Psalm 96: Delight and Declare

Introduction to Myself

Briefly explain how I came to Cedarville

Then how I met Grace and the professor who would walk alongside me for 5 years as I understood what it looks like to be “called” to missions

Explain how my wife and I became members at Trinity which has been a church plant for the last two years

Intro to sermon: In one of John Piper’s books, Let the Nations be Glad, he argues that missions exist because worship doesn't. Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church, worship is. Missions is a temporary necessity, while worship is an eternal joy. Therefore, worship is the goal and fuel of missions. The same is true in our passage today. We will see that as we take delight and rejoice in our God, which is worship, we will indeed be motivated to go and share the marvelous works of our God in the gospel. We will not be able to help ourselves as worship overflows in our hearts. We will desire so badly that others will know of this joy that we have as we delight in our reconciled relationship with God almighty because of the good news of the gospel. Unfortunately, we are not always delighting in our God and his marvelous deeds, but rather are lost in the beauty of the world. The same beauty that was meant to point us back to our Creator, can capture our heart and take the glory that was meant for the Father. Today in Psalm 96 we will see that

Worthy is our God to be worshiped and proclaimed amongst all nations

FCF: This passage will show us where our rejoicement and delight should be.. In our marvelous, beautiful, almighty, holy, and creator God. Let us not be put to sleep by the cares, delights, joys, and hopes of this world. So often we seek satisfaction from the world. Satisfaction in which only the glory of the Lord can supply. (EXPAND)

Transition: If you would turn over to Psalm 96 for me where we will read just the first few verses… we will start with verses 1 through 6. (GIVE A BRIEF BACKGROUND TO THIS TEXT)

The Word of the Lord says this. Throughout this section, we can faithfully proclaim the main idea that

Main Point: Delight Leads to Declaration (x2)

The very first word the author calls the reader to is “sing”. He calls us to sing to the Lord. This is of course referencing verbal

Illustration: Consider the last time you broke out in song for something you were excited about. Maybe it is just me, but when the Browns or Buckeyes win I am pumped and it is hard for me not to see something. Especially when the Buckeyes won the national championship in 2014, you already know what I was singing: “We are the champions”. Why was this? Why did this event bring me to singing? It was because the event was special. I was filled with joy that the buckeyes were national champions and I could not help myself but sing about it.

Can I just ask you something? Outside of our singing on Sunday mornings, when was the last time you were so joyous in the Lord that you broke out in song? When was the last time that you were so overwhelmed by the glory of the Lord that you simply could not help yourself but praise him through song?

Following this singing we see the psalmist call us to bless the Lord. Blessing the name of the Lord carries the same connotation as does singing to the Lord. It is a rejoicing in the name of the Lord and a giving of thanks to the Lord for who he is and what he has done. Out of this singing to the Lord and blessing the Lord comes telling of his salvation from day to day. Out of our rejoicing in the Lord through singing and blessing his name, we are prompted to tell others about this great God in which we delight in. We are actually called to declare the glory of the Lord among all of the nations. We are called to tell of the marvelous deeds of our God to the entire world. Not just this nation, but all of the nations. God’s desire is to see all the people of the world saved, not just our neighbors or those in America.

Application: Yet, if we are honest, we do not proclaim the Lord with our family members, neighbors, or coworkers, let alone the nations, as often as we should. I am convinced this is because we are not marveling in the deeds of the Lord ourselves. If we were truly delighting in the deeds of our almighty King, the God of the universe, enjoying the goodness of his presence, we would not be able to keep ourselves from sharing with our family, friends, coworkers, and even the nations. We would be enjoying God so much that we could not help but see others enjoy our God as well.

Main Point: Worthy is our God to be Praised (4-6)

In the next set of verses in this chapter, we see why our God is worthy to delight in. It tells us that our god is great, greatly to be praised and even feared above all gods. This is not saying that there are other gods out there because of the explanation in verse 5. He says that all of these gods are worthless idols. While the peoples make these foreign gods, they are ultimately useless and worthless, they are nothing more than the clay or wood or stone that they are made out of. However, we see a stark contrast as to who our God is in relation to these worthless idols. We see that our God made the heavens. Not only that but he is filled with splendor and majesty. Our God is filled with beauty and strength, which is the exact opposite of the gods of the nations, who are worthless idols nothing more than what they are made of. Worthy is our God to be praised for he is great!

Christ Connection: Consider the greatness of our God in the gospel. Our Creator God, the One filled with splendor and majesty, strength and beauty, has sent his Son to take the judgment for sin for all those who turn from their sin and place their faith in his substitutionary death. The God of the universe, who is holy and just, has made a way for his people to be reconciled to him through Christ. Our God willingly came down to earth as a human, to live the life that we were unable to live, following the law of the Lord perfectly, and dying the death that we deserved because of our sin. He took the wrath of God that should have been rightfully bestowed upon us. Behold your God friends. Is he not great and worthy of our worship and delight?

Let us now rejoice in the glory of our Creator God as we stand redeemed and reconciled to Him in Christ Jesus.

Transition: Look with me know to the latter parts of this psalm. Let us read from verse 7 to 13. The Word of the Lord says this. From these verses we can see that

Main Point: Believe God is who he says he is

It is interesting to see how the psalmist does not just tell us the characteristics of god in verses 4 through 6, but repeats many of those same characteristics again in 7 through 9 and charges the believer to ascribe these characteristics to the Lord. To ascribe means to credit, or attribute, or assign. So, the psalmist wants the believer to not just know these characteristics of God, but to credit them, attribute them, or assign them to the Lord. Yet, the only way one can do this is if they actually believe that the Lord holds these characteristics. So in order to ascribe these characteristics or attribute them to the Lord, we must first believe that he has these characteristics and is worthy to be ascribed them. Is he worthy of us to ascribe him glory and strength? Absolutely! This is what we just rehearsed a minute ago. He is absolutely worthy of these characteristics. This belief in God to actually obtain these characteristics so much so that we attribute them to him, will cause us to worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness. It will cause us to delight in the glory of the Lord, it will cause us to seek out his presence found through prayer, the reading, meditating, and memorization of Scripture, and in the communion of the saints. As we come to understand the Lord more through His Word we will continue to grow in our fear of Him and ultimately tremble before Him, obeying every Word from His mouth because he is good and thus worthy of our obedience.

Main Point: God will come to Judge

This trembling before the Lord, this worship of the Lord that we get to mask in as we believe He is who he says he is will also lead us to declare him amongst all of the nations. We will declare that “The Lord reigns” that the Lord is King over Creation and ultimately will come to judge creation in righteousness and faithfulness. We will declare that our God will judge the unrighteous in his wrath and will welcome the righteous into his eternal kingdom at the end of time. Our God, who even the heavens, earth, sea, field, and forests are subject to, will indeed come to judge.

Appeal/Conclusion: Let us not be shy about our faith but rather seek to share it all throughout the world so that the nations can rejoice and delight in the glory of our God too. That they will be saved from their sin, and in turn be able to worship the One True God in this life and all of eternity. Our God is all-satisfying, and worthy of worship, let us allow the worship of our God, the delight that we take in our God fuel and be the aim of our mission on this earth. Let us pray.

I will go down if you hold the rope.

I want to comfort the hearts of those who do not feel called to missions and exhort those who are but are unwilling to see it

When the flame of worship burns with the heat of God’s true worth, the light of missions will shine to the darkest peoples on earth. And I long for that day to come! Where passion for God is weak, zeal for missions will be weak. Churches that are not centered on the exaltation of the majesty and beauty of God will scarcely kindle a fervent desire to “declare his glory among the nations” (Piper; include more Piper quotes from the pictures I took)

(application):

God also intends for our worship to take place before the world’s gaze. In other words, our gatherings should be evangelistic. In the Old Testament, the praise of God’s people was a public witness before the pagan peoples surrounding Israel. “I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations” (Ps. 18:49). “Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples!” (Ps. 96:3).