Psalm 96: 1-9
We’re going to read Psalm 96, the first nine verses, and then we’re going to look at Psalm 100 this morning. This is what the psalmist says, Sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord all the earth.
Sing to the Lord and praise His name. Proclaim His salvation day after day. Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous deeds among all peoples.
For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise. For He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the nation are idols.
But the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before Him. Strength and glory are His sanctuary.
Ascribe to the Lord all you families of nations. 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 His holiness. Tremble before Him all the earth.
Well, I don’t know about you, but I would say Thanksgiving is probably my favorite holiday. One of the reasons for that is it seems to be one of the last holidays that has not yet been commercialized.
It’s pretty pure, pretty simple, and I enjoy Thanksgiving. Let me tell you a little about how our culture has changed. Because 60 years ago, when I was growing up in a pastor’s home, in my elementary years, junior high years, my dad was pastor in Cleveland, Ohio.
And back then, we had a Thanksgiving service on Thanksgiving morning, about 11 o’clock. Now, if we tried that today, I won’t ask for a survey, but if we had a service on Thanksgiving morning, anybody willing to show up? Probably not. But that wasn’t the case 60 years ago.
And so, it was actually well-attended. People would come and would sing songs, praise, worship, testimony time. And then our family would get in the car after that Thanksgiving service.
And my paternal grandparents lived in Buffalo, New York. And three boys in our family, my mom and dad, would jump in the car, would drive around the southeastern portion of Lake Erie, and would go visit my grandparents in Buffalo, New York, and stay for Thanksgiving Day, and then come back the next day. Well, if you know anything about weather in Buffalo and around Lake Erie late November, we had some very interesting trips to Buffalo, New York.
There’s a couple times we got stuck there, because, you know, these winter storms that come across Lake Erie. But that’s my memory of Thanksgiving as a kid. And this morning we’re going to look at Psalm 100, probably the most familiar Psalm other than Psalm 23 in all of Scripture.
And we’re going to take a look at some biblical instructions for worship. Here’s the first thing we need to understand as we think about biblical instructions for worship. And here’s the premise.
Everyone worships someone or something. The question is not, are we a worshiper? The question is, every person is a worshiper. Who or what do you worship? And so, we want to think about that this morning.
Everyone is a worshiper. You know, missionaries with Ethnos360 will tell you that they will go to a place around the world where there’s an unreached people group. They’ve not had any exposure to Western civilization, Western society.
And guess what? They have some sort of worship form that they’re worshiping. It’s not the God that we know, the God of the Bible, but that’s because worship is innate into our soul. We were created to worship.
And so, everybody worships someone or something. And so, we need to think, well, what do we worship? About three weeks ago, some friends on the other side of the state graciously gave me some tickets to the University of Michigan football game. And so, I took our son and our two grandsons, and there we were.
It was on a Saturday night against Purdue University. Michigan won by two points, but there was 110,000 people there. And they were passionate about what they were watching.
I like to watch football on TV, and sometimes I see these games where it is like pouring rain. And they’re, you know, rain gear on, and they’re sitting there for three hours and pay a lot of money to do it. Some people worship sports.
I have to tell you, at one point in time in my life, sports was too important in my own life. I had some inverted priorities. Some people worship money.
Some people worship the health, the human body, nature, work. There’s a good way to kind of think about and evaluate who do we worship, what do we worship? And if we were to take a spreadsheet and examine our weekly planner, if we were to take a spreadsheet and look at where we invest our funds and our money and our budget, if we were to look at where we spend our discretionary time and evaluate all that, you’d probably have a good idea of what’s most important to you. And the psalmist this morning joins us and says we need to worship the true God of the universe.
There’s only one verse in the Bible where it says God is seeking something. It’s found in John 4, verses 23 and 24, a conversation that Jesus had with the woman at the well. And this is what Jesus says, yet a time is coming, and now has come, when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father is seeking.
It’s only one time in the Bible where it says God is seeking something from us and He’s seeking our worship. And Psalm 100 gives us some great thoughts about what we need to do as far as biblical worship. Let me just give you a couple definitions of worship.
There are many, just to set the table here. The Hebrew word translated worship is shachah and it literally denotes the act of bowing down. Psalm 95:6. Come let us bow down in worship.
Let us kneel before the Lord God our maker. So, it’s a picture of bowing down and worship. The Greek word means to encounter God and to praise Him.
Some other definitions. Worship is the believer’s response of all that He is, mind, emotions, will, and body to all that God is, says, and does. Someone else defines worship as a response to God in adoration, exaltation, humility, submission, and obedience to God.
Biblical Instructions for Worship
Well, this morning we’re going to look at Psalm 100 and think about three instructions for worship from Psalm 100. Here’s the first one. You can follow along in the outline in your bulletin if you care to.
I. Worship the Lord with joy, gladness, and singing.
Here’s what Psalm 100 verses 1 and 2 says. Shout for joy to the Lord all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness.
Come before Him with joyful songs. So, the psalmist starts out and tells us that we need to worship the Lord with joy, with gladness, and with singing. I hope that characterizes your heart this morning.
Joy, gladness, and singing. Notice it says shout to the LORD. Capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. That’s the name for God, the covenant name for God, Yahweh.
The covenant God. Worship the Lord with gladness, joy, and singing. This is all through the Psalms.
Psalm 98 verse 4. Shout for joy to the Lord all the earth. Burst into jubilant song with music. What was the angelic announcement when Jesus was born? I have good news that will bring what? Great joy for all people.
And so, we come to worship God and God wants us to come with hearts that are filled with joy, with gladness, and with singing. There are so many verses in the Psalms that talk about singing with joy and gladness and there’s dozens and dozens but it’s repeated over and over in the Psalms. I will sing of the Lord’s great love forever.
Psalm 101:1, I will sing of your love and justice to you Lord. I will sing praise. Psalm 105 verse 2. Sing to the Lord. Sing praise to Him.
Tell of all of His wonderful acts. Psalm 144 verse 9. I will sing a new song to you, my God. Psalm 146:2. I will praise the Lord all of my life.
I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. And this concept is picked up in the New Testament as well. Colossians chapter 3 verse 16.
We read these words from the Apostle Paul. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms and hymns and songs from the Spirit singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And so, this is repeated in the New Testament over and over.
We’re to sing to God with joy and gladness. I know some of you are sitting here thinking and this used to be me. I can’t sing.
I can’t sing very well. In my journey growing up in a pastor’s home of course I was in church from two weeks on every Sunday. I remember probably about fourth or fifth grade in the worship service every Sunday I’m like I’m going to try to participate.
And so, I started to sing the songs that were part of the worship service and try to learn them. And even though I couldn’t sing very well I began to participate because it’s really not an option. It’s a command to sing and worship to God.
But still did not have a very good voice. So, I have to tell you a quick story. I went to a Christian school in Cleveland, Ohio.
Graduated from there a long, long time ago and in this Christian school one of the required courses that you had to take was you had to be in the choir. They had a choir. There were a lot of kids in the choir and so for one semester I had to join the choir and but I still couldn’t sing and they’re asking me are you a tenor or a bass? I have no clue.
So, I guess I’ll sing bass. That sounds really manly so I said I’m a bass. Well granted now picture there’s like 50 or 60 teenagers in this choir and our choir director was a very gifted musical person and I thought that a bass meant like you sing every note really low and so I’m singing like and one of the guys next to me is like get your voice up.
I’m like okay and then the choir director literally stopped the whole practice and she said who is singing in that gravelly voice? And I’m looking around like who is that? And they’re like it’s you. Well over the years I’ve worked at it and but singing now is a joy and the scriptures tell us we’re to sing with joy and gladness and worship with joy gladness and singing. Here’s instruction number two regarding biblical worship and it’s found in verses three and five.
II. Worship the Lord for who He is and what He has done.
So, worship the Lord for who He is and what He has done. So, what is basically worship about? It’s about acknowledging who God is and acknowledging and worshiping him for what He has done. And so, in order to worship properly there’s some things that we need to know about God.
Look at verse three. Know that the Lord Yahweh is God. First of all, this one that we’re worshiping is the God of the universe.
Where has our culture gone wrong today? Well, the apostle Paul nailed it in Romans chapter one and some verses there in Romans chapter one. Let me read verse 21. For although they knew God.
This is talking about the culture. They neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him. So, they knew of God but they didn’t acknowledge him.
They didn’t give thanks to him. Their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
Well Paul says in their culture they rejected the true God. They wanted to worship nature. They wanted to worship something that they could tangibly put their hands on.
And that’s true in our world today. That people in America have rejected who God is and they’re worshipping something else. And so, we need to know who God is.
And in verse five the psalmist mentions three attributes of God. So, who God is? He is Yahweh is God. Notice verse five.
For the Lord is good. His love endures forever. His faithfulness continues through all generations.
And so, there’s a popular saying in Christianity today. God is good all the time. All the time God is good.
Do you believe that? That God is good? Sometimes when we go through challenging times in our life it’s difficult to embrace that and believe that. But the scriptures teach us that God is good. Again, that’s all through the Bible.
We could read dozens of verses in the Psalms that proclaim the goodness of God. James chapter 1 verse 17 every good and perfect gift comes from what? The Father above who doesn’t change. He’s immutable.
God is good. So, the fact that you have a house to live in a roof over your head a warm bed to sleep in clothes every blessing comes from a good God. Our Father who Jesus says in Matthew 7 if you who are evil, fallen, nature know how to give good gifts to your children how much more our heavenly Father in heaven.
There’s a father and a parent as we delight in in bringing joy to our kids and our grandkids and doing good things for them. God the Father delights to do good for us. And there’s a wonderful promise if you know Jesus as your Savior it’s often quoted but it’s true for we know that in all things God works together for good for those that love God to those who are called according to His purpose.
God specializes in taking the difficult things in our lives even the bad part of life the evil part of life and if you know Jesus as your Savior, he will use that ultimately for our spiritual good. And so, we need to worship the Lord because He is good. Secondly the psalmist says His love endures forever.
Some translations say His mercy endures forever. It’s the Hebrew word Chesed. The Hebrew word Chesed found 250 times in the Old Testament.
It’s such a complicated word to try to define that there’s probably a half a dozen words in the Old Testament that translate the word Chesed because not one word capsulizes it. Chesed means mercy. Chesed means compassionate.
Chesed means kindness. Chesed means love. And the Bible says God’s mercy and love is unending.
It will never run out. His mercy and love will last forever. There’s a limitless supply.
Back when we were growing up in Cleveland, Ohio it was our family tradition once a year we would go to a Cleveland Indians baseball game. They’re now called the Cleveland Guardians. But my dad would take us three boys once a year to a Cleveland Indians baseball game and this is back when years ago when they had a municipal stadium.
This large stadium sat 78,000 people. There would usually be about 8,000 people there. But one year when we went it was bat day.
In other words, if you showed up to the game you were going to get a baseball bat. And we were so excited to do our annual trip with our dad to the baseball game to watch the Cleveland Indians. But we were excited because we were going to get a bat from the Cleveland team.
We got there early. There was this long, long line. We stood in line for about an hour and a half and they ran out of bats.
Maybe the fine print said for the first 20,000 people. We were deeply disappointed and this is what moms do. My mom didn’t go with us.
Our dad did. But when we told the story he says, I’m writing the Cleveland Indians and complaining. That’s what moms do, right? It didn’t get us a bat but it made her feel better, I think.
They ran out. Well, the psalmist says, God’s mercy and love is unending. And then the last part of verse 5 not only is God good, not only is His mercy unending but the psalmist says, His faithfulness continues throughout all generations.
This is Lamentations 3:23. Every morning God’s faithfulness is new. Great is your faithfulness.
Why did we wake up this morning? Because God’s faithful. Why do we have our health and ability to be here today? Because God is faithful. God’s faithfulness continues throughout all generations.
I love 2nd Timothy 2:13. The first part of verse says if we are faithless, which sometimes happens, He remains faithful. We’re not always faithful but God will always be faithful.
So, God is good. His mercy endures forever. His faithfulness continues through all generations.
Now that gives me great comfort not only for today but for the future. I think I’ve shared that in our family the spiritual heritage of walking with Jesus began with my great-great grandmother, Chal. What happened is my great-grandfather’s wife died at the age of 23 and left him with two boys, two young boys, my grandfather and his brother.
So, what does a 23-year-old do with two young boys? He needs help. And so, his mother-in-law actually moved in with them and raised those two boys. But my mother-in-law was a follower of Jesus.
She says, I’m going to do this. We’re going to go to church. We’re going to raise these boys in knowing God’s Word and God’s truth.
And so, God’s faithfulness started with my great-great-grandmother and then it extended to my great-grandfather who was widowed at 23. We called him Gramps. He lived in the upstairs apartment of my grandparents’ home in Buffalo, New York.
And he smoked a pipe all the time. And one of my memories when we would visit like, I love the smell of that tobacco. I don’t know what it was, what he used in his pipe but yeah, it smelled really, really good.
But God was faithful to him and then God was faithful to my grandfather. My grandfather had four boys, my dad being the oldest. And all four of them came to know Jesus as Savior and my dad became a pastor.
God was faithful then to the next generation. Myself and my two brothers. And now as we project into the future, God’s been faithful to our sons.
We have eight grandchildren. God will be faithful to those grandchildren. And until the Lord comes, God’s faithfulness will be to every generation until He returns.
So, the psalmist says, worship the Lord for who He is, but worship the Lord for what He’s done. Very quickly here, back to verse 3. Know that the Lord is God. It is He who has made us and we are His.
We are His people, the sheep of His pasture. So, God is good, God is merciful, God is faithful, but then the psalmist talks about what God has done. He has two claims on us.
He created us, Genesis chapter 2 and 3, and He redeemed us. So, there it is in verse 3. He made us. We belong to him.
We are His people, the sheep of His pasture. He’s redeemed us. He’s given His Son, Jesus, to be our savior, to be our redeemer so that we can have what? The joy of eternal life and knowing that our sins are forgiven, that assurance of salvation that Shelby talked about this morning, and so that we can go out and tell other people the good news, the gift of life.
I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, and Cleveland sports fans, although that’s beginning to wane, but quarterback for the Cleveland Browns when I was growing up, one of them was a man by the name of Bernie Kosar. Bernie Kosar was a great quarterback, but lived a challenging post-career life, and he found himself, I think 61 years of age, dying because he needed a liver. He’s posted this on social media quite a bit, and so here’s Bernie Kosar.
He’s been on the list for 15 months. A couple weeks ago, he thought he was going to get a liver, and it didn’t work out, and then finally, a week later, he got the call. We’ve got a liver for you.
Here’s the story of the gift of life. Bernie Kosar is recovering well after his liver transplant, and the story behind the gift is extraordinary. Bryce, his 21-year-old organ donor, spent his final moments surrounded by loved ones in Cleveland Browns jerseys, the team he cherished. His family made a directed donation to Bernie because Bryce admired him and loved the Cleveland Browns with his whole heart. His mother said that knowing his son saved a life brings her comfort.
Bryce continues to touch lives through the hope he has given, and so here’s this 21-year-old. The family decided that they were going to donate his liver to save Bernie Kosa. It’s a touching story.
It’s a reminder of what God has done for us. He willingly gave His Son Jesus to take our place, to pay for our sin debt, and to worship him so that we could worship him and have the gift of eternal life. Well, the psalmist says we need to worship the Lord with joy and gladness and singing.
III. Gratitude and praise are key components of worship.
We need to worship the Lord for who He is and what He has done. Lastly, gratitude and praise are key components of worship. Gratitude and praise are key components of worship.
Verse 4, enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise His name. So, 73 times in the Bible, it tells us to give thanks to God.
The command to praise him is 250 times or more. So, worship is not about getting. Worship is about giving.
And sometimes I’ve heard, not here at Community Bible Church, but other churches, people say, well, I didn’t get anything out of the worship service. Well, maybe our primary purpose is not to get something, but to give, to give glory and honor and praise to God. And let me remind you that worship is not based on our personal circumstances, but on the character of God and what He has done.
And God’s character never changes. One of the most amazing verses in all the Bible, Job chapter 1. Job just lost everything. It says in Job 1, beginning in verse 20, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head.
And this doesn’t make sense to me. Then he fell to the ground in worship. He’s lost everything, including his 10 children.
Naked I came from my mother’s womb and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. May the name of the Lord be praised.
In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing. Habakkuk chapter 3, verse 17 is a similar response from the prophet Habakkuk. If I can find Habakkuk, here it is.
Habakkuk, here’s how the book closes. Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, and the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, and there’s no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stall. He’s basically saying my bank account is empty.
They live in an agrarian culture. My bank account is empty. The next verse, but I will rejoice in the Lord.
I will be joyful in God, my Savior. The sovereign Lord is my strength. And Habakkuk chooses to praise and worship in the midst of very difficult circumstances.
So biblical instructions for worship. Psalm 100, the psalmist says, worship the Lord with joy and gladness and singing. Worship the Lord for who He is.
He’s good. His mercy and love will last forever. His faithfulness to not only our generation, but every generation to come, God will be faithful.
And then enter into His courts with thanksgiving and praise. Be thankful unto him. Gratitude and praise are key components of worship.