Go Worshiping to Church

The Psalms on Worship Go Worshiping to Church Psalm 66 Pastor Pat Damiani August 4, 2019 NOTE: This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message. The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript. How many of you came to church to worship this morning? [Wait for answers]. I see that most of you raised your hands. I would guess that the rest of you didn’t raise your hand for one of several reasons. Some of you probably are just too tired to raise your hand. Some of you could just be being honest and admitting that you’re only here today out of some sense of obligation. And some of you are probably thinking this must be a trick question so I’m just not going to raise my hand. That was very wise of you because at least to some degree it is a trick question. If you came to church this morning to worship, that’s actually a good thing. But what if I were to tell you that God has something that is far better than that in store for all of us both individually and as a church family? This morning’s message is designed to help all of us learn exactly what that is. This morning we’re going to begin a new sermon series titled “The Psalms on Worship”. Over the next six weeks we’re going to see what we can learn from the Psalms that will help us to improve our worship, both individually and corporately. In fact, as we’ll see clearly this morning, there is a synergistic relationship between our personal and corporate worship in which both those aspects of our worship actually feed upon each other and make both of them better. The Psalms are somewhat like a modern-day hymnbook. The book is a collection of worship songs written by different authors that span nearly a thousand years of Israel’s history from the time of Moses to the rebuilding of the temple after the Babylonian captivity. Like our hymns and worship songs, the Psalms take the basic themes of the Bible and turn them into song. So as you can imagine there are many different kinds of Psalms. In this series we’re going to focus on six Psalms that give us insight into the kind of worship that delights God. We’ll begin this morning with Psalm 66. [Read Psalm 66] Before we embark on our study of this Psalm, I want to point out an important term that we will be seeing throughout this series. It is the Hebrew word “selah”. Since we can’t be sure about its meaning, it has just been transliterated in our English Bibles directly from the Hebrew word. It is a word that is found 74 times in the Old Testament – 3 times in Habakkuk chapter 3 and the other 71 times in the Psalms. While we can’t determine its exact meaning, the surrounding context indicates that it is likely a musical term that means to pause and reflect. Unlike we find with most of the Psalms, the author of this Psalm is not identified. Some believe that the Psalm was written by Hezekiah after God saved the Israelites from the Assyrians. Certainly portions of the Psalm fit with that historical event, but since the author is not identified, we can’t be sure. Let’s begin with the big idea that I want us all to take away from this Psalm and then I’m going to enlist your help in identifying some of the details that will help us to apply this idea: I would like to take full credit for that wording, but I’ve adapted from what Louie Giglio wrote in his book The Air I Breathe. And a little later in the message I’m going to quote from his book to help us better understand this idea. Before we get to the details, I want you to see the synergy here between corporate worship and individual worship, The Psalm begins with seven imperatives or commands, each of which are in a plural form. Or as all you southerners would say: • Y’all shout… • Y’all sing… • Y’all give… So this portion of the Psalm is addressed to the congregation as a whole. But in verse 13, the Psalm takes on a whole different focus and it becomes more individual and personal. There are five “I will” statements – and one more that is implied – that describe the author’s personal response to the corporate worship described in the first part of the Psalm. The fact that both the corporate and personal aspects of worship are addressed in this single Psalm is instructive. It reinforces the idea that there is a synergy between the two. The corporate worship drives personal worship and that personal worship in turn enhances corporate worship. So it’s really a continuous, never-ending circle that we could picture like this: Hopefully, you can now begin to understand why I said… So with that overall idea in mind, let’s focus on the details that will help us to be active participants in this process. We’ll begin with… SEVEN COMMANDS FOR CORPORATE WORSHIP I’m going to enlist your help in identifying these seven commands: 1. Shout (v. 1) The verb that the Psalmist uses here is typically used in the Old Testament to describe a battle cry or a shout of alarm. But here the author of this Psalm has converted it into a loud praise of God. I love how commentator Skip Moen describes what shouting to God in worship should be like. This isn’t a verb for Barry Manilow believers. This is a Charlton Heston bellow. But now it’s about the wonders of God rather than the ravages of sin. Let’s suppose that your child or grandchild is about to walk out into the street and you see a car come barreling down that same street but you were too far away to stop him or her. What would you do? You would shout out a warning at the top of your lungs, right? When we worship God, we don’t have to necessarily do it at that same decibel level, but we should do it with the same degree of energy. At a minimum what we ought to take away from this command is that our worship should be exuberant. 2. Sing (v. 1) As we go through this series, we are going to be identifying and talking about 8 different Hebrew words for worship and praise. Each of those words has a different meaning, so it’s important for us to be able to identify which Hebrew word the Psalmist is using. But that’s not always easy to do in our English translations, which often use the same word – praise – to translate different Hebrew words. I know what some of you are probably thinking now. I don’t know Hebrew, so how could I ever determine which Hebrew word the Psalmist is using? I’ll let you in on a secret. While I’m at least somewhat proficient in Greek, I probably don’t know a lot more about Hebrew than many of you. But the good news is that all of us have some tools available to us to help us find the appropriate information. So at the risk of losing some of you who might not be interested, I’m going to briefly show you how to do exactly what I did this week. I’m going to use the Logos Bible app that I have on my phone, but you can do essentially the same thing with the Faithlife Study Bible app or the Logos software that you can download for free to your computer. If you’d like some help with any of that, just let me know. In the app I hold my finger on the word “sing” in verse 2 and this information appears: I now have several important pieces of information about this verb. I know that it is the Hebrew word “zamar”. Sometimes, because Hebrew doesn’t have vowels, the words will look a little different than the English transliterations I’ll be using, but I think they are close enough for you to identify them. The Hebrew word “zamar” literally means to “pluck the strings of an instrument”. It is a word of rejoicing that describes singing that is accompanied by instruments. This describes what we do every week when we sing songs that are accompanied by musicians who in some cases, like with the guitar and bass, literally pluck their strings. And although we use a digital keyboard, the sounds it produces are the same as those produced by a piano, which also has strings, or other stringed instruments like violins or cellos. This is the same verb we see again in verse 4, where it is translated “sing praises”. 3. Give (v. 1) We are to give to God “glorious praise”. The word “praise” there is the translation of the second Hebrew worship word that we’ll look at this morning. It is the Hebrew word “tehillah” which is used over 50 times in the Old Testament. It means to “vocalize our praise in song”. It is describing the kind of singing that makes it clear that God is the star in the room. This is the reason we are so careful in picking out songs that we use for corporate worship here at TFC. There are a lot of really good Christian songs out there that just aren’t appropriate for corporate worship because they put more attention on the person singing the song than on God. While they might very well have a place in our personal worship, we work hard to make sure that the songs we sing together in worship make God the star. 4. Say (v. 3) This is an interesting verb that conveys the idea of expressing a thought. It is not just limited to what we say verbally. So it could even describe non-verbal clues or even what we say to ourselves. The idea here is that in our worship we are to proclaim who God is and what He has done with our words and our bodies. What comes to mind here is what our body language communicates as we worship together. Do our facial expressions and our posture and what we are doing with our hands reinforce the words that we are singing or saying? There is also a prophetic element here that looks forward to the day when Jesus returns and all the earth will sing praises to His name. 5. Come (v. 5) The verb “come” means “to approach or to move toward”. It is often used metaphorically in the Old Testament to refer to a way of life. It seems that both ideas may very well be present here. First there is the idea that as we gather, we are approaching God together as a people. Together, we are to enter into His presence in awe and reverence. Second, this reinforces the idea that worship is not just something we do, it is who we are. Worshiping God means living in a way that is consistent with God’s purposes, plans and ways. Obviously none of us do that perfectly, but it ought to be our heart’s desire to live like that. 6. See (v. 6) Obviously, none of us can physically see God. But we can do what this verb suggests, which is to observe, learn about, and consider God – particularly to consider the things that He has done. There are obviously many ways we can do that. We did it earlier this morning when we sang “Do It Again”, which is a song about remembering God’s faithfulness to us in the past. We also “see God” when we study His Word where we have a record of His work throughout history. That is why the preaching of God’s Word is such an important element of our worship. 7. Bless (v. 8) This is the third Hebrew word of worship that we’ll look at this morning. The Hebrew word “barak” literally means “to kneel or to bow”. And later in this series we will see it used in that way. But it also expresses the idea of giving reverence to God as an act of adoration. When it used in that sense, it is usually translated “bless”, like in verse 8. The whole idea that I could somehow bless God is mind blowing to me. We usually tend to think of blessing in terms of what God does for us. But we do bless God when the intent of our heart is to acknowledge Him as king and yield our lives to Him. In verses 8-12, the Psalmist testifies about how God has brought His people through trials. Unfortunately we just don’t have time to give those verses the attention they deserve if we’re going to develop our main idea this morning. If the Psalm had just ended there with the description of corporate worship, this Psalm would be valuable. But we could wrongly get the idea that we should go to church to worship, because we would not see the connection between our individual worship and our corporate worship. So we wouldn’t be able to see why… So far we’ve looked at the corporate aspect of worship, but to fully understand our main idea and to see this synergistic relationship between personal and corporate worship, we need to look at the last part of this Psalm and identify… FIVE THINGS I CAN DO TO COME WORSHIPING TO CHURCH There are five “I will” statements in verses 13-17. Two of those are parallel statements that have to do with making an offering so I’m going to combine those. Then there is one more important aspect of personal worship that is not stated explicitly, but which is clearly implied in verse 18-19. Once again, I’ll enlist your help in identifying each of these. 1. Come (v, 13) This is actually a different Hebrew verb than the one we looked at earlier. This one means “to enter”. The idea here is that I actually have to leave the comfort of my home in order to gather together with God’s people and enter into God’s “house”. For the Israelites that place was the temple and later the synagogue. On Sundays for us it is this building that God has provided as a place to worship together. But obviously, we are not limited to a physical building. In some places around the world where they are under severe persecution, disciples of Jesus are meeting in secret in homes or other out of the way places. But the important thing to note here is that even in the Old Testament, God never intended for His people to live and worship in isolation. Obviously there are valid reasons why some of us can’t be here at times and God understands that. But when we just decide to take a Sunday off because we don’t want to get out of bed or because our favorite NFL team is playing that morning or even because we just think we deserve a week off, we are not only hindering our own worship, we impact the worship of the entire body. And if Sunday mornings are the only time that we gather with other disciples, that is going to limit our worship, too. So the more I spend time with my brothers and sisters in Christ throughout the week, the more I am likely to come worshiping to church. 2. Perform (v. 13) Apparently when he was in trouble, the Psalmist had made some promises to God. And the effectiveness of his personal worship was dependent on whether or not he kept those promises. We see clearly here than worship is more than just singing songs, it is more than saying we love God. It is living in a way that is consistent with our words. The apostle Paul writes about this idea that our worship is to be a way of life, not just something we do on Sunday mornings: I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. (Romans 12:1 ESV) 3. Offer (vv. 13-15) We see here that when the Psalmist makes an offering to God, He brings God a generous offering of his very best. He brings the fattened animals, which indicates that this was a costly offering. Those are the animals which would have had the greatest worth to Him. One of the reasons that we include a time of offering in our worship gatherings is because that is an important way to honor God. And when we bring an offering, like the Psalmist we need to be generous and bring God our very best. While making an offering of our material resources is important, it is equally important to offer God the best of our time and our talents, too. As we just saw in Romans 12, genuine worship requires offering our entire lives to God. 4. Tell (vv. 16-17) When we are genuinely excited about something, we can’t wait to tell others. For those of you who are parents, can you remember how excited you were to tell everyone when you became pregnant? When your favorite team wins the Super Bowl or the World Series or the national championship, you’re excited to share that with others, right? When I was going through physical therapy after my knee surgery, I was even so excited the first time I was able to pedal the bike all the way around, I couldn’t wait to tell others. The same thing should be true when it comes to our relationship with God. As we get to know Him better and we see how He is working in our lives and in the lives of others, we should naturally want to share that with others. But there is an important qualifier in verse 16. The Psalmist is going to tell what God has done for his soul. Much of the time, even when we do tell others about how God is working in our lives, it tends to focus on the physical – God healed me of this disease, He provided a new job for me, He provided for my financial needs. And we should praise God for those things and tell others about them. But if we’re going to develop our personal worship, we need to move beyond that and share what God is doing in our souls – how He takes away my guilt and shame, how He is developing a deeper love for Him and His Word, how He is helping me overcome my anger. 5. Repent (implied – vv. 18-20) This last act of worship is implied in verses 18-20. The Psalmist acknowledges here that if he cherishes his sin in his heart, that would separate Him from God and God would not be obligated to listen to his prayers. But the fact that he claims that God has indeed listened to his prayers implies that he has taken his sin before God and repented of that sin by confessing it and by turning away from it. Many of us are familiar with Paul’s instructions in 1 Corinthians 11 to examine ourselves before we participate in the Lord’s Supper. But that is something we should all be doing every week as we prepare to come worshiping to church. We need to ask God to reveal any sin in our lives and then we need to repent by confessing that sin to God and turning away from it. We’ve seen this morning that… The reason that this is so important is because of the synergistic relationship between my own personal worship and our corporate worship. I want all of us to think about how our worship would be transformed if we were able to apply even a portion of what we’ve learned this morning. In order to help us do that, I want to read Louie Giglio’s words from The Air I Breathe: Most of my life, I thought that you went to church to worship. But now I see that the better approach is to go worshiping to church. Trust me, church is a lot better when our gatherings are filled with people who have been pursuing God for six days before they get here. Church as a “refill” or “tank-up” is a disaster. Corporate worship works best when we arrive with something to offer God. As opposed to only coming to get something for ourselves from God… Church is supposed to be a celebration of our personal journeys with God since we were last together. Imagine what would happen if each person in the congregation was seeking the face of God throughout the week. Some would encounter sorrow, others major happiness. But all would have a story to tell of God’s faithfulness in good times and bad. What would happen if we came worshiping to church, filled with an awareness of His presence before we even reached the door? Well, for one the lead worshiper’s job would be a lot easier! And the intensity of our collective offering would be full on. Can you see it? All our personal streams of worship flowing into one surging river: One mighty anthem. A beautiful mosaic, telling an even greater story of who God is and what He’s done. People leaving a gathering like that inspired to seek Him as never before. And they come back again bringing worship with them, starting the cycle all over again. The worship circle is complete. Unbroken. We have clearly seen this morning that, as we often say, worship is a matter of both revelation and response. So it is important for each one of us to respond to God based on what we’ve learned today. In just a moment, we will have a time of response in which we encourage you to respond to God as He leads you. In your bulletin insert, you will find some suggestions about some possible ways you might want to do that, but certainly there are other ways that God might lead you to respond as well. We’ll begin our response time with an opportunity to do what the Psalmist did and make an offering to God. If you’re our guest, we don’t want you to feel obligated to give. This time is intended to allow those who are a part of this church family to give generously and joyfully as an act of worship. Then, as the music continues to play softly, we invite you to respond as God leads you. If you’d like to talk to someone about a decision you’ve made today or if you just want someone to pray with you, our Elders and several of our wives will be available both in front and in back of the room to pray with you. We also encourage you just to come to the front and pray individually or even as a family if God leads in that way. Discussion questions for Bible Roundtable 1. Can you give some personal examples of how your personal worship (or lack thereof) has impacted your participation in corporate worship? How about how corporate worship has impacted your personal worship? 2. Some people would say that singing is just a “warm up” for the main part of the worship gathering – the sermon. How would you respond to them? 3. How would you respond to someone who said, “I don’t need to come to church to worship God. I can do that anywhere.”? 4. How would you describe the worship “atmosphere” for the kind of worship that this Psalm pictures? How can we incorporate that into our corporate worship?