WORSHIP THE KING

Introduction

-We have looked at the names of God and discussed the holiness of God, but what should that stir within us? Do we study these things just to have theological understanding and Bible trivia? No, that’s not all. If anything it should cause an awe within us that leads us to worship.

-In our day and age people ooo and aah about celebrities and stars and entertainers. We hold them up in awe of some sort. After learning about who God is, why would He not receive more awe and wonder and worship than these puny humans.

-I read a story about a woman who entered a Haagen-Dazs store on the Kansas City Plaza for an ice-cream cone. After making her selection she turned and found herself face-to-face with Paul Newman, who was in town filming the movie Mr. & Mrs. Bridge. He smiled and said hello. Newman’s blue eyes caused her knees to shake. She managed to pay for her cone, then left the shop, heart pounding. When she gained her composure, she realized she didn’t have her snack. She started back into the store to get it and met Newman at the door. “Are you looking for your ice cream?” he asked. She nodded, unable to speak. “You put it in your purse with your change!”

-When was the last time that we allowed God’s awesomeness and holiness lead us to do the same. The more we learn about God should cause more praise and worship to Him. And when I talk about praise and worship, I’m not merely talking about what we do at worship services, but taking on an attitude and lifestyle of praise and worship.

-Tonight I want to take a quick look at Psalm 95 that leads us to worship the King—giving true heart-felt praise to our great God.

Psalm 95 ESV

1 Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! 2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! 3 For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. 4 In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. 5 The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. 6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! 7 For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, 9 when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. 10 For forty years I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.” 11 Therefore I swore in my wrath, “They shall not enter my rest.”

-There’s three questions we want to answer tonight:

1) Who do we worship?

-Let’s consider the object of our worship. We’ve learned about Him through His names and His holiness, but what does this psalm tell us?

a) He is our Rock (v. 1)

Psalm 95:1 ESV

1 Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!

-This means that our God is a solid foundation that does not move. While our lives are filled with strife and a lot of turbulence, He is solid ground underneath our feet. This metaphor speaks about our sufficiency and security being found in God alone. We see elsewhere in Psalms:

Psalm 18:2 ESV

2 The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

-He is our sufficiency in that all we need we find in Him and we know that He provides. We worship Him because He is our sufficiency. As I talked about trusting Him two Sundays ago, we see:

Matthew 6:33 ESV

33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

-We worship Hi because He is our Rock, but because:

b) He is our King (v. 3)

Psalm 95:3 ESV

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

-Our God is the sovereign ruler over all of the universe, including all peoples, groups, and nations. As King Jehoshaphat recognized:

2 Chronicles 20:6 ESV

6 and said, “O Lord, God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. In your hand are power and might, so that none is able to withstand you.

-While all the rest of the world worship false gods and idols, only we worship and praise the God who created everything visible and invisible, and therefore is the only one to sovereignly rule over every realm. He is the King.

-As Americans we don’t fully relate to the idea of a monarchy. King Charles’ coronation hasn’t happened yet, but if tradition holds, when the archbishop will speak to the congregation, saying, “I present to you King Charles III. Will you do him homage?” The people, seeing their sovereign now robed, crowned, and enthroned, respond three times with shouts of acclamation, “We will! We will! We will!”

-In a sense, this is what the psalmist is doing—he is pointing us to our King, asking us, WILL YOU GIVE HIM THE WORSHIP DUE HIS NAME? And our response should be WE WILL, WE WILL, WE WILL, because we worship the God who is King and Ruler over everything, including our very lives. But we also worship this God who is:

c) He is our Creator and Sustainer

Psalm 95:4–5 ESV

4 In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. 5 The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.

-Everything that exists was made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. But He didn’t just wind it up and let it run its course. He holds everything in His hands, including our very lives. He maintains us. It’s in His hands. Isaiah wrote:

Isaiah 40:12 ESV

12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance?

-The answer is only our God. No other created being could hold all of creation in their hands. That reminds us that God specifically created us and He is specifically sustaining us. We also see...

d) He is our Shepherd

Psalm 95:7 (ESV)

7 For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.

-This reminds us:

Psalm 23:1 ESV

1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

-We are sheep, and sheep aren’t the smartest animals in the world. But the picture of God as shepherd gives a picture of intimacy and relationships that we can have with God. It is a picture of God tenderly caring for His own. That means God loves you (if you are His child in Christ) and wants to relate with you and care for you.

-THIS IS PICTURE OF WHO WE ARE TO WORSHIP: HE IS THE MIGHTY CREATOR GOD, ENTHRONED IN HEAVEN, RULING OVER ALL, YET TENDERLY CARING LIKE A SHEPHERD WITH SHEEP

-This leads to the next question:

2) How do we worship?

a) With enthusiasm

Psalm 95:1 ESV

1 Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!

-The psalmist is telling us to let out an entire series of cries of jubilation. It means to praise God with rejoicing and exultation—to cheer or raise a shout of triumph. This is a picture of a celebration, which is what worship is. We are celebrating that God loved us enough to send His Son to die for our sins and to save our souls. That is the greatest triumph. That is something that is worth celebrating and worshipping God with enthusiasm.

I understand that people have different personalities, so some will show some more enthusiasm than others. But there is nothing wrong with getting excited over God and showing it a little. As Paul said:

1 Timothy 2:8 ESV

8 I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling;

-Whether we are worshipping with a congregation or alone, we can worship with an enthusiastic heart. We naturally get excited at sporting events or concerts. We shout. We clap. But then we act like statues around God. Why is that? Why do we get excited over worldly things, but not about God? We are called to worship with enthusiasm, but also...

b) With thanksgiving

Psalm 95:2 ESV

2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!

-When expressing God’s worth in worship we also express our gratitude for who He is and what He has done for us, not the least of which is to give us salvation through Jesus Christ.

-We think of the times when our kids disrespect us and show no gratitude for all that they have, we might say in our mind (if not out loud), YOU UNGRATEFUL LITTLE BRAT or something like that.

-How many times could God have said the same thing about us? How many times instead of being grateful for what we have, we grumble and complain over what we don’t have. So, we worship with thanksgiving, being appreciative for who God is and what He does. As the song says, we count our blessings, naming them one by one. But we also worship...

c) With submission and humility

Psalm 95:6 ESV

6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!

-This verse uses 3 words to describe a way of bowing before God. -“Let us worship”=to prostrate yourself in submission before a superior; “Bow down”=to bend one’s knees spontaneously and intentionally; “To kneel down”

-It is not necessarily speaking of our physical posture, although it can. But it is especially speaking of our heart attitude—on of willful submission to the will of God and humility in our approach toward God. There is no room for pride in our worship because worship is all about God, not about us. There is no I in TEAM, and there is no ME in WORSHIP. Our heart attitude is one of obedience, surrender, and meekness. There is one final question to consider very quickly:

3) When do we worship?

-The obvious answer is all the time. You do not need to be in church to worship, although it has its place. When we are together as a church, it is called corporate worship, but there is also individual worship. There are opportunities throughout the day to show God His worth.

-In vv. 8-11, the psalmist recalls the Israelites and their rebellion after the Exodus, before going into the Promised Land. Imagine all that they witnessed. They saw God part the Red Sea. They saw God provide manna from heaven. They saw God do miracle after miracle and give provision after provision. And yet they remained these whinny, complaining, self-centered people who refused to enter the Promised Land because they were afraid.

-They had opportunity after opportunity to worship God. God gave them reason after reason, but they missed it. We have to be careful not to miss it. We see God at work in our lives in many different ways, even in the troubles and tribulations. So, whether we are in our bed or at home or at work or in school or in a car or at the store, we never pass up opportunities to worship our great God.

CONCLUSION

-I read a story about a man , who early in his marriage, thought he would give his wife a great anniversary present, a rain gauge. The man really thought it was a great gift. He figured since his wife was a farmer’s daughter and kept close watch on weather that she would love it. This man envisioned her delight and nostalgia while tracking the backyard precipitation. The man thought he was pretty creative. Guess what? The wife was not impressed. She shouted, “A rain gauge—for our anniversary?!” Of course, years later the rain gauge became a family joke, classic example of a gift enjoyed by the giver but not the receiver.

-We often hear about authentic worship, but this usually means we’re trying to create an experience that helps the worshipper feel something rather than concentrating on the receiver of worship. Because if we are focused on our experience, we may be giving God a rain gauge.

-Our Great God desires and deserves an enthusiastic, grateful, submissive worship all the time—should we not give Him what He wants...