Coming Before the Lord

At the center of most Bibles is the book of Psalms. This is appropriate because it is the worship book of the Bible and worship is at the center of our relationship with God. Today’s reading calls us to enter into God’s presence.

Psalm 95:1–7 NIV84

Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. Today, if you hear his voice,

A group of villagers has come up to Jerusalem, perhaps taking several days to make the pilgrimage, and they are now excitedly gazing at the first set of gates at the top of the great staircase. They are all there, wearing their “Sunday best”, children included. They are met by a Temple functionary, either a priest or a “cultic prophet” whom we would call a minister. With joy he welcomes them and invites them to come in: O come, he says, let us come into his presence with thanksgiving and with songs of praise. And so they sing their way into the Temple precincts.

Then, another minister takes over and preaches a little sermon to those who are still standing outside the gates. He declaims, and almost certainly he gets the group of worshippers to repeat after him, lines which are really a short creed: “We believe that the Lord is a great God… All things are in his hand, the mountains, the sea, and the dry landtoo.”

The group passes through Gate I. They stop at Gate II. Outside it the speaker at verse 1 invites them to penetrate further in, and in this way they approach ever nearer to the Holy God. Come in, he cries, and let us worship…our Maker.

The whole group responds as the second minister invites them to go through Gate II by declaring loudly another little creed: “We believe that he is our God.” In these words they take one step beyond what the “creed” of verses 3–6 had contained. In it God was Lord of nature. Now here he is the Good Shepherd of his people, the God who cares for each member of his flock. For the shepherd knows each individual sheep as he touches it by hand.

Leader: Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. People: Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song.

Leader: For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;

People: for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care.

These words are a call to worship, reminding us of whose presence we are entering, to make sure that we rise to the occasion, not drifting into his courts preoccupied and apathetic.

Coming before God - worship is prompted by a right view of God.

Who God is

He is great

He is ruler over all

He is the creator

He is our God

We are His people

He created us as a people

Shepherd - under His care

He provides for our needs

John 10:14 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—

Rock of our salvation

Delivered as from sin and death

Outward expressions

The most acceptable service we can do and show unto God, and which alone he desires of us, is, that he be praised of us.—Martin Luther

Sing for joy - the way that best expresses love

Psalm 33:3 Sing to him a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy.

Shout aloud - we greet him here with unashamed enthusiasm

Psalm 47:1 NIV84

Clap your hands, all you nations; shout to God with cries of joy.

Told at least 10 times in the book of Psalms to sing or shout for joy

Extol Him – proclaim His greatness

A drop of praise is an unsuitable acknowledgement for an ocean of mercy.—Rev. William Secker

Having come into God’s presence we then acknowledge our position before Him:

Inward attitudes

Thanksgiving

Reverence - bow down in worship

Humility and submission – kneel before the Lord

Our worship, then, is not centered in coming to get anything out of church (edification or inspiration). Our worship is centered in coming to give ourselves to God. Worship is the turning of our lives over to Him, of tuning our lives to His.

Ted Malone, whose radio show came on early in the morning, told of the Idaho shepherd who wrote: “Will you, on your broadcast, strike the note ‘A’? I’m a sheepherder way out here on a ranch, far away from a piano. The only comfort I have is my old violin. It’s all out of tune. Would you strike ‘A’ so that I might get in tune?”

Malone honored the request. Later he received a “thank-you” note from the distant shepherd saying, “Now I’m in tune.”

One of the purposes and responsibilities of personal and public worship is to enable the aspirant to keep tuned to the Great Shepherd. One of the joys of the Christian life is to help others recapture the missing note!

It doesn’t matter if we feel we have very little or even nothing to give, as long as we put whatever we are in His hands.

Isaiah 12:6 NIV84

Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel among you.”