PSALM 95 - The Worshipping Church - Why Does God Gather Us?

So a couple of weeks ago after Levi and Ellie’s wedding, those of us that were alive and remained took a three-day excursion up to Niagara Falls, New York to rest and take in the sights. I haven’t been to Niagara Falls for over twenty years (I think the last time was before we had kids, anyway!) We spent our time on the American side of the Falls—it’s a different view from the Canadian side, but there are places where you can actually stand much closer to the falls than you can on the Canadian side.

It’s fascinating to try to envision what it would have been like to be the first person to discover the falls, standing there watching all of that power and thunder and mist when it was nothing but empty wilderness (and no guide rails to protect you!) The very existence of such power and splendor and beauty and perilous majesty is going to attract people who want to see it and experience it for themselves—there are balconies and observatories and parking lots everywhere on both sides of the border, because people gather from all over just to get a glimpse of this power and majesty, just to be in the presence of such splendor and might. The Maid of the Mist boat ride, floating right up as close as it’s safe to be to the Horseshoe Falls, Cave of the Winds, where you can go right down among the rocks of the American Falls, and Luna Island, where you can stand right at the very brink of the Bridal Veil Falls and look straight down 167 feet to the rocks below. It’s so spectacular as to be unnerving!

Does not the church gather for the very same reason? To come and see and experience the mighty presence of God, to hear the thunder of His voice and witness the power of His authority. As we read together earlier in our worship this morning:

Psalm 29:1–4 (ESV)

1 Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. 2 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness. 3 The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord, over many waters. 4 The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.

Throughout the Psalms we see that God’s people gather so that they may worship Him for His majesty and power and goodness:

Psalm 95:2 (ESV)

2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!

Psalm 32:11 (ESV)

11 Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!

Psalm 34:3 (ESV)

3 Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together!

So I want us to focus our time this morning on Psalm 95 (p. 499 in the pew Bible) and consider together God’s purposes for gathering us together for worship every week. We saw last time that that worship is ultimately God’s work before it is ours; He has His own purposes for our weekly gathering, and so if we are going to order our worship according to what He calls us to do, we need to understand His purposes and priorities for worship.

We see God’s purposes for gathering us for worship here in Psalm 95. And what I think we can see here in these verses—what I want to show you this morning from God’s Word—is that

God gathers us for His GLORY and our GOOD before the GAZE of the world

The first thing that we see in this psalm is that

I. We are gathered to EXALT God (Psalm 95:1-5)

Look at verses 1-2:

Psalm 95:1–2 (ESV)

1 Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! 2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!

God gathers us so that we may glorify Him—that we may see Him in His splendor and power and majesty revealed through His Word and through the presence of His Spirit-filled people. And so what should that gathering look like? How do we go about exalting God in our worship service?

As the psalmist invites us to worship, he calls us to worship

With all GLADNESS (vv. 1-2; cp. Luke 15:32)

Our gathering must be marked first by joy—“Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!” We are first of all a joyful people when we gather to worship; our gatherings are marked by singing together—there are of course times when there are sad songs to sing, but the idea here in this verse is that there is such joy and gladness that you can’t help but sing!

There is a beautiful moment at the end of the parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15 when the older son is angry because of the party the father is throwing for the younger son’s return—the father says in Luke 15:32

Luke 15:32 (ESV)

32 It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’ ”

Beloved, when we gather here to exalt the majesty and power of God, our gatherings should be marked by the gladness of a people who were dead and are now alive through Christ!

Look again at verse 2 of Psalm 95 and you see the root of that gladness is thanksgiving: “Let us come into His presence with thanksgiving...” We are to exalt God with all gladness in our worship and we are to exalt Him

With all GRATITUDE (v. 2; cp. Eph. 5:20)

He is your Creator and Sustainer, He has made you alive from your spiritual death, He has freed you from the penalty and power of your sin, He is the One who restores the brokenness that you have inflicted on yourself and on others by your sin—how can you respond in any other way except with glad gratitude? Our gathered exaltation of God should look the way the Apostle Paul describes it in Ephesians 5:20

Ephesians 5:20 (ESV)

20 giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,

The Psalmist calls us to gladness and gratitude as we exalt God together, but in verses 3-5 he gives us a clear reminder of who this God is. In our joy and gratitude before God we are tempted to forget ourselves; to “slap Him on the back like a buddy from out of town”, or flippantly refer to Him as “the Man upstairs” or “the Big Guy”. The Psalmist does not allow us to forget that

Psalm 95:3 (ESV)

3 For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.

And so our exaltation of God in gladness and gratitude must be tempered

With all GRAVITY (v. 3-5; cp. Heb. 12:28-29)

He is not just our “buddy”—He is the Creator and Sustainer of all that exists:

Psalm 95:4–5 (ESV)

4 In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. 5 The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.

He is the One who reached down and traced the course of the Niagara River with His finger; He is the One who pressed down ever so slightly to create the gorge of the Horseshoe Falls; He is the One who holds the deepest caverns in the depths of the earth in the hollow of His hand; He is the one who raised the mountains up to the sky and gathered the seas into their places. He is not your “buddy” or “pal”; He is your Creator; He is not “the Man upstairs” or and King!

When you gather to worship here in His presence, you come here scale the Mt. Everest of His glory, you come here to swim in the the Pacific Ocean of His mercy. You have vast treasures of His grace and kindness in Christ to explore when you come here to worship; how could there be any room for flippancy or goofiness or silliness in His presence? He is the KING, not a court jester! As the writer of Hebrews exhorts us:

Hebrews 12:28–29 (ESV)

28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, 29 for our God is a consuming fire.

God gathers us for His glory and our good before the gaze of the world. We are gathered to exalt God, and

II. We are gathered to EDIFY each other (Ps 95:6-7)

Psalm 95:6–7 (ESV)

6 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. Today, if you hear his voice,

The Psalmist points to the majesty and surpassing greatness of God to remind us that our worship should be marked by a glad and grateful gravity. And then in verses 6-7 we remind each other that we are entering the presence of our great Creator and King. We edify each other—we build each other up—when we

Encourage one another’s REVERENCE (v. 6; cp. Heb. 12:28-29)

When we come to worship, we are inviting each other into reverence for God. We live in a world that hates the idea of bending the knee to anyone. So when we come to worship together, we need to remind each other that worshipping God is an essentially submissive activity—bowing down, kneeling. Some churches have a practice of regularly kneeling as part of their worship service—whether or not physical kneeling or bowing is part of worship, we should in any case come with hearts and minds and attitudes that are bowed before our King. And this verse shows that when you come with your heart bowed before God in submission and obedience to Him it enables your fellow members to do the same.

This is why, for instance, we don’t want our worship to take place in a darkened auditorium that looks like a movie theater; we sit together here in a room brightly lit by the sun, in a broad semi-circle around the sanctuary so that we can see one another submitting to God in prayer, singing and attending to the Word, and we can encourage one another in reverence to our Creator and King!

We build each other up in worship by encouraging each other’s reverence, and we build each other up when we

Enable one another’s NOURISHMENT (v. 7; 1 Peter 5:1-2)

The psalmist reminds us that when we come together for worship, we are coming to be fed, we are coming to be pastured like sheep:

Psalm 95:7 (ESV)

7 For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand...

In the Apostle Peter’s first letter, he writes to the elders of the churches a reminder of their task before God—it’s possibly my favorite passage about what it means to be a pastor:

1 Peter 5:1–2 (ESV)

1 So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: 2 shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly;

I love the preposition in the first phrase in verse 2: “Shepherd the flock of God that is among you!” In other words, pastors and elders stand in the midst of God’s people; not lording over them, not separate or aloof from them, but right there in the middle of the flock! To say it another way, the elders are also sheep! We have One Shepherd, the Chief Shepherd, Jesus Christ (1 Peter 5:4). He has given His “undershepherds” responsibilities to nourish His people, but at the same time, every believer has a responsibility for the care and feeding of the flock.

Elders are responsible for preparing and leading worship, but you have a role to play as well! It’s worth saying again—the real action on Sunday morning isn’t just up on the platform, it’s there in the pew! Christian, by your presence and participation here this morning, you are a minister of worship to others—they hear the Word of God from you when you participate in the Scripture readings, they are admonished and taught by hearing you sing the psalms, hymns and spiritual songs (cp. Colossians 3:16), they are brought into worship as the elements of the Lord’s Supper pass from your hands to theirs—you are directly engaged with providing spiritual nourishment to God’s people when you gather here for worship!

God gathers us here in corporate worship so that we may exalt Him, so that we may edify one another, and in the rest of Psalm 95 we see that

III. We are gathered to EVANGELIZE the world (Ps 95:7b-11)

Our gathered worship must always be focused on declaring the Good News to the world: As one author puts it, “We assemble… with the expectation that God delights to give new life to the lost who attend our services through the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ...” (Merker, M., & Duncan, L. (2021). Corporate Worship: How the Church Gathers as God’s People (9Marks: Building Healthy Churches) [E-book]. Crossway. p. 67)

We have already seen how we are to gather in glad and grateful gravity because of how God has delivered us from the penalty and power of our sin—and here in these verses we are reminded that

There is no GOOD NEWS without the BAD NEWS (vv. 10-11; 1 Cor. 14:24-25)

There are many, many churches that have a genuine and godly desire to declare the Good News of the Gospel to as many people as possible. (May God grant all of us greater and greater effectiveness in that harvest!) But one of the snares a church can fall into in seeking to be attractive to outsiders is to succumb to the temptation to make the desires and sensibilities and felt needs of non-Christians the defining characteristic of the worship service. It’s often been called a “seeker-sensitive service”: Play the kinds of music they like, adapt the branding and messaging of the church to fit in with their sensibilities, make the messages intensely practical spiritual advice on finances, relationships, family, career, and so on.

But the problem with a “seeker sensitive service” (as honorable as the intentions for it might be) is that it makes it very unlikely that unbelievers will ever understand why the Good News is “Good” in the first place! The Good News of salvation in Jesus Christ makes no sense to someone who doesn’t know that they need to be saved—without the Bad News of our condemnation in our sin, the Good News of the Gospel has no appeal. In the rest of Psalm 95, the psalmist goes on to exhort the congregation that gathers to remember their past sin and repent. He reminds them of how their fathers had sinned against God by their rebellion:

Psalm 95:10–11 (ESV)

10 For forty years I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.” 11 Therefore I swore in my wrath, “They shall not enter my rest.”

If an unbeliever is never confronted with the holiness of God, is never called to consider the record of their sins against Him, if they are never shown why the only solution for their sin was that the Eternal Son of God had to be tortured to death on that Cross, if they never have their eyes opened to how much danger they are in of eternal damnation, then why would they ever want to repent?

We can’t shave off the rough edges of the Gospel message to make it go down smooth with unbelievers—the Gospel is not meant to go down smooth! It is meant to bring a sinner trembling to his knees, and the way that God has ordained for that to happen is when a sinner hears the Gospel in the context of the gathered worship of God’s people!

This is why the Apostle Paul tells the believers in Corinth to stop speaking in tongues and start declaring the Gospel in their worship:

1 Corinthians 14:24–25 (ESV)

24 But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, 25 the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you.

When outsiders come here and see you rejoicing over your deliverance from your sin and rebellion, it confronts them with their sin and rebellion hidden in their hearts. When they hear the warning of God’s wrath descending on all who are not covered under the blood of Jesus’ Cross they are convicted of their sin and fall down in repentant worship.

If we genuinely want unbelievers to come here to this worship service and meet Jesus, we don’t have to hold a “seeker-sensitive service”, because the truth is that

There is only one SEEKER at our SERVICE (vv. 7b-8; John 4:23; Luke 19:10)

Jesus Christ, Who inhabits the worship of His gathered people, is the One who “came to seek and to save that which is lost” (Luke 19:10). He is the One who told the Samaritan woman during their debate on proper worship:

John 4:23 (ESV)

23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.

Even here in Psalm 95 you hear the voice of God calling His people to repentance:

Psalm 95:7–8 (ESV)

7 ...Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,

God Himself is seeking worshippers; God Himself is calling sinners to repentance; God Himself gathers us out of our sin into salvation in Christ and is still gathering sinners today! He is still building His holy temple of redeemed men and women, and He will do it when His Gospel is proclaimed! We are not inviting Him to come join us as we cater to the felt needs of unbelievers, we are inviting unbelievers to join us in an audience with our King!

We are called here together to make the Good News good as we declare the Gospel faithfully; we are gathered here by the One Who is still seeking and saving the lost. And we gather here together for worship because

This is the only HOPE for our CULTURE (vv. 10-11; Matthew 16:18)

Psalm 95 ends with a description of the loss of the faithless generation that refused to enter the rest God promised them—they refused to enter Canaan, and died in the wilderness. Beloved, we live in a generation like that—a generation that refuses to enter into the rest purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ, a generation that refuses to bow the knee to its Creator, a generation that rails against the way He created the world, a generation that protests and demonstrates and marches against the rule of King Jesus.

And so, beloved, in the midst of this protesting, rebellious generation, let our worship be our protest.

As one author puts it:

In our corporate services, we testify to a kingdom that cannot be shaken, a beacon of truth in the darkness, a Deliverer infinitely more powerful than the false saviors of politics, power, sex, money, and success. When we focus our gathering on exaltation and edification, we hold out the water of life to a thirsty world and call it to turn away from those broken cisterns that never satisfy. (Mike Cosper, quoted in ibid., pp. 73-74).

This is the real “worship war”: a battle against idolatry, calling all people to serve the true King. (ibid, p. 74)

In Matthew 16, Jesus took His disciples to the base of Mount Hermon, the place ancient legends said were the gateway to Sheol, the Underworld. At Peter’s confession that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of the living God, Jesus answers that

Matthew 16:18 (ESV)

18 ...on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Beloved, you are gathered here in this worship service to confess the Lordship of Jesus Christ over all creation. You are here to declare by your presence and participation that Jesus Christ is more powerful than any other so-called “Savior” that this world can follow, and you are promised here by the unbreakable, powerful Word of God that what you do here will destroy the gates of Hell itself!

Each week as you gather here and take up these weapons of worship—that Bible on your lap, that hymnal in that rack, the bread and the cup of the Supper, the waters of baptism, the prayers of the saints that ascend to heaven like incense in the golden bowl of the angelic hosts—every time you gather here for worship you take up a battering ram and take another swing against the gates of Hell. And somewhere in some mahogany-paneled boardroom as the rulers and thought leaders and influencers and principalities and powers are plotting their high rebellion against God, the moment will come when one of them will stop in mid-blasphemy and say, “What was that?” as the far-off sound of this worship striking their gates reverberates with growing power!

God has gathered you here, church, so that you may glorify him and encourage each other before a watching world. Come here to hear the thunder of God’s word and soak in the spray of His truth and see His transforming power and authority that rolls down over this whole world through the proclamation of the Gospel. Rejoice in how much God has forgiven you with glad and grateful gravity. Draw your brothers and sisters in Christ into that reverence with you, come here to be fed and to minister this nourishment to them. Put away the flippancy and shallowness and indifference of this world’s attitude towards spiritual things, delight to lay yourself at the feet of your King, and come here to declare that Jesus Christ reigns over all of this world!

And if you have come here as an outsider, our prayer for you is that you have seen the glad and grateful gravity of our worship and have tasted of the splendor and power and righteousness of the God we have gathered to exalt. I pray that you will see and understand through what we have said and sung and done in this hour that God is calling you today not to harden your heart as you have done in the past, not to refuse the rest He has promised you. He has gathered you here with us today because He wants you to see what He will do in you when you come to Him. Don’t put it off any longer; come and bow yourself before the Cross where your debt was paid, where every secret sin of your heart was atoned for. Confess your sin, kneel before your Creator and your King for the forgiveness He freely offers you. Come—and welcome!—to Jesus Christ!

BENEDICTION

Hebrews 13:20–21 (ESV)

20 Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, 21 equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:

What does the way we approach God in worship say about what we think He is like? What are some ways that we can balance our joy and gladness over God’s forgiveness of our sins with the knowledge that He is a “great God, and a great King above all gods”? How do we balance that gravity and gladness here at Bethel?

How are believers responsible for each other in worship? Why is it important that we can see and hear each other? What role has God given you to play in ministering to others in your worship?

Read 2 Corinthians 10:4-5. What “weapons of worship” has God given you when you gather here at Bethel on Sunday morning? Spend some time this week praying that God will use the worship of our church family as a battering ram against the gates of Hell!

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