UNITY SUNDAY!

Intro

Today, we take a look at Psalm 96 together, as one body. I love the encouragement that comes from this Psalm, because it reminds us as God’s people what our unified mission ought to be. So today, I picked Psalm 96 because the message is so appropriate for where we’re at as a church, and how we can glorify God together as one voice, one body. This Psalm lays out three aspects of worship that we don’t always consider. Many times we relegate worship to singing, and that’s certainly a huge part of it. As a matter of fact, a Psalm IS a song that the Jews would sing.

And here’s the thing about songs… They’re not only expressions of truth, but they are also teaching devices. Did you know that? Surely you did, right? If you’re in school, or once were in school, did you ever use a song to memorize key concepts for class? There’s something to the way music works in our brains.

Or maybe, think about a song from your past. Maybe your favorite song from the time you were in high school. Just take a moment. Think about the melody… the lyrics… Maybe it’s an old hymn. Maybe a love song, or a country song. Maybe it’s hair metal from the 80s, right, Randy? Whatever it is… Takes you back, doesn’t it? Evokes that nostalgic feeling. Our memories are deeply intertwined with music. We express what we believe through song. We worship through song. We remember through song.

So it’s important that we get worship right. It’s important that we get our singing right. So what does it mean to get it right?

Is getting singing right all about the style of music we play? Is it about what instruments are present? Or is it about something else?

And then… Is that ALL worship is? Or does worship have a meaning that perhaps goes beyond our singing?

Let’s consider together the first thing that might surprise you about worship.

Missions is Worship

Psalm 96:1 (ESV)

Oh sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth!

The Psalmist begins: “Oh, sing...” The singing of the people of God holds high value in God’s eyes. The Lord is pleased when His people sing.

But it goes on further… Sing a NEW song. This Psalm in particular was likely written around the time of Isaiah. It’s a savior song that perhaps the Israelites didn’t understand fully, but had clear intention of pointing forward to the Day that a Savior would come for the people of the world.

So when the Psalmist says, “Sing a new song,” it’s because God is doing a new thing… This isn’t time to sing of God’s faithfulness to David, which is certainly a good thing. This isn’t a time to sing about the Israelites’ rescue from Egypt, which is a great thing to remember. This is a time to sing a new song of God’s new mercies that will come in the Messiah.

That’s why the Psalmist doesn’t just say, “Sing to the Lord, Israel...” It’s “Sing to the Lord, all the earth!” We see God’s plan for His earth! What was formerly known only to the people of Israel, namely that God is One, is going to be made known across the entirety of the earth. And that’s what we’ll see going forward.

These first six verses lay out something that I think often goes overlooked in our minds. Namely that worship is about much more than singing. We call the music portion of our Worship Service, “Worship,” and we’ve set up categories in our minds that place “worship” in this small portion of our weeks, and we fail to understand the biblical notion of worship as going far beyond that barrier we put up. Let’s look further:

Psalm 96:2 (ESV)

Sing to the Lord, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day.

Psalm 96:3 (ESV)

Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples!

“Tell of His salvation from day to day.” When this was written, it was penned first as meaning God’s salvation of His people, Israel, from the surrounding nations. And that’s how they would have understood it. But we know through the life of Jesus Christ that God’s salvation extends beyond His salvation of Israel from nations like Egypt or Babylon. God’s salvation at its fullest is the salvation of individuals from the consequence of their sin, and from the rulership of their sin!

This is the heart of missions. Taking the message of Christ and salvation to all the parts of the earth. Especially where He has not yet been told about.

As Christians, we are to tell people of the Lord’s salvation every day. Whether it’s to our kids, to our friends, to our brothers and sisters in Christ, whoever, we are to tell of His salvation with constancy and consistency! What the Psalmist is saying here is, “always let the story of God’s goodness and salvation be on your lips.” We need to learn to speak God to one another. We need to learn how to tell of the Lord’s goodness to those outside of the faith.

So why is missions such an important part of worship? Vv. 4-5 gives us some insight:

Psalm 96:4–5 (ESV)

For 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…

Now the phrasing here is pretty important:

God is to be feared above all gods, because other gods are worthless idols. Now, this is going to offend today’s culture. “How dare you say someone’s spiritual beliefs are not as worthwhile as yours?” The world would tell us we’re being colonizers…

Hear this very clearly, Christian, don’t let the world manipulate you into its corner: When God says that all other gods are worthless idols, that is not a statement of hatred, that is a statement of love. When you reveal to someone that the truth about the gods they worship, whether they be pagan deities or modern gods like money, fame, etc… you are working to release them from their bondage to sin. Of course the world, which is ruled by the prince of this age, will turn on you for trying to liberate people from its bondage.

And that’s what missions is. Missions is about calling out to the captives, “There is Freedom!” It’s about going into spiritual prisons and liberating those who are stuck in that prison. Every single one of us is held captive and under the wrath of God by Satan’s power of sin, and God has ordained the preaching of the Good News of Jesus Christ… the One who this Psalm points to… as the means by which people are saved. When the Gospel is preached, ears are opened and hearts are turned toward God by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Don’t apologize for calling worthless idols what they are. They keep people enslaved to the sin that will be their doom. The world wants to brow-beat you for being so insensitive. Look at the second part of verse 5 going into verse 6.

Psalm 96:5b–6 (ESV)

but the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.

In this portion, God is being compared to the worthless idols. Contrasting with their powerlessness, you have the God Who created our very plane of existence. “Yeah, look, you can worship all these worthless idols, but it’s God who created the heavens. And the One who created the Heavens denies their existence. Denies their power.”

This isn’t a my-truth-your-truth thing. This is a The-Truth-thing. Which leads us into the next three verses… And as we go there, consider the words of Jesus:

John 4:23–24 (ESV)

But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

We must worship God in spirit (our attitudes and emotions) and in truth (worshiping Him for who He is, not who we make Him out to be)

In other words, we must worship God on His Terms.

Worship God on His Terms

Psalm 96:7–9 (ESV)

Ascribe 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!

These three verses show us the nature in which we are to worship God. Ascribe means to attribute. Talk about. Put on display. Give credit where it’s due. So ascribe to God all of these things about him which are true!

Listen, as the people of God, we should put a high value on truth. Truth should be the subject of everything we do, whether it be singing, talking, play, work, we are a people of Truth. We allow Truth to shape the things we do and how we do them. So at your job, you do things in a way that’s uncharacteristically honest, and not just because your boss tells you to. Or maybe you do things honest even when your boss tells you NOT to! In all things… Truth. This act of obedience is also an act of worship.

But as it relates to worship, specifically, our songs should be wholly and completely true as far as we can tell. Why? Because God is True. And to worship Him with words about Him that are not true is to misrepresent Him. He is the King of the Universe, not the guy down the street. We worship Him in the splendor of holiness.

When the Scripture says “tremble before him all the earth,” it is a trembling of respect and awe at the One who has made all things.

In a time when Truth as a static quantity is put into question, let us be a people who are not confused about Who and what we believe. How do we tell the truth? It’s through His revealed Word to us, the Bible.

So we worship God utilizing the Truth that He has given us about Himself.

So worshiping God on His terms… Does that mean we stick to the songs that we’ve always sung in the way we’ve always sung them? No. Not exclusively. It means that the unifying strand that brings together all God-glorifying songs is truth. It’s not a particular style of worship that glorifies God the most. It’s the spirit of the people and the truth that is uniting them in Christ.

Former missionaries would take organs with them as they went to foreign countries

Now, also, I believe it’s important that we worship in ways that honor what God has done in the past as well as what He is doing in our day and time now. It’s important for the children of today to see the timeless foundation upon which the faith is built. Teenagers, what if I told you that singing a hymn is a way you can love those older than you in a tangible way? Do you know what it would do for the spirits of those in the room to see you putting your heart into How Great Thou Art the same way you put your heart into Scars?

And similarly, to my grandparents in the room, when you engage in the singing of the songs this generation is writing, and you acknowledge the depth and truth of many of these songs, you are saying to your grandchildren, “Well done, we affirm the Holy Spirit in you.” All of us need approval when we’re doing the right thing. Find ways to encourage and affirm those to whom you are leaving the church to. Too many times, the divide that sits between generations goes both ways. A sneering disapproval in either direction.

The CHURCH should be a place where these generational divides are neither ignored, nor emphasized, but they are torn down. Because the blood of Christ unites us, not our preferences. And we lay aside our preference for one another. So we sing the hymns of yesterday, and we sing the songs of our generation, affirming truth and uniting not around which instrument takes center stage, but around Christ, who supersedes all of that!

The Innocent Rejoice at God’s Judgment

Psalm 96:10–13 (ESV)

Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns! Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity.” Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar, and all that fills it; let the field exult, and everything in it! Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord, for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness, and the peoples in his faithfulness.

Notice something here… The Bible speaks of God’s judgment, and how does it sound? Sounds kind of positive, doesn’t it? Consider how that hits you for a moment. Sometimes we get caught up in our cultural moment where judgment is viewed by-and-large in a negative light. We’ve made much of Matthew 7:1 without making much of God’s justice on things that are destroying His creation.

We get defensive about judgment and justice when we’re in the spotlight. We get defensive about God’s judgment at church for some reason. We don’t want to be seen as “judgy.” Let’s get better about how we approach God’s justice and His judgment. Let’s set the expectation very clearly: God’s judgment is always right. God’s justice is always righteous. God’s judgment is always good. God’s justice always does the right thing by the innocent.

Therefore, those who are innocent, those who are righteous, will bring praise when God judges the world, for their cause will be upheld and found right and just. I think our world is actually hungry for the judgment of God, whether they realize it or not. To know that there is a system of justice that will come on this world and right every wrong and make new all things… Our world cries out for God to hasten the Day when Christ will return.

And on that Day, Man will be judged. Man sinned. The scripture says He will do so with “equity.” That means his judgment is not overbearing. It is not unfair. It is just. When He judges the peoples (And He will judge the peoples), it will be a fair justice.

All will have to account for their sin. Only those who trust Christ as Savior and Lord will be spared from justice, for God has meted out justice on His one and only Son.

This justice will cause the earth to rejoice, for sin will be removed from it. No longer will the earth be tainted by sin. Instead, Heaven will meet earth and all things will be made new. The Creation will once again sing the praises of the King.

God’s judgment is described as righteous and faithful.

“Faithful justice.” Important concept: God’s justice is faithful. See, here’s the deal, we assume God is on our side. God is on your side if you are on His side. We position ourselves as the heroes of our own stories, and then we miss a huge part of God’s “faithful justice.”

It’s called faithful justice because God will always be faithful to His righteousness. God will always be faithful to what is right. God is right. God cannot do wrong. He cannot do wrong because He is very, very right.

There’s a smart-aleck somewhere in the room saying, “Well, doesn’t that limit what God can and cannot do?” “Is it wrong to say God has limits? Isn’t He all-powerful?”

It is not wrong to say God is limited when you define those limits. i.e., that He cannot do evil. He cannot do wrong. These are logical impossibilities that are simply meant to confound our limited human minds. God is not bothered by these kinds of logically impossible questions.

Our natural selves always assume that we are in the right, and therefore we are on God’s side.

This is being exacerbated by a certain train of thought that says people are merely victims of their surroundings and upbringings. There’s certainly truth to a lot of that, but yet it still does NOT reduce the culpability of those who practice evil. We all make decisions, and we must all answer for those decisions and face consequence.

Left to our own devices, we all do wrong. We all fall into sin. It’s a part of our corrupted nature. Therefore, we all face the same fate of an eternity apart from God.

The truth is… We all need rescue and to be brought onto the side of righteousness. Not self*-righteousness, mind you. But God’s righteousness. We need, desperately, to be made right with Him.