Psalm 97:1-12
Our God Reigns
Woodlawn Baptist Church
August 19, 2007
Psalm 7:17 tells us “I will praise the Lord according to his righteousness: and will sing praise to the name of the Lord most high.” Psalm 9:2 says, “I will be glad and rejoice in thee: I will sing praise to thy name, O though most High.” Another says “ye that fear the Lord, praise him.” Psalm 29:2 says, “Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.” Psalm 66:4 says “All the earth shall worship [God], and shall sing unto [God]; they shall sing to [His] name.” Psalm 99:5 says “Exalt ye the Lord our God, and worship at his footstool; for he is holy.”
We were told in Psalm 95 to praise and worship God. We were told in Psalm 96 to praise and worship God. In fact, in at least 63 different psalms we’re told specifically to praise or worship the Lord. I told you two weeks ago that our lives are to be joyful expressions of worship. Not just our lips and mouths, not just when we come to church and sing the songs and say the prayers, but all our lives are to be joyful expressions of worship: our time in front of the TV, the way we eat, the way we relate, the way we forgive, show mercy, serve others, shop at Wal-Mart even – it’s all supposed to be a joyous offering of worship to the Lord our God.
In Psalm 96 we discovered that not only are our lives to be joyful expressions of worship, but we’re to be faithful to declare the glory and wonder of God. The rocks and trees and fields all worship God, but what about us? Ain’t no rock! Gonna stand in my place, ain’t no tree gonna wave its branches, and ain’t no bird going to sing His praises! That’s my job!
However, even though I know the catchy little tune and all the words, even though I know that Kevin Higgins was placed on this earth to please the Lord God, I still wrestle with doing it. We found out the reason in Psalm 95 – our hearts grow hard over time, and for that we must drag our lives into the presence of God and see how He might go about changing our lives and softening our hearts. That’s what discipleship and real worship are really all about.
But if you’re like me, you have trouble doing it. Whether we like it or not, our hearts do grow hard. We do grow cold and indifferent. We forget that our lives are to be joyful expressions of worship. We forget that we’re to be faithful in declaring the glory of God each day. We get so busy that God doesn’t get penned into the day. Some of you are so caught up in carnal living that God is not a priority. Our sin will keep us from true worship. Running a home and a business takes its toll. You know the words to the songs; you know how to pray if called upon. And let’s face it, the camp songs are fun and uplifting, but work and bills and the demands of life drown it all out, right?
You watch the evening news and some little kid has been molested. An elderly couple gets robbed. A guy gets cancer in the prime of his life. Kathy and I have been robbed three times since February. A murderer gets off scott free. What’s up with all the injustice in the world? Seems like ungodly people all over the place are prospering while people I know who love the Lord are barely hanging on. Men and women enjoy their lives together in sin, then those who go to church and try to do the right thing fight to keep a marriage together. A godly woman with Alzheimer’s wanders off never to be found again.
Today as I look around the room, I see men and women, even young people, who are tired, hurting, frustrated, worried, longing for acceptance and someone to love, longing to be loved. Not all of you are like that, but many are, and all of us at times find ourselves wondering whether God really cares about what’s going on in the world, and more importantly, at least to us, whether He cares about what’s happening in our lives. Life hardens us. It hardens our hearts.
If God does care, why does it all go on? Is there any hope? Intellectually we know there is, but does that knowledge move us? Does it drive us to our knees in worship and adoration of the God we’re to worship and praise? It can, and in fact it should. What does life do to your response to God? Has your heart grown so hard that God’s Word is just another word in a world of words fighting for your attention? Do you take a casual approach to God – lacking the awe and wonder of one in the presence of a king? Or do you lean toward the view that is afraid to approach God for fear of Him? I’m thankful today that God gives us some answers about how we might worship Him in a way that is going to bring glory to Him.
In Psalm 97 God is going to demonstrate to us that in this world of injustice and unrighteousness where things do go wrong and we’re not always ready to offer a word of praise He is still the God that is worthy and He is still the God we ought to praise. The psalmist is going to show us that God is not the hippy Jesus running around in cut-offs and flip-flops like American pop-culture makes Him out to be. Jesus isn’t our homeboy, He’s not the Divine Dude, the Holy Hey-You, or anything of the sort. He’s not a God to be messed with. He’s not a God to take casually, and I fear that unless we get the point of this psalm our casual approaches to worship, discipleship and following after Him are going to be less than pleasing to Him in the long run. And let’s be honest about it this morning, we are plagued with a casual attitude toward God.
Verse 1 begins with a captivating summary for the whole psalm. “The Lord reigns; let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of isles be glad.” What an amazing statement! The Lord reigns! The sovereign, self-existent, self-sufficient, eternal God is the King of kings and Lord of lords! Psalm 95:3 reminds us that He is a great God and a great King! He is King over all of heaven and earth. This universe is not without a sovereign. We don’t live in the place of anarchy. This is not a world of chance or fate or luck. We’re not under the control of evil, but under the government of the Supreme God: a wise, holy, intelligent, just, benevolent God who rules it well. Listen, if there’s anything over which all of God’s people ought to rejoice today it is the simple fact that God is the great sovereign over all! He is still on the throne!
I imagine the next few verses being boomed out of heaven with a thundering voice. Verses 2-6.
“Clouds and darkness are round about him: righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne. A fire goeth before him, and burneth up his enemies round about. His lightnings enlightened the world: the earth saw, and trembled. The hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth. The heavens declare his righteousness, and all the people see his glory.”
In Exodus 19 God called Moses up on the mountain to give him the law. An area was to be roped off around the base to keep the people from trying to ascend the mountain with Moses. Any who did would die. As they stood at the base of the mountain, the Bible says,
“And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled.”
God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, and when he came back down off the mountain this is what the Scripture says,
“And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off. And they said unto Moses, speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.”
This was a people who at least for a moment saw the majesty and mighty power of God and their hearts were stricken with fear! They didn’t march up to God and talk to Him like He was a long lost friend. They didn’t make any demands of Him. They didn’t do anything of the sort! They fell back in fear and grave respect for the mighty God of the universe. They would find out that this was the God who killed His enemies. This was the God who opened the earth and swallowed those who rebelled against Him. This was the God that sent poisonous snakes through the camp to kill those who bickered against Him. This was the God who struck fear in the hearts of their enemies with just a word. He is the God who strikes fear into the hearts of those who know no fear. A mob of angry Jews come to arrest Jesus. “Are you Jesus?” they wanted to know, but then Jesus simply speaks a word and the whole mob falls down backward. After they get up, Jesus says to them, “Now what were you boys wanting?”
Righteousness and judgment are the foundation of God’s kingdom. If God weren’t absolutely righteous and holy He would cease to be the king. He is absolutely holy and pure and right. His judgments are true and sure, and that judgment consumes all God’s enemies. Sure there’s a lot of junk in the world today, but the watchful eye of God sees it all. The psalmist describes an earth that flees and melts in the presence of God, but then we show up in all our self-righteousness, in our self-sufficiency, in our pride and arrogance thinking that we can come and go from God’s presence as though God were nothing more than a kind old grandfather figure who only wants to dote on His kids.
That’s not the God of the Bible! This is the God who demanded of Moses to take off His sandals. This is the God who stopped the Jordan River. This is the God who causes the walls of Jericho to fall down. This is the God who stands in the middle of a sea and speaks to the elements so they obey. This is the God who raised the dead, healed the lame, caused the blind to see, who took 12 ordinary men and put such a heart in them that they turned their world upside down for the glory of God. This is the God who stood in the furnace with three Hebrew boys, who is just as present in our lives here in Denison as He is millions of miles away in deep space. “The earth saw the glory of God, and trembled.”
Listen, when Isaiah saw God for who He really was he fell to his knees and confessed his sins and volunteered for service. We come into the presence of God week after week and leave as though we were reading the daily paper. Interesting, but not life changing. Do you know why? Because whether we want to admit it or not most of us are serving little “g” gods instead of the high and holy Creator God!
Verse 7 says, “Confounded be all they that serve graven images, that boast themselves of idols: worship him, all ye gods.” We ought to be ashamed at the things in life that we give our loyalties to, that we worship. Don’t try to convince me you don’t worship some of those things, tell God about it and see if He accepts your excuses. Tell God about it and see if He’s as convinced as you are. Anyone giving praise and adoration and worship to an idol will be ashamed – they will all bow to the One God who reigns! Verse 8 continues…
“Zion heard, and was glad; and the daughters of Judah rejoiced because of thy judgments, O Lord. For thou, Lord, art high above all the earth: thou art exalted far above all gods. Ye that love the Lord, hate evil: he preserveth the souls of his saints; he delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked. Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart. Rejoice in the Lord, ye righteous; and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.”
There is so much here, and I am out of time really. For the last two weeks I’ve given you many reasons we ought to be celebrating and praising God. Here are some more. We ought to rejoice over God’s judgments. Yes the world is messed up and it seems like wrong and evil prevail, but there’s a day of reckoning coming when all will be made right. There’s a day of judgment coming when all will stand before the Lord. In that day there’ll be no excuses. There’ll be no justifying, for God who knows the secrets and thoughts and words and actions of all men will execute righteous judgment on all the earth and they will not stand because they don’t reign, our God does.
If you love God today, you ought to hate evil, all evil. That’s a good little test for whether you’re really following and growing and worshipping. Sure you hate evil out there, but do you hate the evil and the sin that grows in your own heart? Do you hate it all? Or have you learned to manage it? Have you learned to be casual about your own sin?
God is absolutely holy and pure and righteous and just. He is perfect in every way. He is the Light of the world, in Him is no darkness, and today He calls you and me into the glorious light of His presence, the light in which one day you and I will dwell. But for now He offers it to us for our time in this world of darkness, and for that we ought to rejoice!
Life does harden us. It is not always good, but God is still on the throne. He knows all about what is happening and will one day make it all right. We ought never forget that this world is not our own, it is not the end, and so long as sin is in the world it will never be right. But God is good! He is the great God and great King and great Shepherd and now He is the great God of righteousness who sits on the throne! Can you celebrate that today?
Imagine the day when we come together in worship realizing we’re standing on holy ground, standing in the presence of Almighty God. Today we sit and wrestle with boredom, sleepiness, distraction. How all that might change once we enter the presence of a holy God. But God’s holy presence isn’t limited to this place. If you’re a child of God your kitchen is holy ground. Your living room is holy ground. Your bedroom is holy ground. Your workplace is holy ground. They are all places of worship, and they are all places where God’s righteous kingdom wants to reign. He is still on the throne today – but has that gripped your heart with awe and amazement and fear? Does being in the presence of God move you to celebrate and praise Him?
It should, and it will when once we come into that presence and see Him for the God He really is. Does God reign in your life? Have you given your life over to Him today? He’s the sovereign of the universe, but is He the Lord of your life?
