Loving God Through Worship Series

LOVING GOD THROUGH WORSHIP

Living a Life of Love – 3

Psalm 95

March 19, 2006

INTRODUCTION:

Today we will be continuing in our series titled “Living a Life of Love.” In week one our theme was love your spouse. Last week our theme was love each other and this week our theme is love God. How do we express love to God? One of the primary ways we express our love to God is through acts of worship and devotion. And so this morning we are going to look at how we should be “Loving God Through Worship.”

A.W. Tozer said, “Worship is the missing jewel of the church.” Someone once said, “We have become a generation of people who worship our work, work at our play and play at our worship.” Certainly the worship of the Almighty God of the universe is worthy of more of an effort than that. So this morning we are going to be looking at Psalm 95 in an effort to learn more about how to worship God. In Psalm 95 we find seven elements of worship and I have put these into an acrostic spelling out the word W.O.R.S.H.I.P. in order to help make them more memorable.

Let’s begin by reading Psalm 95 and then we will go back through it and I will highlight these seven principles.

Psalm 95

1 Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD;

let us shout aloud to the Rock of our

salvation.

2 Let us come before him with thanksgiving

and extol him with music and song.

3 For the LORD is the great God,

the great King above all gods.

4 In his hand are the depths of the earth,

and the mountain peaks belong to him.

5 The sea is his, for he made it,

and his hands formed the dry land.

6 Come, let us bow down in worship,

let us kneel before the LORD our Maker;

7 for he is our God

and we are the people of his pasture,

the flock under his care.

Today, if only you would hear his voice,

8 “Do not harden your hearts as you did at

Meribah,

as you did that day at Massah b in the

wilderness,

9where your ancestors tested me;

they tried me, though they had seen what

I did.

10 For forty years I was angry with that

generation;

I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts go

astray,

and they have not known my ways.’

11 So I declared on oath in my anger,

‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ”

W – WORSHIP GOD PROPERLY – ON HIS TERMS.

I think that it is significant that this Psalm begins not with an invitation to worship, but with a summons to worship:

1Come

It may only be one word, but it is an important word – it is a powerful word. We are being summoned to come into the presence of the Almighty to perform our acts of worship before him. This summons is given three times in the Psalm. In verse one we read: “Come, let us sing.” Then in verse two it says: “Let us come before him with thanksgiving”. And finally in verse six we read: “Come, let us bow down in worship”.

Worship is not something that is optional for God’s people. Rather it is something that is specifically requested of them – even required of them. This summons is significant because it shows that we are not to worship God on our own terms, but on his terms. He does not come to us, but we are to come to him.

Two young boys were walking down the street in downtown Minneapolis when out from an alley ran a Rottweiler and attacked one of the boys. The other boy grabbed a 2x4 lying near the alley and beat the dog to death and saved his friend’s life. A reporter from the Minneapolis Star Tribune got wind of the story and requested an interview from the first boy. He ran the story on the front page and the headline read: “Vikings Fan Bravely Saves Friend’s Life From A Rabid Rottweiler.” The boy called the reporter and said, “I’m not a Vikings fan.” The reporter said, “Well, I just thought that since you are from Minneapolis that you would be a Vikings fan. I’ll correct the mistake in tomorrow’s paper.” The next day the front page read: “Timberwolves Fan Bravely Saves Friend’s Life From Rabid Rottweiler.” The boy again called the reporter and said, “I’m not a Timberwolves fan either!” The reporter asked, “Are you a fan of sports at all?” The boy said, “Yes. In fact, I am a die-hard Green Bay Packer’s fan.” The reporter agreed to note the change in the next day’s newspaper. The next day the front page read: “Redneck Idiot Kills Faithful Family Pet!” That was the reporter’s viewpoint and of course it was a rather biased viewpoint all though in this part of the country there just might be few people who would be sympathetic to it.