Sermon Tone Analysis

A God to praise

In Australia we love to chop down the tall poppy.

When someone does well instead of giving them praise, our natural reaction is to make sure they don’t get a big head about it.

We seem to hate the idea of people being too proud - its just not dignified, and as giving some praise seems to lift their ego, we just try to avoid it altogether.

For this reason, I think many Australians struggle with this idea that God wants us to praise him.

Who is this egotistical being?

To add to the confusion, we have Jesus, the second person of the Trinity who values humility and servantship.

How are we to integrate a God who values humility, but also wants us to praise him?

The problem with this sort of thinking is that we are lowering God to our own failed state.

You see, the reason pride is a problem for us is because we do not rely on our own strength.

Pride prevents us from seeing that there is something greater than us, and without it we could not do what we do.

But with God, he is above everything.

In fact, he created everything.

In fact, I’ll go one further - God created us and all other things for his glory.

The Bible frequently says as much.

The prophets often talk about people who were created for God’s glory.

Paul refers to as us being “for the praise of the glory of His grace” ().

And so, if we see that the whole reason we are here is because God created us for his glory, then this should completely change the picture around.

God wanting our praise is not some egotism gone mad, but rather the most natural thing that we could possibly do.

Praise and Mission

This morning, I’m going to look at this theme of praising God, but I want to do it from the perspective of understanding mission.

In many ways, we see the two things as quite separate tasks within the church, but I’m going to argue this morning that there is actually a very close alignment between the two ideas.

Before I do, I want to share a short quote that I heard during the week.

It was: “mission exists because worship doesn’t”

Let me just repeat that: “mission exists because worship doesn’t”

It’s actually a quote from John Piper, but I actually found it in another book that had quoted him.

I find it quite a striking quote.

It is not a connection you would readily make.

However the point of the quote is that the reason we need mission, is because people throughout the world are not doing what they are designed to do - that is worship.

Because they don’t worship, we need mission.

What is worship

But before I continue and explore this further, I want to be clear in what I’m talking about when I use the words ‘praise’ and ‘worship’.

Unfortunately, within the church, we have given a quite narrow meaning of these words.

I suspect for most, if not all of you, the first thing you think of when I say praise and worship, is the songs we sing.

And certainly, singing is a way that we can show our worship of God.

Interestingly I’ve heard some people give even a more narrow definition.

I heard someone once describe praise as being the upbeat songs, and worship being the slower, more reflective songs.

But worship is so much more broad than that.

Essentially, worship is all the different ways in which we can show our reverence and adoration to God.

So, while singing is certainly one way in which we show adoration to God, it is far from being the only way.

We can worship God through our words.

We can worship God through our actions.

When we give to other or give to the church, we are showing worship.

In a private setting, you can worship God through your meditations and your prayers.

In a more public setting we can worship God when we come together and allow God’s name to be honoured.

There are countless ways in which we can worship, because anything you do that can bring honour and glory to God, is worship.

The connection

But let’s come back and explore the connection between worship and mission before I move to our passage for this morning.

To make this connection I want to draw out one particular aspect of worship.

And that is, that in the act of worship we getting a glimpse of true kingdom living.

As true worship happens, we are seeing the kingdom of God right now.

You know sometimes we think of the kingdom of God as something we just have to wait for after we die.

Well, in it’s truest form, that might be true - that is, the kingdom of God will be most fully known when Jesus returns.

But the reality is, the bible tells us the kingdom of God has already started.

And when we worship we can start to see it.

Now if that is true - that is, that in the act of worship we can start to get a glimpse of God’s kingdom, then I don’t think it is too hard to make the next jump and suggest that this glimpse of God’s kingdom can also be an invitation for others to come into the kingdom.

What I am trying to suggest is that as we do true worship, we are also engaging in mission.

The bible hints at such a link at numerous points throughout scripture.

There’s one little picture given by Paul in .

The broader context of this chapter is Paul arguing for orderly worship, and in this context he speaks about the use of tongues and other spiritual gifts.

But from verse 24 he talks about what the service can look like when people get their worship right.

Let me just read these verses to you:

1 cor 14:24-25

Now in some regards, maybe that seems really far fetched, but I think Paul gets what happens when things are done right.

And now, don’t hear me wrong.

Remember, where not just talking about songs here.

Rather I’m talking about a genuine connection with God.

When people see this, they can get a glimpse of God.

Now with this connection between praise and mission, I now want to turn to .

Now in this Psalm we see one of the clearest pictures in the Old Testament of a call for God’s glory to be shared with the other nations.

In fact in verse 2 it even says to proclaim his salvation.

Now from a New Testament perspective, that makes a lot of sense, but this is the Old Testament.

This is still the time when it’s meant to be all about the nation of Israel as God’s chosen people.

The context

Now regarding the context, we can’t know for sure what the occasion was when it was first written.

After all, this Psalm doesn’t come with a superscription that we get in many of the other Psalms.

However, that being said, we do know that this Psalm is quoted in full in .

And so we can look at the context in which it was quoted.

What we don’t know is whether the Psalm was written for the occasion that we will see in and then later inserted in the book of Psalms, or whether the author of Chronicles just felt that an existing Psalm suited his situation.

Either way, I think it is worth looking at this context.

In this context we are seeing the Ark of the Covenant being returned to Israel.

Now this Ark was essentially a box that contained many important artefacts, including a tablet from the Ten Commandments.

It came to symbolise the presence of God.

Unfortunately, at one stage it became thought of almost as a lucky charm, and so shortly before the annoint their first king, the Philistines capture it.

But when it caused to much havoc in various Philistine cities, they sent it back to the Israelites.

Unfortunately, the Israelites didn’t know how to handle it properly, so for the entire reign of the first king of Israel (that is, Saul), and into the reign of King David, the ark stayed on the outskirts of town.

But then eventually, under the guidance of King David, the ark is returned.

Now this is recorded for us both in 2 Samuel and 1 Chronicles, and so we learn that David is dancing before the Lord with all his might, so much so, that he earns the ire of his wife who thinks he is just being vulgar.

But David doesn’t care much for the criticism, with him being quoted as saying “I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes”.

Although it might seem crass in one regard (at least it did to his wife), what David is doing is genuine worship.

He is expressing his delight in God in the best way he knows how.

The content

And so it is in this context that we now see being quoted (incidentally, part of is also quoted).

A new song

The first verse of the Psalm talks about singing a new song.

You could say however that it isn’t really a new song.

After all, the essence of the song is the same that Israel has been singing for a long time.

That is, a song of salvation.

Of God redeeming his people for his name sake.

It’s the essence of the song that Moses and Miriam sang after they crossed the red sea.