The Expectations of a Glorious God
Psalms 95
June 3, 2018
A few weeks ago I had one of “those” moments in youth.
Anyone who has ever worked with youth knows that it takes a special amount of patience which on this day I lacked.
While singing in our worship time, as we always do, they were unruly
And disinterested, laughing and joking and carrying on.
We’ve talked about this before, but on this day, it was more than I wanted to deal with.
I turned off the TV, chunked the remote, and told the youth to go home.
And as I told the youth when we met the next week,
And can say here tonight, “I’m still not over it.”
In my mind the church has one clear and primary purpose
For gathering and that is for the worship of God.
Certainly this not the sole function of the church,
We will talk later about the requirement that we evangelize.
But when we meet together as a body,
When we enter a worship service,
There is certainly one function that trumps them all, and that is worship.
If we meet and fail to worship,
Then I don’t see any way that we can call our gathering a success.
As we quoted many times while looking at SOLI DEO GLORIA,
“The Chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.”
Why else are we here?
And it struck a chord with me in youth, that many of them don’t know that.
• They don’t know that worship is the priority
• They don’t know why worship is expected
• They don’t know why worship is fitting
And so, when we gathered again the next week,
This was the Psalm that I shared with them,
And it is so profound in my mind that I wanted to share it with you as well.
Furthermore it fits the point we have been making.
Namely that the SOLAS do not lead to apathy or complacency.
If they do, then you misunderstood them.
• The understanding of grace does not lead to licentiousness, it expects holiness.
• The understanding of faith does not lead to laziness, it expects good works.
• The understanding of being in Christ does not lead to an undisciplined life, it expects us to walk as Christ walked.
And the same can be said for SOLI DEO GLORIA
The understanding of all things being for God’s glory
Does not lead to passionless, ho-hum, boring, unenthusiastic, uncommitted, lackadaisical praise.
A true understanding of SOLI DEO GLORIA
Should produce in us the greatest
And most enthusiastic worship imaginable.
But, like our youth, I’m concerned that maybe people just don’t know that.
And so tonight we’re going to look at this 95th Psalm
To try and grasp a little bit of what is expected
When we begin to grasp the concept of SOLI DEO GLORIA.
I would break this Psalm down into 2 main points tonight.
#1 THE CALL TO WORSHIP
Psalms 95:1-7a
And here there are in these 7 verses 2 very important distinctions
That do need to be made about the worship that is called for.
1) WORSHIP BECAUSE OF WHO GOD IS (1-5)
Now if you will notice the call is extremely clear,
Not only that we are to worship God, but how we are to do it.
(1-2) “O come, let us sing for joy to the LORD, let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving, Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.”
What becomes most evident are the expected actions:
• “sing for joy”
• “shout joyfully”
• “come…with thanksgiving”
• “shout joyfully”
3 joys and 1 thanksgiving.
And called for here are vibrant, emotional, enthusiastic shouts to God.
Somewhere in our past someone decided that
Joy and reverence where opposites and incompatible.
It produced generations of churches that expected worship
That was quiet and still and unenthused.
That is not what is being asked for here.
Here the Psalmist asks for singing and shouting “joyfully”.
• It calls for the same type of enthusiasm that is generated at a sporting event.
And I don’t want to take it any deeper than that
Except just to make it obvious that there is
A passionate and enthusiastic moment of expression
Being called for here by the Psalmist.
He wants those in the congregation to voice their excitement about God.
• Sing, and sing loud
• Shout, and shout joyfully
• And when you assemble before Him, be thankful
WHY DO WE SING AND SHOUT JOYFULLY TO GOD?
(3) “For the LORD is a great God and a great King above all gods.”
And I really think this might be the
MOST OVERLOOKED and forgotten reality in all of worship.
• We are accustomed to thanking God for His provision.
• We are accustomed to acknowledging God’s deliverance.
• We are accustomed to rejoicing in God’s salvation.
But here the call has nothing to do with God’s benefits
And everything to do with who God is.
The Psalmist says we should shout to God
For no other reason but that He is “a great God”
I’m always reminded of the book of Malachi
Which speaks heavily to the sin of apathy.
One of the problems is that Israel was bringing flawed sacrifices to God.
To which God responded:
Malachi 1:10-11 “Oh that there were one among you who would shut the gates, that you might not uselessly kindle fire on My altar! I am not pleased with you,” says the LORD of hosts, “nor will I accept an offering from you. “For from the rising of the sun even to its setting, My name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense is going to be offered to My name, and a grain offering that is pure; for My name will be great among the nations,” says the LORD of hosts.”
God responded to the apathetic worship
By reminding the people that I deserve far more than that!
He said, “My name will be great among the nations”
It’s the same acknowledgment here.
God is a great God!
Jeremiah 10:6-7 “There is none like You, O LORD; You are great, and great is Your name in might. Who would not fear You, O King of the nations? Indeed it is Your due! For among all the wise men of the nations And in all their kingdoms, There is none like You.”
Jeremiah 10:12-13 “It is He who made the earth by His power, Who established the world by His wisdom; And by His understanding He has stretched out the heavens. When He utters His voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, And He causes the clouds to ascend from the end of the earth; He makes lightning for the rain, And brings out the wind from His storehouses.”
God should be worshiped if for no other reason
Than the fact that He is a great God!
(4-5) “In whose hand are the depths of the earth, The peaks of the mountains are His also. The sea is His, for it was He who made it, And His hands formed the dry land.”
As we said the worship of God here
Is NOT linked to any specific benefit that He has worked for you today.
It is linked to His greatness as revealed in creation.
• He formed “the depths of the earth.”
• He formed “the mountains”
• He made “the sea”
• He formed “the dry land”
It all points to His pure greatness.
Isaiah 40:12 “Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, And marked off the heavens by the span, And calculated the dust of the earth by the measure, And weighed the mountains in a balance And the hills in a pair of scales?”
The realization here of the size of God is simply astounding,
That He can measure all the waters of the sea in his palm.
We are talking about an enormous God.
Isaiah 40:22 “It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.”
There is a comparison in sizes between us and God
Isaiah 40:26 “Lift up your eyes on high And see who has created these stars, The One who leads forth their host by number, He calls them all by name; Because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power, Not one of them is missing.”
The God who names the stars.
Psalms 33:6-8 “By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, And by the breath of His mouth all their host. He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap; He lays up the deeps in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the LORD; Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.”
It’s just the reminder of the greatness of the God of creation,
And the reminder that the God of creation
Deserves the loudest and most emphatic praise.
Consider heaven:
Revelation 4:9-11 “And when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, to Him who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and will worship Him who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying, “Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created.”
It’s a constant theme.
God is a great God, and He deserves the most enthusiastic worship.
Beyond that, could I remind you of Romans 1 and the reality that God recognizes that He deserves worship for this?
Romans 1:20-21 “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.”
Not only does God deserve worship for His greatness,
But He also takes it personal when He doesn’t receive it.
But you see the point.
The first call to worship is just because of who God is.
He is a great God.
The God who owns all of creation.
But there is a second reason in the call to worship listed here.
2) WORSHIP BECAUSE OF REDEMPTION (6-7)
Now the first thing we notice here is that
The Psalmist is asking for A DIFFERENT RESPONSE.
At first it was singing and shouting joyfully, but here that is not the call.
• Here the call is to “worship and bow down”
• And to “kneel before the LORD our Maker.”
Here we don’t talk about enthusiasm, here we talk about submission.
It is the type of worship we are familiar with in Romans
Romans 12:1 “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.”
And the reasoning is drastically different.
(7) “For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand.”
Where as God’s greatness demands our exaltation,
God’s redemption demands our submission.
Paul proclaims:
1 Corinthians 6:20 “For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.”
The fact that God paid the price of our redemption
Only necessitates that we now glorify Him
Through our submissive obedience.
And of course we are familiar with that statement from Jesus:
Matthew 5:16 “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”
There again, we are called to glorify God through the way that we live.
Again:
John 10:27 “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me;”
The point is just made so clearly that redemption demands obedience.
Redemption demands submission.
The entire world is called to exalt God with shouts of joy
Simply because He is a great God who deserves it
And because He created this world we enjoy.
But the level of expectation goes even higher when we talk about the redeemed.
• Those of us who have been purchased by Him
• Those of us who have been redeemed by Him
• Those of us who enjoy His care and leadership
We most certainly are called to worship through our humble submission.
• Just as SOLA GRATIA demands holy living
• Just as SOLA FIDE demands good works
• Just as SOLUS CHRITUS demands Christ-likeness
• So does SOLI DEO GLORIA demand submissive obedience
There is no apathy hidden anywhere in those SOLAS,
We are called to live an active life of enthusiastic praise
And humble obedience which is meant to bring glory to God.
Worship matters.
We are called to do it.
And I hope you understand that.
I hope you understand that God deserves and demands our worship.
But honestly there are any number of passages
We could have selected which reveal that truth.
There are many passages that speak of passionate praise to God
And submissive service to God.
The reason we pick this Psalm is not because of the call to worship,
But because of the second point.
The Call to Worship
#2 THE WARNING ABOUT WORSHIP
Psalms 95:7b-11
You may recognize that passage.
It was quoted in the book of Hebrews in order to warn the fickle not to fall away from God, but to hold fast to Him.
And the same warning is reiterated here.
• Since God deserves worship
• Since God’s people are under obligation to serve Him
Here is the warning
“Today, if you would hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, As in the day of Massah in the wolderness, When your fathers tried Me, though they had seen My work.”
Listen to the call to worship and don’t be like your fathers.
What was their problem?
They had hardened and ungrateful hearts.
TURN TO: Exodus 17:1-7
There you have the children of Israel,
Fresh off the heels of all of God’s miraculous deliverance of them.
He revealed His greatness
He revealed His love for them
And already we have Israel questioning both.
The wording says that they tested God.
And of course testing God is the total opposite of worshiping Him.
To test God is to withhold His worship and to withhold His praise
Until He steps up and earns it again.
This is what Israel did over and over.
“Massah” means “test”
“Meribah” means “quarrel”
And that is Israel.
• Never just worshiping God for His greatness and redemption,
• Israel always required God to earn it over and over and over again.
Their praise was performance based, and it was never long-lasting.
God had to jump through the same hoops over and over and over.
In fact, you will remember that this incident would be very closely duplicated again later in their journey.
TURN TO: Numbers 20:1-13
There is the same incident again occurring,
Only this time Moses is also disciplined.
But you get the point, it was never enough for Israel.
They never simply worshiped God for who He was, or what He had done.
They always required Him to jump through hoops and earn their gratitude.
There was always a quarrel
There was always a test
Psalms 78:15-22 “He split the rocks in the wilderness And gave them abundant drink like the ocean depths. He brought forth streams also from the rock And caused waters to run down like rivers. Yet they still continued to sin against Him, To rebel against the Most High in the desert. And in their heart they put God to the test By asking food according to their desire. Then they spoke against God; They said, “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness? “Behold, He struck the rock so that waters gushed out, And streams were overflowing; Can He give bread also? Will He provide meat for His people?” Therefore the LORD heard and was full of wrath; And a fire was kindled against Jacob And anger also mounted against Israel, Because they did not believe in God And did not trust in His salvation.”
Israel did not worship
Israel sought only to use God
And in Psalms 95, after revealing how much God deserves worship,
We hear the warning issued.
“Today, if you would hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, As in the day of Massah in the wilderness, When your Fathers tested Me, They tried Me, though they had seen My work.”
Emphatically, God says, “Don’t be like them.”
They had unwarranted rebellion.
Romans 1:21 “For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.”
And what you must see in this Psalm
IS GOD’S MINDSET TOWARD THOSE PEOPLE,
Who should have worshiped Him, but did not.
(10-11) “For forty years I loathed that generation, And said they are a people who err in their heart, And they do not know My ways. “Therefore I swore in My anger, Truly they shall not enter into My rest.”
Do you see what God thought of those people?
“For forty years I loathed that generation”
• They were a people who did not honor Him as God.
• They were a people who were not grateful for deliverance.
• And God was furious with them for it.
And when God began to explain their lack of worship,
He did it in 2 ways.
First
“they are a people who err in their heart”
Indicating that there is something wrong with a people
Who can receive the benefits of God, and see the power of God
And still refuse to worship Him.
There is something wrong with people like that.
They have an obvious heart problem.
And secondly
“they do not know My ways”
Which is to say, “They don’t have a clue who I am”
Do you understand that a failure to worship God indicates a failure to comprehend God?
Again we see that knowledge and worship are linked.
We’ve said it before that our worship
Will never outdistance our understanding.
The height of our worship is directly proportional
To the depth of our understanding.
And that is proven true here with Israel as well.
God can only deduce that their lack of worship
Means that they don’t know Him at all.
And that friends, is a sad indictment.
• What does it say about the church of God when they refuse to sing
joyfully to God?
• What does it say about the church of God when they refuse to
humbly bow before Him?
It says that they have a heart problem and that they don’t know God at all.
And what is even MORE TERRIFYING is that
They invoke upon themselves the anger of God.
“For forty hears I loathed that generation”
And this DID NOT result in some silent sentiment.
God’s wrath produced judgment.
(11) “Therefore I swore in My anger, Truly they shall not enter into My rest.”
People often think of this only in terms of
Those who did not get to enter the Promised Land,
But that was merely the analogy.
• The Promised Land, was to be the land flowing with milk and honey, it was to be the place where Israel enjoyed rest from her enemies.
• It pictured that glorious state of blessing in the life of a believer who no longer felt the burden of labor, but who was able to rest in all that God accomplished.
• It was a state of blessing in the life of the one who knew that God had everything under control, and who could be at peace in all circumstances.
And God said, these people will never have either.
They will never enter My land, they will never enter My rest.
They can work and strive for the rest of their lives.
What are we to take from that?
That our rest is directly linked to our worship of God.
And this should make sense.
If you want peace and rest in your life,
The best way to obtain it is to begin to recognize
Who God is and what He has done.
• He is the powerful God of creation, who can do whatever He desires.
• He is the loving God of redemption, who has chosen to bring you into His fold.
And when you dwell on those things
And as you glorify Him for those things,
The fears and anxieties and concerns naturally melt away.
It is the old song
“Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.”
It speaks of the rest in acknowledging, trusting, and exalting God.
Philippians 4:4-7 “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Notice the beginning of that passage:
“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!”
What is that?
It’s focusing on who God is and what He has done
And rejoicing in those things.
And then according to Paul the acknowledgement of God’s greatness and rejoicing in Him
IS FOLLOWED BY “your gentle spirit” which should be evident.
What is that?
It’s that same submission the Psalmist spoke of.
(First there is rejoicing, then there is submission.)
And finally, it is the recognition that “The Lord is near”
Was that not the problem of Israel?
“Is God with us or not?”
But Paul reminds that
• When we rejoice in God and in effect shout joyfully to Him,
• And when we submit to God contemplating that He is our God and He is near,
• That the result of that is that we can be “anxious for nothing” ultimately walking in His peace.
But Israel refused those things and thus no peace; no rest.
And I just bring that to you tonight
Because I want you to understand that
SOLI DEO GLORIA is not optional.
• God deserves and demands this glory that we speak of.
• He demands it of the natural world simply for His creation,
• He certainly demands it of those whom He has redeemed.
And it is not ok to fail to give it to Him.
• He deserves your joyful shout
• He deserves your joyful song
• He deserves you present gratitude
• He deserves your bended knee
• He deserves your humble submission
Failure to give it to Him only reveals a flawed heart and ignorance of God.
But beyond that, a failure to worship God isn’t even beneficial.
Since it costs us our rest.
SOLI DEO GLORIA is not optional for God’s children.
• You don’t get to say, “I just don’t like to sing”
• You don’t get to say, “Worship isn’t really my thing”
It’s not about what you like, it’s about what God deserves,
And He does not respond well to those who withhold it.
