Worship in the Splendor of His Holiness

Good evening Church! I was glad when they said to me let us go ad worship in the house of the Lord!

I want to stat by saying thank you. What a privilege and honor and blessing it is to be able to come and share God’s Word with you all this evening. Some of you have not yet heard me and therefore are not yet sick of me and others who her me every week and are maybe sick of me, but either way I relish and treasure the privilege of being able to bring God’s word before you today.

A few weeks ago now, as I was starting to think through and get ready for bringing a message for you all tonight I had absolutely NO IDEA what in the world I would preach on. If I am being honest, selecting a topic to preach o is one of my greatest fears as a pastor. For there is a whole Bible full of passages, and Godly wisdom. All that we need for life and godliness contained in this book, and I just pick out one to share! its too big a responsibility for the guy that goes to Basking Robins and gets the same exact flavor each and every time because I am not god at making those types of decisions. Usually, not even really usually, pretty much ONLY do I preach through books of the bible. that is our style, that is what we do. WE pick a book of the bible then work our way though it, probably too slowly. And I have even started cheating on selecting THOSE sermons because I don’t even pick what book of the bible we go through, I have lain that at the foot of the elders. That way, and this isn;t really a secret, but that way if someone doesn't like the series that is not my fault, but the elders fault.

So How do I do this? What do I want to preach on is panic inducing. Sometimes I will drag out an old sermon, One I have given once before that I enjoyed giving or I think is very appropriate, but half of you have heard all of those before. So I am in this clueless mindset and I went to go to the hospital to pray with one of our members. and I said to him I would like to read to you my most favorite Psalm, if that's OK. and those of you who know me might think that I have about 150 favorite psalms, and I do, but this one is actually like really my MOST favorite. Psalm 97. I love the way that psalm speaks of God, his power his authority. So I read Psalm 97, and after I am done, still talking to Joe, just kinda sitting there with raging ADHD I looked back, and the way my bible is layed out Psalm 97 is in the middle of two pages and on the top left starts Psalm 96. The title was all i read that day and it caught my attention.

WORSHIP THE LORD IN THE SPLENDOR OF HIS HOLINESS

and while the title is not inspired, it was placed there by the editors and translators to help us think through that psalm. And so later that day I go to my office and started to read through that psalm more carefully than I might usually. And I realized that This is what I would like to share with you today.

So if you have your Bible I would ask that you turn with me to the Psalm right before my favorite Psalm, Psalm 96.

We will start by reading the Psalm, in It’s entirety to us

READ!

These are the Words of the Lord to us this evening, lets begin with a word of prayer.

PRAY

In this Psalm, we have a beautiful way of showing us what it means, and how we are, to Worship the Lord. I don't want to bore everyone with the finer workings of dividing up this psalm into stanza and how we figure those things out or how there is a beauty in the trifecta of tricoda. I don’t know if that is necessary for you today, but I will note that there are Three main stanzas or sections in this Psalm and in each one we see a different way that we are called to worship and a different attribute or work of God we are called to praise.

The first stanza or large section is verses 1-6. It opens with this command to us. Psalm 96:1

Psalm 96:1 ESV

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

we are called, as God’s people to SING.

SING

And it is more than that. We are not just called as God’s people to sing, but in fact the whole earth, everything IN creation is called to sing. Everything that God has made, everything that he sustains, All of it is called to sing to the Lord a new song.

verse 2 continues. in our singing we are called to bless his name. This is our worship. When we read here to sing, partially it is, and we should not be ashamed to say this, but we are signing people. It is no accident that for the last 2000 years as the church has gathers we have done so with music saturating our services. w ing, when we come together it is important that we sing corporately when we sing as one body lift our voices to sing it is good and right. Elsewhere Paul tells us to encourage one another with Psalms hymns and spiritual songs. These things are good for us.

But we don't JUST sing. Well I got a song stuck in my head so we go around singing whatever random nonsense is rattling around up here. The psalmist encourages us here to sing of God’s WORKS

SING of his WORKS

It is a long list. Verse 2. we tell of his salvation from day to day. Verse 3 we declare his glory and continuing we proclaim his marvelous works He is greatly to be praised verse 4 he is to be feared WHY? because the Lord made the heavens verse 5. Then verse 6 we praise him because splendor and majesty are before him strength and beauty are in his sanctuary - verse 6

Go is moving, God is working and this is what causes our hearts to sing. We tell of his salvation from day to day. One of my favorite stories that is surly completely made up. this probably didn’t happen But I like to pretend in my heart that it did because I think the truth that is in it is important for us. IT goes like this: there is a pastor preaching. and he is preaching the gospel because that is what he cared about a whole whole lot. and he is preaching the gospel like each and every Sunday. and someone from the church comes up to him and says “we are all Christians here, we don’;t need the gospel.” The pastors response is “if you think that I really need to preach the gospel more.” because the truth is we all need more and more of the Gospel each and every day.

I have taken to telling people recently that I guess I am just simple enough to believe that the solution to EVERY problem is the gospel. are you hurt or broken, here is your salve it is the Gospel. are you facing strife and difficulties at work at home anywhere? your peace is the Gospel. are you struggling with anything in your life the solution is the Gospel. and here the Psalmist tells us that we are to tell of his salvation from day to day. we will EVER, never in our lives move past the point where w do not need God’s salvation each and every moment. It is what sustains us, it is what moves us. We contemplate the Glory of the Gospel that means a wretch like me can be saved. then day by day I am renewed, day by day i am sanctified and made more holy. this is all telling of his salvation.

We declare his glory and his marvelous works. WE need to be people.... as Christians we should be people that are like, annoying, to the world around us. You know those people who every sunrise or sunset, every beauty in creation. For those of us in Cruces we look east and see the beauty of the organ mountains, we should speak of the God who made it. I grew up here in Alamogordo, So I know this to be true, those days when there is just enough wind to kick up the white sands to the point where you get the most beautiful sunset you have ever seen we need to proclaim that is the hand of sovereign God, that work of Beauty is the work of his hands! when he moves in strength and power and authority, when the sovereign king of heaven shows his might we should proclaim his works!

He is to be feared because verse 5: he made the heavens. In our Church we recently went through Isaiah, and there is a beautiful portion of Isaiah where e exposes the, for lack of a more appropriate descriptor, he exposes the stupidity of idols. Isaiah is writing and God speaking through Isaiah says basically this (this is the David version) How dumb is this. you have these guys, and they cut down a tree. then they cut the tree in half. With one half they make an inanimate idol. with the other half they trow it into the fireplace so that they can keep warm. So One tree, half of it is prayed to the other half is reduced to ash, but it is all the same tree. Well when you put it like that sure sounds stupid and yet idols are all around us. But it is, the psalmist reminds us, the one who made that tree, the one who, i fact made the earth and the heavens that is worthy of our praise!

Scripture is full of this thought: God is worthy of praise because he made EVERYTHING! Genesis 1:1 starts with God creating the heavens and earth, and that thought just continues from there. In creation we see the nature of God, the power of God the sustaining strength of God, the goodness of God. All of that and more is seen in creation, so sing!

This is the day that the Lord has made, i will rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 150 Praise God!-praise him with the harp, praise him with the trumpet, praise him with your voice, everything that has breath PRAISE THE LORD!

The next stanza, verse 7-9, not only do we SING to the Lord, we have this interesting word i use the ESV translation but pretty much all of them use this word: ASCRIBE!

ASCRIBE

Ascribe to the Lord!

WE often ascribe things to the wrong source for all of it. and usually it comes from a sort of sinful blindness, or willful ignorance to the fact that God is sovereign. SO we get a promotion at work and we will ascribe that to our hard work finally paying off. No! that was God’s sovereign hand. We go on vacation and have a great time. So we ascribe rest and joy to gatlingurg Tennessee, cuz its just an awesome place. No ascribe to the Lord, the one who gives rest, who cares for us and who even made the mountains that you rest in ascribe to him the glory and strength due his name.

We should ASCRIBE TO GOD specifically verse 7 his GLORY AND STRENGTH

ASCRIBE to him his GLORY

verse 8 continues Ascribe to the the glory due his name. If I were to say this in Latin, because you know, who wouldn’t?!? I would say SOLI DEO GLORIA, to God alone be all the glory. WE should be a people who are constantly, always and in all things giving Glory to God.

I had a friend who Anytime you would say, “hey see you next week” would always answer the same way. most us would say something like “yeah, see you then!” Or “looking forward to it” or “sure thing cool” or “let me check my calendar” no every time and always he would say: God willing. And while I will not get legalistic and place that on your shoulders, I want us to see that the heart behind that is where our hearts should be. Because it is God who sustains. and so by saying “god willing” we are truly ascribing to God the glory. We can make plans for next week. We do make plans. even if we just think about this service. It was planned for like a few months to be two weeks ago. but My family got COVID postpone it for two more weeks and here we are. WE can make all sorts of plans but unless the LORD wills it it is not going to happen, so ascribe to him the glory due his name! Psalm 127: Unless the Lord builds the Hose those that Build it labor in vain. And SO God’s will is what sustains, and therefore we should in ever second he gives us we should ascribe to him glory.

I see this in our lives that we fail in sort of the two extremes. When things are going great we often fail to give God the Glory. we get caught up in the joy and exuberance and things are going right so we get caught up in the lie that we deserve it, or we are just lucky I guess and we are blind to see that it is God who is moving and working and blessing. In doing this we are failing to ascribe to God the glory due his name.

On the other hand, when things are going wrong, when things are difficult, in the ICU and in the oncologist office we fail to continue to give God glory. instead we blame him, we get angry with God. The Psalmist here is clear. Ascribe to him Glory and strength, He is still in control.

Lets dwell for a second on this thought: verse 8 Ascribe to him Glory due his name. The idea of God having a name is very important in scripture. In Exodus, we read what his name is, he tells it to moses, it is YHWH, I am that I am. The Glory that is due the one who IS. God, seated on the throne of heaven. The one with THAT name is due all glory honor and praise. So give it to him. It doesn’t matter what things look like her on heart, it doesn't matter what you FEEL like, it doesn't matter what things SEEM like, Give God the glory! Bring an offering, come into his courts then here in verse 9

WORSHIP THE LORD IN THE SPLENDOR OF HOLINESS. this is a wonderful phrase, this idea that there is a splendor of holiness. In Exodus moses is struggling (this comes in Exodus 33 if you are curious). He is dealing with, his words not mine a stiff necked stubborn people. He is dealing with a people that just will not listen. they are given miracle after miracle after miracle and yet still nothing. God is LITERALLY leading them every day and night in a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire. he is LITERALLY providing them with food every single day as this “what is this” is coming down from heaven each and every day, they have seen water come out of Rocks they have seen miracle after miracle and yet… stubborn people. And moses is getting to the end of his rope. I cant deal with these people. I need something.. these people are awful. I know.. Moses tells God. God if could just see your glory, that would be enough to get me through If I could just see your face, that would be ALL that I need. To do all of this you have called me to all I need is that.

And God tells moses… um mm… NO. not because God is mean, but because NO ONE CAN SEE GOD AND LIVE! SO Moses, heres what I will do for you. I will hide you here in the cleft of the rock. I will put you there then I will cover your eyes. I will then walk by you, and Then after I have passed I will uncover your eyes and you will see the trail end, just the tail end of my glory fleeing before you. and THAT will be enough.

Turns out it is enough for Moses. Moses witness the tail end of what this psalmist writes about the SPLENDOR of his HOLINESS and it changes him profoundly. Literally his face shines. He comes back down from the mountain and the people are like Moses, man, can you cover your face because your face is like shining and it is freaking us out. so he has to wear a veil. and the Psalmist says THAT IS WHERE WE PRAISE. In the splendor of his holiness we praise his name.

then finally the final stanza verses 10-13 we are called to PROCLAIM

PROCLAIM

It is not enough that our worship seeks to just talk to God. Right? like you name is holy. that is Good, we should worship TO him even this idea of Ascribing to him is yes to god, but the very idea of ascribing is sort of horizontal it is this way, because to ascribe to him is to tell each other, to talk to our brothers and sisters and tell them who God is and what he has done. I have something we could do, I don’t know if it will catch on but we say: Man god is glorious and the response ALL THE TIME, and ALL THE TIME God is glorious! We should encourage one another in this way, but our worship also then becomes the vehicle by which we preach the good news to the world around us.

verse 10: SAY AMONG THE NATIONS. this is not some secret for you to hold. GO OUT INTO THE WORLD! Not only will WE proclaim it but verse 11: the earth will, the sea will; the fields will, the trees will! His creation will. W join in, when we proclaim his glory, when we proclaim his RULE AND REIGN, that is really the focus of this last portion, we join in with the song of all creation.

What are we to proclaim? verse 10: that the Lord REIGNS. that he is seated on the throne in heaven. The world is established by his authority and it will not be moved. Verse 10 continues: THAT HE WILL JUDGE THE PEOPLES WITH EQUITY.

Holy and righteous judge the high king of heave seated on the throne he will JUDGE. He will make all things right. SO we read in verse 11 and 12 all the earth, all of creation begins to praise him, to honor him, to glory him. the heavens are GLAD; the earth REJOICES; the seas ROAR, the sound of the crashing waves is praise to God. the fields EXULT; the trees of the forest SING FOR JOY!

Verse 13 becomes the payoff, the reason WHY. Before the the LORD for HE COMES! I want to park here. For this is our glorious hope. The earth rejoices for the Lord comes! We know because of our blessed privilege of WHEN we get to live. the psalmist is looking forward and he says: man, I know that God is coming! and when this happens everything will change! the entire earth will be different. And he is RIGHT! For some 2000 years in the person of Jesus Christ, the Son, the Second person of the Trinity entered into Humanity. In the Incarnation, born of the virgin Mary was one who was fully God and fully man, the only one who could bride the divide between God and Man. The only one who could offer up a good enough sacrifice for our sins, to make us right with God. The only hope that the world could ever have CAME.

And when he came he lived the perfect life we could ever hope to live. He fulfilled all the law. He never once broke one part of it. He then taught us which authority how we ought to live. he showed us what it meas to know God. He showed us very truly who God is, for no one has seen God but the only God who is at the fathers side, HE HAS MADE HIM KNOWN! And he came.... he came to his people… what should have happened is what we just read. all of creation and every voice should have praise him. instead he cam unto his own people and they did not know him! So they crucified him.

However that is not the end of our story. for three days later he rose from the grave in power and victory, and he showed he had the authority and power to defeat sin and death, the mortal enemies of all mankind. then showing this victory he ascended to heaven. But again our story is NOT over.

Let the heavens be glad, let the earth rejoice and ll that fills it, let the field exult and all that is in it. then shall all the tress of the forest sing for joy, before the Lord, for he comes! For he comes to judge the earth, he wil judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his faithfulness. The end of our story is that our savior is coming back for us. He is coming in power, he is coming in authority, coming for his people, so in the interim we worship in the splendor of his holiness

Lets PRAY!