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Worthy of Worship (Psalm 95)
8 Plays6 days ago
When I read Psalm 95 a couple of mornings ago, I immediately found myself quietly humming and somewhat silently singing one of my favorite hymns, Worthy of Worship. Compared to some hymns, this is a modern hymn, written in 1988.
Dr. Terry W. York of Truett Seminary in Waco, Texas wrote the inspiring lyrics to the hymn, while Mark Blankenship gave us the beautiful music. In the hymn, Dr. York tells us so much about God, listing 10 attributes and actions of the Lord. It is simply so refreshing!
I am afraid that we sometimes we make worship about ourselves, when really it should be about our God. Worship at its best directs all the attention to an Audience of One. After singing Worthy of Worship, one comes away knowing that the Lord is … Creator, Savior, Sustainer, Almighty Father, Master & Lord, King of Kings, Redeemer, Wonderful Counselor, Comforter and Friend.
Like Worthy of Worship, Psalm 95 recalibrates our hearts to focus life on the Lord not ourselves. It doesn’t even have a clear superscription informing us of its human author, although we are given a brief reference in Hebrews 4:7 that attributes this inspiring call to worship to David.
Let’s listen to this great psalm of praise. The first half of the psalm (95:1-7b) will explain how to practice true worship, while the last half of the psalm (95:7c-11) warns of the peril of false worship.
The Practice of True Worship:
• An invitation to worship, vs. 1-2, 6
• An incentive to worship, vs. 3-7
The Peril of False Worship:
• The admonition against false worship, vs. 7-9
• The condemnation of false worship, vs. 10-11
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Growing in Grace Devotions and Inspirations
Hosted by Pastor Victor Morrison
First Baptist Church
1700 Milam Street
Columbus, TX, USA 78934
http://fbccolumbustx.org/
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Growing in Grace
00:00:08
Speaker
Welcome to Growing in Grace with Pastor Victor Morrison. This is a ministry of First Baptist Church located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas. We are praying that God will bless you as you listen to this message.
00:00:22
Speaker
If you would like additional information on worship times and ministries at FBC Columbus, you can find out more at our website, fbccolumbustx.org. And now, take your copy of God's timeless Word as Pastor Victor gives today's message.
00:00:43
Speaker
Thank you for checking back in with Growing in Grace. It's good to have you with us. I hope that you'll be blessed today, and I hope that this ah message will be uplifting to you and strengthen you in your walk with the Lord.
Exploring the Theme: Worthy of Worship
00:00:57
Speaker
I want us to look at Psalm 95. Psalm 95. so i'm ninety five You know, I'm entitling this message, Worthy of Worship. I do believe the Lord is worthy of worship.
00:01:08
Speaker
I say that because in Revelation chapter four, and again in chapter five, it's like they open the curtains of heaven And give us ah brief glimpse into what is going on in there.
00:01:21
Speaker
And they are worshiping. I mean, full throttle, they're worshiping. And twice in each of those chapters, Revelation 4, 11, Revelation 5, 9, they make this statement, worthy are God.
00:01:35
Speaker
and so the Lord is definitely worthy. Even in chapter five, verse 12, it says that worthy is the lamb, ah speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ. But this Psalm 95 reminds me so much of those words that he is worthy.
00:01:50
Speaker
There's another song that I like. It's actually a hymn. Most hymns are written many years ago, but this one was written in 1988. Have you ever heard the hymn, Worthy of Worship?
00:02:02
Speaker
written by Dr. Terry W. York of the Truett Seminary over by Baylor University in Waco. ah He wrote some incredible words that sort of tell us why the Lord is worthy.
00:02:15
Speaker
He calls him creator and savior, sustainer, almighty father, master and Lord, king of kings, redeemer, wonderful counselor, comforter and friend. It's a great hymn.
00:02:27
Speaker
And thankfully, Mark Blankenship put some very beautiful music ah to those wonderful words. So if you've never heard it, I encourage you to to give it a listen.
00:02:38
Speaker
But in Hebrews 3, verse 7, all the way down through Hebrews 4, verse 13, it quotes from this psalm that I'm about to read, and it attributes its content to David.
00:02:51
Speaker
Even though this psalm I'm about to read does not have a signature of David on there, so some are saying maybe he wrote it and later it was adapted, Many people feel Psalm 95 through 100, that it was written or adapted for the dedication of the second temple in Jerusalem after they came back from their ah ah exile.
00:03:13
Speaker
So anyway, I don't know when it was written, but I'm glad it was written. I'm glad we have this wonderful psalm that points us in the direction of the Lord who is worthy.
00:03:23
Speaker
You know, really, sometimes I think we get it wrong when we try to make ah worship about ourselves. I believe that our worship should be about God.
00:03:34
Speaker
It's not that we want him to give us something through our worship. We should be saying, Lord, you're so worthy. I want to give you something. I want to give you my heart I want to give you my voice and and my life.
00:03:48
Speaker
So anyway, I hope that this psalm will push you in that direction and help you to realize that, man, it's wonderful to worship the Lord who is worthy, but not everyone does that.
00:04:01
Speaker
And that's why this psalm actually will also address not only the practice of true worship, but the peril of false worship. You know, I've been around the world and I've been in many countries and I've definitely observed that not everyone worships the true and the living God.
The Essence of Congregational Worship
00:04:20
Speaker
And so is that okay with God or does he have a problem with that? Well, listen to Psalm 95. Oh, come, let us sing to the Lord. Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.
00:04:36
Speaker
thanksgiving. joyful great king let us make a joyful noise to him with songs ah praise for the lord is a great god and a great king above all gods in his hand or the depths of the earth the heights of the mountains are his also. the sea is his, but he made it and his hands formed the dry land oh come, come, come, O come, come,
00:04:59
Speaker
Let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker, for He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand. today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as at Meribah,
00:05:20
Speaker
As on the day at Massa in the wilderness, when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. For 40 years, I loathed that generation and said, they are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways. Therefore, I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest." Wow, what a wonderful psalm of worship.
00:05:52
Speaker
And so let's let's learn from it. Let's see first in the first seven verses how we can practice true worship. There's two things that I wanted to point out today, and that is the invitation to worship and then followed by the incentives to worship.
00:06:09
Speaker
So let's look at this invitation to worship. Did you pick up in verses one and two and again in verse six? that three times he says, come, come.
00:06:19
Speaker
you know, he says, oh, come, let us sing to the Lord. Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving. Oh, come, let us worship and bow down. Man, it's just obvious he's calling us to worship.
00:06:32
Speaker
And where are we going to worship? Well, he says it quite clearly in verse two, let us come into his presence. Man, I love that. But I also couldn't help but notice the pronoun.
00:06:44
Speaker
Did you see how many times us is mentioned? Not me. It's us five times. And then twice the pronoun our. So we're not talking about individual worship, which is valid, but it's not Enough by itself. If someone goes their whole life and they only worship by themselves, they're not quite enjoying the goodness of God like they could if they were in a congregation.
00:07:12
Speaker
So there's this congregational worship and a call to worship. But what's the code for worship? um My wife and I have been invited to a special dinner ah by my daughter. It's in Dallas, and they're going to have ah quite ah quite a ah full program there tomorrow night.
00:07:31
Speaker
But I was told there's a dress code, and so I want to make sure I'm dressed right. Do you know what the dress code is for worship? Well, it's more like expressions rather than, let's say, a suit and tie and so forth.
00:07:45
Speaker
But verses 1 and 2 and verse 6 refer to how we come into God's presence with our attitude, with our words. Here's what it said. I think it says, we should come worshipfully.
00:07:57
Speaker
We should come joyfully. We should come gratefully. And we should come respectfully. You know, respectfully, he says, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord, our maker.
00:08:10
Speaker
I don't know if your church has a kneeling bench, you know, underneath the pew in front of you, but many churches do. But I think it's a valid thing for people to say, you know what, I'm going to honor this Lord that I've come to worship.
00:08:24
Speaker
But also when go in there, it should be gratefully, we should worship him gratefully. He says, let us come into his presence with thanksgiving. I guarantee you there's been ways that God has blessed you in the past week.
00:08:38
Speaker
And so why not take that right in there with you when you go to your church for worship this next Sunday? But then there's also joyful. He said, let us make a joyful noise.
00:08:49
Speaker
You know, it's interesting. He says it twice in verse one, says it again in verse two. I think there's something, some people get stressed out. Well, I'm not sure I'll actually hit the note.
00:09:00
Speaker
You know, I might be a little bit ah sharp, might be a little bit flat or something like that. Well, I'm not saying that's not important, but it's not the main thing. God says, come on, just make a joyful noise.
00:09:12
Speaker
When you go into the stadium and your team's winning, you get excited, don't you? There's just something expressive that happens. But then he also says, let us sing.
00:09:23
Speaker
Man, it's so rare for someone to have a faith that sings, that produces a song deep within your heart. That's your invitation to worship. God says, come on, I'm looking for people to come and worship me in spirit and in truth.
00:09:39
Speaker
But also I
The Importance of Worshiping God
00:09:40
Speaker
think the incentives to worship are found here. If you were to broaden ah the verses a little bit and go down to verse 3, and go all the way down into verse seven, you would see that he mentions in verse three this turning point.
00:09:54
Speaker
It's like he moves from the invitation to worship to incentives or reasons closely tied to the authority, the attributes, the acts of God.
00:10:05
Speaker
He uses that little word for. Let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise. And then verse three, for. The Lord is a great God and a great king above all kings.
00:10:18
Speaker
Did you catch what he's saying there? He's saying that the supremacy of God as our creator, that ought to be one reason that we're excited to worship him because he's so worthy.
00:10:31
Speaker
We ought to say, you know what? You made everything around me. I love the way it says, in his hand are the depths of the earth. Could you hold the whole earth in one hand?
00:10:42
Speaker
Well, that's what it says about God. It also says, in his hand are the depths of the earth. The heights of the mountains are his also. The sea is his, for he made it and his hands formed the dry land.
00:10:56
Speaker
Wow, can you do things with your hands? Can you make things? Some people are so incredibly talented and skilled that they can make incredible things with their hands.
00:11:07
Speaker
But think about God. i mean, he made everything. Wow. and so i'm so excited to worship god whenever i go in there just because he's my creator but i also notice there's something besides the supremacy of god and that's the sovereignty of god you know that god is not only creator he's controller yeah verse three says we ought to worship him because he's a great king above all gods wow What he's best basically saying is he's in charge, he's in control, he's in control of all of life.
00:11:42
Speaker
And so we should say, whether I do anything else this day or not, I'm going to start my day by worshiping you. Do you spend a little time you know before him and just saying, you know, you're so worthy, you're the sovereign, but you're also supreme, and so I wanna lift you up.
00:12:01
Speaker
But I'll give you another good reason why. why we should worship Him. He's so worthy because of His great love for us, His compassion upon us, His provisions for us.
00:12:12
Speaker
Do you know that not only is He supreme and sovereign, He's also shepherding us, the shepherding of God as our caregiver. Verse 7 says, "'For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand.'" Now, I'm not trying to say that you can't do anything.
00:12:32
Speaker
No, I'm not saying that in terms of God being our caregiver. But I'm saying He provides what we need in order that we can work hard, in order that we can make a difference in this world.
00:12:43
Speaker
You know, whenever He calls us sheep, that by itself, you know, that metaphor there, that's not exactly a compliment, I think. Yeah. If you've ever talked to any people who've raised sheep, you should ask them, are sheep really smart or do they kind of tend it to go in the other direction?
00:13:01
Speaker
I think they'd be honest and say, yeah, they need a lot of help out there. So anyway, all I'm saying is, man, It should be our practice to truly worship God because He's worthy.
00:13:14
Speaker
I mean, He's the supreme God who created everything. He's the sovereign God who's running everything. But He's also this shepherding God who cares about us.
00:13:25
Speaker
He knows that we need Him. We need His help. Perhaps right now in your life, you're going through a very difficult season. Well, you to lean in to God because he's leaning toward you and reaching out his hands, I guarantee you how he would like to help you.
00:13:41
Speaker
But like I noted earlier, do you know there's a lot of people around the world who are very confused about this whole thing of worship. And so they're tempted to worship false gods.
00:13:54
Speaker
There are false gods, you know, and it's a peril for somebody to spend their whole life worshiping a false god. Have you ever read the book by a pastor in Kentucky named Kyle Eidelman?
00:14:07
Speaker
Kyle Eidelman wrote a book called God's at War. And what inspired him to write the book was a conversation that he had with his child one day when he was asking him, Dad, why is it so important to God?
00:14:23
Speaker
that we not have idols? Why is it so important that we not worship false gods? And so he began to do his own study through scripture. And so that that book is the the work of his hands and the work of his mind when he looked into it.
00:14:39
Speaker
But I thought to myself, wow, he gave the book the title, God's at War. Why did he call it God's at War? Because God, the true and the living God, he is at war trying to help us come to know all the other gods, they're false.
00:14:56
Speaker
He doesn't want you to stay living in some make-believe world, some delusional thing, just because it's all that you've ever heard about. He wants you to know the truth. That's why he sat at a well in a place called Samaria in John chapter 4, the gospel of John chapter 4, verses 20 through 26.
00:15:16
Speaker
He's been trying to tell this woman who's a very interested seeker at at one point in the conversation. At first, she's a little resistant, but then she begins to kind of try to deflect the the truth of what he's saying?
True Worship: Lessons from Jesus
00:15:30
Speaker
And she starts saying, well, you Jews say we should worship in Jerusalem. And we Samaritans, we say you should worship here in Sychar at this well that Jacob dug a long time ago.
00:15:42
Speaker
Which one is it? And Jesus very wisely said, you know what? The Father is looking for true worshipers who will worship Him in spirit and in truth.
00:15:54
Speaker
And it won't matter whether you're in Jerusalem or you're in Sychar. What matters is, is your heart coming to God, the God who made you, the God who loves you, the God who wants to redeem your life so badly that he gave his son Jesus to die on the cross.
00:16:11
Speaker
And so how how terrible would it be for someone to stay in spiritual darkness all of their life thinking, okay, this is this is who God is.
00:16:23
Speaker
But what if that's not true about God? What if the scriptures are true? All alone, they've been telling us the truth. I believe they're 100% true. And so I want to share with you the closing verses because God's trying to give a wake-up call to someone, and perhaps it's someone you know.
00:16:42
Speaker
And so verses seven through nine It's like God's admonition against false worship. You know, God talks. I think that's one of the surprising things for me about the God of the Bible is he actually speaks.
00:16:59
Speaker
He spoke long ago and men wrote it down. And now through his living word, he's still speaking to men. He still speaks. And so God's warning is announced in verses seven and eight.
00:17:12
Speaker
And here's what he says. Today, yes you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. Wow. you know So God's warning is this.
00:17:24
Speaker
Be careful. Be careful to hear when I'm talking. Are you listening for God's voice? Jesus would often say these words, he who has an ear, let him hear what the Lord is saying. you know So do you have an ear to hear what God is saying?
00:17:41
Speaker
But not only just hearing it, because you know every Sunday we have lots of people who come into our sanctuary and they hear the message, but it's another thing to hear it and it's a further thing to actually heed the message.
00:17:57
Speaker
Are you hearing his voice? If so, that's great. But are you also heeding his voice? Are you obeying? Are you putting into practice? He says, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.
00:18:11
Speaker
So it's possible for someone to say, I hear what he's saying. i just don't really want to do it. I mean, that's honesty, but that's dangerous. And that's why he's trying to give these words that are written about the peril of false worship.
00:18:26
Speaker
He's saying, that's not the way. i am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me. And so please listen as God is warning. It's been announced, but also his warning is illustrated.
00:18:41
Speaker
You look at verses eight and nine, and he refers back to the time when the Jews had been in bondage to the Egyptians for many hundreds of years, and now they're being set free.
00:18:54
Speaker
And so they're able to come out, and God leads them out in what's called the Exodus.
The Israelites' Journey and Spiritual Rest
00:18:59
Speaker
But when they came out, they began to question God in the wilderness.
00:19:04
Speaker
They had a ah ways to go from Egypt all the way to the promised land that God had promised to them. And so along the way, well, they faced trials and hardships like, let's say, water.
00:19:17
Speaker
They were out of water when they came to a place called Rephidim. And so in Exodus 17, verses 1 through 9, they began to crumble and complain Do you remember earlier when we looked at the first part of this psalm?
00:19:31
Speaker
Are we supposed to come into God's presence with complaining and griping and all of murmuring and all that kind of thing? No. Remember, he said, "'Be thankful.'" We should come to God and pray whenever we need water.
00:19:46
Speaker
And so they did it. They complained against Moses and quarreled with Moses and leadership. They began to test the Lord. And so those two place names, Masa and Meribah, they actually mean testing of the Lord is Masa.
00:20:03
Speaker
Meribah means quarreling with Moses. And they actually wound up 40 years later, their descended, their kids, what they wound up doing in Numbers 20 verses 1 through 13, they did the same exact thing.
00:20:18
Speaker
They complained about the water. It got Moses so upset. Instead of speaking to the rock, he hits the rock with his staff. And so God is saying, remember,
00:20:31
Speaker
I've been trying to say something. So are we heeding his warning? Are we listening to his warning? Are we reflecting on these biblical accounts that illustrate what happens whenever we get off into false worship?
00:20:45
Speaker
Because some people that were there at both of those times, they were saying, you know what? We ought to just go back to Egypt. We ought to just pull the plug on this whole thing about the promised land and go back to Egypt.
00:20:57
Speaker
Don't do that. and You know, that's why the book of Hebrews was written. There were a lot of um Christians who were Jews. They were Christian Jews, and they come to know know the Lord.
00:21:11
Speaker
And so ah they were being tempted to go back, to revert back, to give up on Christianity, to walk away from the faith and go back into Judaism.
00:21:22
Speaker
But God is trying to say to them in Hebrews 3 and 4, but also we see it here in Psalm 95, verses 10 11, that false worship only leads to condemnation.
00:21:38
Speaker
Now, just one sort of ah aside i would like to put in here is for those who are in Christ Jesus, you know what Romans 8, 1 promises us?
00:21:48
Speaker
For those who in Christ Jesus, there is therefore now no condemnation. That's what he says in Romans 8, 1, no condemnation. Jesus took our condemnation upon himself on the cross.
00:22:03
Speaker
And so God doesn't want to condemn, but whenever we reject Jesus Christ, and we say, no, I'm going to stay with this false religion over here, I'm going to stay because that's all i've ever ive I've ever seen, that's all I ever known, then you need to know that it's not going to end well.
00:22:22
Speaker
And so verse 10 talks about God's rebuke. was declared. He says, for 40 years, I loathed that generation. remember the generation that was right there?
00:22:33
Speaker
They were 11 days journey from the promised land. They were at a place called Kadesh Barnea, and they did not trust God that he would take care of them if they finished that journey and went on into the promised land.
00:22:47
Speaker
And so God said, okay, I'm going to take you back into the wilderness and march you around for 40 years until every single one in this generation passes away.
00:22:59
Speaker
And you were so worried about your babies. I'm going to let those babies grow into men and women. And I'm going to show you that I will protect you by bringing them in there. And so what he says with this rebuke that was declared in verse 10, they are a people who go astray in their heart.
00:23:17
Speaker
They've not known my ways. Oh, if we could just learn the ways of God, the way God does things. You know, our hardships and our trials, they're intended for something.
00:23:30
Speaker
They're intended to put us in the direction of praying to the Lord, of trusting Him, of crying out to Him when we have a need. But many times we'll run away from in unbelief.
00:23:41
Speaker
And so Numbers 13, it's a sad commentary on this verse here, but Numbers 13 tells you how their unbelief led to their disobedience.
00:23:52
Speaker
I don't want that to happen to you. I want you to not be under God's condemnation. I want you to enjoy
Practicing True Worship
00:24:00
Speaker
the spiritual rest, the spiritual peace that comes from turning in repentance, coming to Jesus Christ and saying, I trust the the finished work of Christ for me on the cross.
00:24:14
Speaker
You see, in Hebrews 3 and 4, when it quotes this psalm right here, what it says is they did not enter into God's promised land.
00:24:24
Speaker
They did not enter into God's rest. And so they had to keep on marching, keep on marching in circles for 40 years. Well, listen to what he says in verse 11.
00:24:35
Speaker
It's how God's rest rests. It says, it says therefore i swore in my wrath they shall not enter my rest wow you know that's why those persecuted jewish christians they were tempted to abandon the faith and the lord was warning them Don't forget what happened whenever the children of Israel, when they were being led out of Egypt and they didn't trust God to go into that promised land, they doubted God.
00:25:06
Speaker
They wound up disobeying God. And so God said, okay, you're not going into the promised land. And so he's saying, don't follow their footsteps. So, wow, we have such a great Psalm here that tells us, don't don't go with those perils of false worship.
00:25:24
Speaker
Instead, remember the practice of true worship.
Closing Blessings and Reflections
00:25:28
Speaker
Remember, God is actually inviting us and trying to ask us, you come,
00:25:35
Speaker
You come to worship me. And so we should go into his presence with thanksgiving and joy, with respect and sing and worship him. And why?
00:25:46
Speaker
Well, because he's worthy, because he's our creator, because he's worthy. He's the one who controls it all. We might as well, someday we're going to stand before him and give account, but also because he cares, because he cares.
00:26:01
Speaker
I don't know why anyone would want to go with another religion, Whenever in this faith that we have in the true and the living God, this personal relationship that we have, we have a God who genuinely cares for us.
00:26:16
Speaker
That's why he says, cast your cares upon me because I care for you. That's in 1 Peter 5, 7. It's one of my favorite verses. I just want to encourage you to go to this psalm and say, Lord, teach me how worthy you are of worship so that when I go to my church this next Sunday, that I genuinely worship you from my heart of hearts.
00:26:41
Speaker
It doesn't matter if I get every note right. What matters is that I'm expressing to God my joy and my gratitude for who he is and for all that he's done in my life.
00:26:53
Speaker
Well, Psalm 95 is fantastic. So why don't we go to the Lord and let's close by praying to him. Allow me to lead us in this prayer. Lord, thank you so much for our friends who come check out things at Growing in Grace.
00:27:08
Speaker
I'm glad they were here today. And I just pray you would bless them. I know it's so easy to be misled these days. There's so many religions that are out there. as The other day, I was trying to check out how many false religions are even mentioned in Scripture.
00:27:24
Speaker
And I found that there were 15. If you count Gnosticism, 16. So 16 different religions were confronted ah during the biblical days. But during our days, I think there's more like maybe over 8,000 is the lattice last statistic that I read.
00:27:43
Speaker
And so I know there's a lot of voices competing with the voice of truth, but I pray that we would listen to your word. It has stood the test of time. You're so trustworthy, Lord, just who you are.
00:27:57
Speaker
ah Lord, I thank you for your character, that you're faithful. that you're so true. And so help us, O Lord, to give you our worship, because indeed, you really are worthy.
00:28:09
Speaker
ah Lord, just like that song that I was referring to, Worthy of Worship, we know, Lord, that you are worthy of worship. You are creator, savior, sustainer, almighty father, master and Lord, king of kings, redeemer, wonderful counselor, comforter, and friend.
00:28:29
Speaker
I believe that, Lord, the friends that we have who are listening to this today, this message, I believe that they want to know you. And so, Lord, guide them.
00:28:39
Speaker
If they don't know you personally, I pray they would come to know you personally through the Lord Jesus Christ. If they do know you already, then I join with the Apostle Paul in praying that they would increase in their knowledge of God.
00:28:54
Speaker
Help them every day to be growing and knowing more and more of who you really are. We love you, Lord. Thank you so much for scripture because it gives us an accurate a statement of who you are.
00:29:08
Speaker
It's in Jesus' mighty name we pray, amen. Hey, thanks for listening today. I pray that God will bless you as you walk with him through this day.
00:29:29
Speaker
This is a ministry of First Baptist Church located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas.