Back to the 90s- Psalm 95

Hypocrite.

It is one of those words that is often used and more often used incorrectly. People think that hypocrite means “someone who fails to keep a standard that they have set.”

But of course, if that is true, we are all hypocrites. None of us is perfect.

I overhear someone saying, “That church is full of a bunch of hypocrites,” my normal response is, “Come on and join ‘us, one more isn’t going to do much difference.”

Sometimes people think being a hypocrite means doing something you don’t want to do. We think that to pretend to like something when we really don’t is to act hypocritically.

However, there are times when something “grows on us” or “we acquire the taste” for something.

Exercise is in this category. Someone who is out of shape will normally not find exercising pleasing at first. But over time, they will come to enjoy and even crave the thing they once hated.

For some reason, though, when we come to spiritual matters, we are less comfortable encouraging ourselves to do things we don’t feel like doing.

When a person says, “I didn’t go to church today because my heart isn’t in it and I didn’t want to be a hypocrite.”

We wouldn’t call someone hypocrite for going to the gym even they didn’t want to be there. We would encourage them by saying it’s worth it.

Spiritual matters are often like exercise. The things God commands us to do are for our good and are things that we will desire to do.

obedience- Doing what you are supposed to do, even when you don’t feel like it.

Worship is the same way.

Psalm 95 is a call to worship God with your whole self – heart, mind, strength – and in the midst of it, to meet God and be transformed by Him from the outside in.

Psalm 95:1–5 (NLT)

1 Come, let us sing to the Lord!

Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.

2 Let us come to him with thanksgiving.

Let us sing psalms of praise to him.

3 For the Lord is a great God,

a great King above all gods.

4 He holds in his hands the depths of the earth

and the mightiest mountains.

5 The sea belongs to him, for he made it.

His hands formed the dry land, too.

The first section (v1-5) is a call to celebrate of all that God has done.

Worship God For Who He Is

Psalm 95:6–11 NLT

6 Come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord our maker, 7 for he is our God. We are the people he watches over, the flock under his care. If only you would listen to his voice today! 8 The Lord says, “Don’t harden your hearts as Israel did at Meribah, as they did at Massah in the wilderness. 9 For there your ancestors tested and tried my patience, even though they saw everything I did. 10 For forty years I was angry with them, and I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts turn away from me. They refuse to do what I tell them.’ 11 So in my anger I took an oath: ‘They will never enter my place of rest.’ ”

The second section (v6-7) is a call to contemplate who God is.

If worship doesn’t lead us towards obedience it is pointless.

An Ungrateful Heart of Worship

Psalm 95:8–9 NLT

8 The Lord says, “Don’t harden your hearts as Israel did at Meribah, as they did at Massah in the wilderness. 9 For there your ancestors tested and tried my patience, even though they saw everything I did.

Referring back to the people of Israel wandering in the desert.

These were people who tested God.

No matter what God did for these people they were not happy.

Always wanting more.

We are the same: We don’t come to God unless we need something.

You can go through all the motions of worship and still resist the tug of God on your heart. As Jesus said in Matthew 15:8-9,

Matthew 15:8–9 NLT

8 ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. 9 Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.’”

What do you do when times get tough?

This people honors Me with their lips. But their heart is far away from me. But in vain do they worship Me.”

the people of Israel thought they knew better than God what God should be doing.

They refused to submit to His wisdom as their shepherd. They ended up grumbling, complaining, and finding fault with God.

God calls you to rejoice and to humble yourself to hear and obey, not because He wants to oppress you, but because he wants to bless you.

In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus says

Matthew 11:28–30 NLT

28 Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”

Obedience isn’t the goal. Rest is the goal.

The psalm ends with rest, because that is what God wishes to give those who follow Him. He calls us through worship into a life of following Him, a life that ends in fulfillment and rest.