Responding to God with Worship
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Abraham called his servant to himself
charged him to go and get a wife for Isaac from among distant family members
with 10 camels, clothing, and gifts in tow, he came near to the destination, prayed a specific prayer to God
When God responded exactly as he had requested - the servant responded with worship.
The man bowed his head and worshiped the Lord and said, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken his steadfast love and his faithfulness toward my master. As for me, the Lord has led me in the way to the house of my master’s kinsmen.”
Job - lost everything
his children
his wealth
his health
in response - he worshipped
Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped.
The Wisemen
saw a star and journeyed for along time to see
they inquired of the King
when they came to the place where Jesus was - as a child - they responded with worship
And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.
Worship is one of those things that we think we’re familiar with. We tend to put it into a certain box and assume that worship equals music or that worship equals praise. But in many ways, worship is response to God - for who he is, for what he’s done, for how he works.
Richard Foster defines worship as “our response to the overtures of love from the heart of the Father.” (158)
Donald Whitney similarly defines worship as “focusing on and responding to God.”
If we were to do a word study in Hebrew and Greek, we would find 11 different words in Hebrew and 13 different words in Greek that have been translated as worship in the ESV. The most prominent words connote a bowing down. Others refer to giving homage or respect. Some refer specifically to false worship of idols or to the direction of the worshipper.
In other words, worship is complex and complicated. Even as we can see in the example from Job’s life, worshipping God can come in some of the lowest points of our lives. I don’t think he shaved his head, tore his robs and whipped out a guitar or a lyre to worship. I’m not even sure he sang anything.
So as we look at responding to God in worship, we’re going to try to capture the complexity and the variety of forms through the acrostic RESPOND. These are not necessarily in a theological or exegetical order. Hopefully this is a way for us to see that worship is far more than singing.
If you have your Bibles, open them to Psalm 95.
I think this passage highlights some of the concepts and attributes of responding to God in worship.
One of the first things we can see, and likely one of the first reasons we have to respond is out of reverence for God……
Revere (1-7a)
Revere (1-7a)
The first 7 verses of Psalm 95 reflect this. As we read this, notice how the Psalmist calls us to do certain things and then gives us reasons for these reverent actions with the word “for”
Psalm 95:1–7 (ESV)
Oh come, let us sing to the Lord;
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
For the Lord is a great God,
and a great King above all gods.
In his hand are the depths of the earth;
the heights of the mountains are his also.
The sea is his, for he made it,
and his hands formed the dry land.
Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
For he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture,
and the sheep of his hand.
As we respond to God’s character and actions with reverence, we recognize and delight in so many things. Even thinking through some of the things the Psalmist notes here.
He is Yahweh - LORD - the covenant name that he used to refer to himself with Israel
He is the foundation or the security of our salvation. As the Israelites would sing this, they would be looking back primarily to the Exodus and honoring God for his work rescuing them from the hands of the Egyptians. But in our lives too, when we consider the plight in which we find ourselves, stuck in sin, Jesus Christ is our means of salvation, he is our ransom and redemption. He has freed us from the bondage of our sin.
Yahweh is a great God - there is none like him. There may be other so-called deities - so called because others may believe that these gods exist - but they are incomparable to Him. Truly, he is the only God.
He is King over all - He rules and reigns. All that exists is under his sovereign control.
He is creator and sustainer - he caused all things to exist and sustains all things.
He is OUR God - our shepherd.
He is our maker - not only did he create us be he made us into a people unto himself.
So, when we worship, whether here in corporate worship or with our families or in our quiet times or even in times of crisis, we get to respond with reverence. Nothing escapes God’s notice. Nothing happens without his permission.
In addition to responding with reverence, in our worship we respond to God with embrace.
Embrace (7a)
Embrace (7a)
I think that in doing this, we are embracing him for who he is and for His role in our lives and our world - really in His world. Look at what verse 7 says.
Psalm 95:7 (ESV)
For he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture,
and the sheep of his hand.
He’s not just God. He’s not just a god. He is our God. We get to embrace his intimate identification with us and our identification in him.
He is our God AND we are the “people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.” It’s kind of interesting that the Psalmist almost seems to mix the metaphors - people/pasture, sheep/hand.
As people of his pasture, we get to live and move under his watchful eye and under his protective care.
As the sheep of his hand, we are led by him, cared for by him, protected, corrected, and nurtured by him.
As is often the case, our response to God is in…
Singing (1)
Singing (1)
The Psalmist writes:
Oh come, let us sing to the Lord;
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
Music has a way of engaging our minds and our hearts in ways that mere words can’t. I don’t listen to music much during the week, but I almost always seem to have songs running through my head. Some word that I’m reading or phrase that I’m studying will cause a song to worm through my brain. For example, much of this week, my mind has been re-hashing the song “Overwhelmed” that we sang last week.
“I see the works of your hands, galaxies spin in a heavenly dance oh God, all that you are is so overwhelming. I hear the sound of your voice, all at once it’s a gentle and thundering noise oh God all that you are is so overwhelming. I delight myself in you. Captivated by your beauty I’m overwhelmed, overwhelmed by you.”
There are also times when songs and help us remember something that is tricky. For example, the children are currently working through the 10 Commandments. There is a song that they are learning, one which my kids learned years ago, called “The perfect 10.” It walks through the concepts of each of the commandments in a memorable and fun way. I’m looking forward to the day when the kids will be ready to sing that in here.
But as we come before the Lord in song, the lyrics remind our brains about the greatness and goodness of God and his mysterious work in our lives. Think through some of the songs we’ve sung today:
Praise the Lord (to God be the Glory) - this new rendition of an old hymn lifts our hearts and minds to exalt in God.
Happy in Jesus - reminds us of the benefits of delighting in him
What the Lord has done in me - helps us to recount some of what God has done
Behold Our God - pulls together concepts from the books of Job and Psalms to help us acknowledge the incomparable nature of God’s character and qualities.
Then we’ll conclude with
Here I am to worship - a personal response to bow in humility before Him.
May these and other songs worm through our minds. May God’s praises fill our lungs. May our voices sing out in songs of praise, lament, confession, and humility before Him as we respond.
So, responding to God in worship can involve reverence, embrace, and singing. I think it also involves humility or becoming……
Prostrate (6)
Prostrate (6)
Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
The most common word for worship in both Hebrew and Greek carries with it the connotation of humility - or of bowing down. This can be an attitude of our hearts and minds. I think we are also helped when we physically bow down or become prostrate before God. It’s as though we are going so low in our humility and abasement that if we could go lower than the floor we would. We recognize our sin and our need for Him - for his forgiveness.
After all of the turmoil and trials that Job faced, he responded in worship to God with an attitude of his heart that seems to demonstrate a humility that would equate to falling prostrate before God.
“I know that you can do all things,
and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’
Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.
‘Hear, and I will speak;
I will question you, and you make it known to me.’
I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear,
but now my eye sees you;
therefore I despise myself,
and repent in dust and ashes.”
One of the natural responses to humility and bowing down is obedience.
Obey (7b-11)
Obey (7b-11)
The Psalmist concludes this Psalm with a helpful reminder and call back to a time of rebellion in the Exodus - a time when the people rebelled against God and became embittered toward him.
Psalm 95:7–11 (ESV)
Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,
as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
when your fathers put me to the test
and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.
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.”
Therefore I swore in my wrath,
“They shall not enter my rest.”
It would be disingenuous for us to come to worship on Sunday and then willfully act contrary to the way that he has called us to live. He wants us to be people who love him. Often that gets manifested in how we love each other; how we talk to and about others; how we treat each other. Our faith is more than a changing of our minds, it’s a transformation of our lives - both now and in eternity.
If you’ve not yet responded to God’s call for salvation - then respond today. Your greatest act of worship would be to bow before him, acknowledge your sinful condition, repent, trust in Jesus’ finished work on the cross and then move forward in obedience.
So, our worship can involve responding with reverence, embrace, singing, prostrating ourselves before him and in obeying him - initially into salvation, and then daily in how we live. Next we see that our response can involve drawing near…
Near (2a)
Near (2a)
In the first part of verse 2, the Psalmist writes:
Psalm 95:2 (ESV)
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
In some ways this prompts a question - how do we do this? How do we go into his presence? How do we draw near? After all, God is everywhere - he is omnipresent.
For the Israelites, this would have felt a bit like coming into the sanctuary to worship. It was drawing near to the physical expression of God’s presence.
For us, as followers of Christ, God’s Spirit dwells within us. In a sense we are always near - but do we recognize that? Do we acknowledge God’s presence? Do we seek His guidance? Do we align ourselves with His will?
Finally, our responding to God in worship can involve declaration.
Declare (1-2)
Declare (1-2)
As a society, we have some things a bit messed up. We will loudly proclaim our delight in support of our favorite sports team. We’ll stand and cheer when an athlete succeeds or applaud in response to a brilliant performance. But when it comes to lifting the praises of God, we often do so under our breath in an effort to keep from offending someone or out of fear for what someone might think.
When I go to speak at chapel at WCA - the lower school kids are declaring God’s praises with loud and lifted voices. By the time I get to the high schoolers, I can barely hear them. I’ve had the joy of worshiping with brothers and sisters in other countries, even places where they can be persecuted for their faith, and yet they sing out the praises of God.
but what does scripture call us to? Let’s look at verses 1&2.
I realize we’ve already seen these two verses a couple of times, but notice again how in song, in drawing near, in our reverence - in everything we do, we essentially declare the goodness and greatness of God.
Oh come, let us sing to the Lord;
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
Does God deserve our loud declarations more than Debo Samuels or the Detroit Lions (or whatever your favorite team is)?
Does God deserve our praise more than Taylor Swift or the Rolling Stones?
Does God deserve our joyful noises more than our favorite Poolesville Falcons?
Let us make joyful noises of declarations of the greatness of our God - no matter what others may think of us. Let us not be ashamed.
Closing thoughts
Closing thoughts
Beloved, we get to delight in God at all times - good and bad; joyful and difficult. We get to respond to him in worship.
revere him - be in awe of his character
embrace him - relish the relationship into which he has invited you
sing out -
Prostrate yourself - be humble
Obey as he leads
draw near to his will and his presence
declare His greatness among the nations and the neighbors that we have.
Let’s pray.
Benediction
Benediction
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
Questions for Reflection and Discussion:
How would you define worship?
Based on different words used throughout scripture and definitions introduced by several authors, we considered how our worship is R.E.S.P.O.N.D.ing to God. Which of those words (Revere, embrace, singing, prostrate, obey, near, declare) resonate most with you?
Which is the easiest to relate to worship as you’ve experienced it? (why?)
Which is the most difficult? (why?)
How can we respond to God in worship at work/school, on our sports team, at home…?
For the children:
The theme this week is the command to rest on the Sabbath. Genesis 2:1-3.
Why do you think God rested?
Did he need to?
Why do we rest?
What can a Sabbath look like in your regular week?
Sources:
Piper, John. Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist. Sisters, OR. Multnomah, 2003.
Piper, John. Providence. Wheaton, IL. Crossway, 2020.
Reeves, Michael. Delighting in the Trinity: An Introduction to the Christian Faith. Downers Grove, IL. InterVarsity Press, 2012.
Torrey, R. A. The New Topical Text Book: A Scripture Text Book for the Use of Ministers, Teachers, and All Christian Workers. New, revised and enlarged edition. Chicago; New York; Toronto: Fleming H. Revell, 1897.
Whitney, Donald S. Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life. NavPress, 2014.
Whitney, Donald S. TEN Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health. NavPress, 2001.