Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

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