The Worship God Wants Series

The Worship God Wants

(Psalm 100)

Good morning! Please open your Bibles to Psalm 100. When I gave Mike a road map for this sermon series on the Psalms, I circled this day and this theme and said, Mike, this Psalm is all about worship. Today, I want to just worship our brains out! And I’m so blessed to work with Mike, because, man—he delivered this morning! We have indeed worshiped this morning, to the point that the sermon today is just dessert. Our time of worship has been the main course.

Earlier this week, I put up a Facebook poll to answer a deep, theological question that has been nagging at me for years. When I was an editor of Sunday school material at LifeWay, it was a question we literally spent hours on in meetings. Arguing. Debating. Emailing back and forth. All in the name of trying to answer one burning question about worship. Are you ready for it?

How do you spell “worshiped?”

[slide: WORSHIPED or WORSHIPPED]

I’ll be honest. My Facebook poll was inconclusive. Our Wednesday night bible study crowd was split right down the middle. And here’s why: If you look up the word in the KJV, it is spelled with two P’s. In every other English translation, it is spelled with one P. So if you are ever unsure whether or not you have a King James bible, look up Genesis 24:26. When I worked at LifeWay, we had a style manual that required us to spell worshiped with one P. However, since I was the editor for the King James version of our Sunday school material, I was the only one in the entire building that had permission to spell it with 2 P’s.

But our point this morning isn’t to argue whether we are going to be a worshipping church or a worshiping church. Our point is to worship! And so I want us to begin our teaching time by reading—together—out loud—with enthusiasm, Psalm 100. So if you are physically able, please stand in honor of God’s word, and let’s read together Psalm 100:

[slides—each verse of 100 on a separate slide]

Pray

Psalm 100 is ging to answer two questions: Why God is to be worshiped, and How God is to be worshiped. But before we really dig in to Psalm 100, it’s helpful to know how 100 fits into the rest of the book of Psalms. You remember that last week we talked about how Psalms 126-128 were part of a collection within Psalms called the Songs of Ascent? Well, there’s another kind of mini-EP within the Psalter called the enthronement Psalms. Generally, Psalms 24, 47, 93, and 95-100 are considered the enthronement Psalms. And they have several things in common:

1. They all start with some kind of royal proclamation.

2. They all emphasize God’s reign over the entire world

3. Almost all of them contain an element of the Coming judgment on the nations

So, take together, they are going to help us answer these questions about Why God is to be worshiped:

1. BECAUSE HE’S GOD (V. 3)

Know that the LORD, he is God! (V. 3)

• Psalm 24:7: “Who is the king of Glory? The Lord, strong and mighty”

• Psalm 47:2: For the LORD, the Most High, is to be feared, a great king over all the earth

• Psalm 93:1: The LORD reigns; he is robed in majesty;

• Psalm 95:3: For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.

• Psalm 96:4: For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; he is to be feared above all gods.

• Psalm 97:1: The LORD reigns, let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad!

The consistent message of the enthronement Psalms is that God is worthy to be praised simply because he is God.

2. Because We’re His (v. 3)

How many of you have labeled something this year as you’ve gotten ready for school? What do you get to put your name on?

• Things you made

• Things you bought

• Things you’ll use.

With that in mind, God has put his name on you for all three of these reasons. He made you

It is he who made us, and we are his; (100:3)

Oh come, let us worship and bow down;

let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!

7 For he is our God,

and we are the people of his pasture,

and the sheep of his hand. (95:6-7)

He bought you:

Oh come, let us sing to the LORD;

let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! (95:1)

Sing to the LORD, bless his name;

tell of his salvation from day to day. (96:2)

Oh sing to the LORD a new song,