“Soul Talk: What Good Is Worship”
Ps. 63
There’s just nothing quite like it. Soon college football fans everywhere will be filled with excitement. The college teams will begin practice, which will prompt prognosticators to start their analysis and empower fans to dream that this might just be THE year! It’s going to be MSU! It’s going to be U of M! It’s going to be Notre Dame! The analysis and dreams build right up to kickoff of the opening game. There is nothing quite like this yearly anticipation of unparalleled excitement.
Unless, of course, it’s the anticipation you feel as Sunday morning worship approaches! Oh – it’s not quite the same. Why not? I wonder if it’s because we have forgotten what good worship is. The Psalmist, in Psalm 63, testifies to seven good things worship does. To begin with, IT FRAMES OUR FOCUS ON GOD. The Psalm was possibly written when David was in the desert, fleeing from his son Absalom who was getting ready to attack David and take over as king. David was in a dry and parched land, not only physically but also spiritually. But rather than fret, or take time away from God, he remembered a declaration from his times of worship: “You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water.” As Derrick Kidner described it, “The longing of these verses is not the groping of a stranger, feeling his way towards God, but the eagerness of a friend, almost of a lover, to be in touch with the one he holds dear.” (1)
The verb ‘seek’ is related to the Hebrew noun for dawn, and it can be translated two ways; either as “to seek early” or “to seek earnestly.” Both are meaningful and led the Israelites to think of Psalm 63 as a morning psalm, to be sung at the beginning of each day.(2) So what good is worship? David, by affirming his faith in God through a psalm of worship, transformed his desert experience. And therein lies a lesson for us. Some days, even some Sundays, we don’t feel like worshiping. Yes – even I have those Sundays! But WE ARE TO WORSHIP - NO MATTER WHAT; even in a desert place in life – especially when we’re in a desert place in life – we should worship because it frames our focus on God. No matter how we feel, no matter how bad our week or day, no matter our mood, we worship. Worship reminds us to live not at the mercy of our moods but in the mercy of our God.
Secondly, David said that WORSHIP RECONNECTS US WITH OUR GOD. Verse 2: “I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory.” David had a history of God meeting with him in worship. And how did those experiences impact David? Verse 3: “Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you.” David was reminded about God’s great covenant love – that God offers us not just kindness but loving-kindness and not just mercy, but tender mercy. (3) It’s revealing that a study by Rush University Medical Center in Chicago found that "belief in a concerned God can improve response to medical treatment" in patients diagnosed with clinical depression. The operative word here is "caring," the researchers said. "The study found that those with strong beliefs in a personal and concerned God were more likely to experience improvement."(4) David knew worship was an avenue of reconnecting with God.
Author Frederica Mathewes-Green wrote: “Picture yourself walking around a shopping mall, looking at people and the window displays. Suddenly, you get a whiff of cinnamon. You weren't even hungry, but now you really crave a cinnamon roll. This craving isn't something you made up. There you were, minding your own business, when some drifting molecules of sugar, butter, and spice collided with a susceptible patch inside your nose. You had a real encounter with cinnamon—not a mental delusion, not an emotional projection, but the real thing. And what was the effect? You want more, now.” (5) Like David, having whiffed God’s loving-kindness and tender mercy, we long for more. We want a stronger connection.
So, David said (vs. 4), “I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands.” In Psalm 141:2 David wrote, “May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice.” Whether in the act of formal worship, or private devotions, or the routine of daily living, LIFTING UP HANDS DIRECTS OUR PRAYER AND PRAISE TOWARD GOD AND HELPS US RECONNECT WITH GOD. It puts our minds and hearts on things above. So often we see an athlete, after scoring or making a great play, point upwards. It’s a way they remind themselves of God and reconnecting with Him to so as not to be filled with undue pride. What good is worship? It reconnects us with God.
From David we also learn that WORSHIP FEEDS AND SATISFIES US. (5) “I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods…” David is drawing from Isaiah 25: 6 (MSG) – “But here on this mountain, GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies will throw a feast for all the people of the world, a feast of the finest foods, a feast with vintage wines, a feast of seven courses, a feast lavish with gourmet desserts”. Sounds like a great banquet doesn’t it? Yet David said he’d rather worship God, and be fed by fellowship with Him, than get filled up at even the greatest gourmet feast. On a couple of occasions I have attended a conference or meeting where a splendid gourmet meal was served. It was
wonderful. But its effects didn’t last – and I realize it cost someone significantly. Whenever I worship I am served the feast of love which is better than life – and am reminded that it, too, cost someone – it cost Jesus his life.
So what good is worship? We can join the Psalmist when he says (5) “With singing lips my mouth will praise you.” Worship feeds and satisfies us SO WE CAN LIVE SINGING THE SONGS UPON OUR HEARTS. Paul captured this when he wrote (Eph. 5:18-20 MSG), “Don’t drink too much wine. That cheapens your life. Drink the Spirit of God, huge draughts of him. Sing hymns instead of drinking songs! Sing songs from your heart to Christ. Sing praises over everything, any excuse for a song to God the Father in the name of our Master, Jesus Christ.”
We also learn from David that WORSHIP CARRIES US. (6-7) “On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night. Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings.” Some interesting studies have been done on the impact of music on our memories. For instance, Natalie Angier examines the limited power of human memory. She points out that while we can't quite seem to remember the birthday of a loved one, we can't quite forget every word of the Gilligan's Island theme song. Why is that? It seems that if you add a little music to something, it's more likely to be remembered. That's how the brain is wired to work. Angier writes: “Though scientists used to believe that short- and long-term memories were stored in different parts of the brain, they have discovered that what really distinguishes the lasting from the transient is how strongly the memory is engraved in the brain…. The deeper the memory, the more readily and robustly an ensemble of like-minded neurons will fire. This process, of memory formation by neuronal entrainment, helps explain why some of life's offerings weasel in easily and then refuse to be spiked. Music, for example. "The brain has a strong propensity to organize information and perception in patterns, and music plays into that inclination," said Michael Thaut, a professor of music and neuroscience at Colorado State University. … In other words, the hymns or choruses we sing—which combine Scriptural truths with moving melodies—teach us things that won't easily be forgotten”. (6)
So what good is worship? It gives us a time and place to think. WHEN WE WORSHIP THROUGHOUT OUR DAYS, WE CAN SLEEP THROUGHOUT OUR NIGHTS. WORSHIP THROUGHOUT THE DAY TAPS INTO, AND CREATES, OUR MEMORIES.
Another value of worship is that PROMPTS US TO RENEW OUR VOWS TO GOD. (8) “I cling to you; your right hand upholds me.” To cling is to make a commitment to ‘follow hard.’ It means to hang on to God no matter what, to maintain a tight attachment. The same word is used in the story of Ruth & Naomi. Naomi’s two sons died leaving her with two daughters-in-law. She released them so they could find other men to marry. (Ruth 1:14-17) “At this they wept aloud again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her. “Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.” But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.” Forgoing the more appealing life of finding a man to marry and raising a family, Ruth renewed a solemn vow to cling to Naomi and to Naomi’s God. And the result of her commitment? Ruth married Boaz and had a son. “They named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.” (Ruth 4:17). God’s right hand upheld Ruth and honored her for her commitment.
So in worship David, Ruth’s great grandson, renewed his vow to cling to God – knowing that God would also uphold and honor him. That’s why in our worship we provide opportunity to profess and confess our faith, and to respond to God through offering ourselves in a variety of ways. So what good is worship? IT PROVIDES A PATTERN FOR DAILY LIVING. As Paul wrote (Rom. 12:1 NLT), “And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.”
David continued (9-10), “Those who want to kill me will be destroyed; they will go down to the depths of the earth. They will be given over to the sword and become food for jackals.” WORSHIP REAFFIRMS OUR CONFIDENCE AND TRUST. Because of worship David was able to anticipate victory. Too often we wait to celebrate until the after the victory comes – but David celebrated because he knew it would come. And it did, in both the earthly and spiritual realms. As an example, consider one of David’s worst maligners, a man named Shimei, a reptile of the house of Saul who cursed David with vitriolic hate. As David fled in this desert, tis vitriol was fresh in his mind. But David was confident of ultimate victory. And in fact, the day came when Shimei stood before David pleading for forgiveness for what he had said.(7) So what good is worship? Worship REMINDS US TO GIVE GOD TIME TO DO HIS WORK. And in the meantime, celebrate and live in the victories that are to come.
David concluded his Psalm with these words (11): “But the king will rejoice in God; all who swear by God will glory in him, while the mouths of liars will be silenced.” WORSHIP UNITES US WITH ONE ANOTHER. “…all who swear by God will glory in him.” When I focus on and rejoice in God, and you focus on and rejoice in God, we are one. Even more precisely, when we focus on, renew our vows to, and praise Jesus, we are one. So what good is worship? WHEN WORSHIPERS SHARE A COMMON FOCUS IN JESUS CHRIST, THERE IS UNITY. That’s why in our worship we come to encounter Jesus. In the book, The Pursuit of God, A. W. Tozer gives this interesting illustration: "Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers [meeting] together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be, were they to become 'unity' conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship."(8) As Jon Walton wrote, “Where the gifts of Water and the Spirit are present, people can overcome their hostility, their separateness; finding peace and creating community because that is where the Water is flowing and that is where the Spirit is leading.” (9) We heard it in our video this morning: if we can be united in worship, think what else we can do together!
I’ve often preached from this pulpit that worship is not about us, but about God. Perhaps this sermon sounds like I’m contradicting myself. But I’m not. David entered into a spirit of worship because he longed for God. And when He did, God met Him and transformed his desert experience into a garden of victory. The Psalm really is about God. It foreshadows Jesus in another desert place, called a cross. “Father, into your hands I commit my Spirit.” And with that, He died. But on the third day “Up from the grave He arose, with a mighty triumph o’er His foes; He arose a victor from the dark domain, And He lives forever with His saints to reign – Hallelujah!” (10) Worship ushers us in to a Hallelujah life. And that’s the good of worship.
(1) Kidner, D. (1973). Psalms 1–72: an introduction and commentary (Vol. 15, p. 242). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
(2) Boice, J. M. (2005). Psalms 42–106: An Expositional Commentary (p. 518). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.
(3) John Phillips, Exploring the Psalms – Volume 1, Loizeau Brothers, Neptune New Jersey, © 1988 by John Phillips. P. 502
(4) Van Morris, Mount Washington, Kentucky; source: Jennifer Harper, "Studies: Belief in God Relieves Depression," WashingtonTimes.com (2-25-10) (From Preaching Today)
(5) Frederica Mathewes-Green, The Jesus Prayer (Paraclete Press, 2009), pp. xiii-xiv; submitted by Kevin Miller, Wheaton, Illinois |posted 8/15/2011- from http://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2011/august/2081511.html
(6) Brian Lowery, managing editor, PreachingToday.com; source: Natalie Angier, "In One Ear and Out the Other," www.nytimes.com (3-17-09) | posted 4/13/2009 – from http://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2009/april/1041309.html
(7) John Phillips. P. 506
(8) (Turning Point Daily Devotional, 2/23/04)
(9) Jon M. Walton, Preaching John4:5-42
(10) Christ Arose, Robert Lowry
