A Call to Worship

Throughout history, and even in our own personal experiences, there's a profound truth we can't escape:

"Humanity sings of what we delight in."

For example, in the 1960s when the Beatles captured the world's attention.

While their melodies were enchanting, it was their message that captivated people, as their message was one of love, peace, and rebellion which resonated with a generation hungry for change and a fresh cultural identity.

And to oppose that that message?

Well, as they say, 'thems was fighting words!'

Which is exactly what we saw a few years back with a certain 49ers Quarterback, who decided to not participate in his nation’s national anthem.

And though I’m not aiming to wade into political waters today,

the intense reactions he faced revealed a truth:

Which is, our anthems, along with our other treasured cultural songs, actively reflect the values we hold dear.

And to sing along is to embrace and celebrate those values,

while opting out is seen as opposing them.

From anthems to chart-toppers about dogs, trucks, or romantic love, the principle is the same: We sing of what we delight in!

But imagine a delight not anchored in the fleeting or superficial, but something that is eternal!

Well, that’s precisely what Psalm 96 beckons to do, as it calls upon all people’s of the earth

from every tribe, tongue and nation

to sing out in rapturous delight to the One and only God of Glory,

Who is so much weightier than anything else we might delight in.

But to truly sing to Him in genuine delight and joy, we must recognize His unparalleled greatness by recognizing 3 things:

We should delightfully sing of God’s greatness because of:

Who God is

What God has done

What God will do

Throughout this Psalm, we are given numerous commands.

Sing

Tell

Declare

Let

Ascribe

Worship

Say

And all of them have to do with:

Who God is.

What God has done.

What God will do

And this Psalm hits on those 3 those 3 things throughout it.

But the first one, WHO GOD IS, is centered on the word “GLORY,” which pops in verses 3, 6, 7, and 8.

And this is fascinating word, because it’s the Hebrew word Kabowd, which simply means “weighty”

And so it’s saying, literally - DECLARE GOD’S WEIGHTINESS to the nations!

Which powerfully communicates Who God is!

And who is He?

He’s the ALPHA and OMEGA - the beginning and the end

The eternal, everlasting, uncaused cause of the universe!

Which means, He has always existed and depends upon NOTHING!

But the other gods!

For as verse 4-6 say:

Psalm 96:4–6 ESVFor great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; he is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.

But as great as the Lord is, and worthy to be praised, what has Humanity done?

We have failed to recognize His glory

We have failed to acknowledge His supreme weightiness and declare it among the nations!

Instead, we have turned to worship other lesser god’s and give them the glory that only the one true God deserves!

But, as verse 5 says, all these lesser gods are but idols!

Which means they do not have glory!

They do not have weightiness!

Whereas the One true God does - just as verses 4-6 point out.

He is great!

he is greatly to be praised

He is to be feared above all gods

For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols!

BUT THE LORD -He made the heavens and the earth!

Splendor and Majesty are before him!

Strength and beauty are in in His sanctuary!

And yet, ever since Genesis chapter 3, instead of declaring His glory among the nations, Humanity exchanged the WEIGHTINESS OF GOD’S GLORY for the light and weightlessness of idols.

Romans 1:22–23 ESVClaiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

Now, in our culture today, we don’t serve idols that are made in images,

But make no mistake, everyone is living for something!

And whatever that something is, it’s weightless!

It’s myst!

it’s a temporary vapor that will not last and will eventually fade away!

And so if you put all your hope and dreams into thing that is weightless,

It will eventually collapse on you and ruin you!

Whether it’s your job

You’re career

Your family,

Money - you name it!

It’s weightless!

BUT not Yahweh God, for as verse 5 says, He is the creator of all things!

Which means that all things REST UPON HIM!

And so if you do not build your life upon Him, whatever that thing is you build it on - won’t be able to sustain you!

It will collapse and one day leave you devastated!

Which is why the Psalmist says in verses 7-9

Psalm 96:7–9 ESVAscribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength! Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; bring an offering, and come into his courts! Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness; tremble before him, all the earth!

We live in a world that is collectively chasing after things that are weightless.

And you can see this in our culture’s songs.

But the thing is, they don’t have choice - because everyone is living for something!

The only question is - is that some weighty enough to build your life upon or not?!

And as the Psalmist tells us, if it’s not the weighty glory of God - it will not sustain you!

So the question is: what are you living for?

Is it the eternally weighty God of the universe

Or the weightless things of the universe which are passing away?

And when it comes to that question - don’t tell me - SHOW ME

How?

Through the songs your heart sings!

See, here’s the thing.

It’s not enough to just say that the Lord is great and worthy to be praised.

it’s not

It’s not enough to just admit God’s glory.

Because you can say that all day long,

but the truth is, when your feet hit the floor in the morning, you can say that while living for something else entirely!

Which is why the Psalmist calls us not to just say it, but to SING IT!

Because as we already said: “Humanity sings of what we delight in."

This is pretty much why secular music exists!

It’s because people are delighting in things that they must sing about!

And yet, all of those things are completely weightless

they are passing away!

And so instead of building our lives upon the sand,

If we are wise, we will center our heart’s upon the eternity weightiness of God’s glory and delight in it!

Which is precisely what God made of for!

And so if we are going to hear the words of the Psalmist then we must realize as John Piper famously puts it:

“God Is Most Glorified in Us When We Are Most Satisfied in Him.”

And one the indicators of our satisfaction in Him is our heart’s desire to sing of Him and to Him!

For the truth is: what our heart delights to sing of reveals what our hearts truly delight in!

And to ground this point, first off, I’ll point to you king David, who the Bible says was a man after God’s own heart.

And if you know much about King David, you know he wrote many of the Psalms - which are songs of worship!

For a person after God’s own heart cannot help but worship God in song, as music has a unique way of expressing truth that spoken word cannot!

Speaking of this: Augustine of Hippo said that holy words of truth, for some reason, have more power to change you if they’re sung that if you just say them, read them, or hear them!

And this is so true!

Which is why - I think it was the 90’s - that one executive for MTV supposedly said:

“Let me control the youth's music I will control the future of the nation!”

And he’s right - because make no mistake - MUSIC IS POWERFUL!

It shapes our imaginations and cultivates our affections!

And I don’t pretend to fully understand why - BUT IT DOES!

This tell us why in Ephesians chapter 5, it says that one way to delight in God’s glory and be filled with the spirit is by:

Ephesians 5:19 ESVaddressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart,

And make no mistakes about it, when we sing, yes - it absolutely has a powerful vertical dimension towards God,

But is also has power horizontal dimension towards one another!

This is why we leave the lights on for our worship services all but twice year!

It’s because on Sunday mornings when we gather for our corporate worship service, we are addressing one another with Songs and Hymns and Spiritual songs!

We are literally singing of God’s goodness and greatness towards one another!

And look - I’m not saying it’s wrong to EVER close your eyes during worship

but if that’s all you ever do, because you think of this as your special God and I time - you’re absolutely MISSING what we are doing here together!

Because what we are doing, is not only something we’ll be doing together for all of eternity!

But … if done rightly - it is uniquely and powerfully shaping our collective hearts to love God and others - just as we ought!

And if we neglect music - because we just like to sing,

Or the songs aren’t our special favorites...

Then make no mistake, we are not DECLARING HIS GLORY as the Psalmist calls us to!

and if we aren’t doing that - WE WILL INEVITABLY GLORY IN WEIGHTLESS THINGS!

Psalm 96:7–9 ESVAscribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength! Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; bring an offering, and come into his courts! Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness; tremble before him, all the earth!

When we gather to worship as God’s people - even though we no longer bring sacrifices like they did in the Old Testament - we are still bringing Him an offering - which is an offering of worship

And if our offering of worship is but ritual, and not rapturous delight, it is no offering at all

For as the Prophet Hosea said:

Hosea 6:6 ESVFor I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

When we come together on the Lord’s Day to worship with God’s people, we must bring an offering into His courts - which is described for us in Psalm 51.

Psalm 51:16–17 ESVFor you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

I recently had a conversation about the importance of prayer, and how hearing a Christian’s pray is often a clear indicator of how much that Christian truly delights on God.

And yeah, sure - there’s definitely some truth to that.

But I was thinking about that concept when it comes to worship.

And I have to be honest with you.

But sometimes when we gather for worship, it does feel a lot like it’s the worship singing, with everyone else just waiting for the sermon.

And it doesn’t make me mad - it just makes me sad.

Because when you look at the secular world and how gather to glorify drugs, sex, and money through song - it often puts us to shame....

And it puts us to shame, because WE ALONE as the people of God have a GOD WHO IS SO MUCH MORE WEIGHTY!

All they have is the weightless, trivial, substances vapor of this world which is passing away.

But we have the KING OF GLORY

THE LORD OF HOSTS WHO IS GREAT AND WORTHY TO BE PRAISED!

GREATLY TO BE PRAISED

And yet, how often do God’s people no praise Him with the glory He is due?

Sometimes people will ask me if it’s OK to raise their hands, clap, or shout for joy.

And to that I say - read Psalm 47

Psalm 47 (ESV)

Clap your hands, all peoples! Shout to God with loud songs of joy! For the Lord, the Most High, is to be feared, a great king over all the earth. He subdued peoples under us, and nations under our feet. He chose our heritage for us, the pride of Jacob whom he loves. Selah God has gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet. Sing praises to God, sing praises! Sing praises to our King, sing praises! For God is the King of all the earth; sing praises with a psalm! God reigns over the nations; God sits on his holy throne. The princes of the peoples gather as the people of the God of Abraham. For the shields of the earth belong to God; he is highly exalted!

Or, sometimes people will say: “Well I just am not a very good singer… or I don’t know the songs that well.”

Well to that might I point out that in the Bible there are a couple of places that actually command us to sing SKILLFULLY.

And I know for some of us, that’s a tall order.

But you really need start taking that seriously.

Which is why as a church, we publish ALL OF OUR SONGS on a Youtube and Spotify playlist, so you can actually learn them so you’re ready to worship with us on Sunday

And you need to do that.

You really do.

And one of the ways you can do that is working on them as a family during your family worship time.

Because if you don’t, you won’t know them,

And if you don’t know them, you won’t sing them in the loud and joyful way that Psalm 100 commands us to.

Psalm 100 (ESV)

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing! Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.

Make no mistake about it - living a life that gives glory to God cannot be done apart from songs of worship.

It just can’t!

For not only do they powerfully remind us of who God is,

But they also teach us...

We should delightfully sing of God’s greatness because of:

Who God is

What God has done

In verses 1-3, the Palmist says:

Psalm 96:1–3 ESVOh sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth! Sing to the Lord, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples!

When it says to sing to the Lord a new song and to bless His name, and to tell of His salvation from day to day,

All of this is speaking of the same idea, which is to REMEMBER what God has done for us.

It’s to - as the old chorus song goes: “Count your many blessings name them one by one.”

And this is important!

because if we don’t - do you know what end up doing?

We end up being like the Israelites in the wilderness who adopted the mindset of: “What you have done for me lately GOD?”

It’s an attitude of ingratitude!

But as God’s people, we need to constantly remind ourselves of all that God has done for us!

He created us!

He sustains us!

He clothes us and feeds us!

He gives us the very breath in our lungs!

He’s given us family,

a Church family!

Fathers and mothers,

and for many of us brothers, sisters, and children!

And after all of that, despite our sin and rebellion against Him, He gave us salvation.

Which we are to speak of DAY TO DAY!

Which is why we often sing Psalm 103 together as a church - where David writes:

Psalm 103 (ESV)

Bless the Lord, O my soul,

and all that is within me,

bless his holy name!

Bless the Lord, O my soul,

and forget not all his benefits,

who forgives all your iniquity,

who heals all your diseases,

who redeems your life from the pit,

who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,

who satisfies you with good

so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

The Lord works righteousness

and justice for all who are oppressed.

The Lord is merciful and gracious,

slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

He will not always chide,

nor will he keep his anger forever.

He does not deal with us according to our sins,

nor repay us according to our iniquities.

For as high as the heavens are above the earth,

so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;

as far as the east is from the west,

so far does he remove our transgressions from us.

As a father shows compassion to his children,

so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.

For he knows our frame;

he remembers that we are dust.

For the Israelites, the strongest display of God’s salvation at the time of this Psalm was probably the Exodus - where God saves His people from the bondage of slavery in Egypt.

Which surely was a powerful reason to speak of His salvation.

But as New Testament Christians, we the ultimate Exodus, where God saved us through the Cross of Jesus Christ from the bondage of SIN AND DEATH.

And oh what a reason this is to

“Sing to the Lord, bless his name;”

to “tell of his salvation from day to day.”

And not only do we need to sing of these truths to each other,

But we also need to sing of them as verse 3 and 10 say: to ALL THE NATIONS,

For not only is is God great and worthy to be praised

Not only has He done great things for us!

But He will one day soon as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords to judge the earth!

We should delightfully sing of God’s greatness because of:

Who God is

What God has done

What God will do

In verse 4 it mentions that we are to praise God because He is to be feared,

And in verses 10 and 13, it tells us why.

And the reason is because He is coming to judge the world in righteousness.

Which as verse 11 says, is a cause to be GLAD and to rejoice!

Wait what?

Why would the idea of God coming in judgment be a reason to be glad and rejoice?

The answer, is because He is coming to judge the world in righteousness

And to judge the people sin His faithfulness!

Let me explain why that’s good.

In this Psalm - and numerous other places in the Bible - it speaks of how all of creation is broken.

I am broken

You’re broken,

In fact, all of nature itself is broken.

BUT NOT FOR LONG!

For one day soon, God will return, and the world - as beautiful as it is right now,

Is but a SHADOW of what it will be!

And when Jesus Christ - the King of all creation returns to rule and reign, He’s going to RESTORE IT ALL!

And when He does:

As verses 11-13 say:

The sea everything in it will roar with joy

The field and everything in it will exult Him!

And the trees of the forest will sing for joy and even clap their hands as the prophet Isaiah says.

And ya know, that might be poetic imagery to describe how great it will be,

But I’m not totally convinced.

And the reason I’m not - well, there’s quite a few reasons,

But one of them is because of how the Bible continually describes Creation in this kind of language

In Job, it God speaks of how the morning stars sang together at the dawn of creation.

In Luke 19, during Jesus’s triumphal entrance into Jerusalem,

as He’s approaching the city,

the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God for all the mighty works they had seen.

And in response to this, some of the Pharisees in the crowd say to Jesus, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples!"

And in response, Jesus says:

“I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”

Is that just poetic language… maybe… maybe not.

And it’s maybe not, because in passages like Romans 8, it speaks of how the creation is groaning to be set free from the curse of sin, bondage, and decay.

BUT ONE DAY IT WON’T BE!

And when that day comes, if the trees will dance and clap their hands,

And if the rocks will cry out,

What will you and I be able to do?

What will it be like?

Is this really so big of a stretch when Jesus could walk through doors in His resurrected body?

Regardless, whatever that day will hold, we know that it’s day when God puts all things right!

it’s a day when "everything sad is going to come untrue” for God’s people, just as Frodo tells Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings.

Which is why we must SING OF GOD’S GLORY TO THE NATIONS!

For at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow and tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord!

To the Glory of God the Father!

As Christians, we aren’t just singing songs.

Instead, we are, as Bob Kauflin of Sovereign Grace Music says:

“We are preparing our people to live and to die!”

And we do that through songs that help us set our heart’s gaze and hope on who God is,

What He has done,

And what He will one day soon do!

And as we do, not only do we build each other up,

But what a testimony we share with unbelievers in our midst!

To see God’s people come together, and joyfully sing of:

Who God is

What God has done

What God will one day soon do when He returns to as the Lord, judge, and King of all the earth.

Are you ready for that day?

Are you positive that you will be able to stand as the blessed man of Psalm 1 on the day of judgment because by God’s grace the Lord is your true delight?

Psalm 1 says:

Psalm 1 ESVBlessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

By God’s grace, through faith in Jesus Christ - who is the ultimate Blessed man,

May we be blessed and able to stand on that day.

And until that day, we may sing and live for the glory of Christ Jesus,

who gave up His glory so that He could bring many sons to glory!

Let us pray.