Worship Series :The Beauty of Worship (Psalm 96)

Sermon Snippet by Mr Christopher Chan

INTRODUCTION

Some say that this Psalm is written in the context of the exiles hearing about the possible return to Israel. Therefore, it has many similarities with Isaiah 40-55. The Psalm looks like a declaration of God’s reign in response to Israel’s exile.

SERMON PROPER

 

I.  Invitation to praise God our King (v.1-3)

 

SIMILARITIES BETWEEN PS 96 & ISAIAH 40-55
• Proclaim good news, tell of His salvation (Isa 40:9; 52:7,10; Ps 96:2)
• God’s reign (Isa 52:7; Ps 96:10)
• Life or salvation for all (Isa 49:6; 52:7,10; Ps 96:2)
• God’s will for justice (Isa 42:1-2; Ps 96:10-13)
• “Sing to the Lord a new song” (Isa 42:10)
• A new song sung in response to the “new things” God is doing – Israel’s return from exile, a “new exodus”
• We celebrate our spiritual exodus and sing a new song to the Lord!

We remember that at the 1st exodus, the people broke out into song when they crossed the red see in Exodus 15. Now God is bringing a second exodus to pass and will be doing new things in their midst, the Psalmist invited the people to sing a new song to the Lord. Today in that same pattern, we are to worship the Lord and praise him for the new things that he has done. All of us have had a spiritual exodus as well. Before we were in Christ, we were condemned to death, enslaved to sin, living in darkness. But God has delivered us in Jesus having brought us from darkness into his light and set us free from the former enslavement to sin. Because of these things that God has done, we want to join the Israelites to sing about God;s deliverance and make the words of the Psalmist our own joyfully, boisterously.

This Psalm is also missionary in nature as it calls on the whole earth to praise God and make him known. Praise is the OVERFLOW of a forgiven soul. Illustration: Football fans go into a frenzy when their favorite club wins and they are filled with tremendous excitement to inform others about their club's win. Thsi is what our worship should be like. What passions do you have when it comes to the good news of Jesus Christ? Are you filled with that same exxcitement? Too often it is not so.

Perhaps our problem is our over-familiarity with God's goodness. Familarity robs us of our joy and our excitement. How can becoming familiar not cause us to find it boring and we lose our excitement? We need to open ourselves to experience once over and over again the greatness of the truth that God has given to us. Only that can bring that new freshness into our lives. Then we will have more reasons to praise God. Have we indeed stopped at some point in our experience of the newness that God brings, so that our spirits are jaded and there is no impetus to praise flowing out of our souls.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

1.      Have we been praising God joyfully, exuberantly? If we are bored, why is that so? What has happened to the outflow of your forgiven soul?

2.      What must you do to experience daily newness that God wants to bring into your life?

3.      Have we been making Him known?

II. Recognize His attributes (v.4-9)

The Psalmist makes a list of God’s attributes:

•         Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised (v.4)
•         He is to be feared above all gods (v.4), we tremble in His holy presence (v.9)
•         God is the Almighty Creator (v.5)
•         Splendour, majesty, strength and beauty (v.6)
•         Give Him glory and praise, bring an offering (v.7-8)

All the gods of the peoples are worthless. He is not like all the others. So all of this come together, we want to give him glory and praise and bring an offering. here is just a sampling of the reasons to praise God. The Psalmist makes the declaration, “the lord reigns, his justice and righteousness.”

III. Celebrate His righteous reign (v.10-11)

We live in a broken and fallen world, we can speak to it and declare also that the Lord reigns, there will be no evil and pain ever again at the end of time. That's our confidence. Inspite of the fallenness that we see around us, this is a wonderful declaration.

CONCLUSION
What does all this have say to us about the beauty of worship?

As we gather as the people of God, how does it come across to us as beautiful? The answer is not direct. We have come across some of the wonders of the world e.g. Statue of Christ the Redeemer in Brazil, the Taj Mahal in India but these pictures don't do justice to the real thing. But even though some of us can only google and see the online pictures of these wonders, they can still inspire us to see how magnificent these places are. The pictures alone spontaneously cause us to gasp, utter an admiring wow, praising it for its beauty and ability to inspire.

Worship should be like that: it should be a wow experience as we take in all things beautiful since all beauty is a pale reflection of the true beauty of God. It is important to remember that the beauty of worship is similarly determined by the object of our worship. What is the true focus of our worship? We do see this beauty as we reflect on who he is and what he has done. However, we have often traded this by making ourselves the center of worship albeit unintentionally. This happens when we make ourselves the primary concern.

Dale Rosenberger quotation: “It is strange and painfully ironic how in the name of worshipping God we put ourselves at the centre of all things and make ourselves the measure of all things. Did everybody “get something” out of worship? Was I inspired? Were my needs met? we ask. On the basis of self-referential questions, we decide whether or not worshipping God was successful or meaningful. But the point of worship is pleasing God. Pleasing ourselves comes in a distant second here. The pleasure that borders upon deep, abiding joy derives from pleasing God or, perhaps better, “enjoying God,” as one confession has it. Quite simply, worship could be very powerful, even intensely pleasurable, if we moved ourselves out of the way and allowed God the rightful place front and centre. Frankly, it is a measure of our self-absorption that something so essential to worship as this hardly occurs to us.”

What is our central concern at worship, who are we desiring to please? Most of the time we are absorbed about how it impacts us rather than how it has brought pleasure to the Lord. Giving priority aimed at pleasing God than pleasing our congregation and ourselves is an important change to make when we worship. Ps 96 captures the beauty of worship because it is so God centered about who he is and what he has done. If we make him our primary concern, we will experience this beauty of worship. Bring the focus back to God. Let Him "take His rightful place" in our midst.

 

Take Your Rightful Place (Response song written by speaker)

In the splendour of Your holiness
We bow in loving adoration
In the glory of Your presence, God
We stand in awe of You

There’s no one more worthy of all honour
You deserve our greatest praise
Our freedom is found in our surrender
As You take Your rightful place

Let every heart
Let every part of our lives
Be wholly Yours, O God
Let our greatest aim
Be Your pleasure and praise
Come and take Your rightful place