before him.

You know, when someone's heart just isn't in it, a team member who doesn't want to be there for whatever reason, a salesperson who doesn't believe in the product they're supposed to be selling and isn't getting any commission.

That's where the Israelites were at in their hearts, but it's much worse.

That team member hasn't been saved by the project or by the company.

The salesperson, they don't consider the product or the company their maker or their God.

Instead of loving the Lord with all their heart, soul, and might, they longed for things other than Him.

They gave their allegiance to other things and decided that He was not going to receive their worship.

That they were going to live their own way and give their lives to something else.

Don't let your heart go astray.

Even if you do all the things in the first half of this Psalm, even if you sing to the Lord louder than anyone else, even if you make a noise more joyful than anyone in the room, even if you seem to bow down and worship bowing lower than anyone around, it's all for nothing.

If your heart is not right before God, if you worship anything other than Him, if He is not truly the rock of your salvation, your Maker, your God, your shepherd.

Worship God with your heart.

But the wonderful thing as we heed this warning as we examine our hearts is that God is gracious to us in the Lord Jesus.

His work on the cross is finished.

We rest in his work and we worship him.

That's the final sub point of our final point.

Worship Christ.

Rest in Him.

We worship what we trust.

And we trust what we rest in.

So who do you trust?

What do you find rest in?

Do you trust that Christ is your shepherd?

The one who provides for you and guides you?

Do you know his voice?

Does it bring you comfort?

And do you follow him?

Do you trust him as that sure foundation, that rock of your salvation, the one who has saved your soul from sin and death?

Do you trust him as your maker, the one who gives life and sustains you?

Do you long to know him more and more?

To ever be in his presence, giving him thanks all the day?

Do you rest in him?

Does your life look like one that worships him?

Trust Christ in your heart and know him.

Rest in him and let your life then burst forth with joyous praise and worship, not only on Sundays, but with your whole life given to him, resting in him.

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