Sermon – Psalm 96 – Worship in the Splendor of Holiness

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Churches

Sermon – Psalm 96 – Worship in the Splendor of Holiness

June 2, 2013

Last week we talked about Sunday worship and how regular worship prepares us for the storms of life. When disasters strike worship enables us to see God's gracious work in the midst of the disaster. Today we will expand our view of worship and ask, “Does worship extend beyond Sunday morning and beyond you and me. The answer might be surprising. We will get to this, but first let's pray.

“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)

In the 18^th century there lived a great Scottish philosopher name David Hume. Dr. Hume was primarily interested in how we know something. He was an empiricist. He thought that the only way you could know something is if you could perceive it with one of your senses. In order to know something you had to see it, or taste it, or smell it, or touch it, or hear it. Everything you know came to you through your senses of seeing, tasting, smelling, touching and hearing. Anything that you think you know other than what you perceive with you senses much be a construct of your mind and not something that really is out there. Hume's thinking has had two major impacts on the world. On one hand it provided the philosophical foundation for modern science. But on the other hand, it caused us to question the existence of our God who cannot be seen, tasted, smelled, touched or heard.

A Christian philosopher from Germany named Immanuel Kant was greatly influenced by Hume's work, and believe the only way to know something was to perceive it with you senses. But he also believed in God, and wondered where God fit in. Kant taught that it did not make sense to speak about God in the world around us because God could not be perceived by our senses in that world. But it did make sense to talk about God with reference to faith and morals. So with Kant the world was divided into two spheres. One sphere belongs to science which explains the world we perceive with our senses. The other sphere belongs to religion which explains the world of faith and morals.

We come to church on Sunday to grow in faith and learn how to life moral lives. Then on Monday we go back to our farms, schools, and businesses and act as if God doesn't exist. We read the farm report or educational journal to see what the scientific experts have to say, but the Bible is left at home to gather dust until Sunday morning. And so for three hundred years or so we have had a wall between these two spheres. On Sunday mornings we come to church and discuss matters of faith and our moral conduct. But as soon as we leave church we enter into another world that is governed by science. There is a complete separation between the church and science.

But this is are problems with this. A scientific world unconstrained by God will produce weapons which can and do kill millions of people. A scientific world that ignores God will produce things without regard for the pollution it causes in our air and water. By the twentieth century these problems and others like them became realities. Millions will killed in war and our air and water became polluted. And this has caused people to question the philosophies of Hume and Kant and the separation of science and religion.

One solution to all this has been offered by the New Age movement. Their idea is to think of the things of the earth as sacred. If the water in a stream or pond or bay or ocean is holy then we should not pollute it. If women and men are holy then we should do whatever to prevent war and violence that causes death. You can see this thinking today in the Environmentalism movement. Here on the eastern shore there are environmentalists who see the Chesapeake Bay and seafood in it as holy, and they do not want this to be defiled by runoff from chicken farms. But there is a problem with this way of thinking. Things of the world are not in themselves holy. Things we perceive with our senses are created by God and are holy based upon their status as created by God. I would propose that we need a new way of thinking about these things and the best place to start is in the Bible. So lets take a look at what it say in Psalm 96.

Psalm 96:1-13 ^NIV Psalm 96:1 Sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth. ² Sing to the LORD, praise his name; proclaim his salvation day after day. ³ Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples. ⁴ For great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; he is to be feared above all gods. ⁵ For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the LORD made the heavens. ⁶ Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and glory are in his sanctuary. ⁷ Ascribe to the LORD, O families of nations, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength. ⁸ Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; bring an offering and come into his courts. ⁹ Worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness; tremble before him, all the earth. ¹⁰ Say among the nations, "The LORD reigns." The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity. ¹¹ Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it; ¹² let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy; ¹³ they will sing before the LORD, for he comes, he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his truth.

The world view of the psalmist is that everything in the world, everything we see, hear, smell, taste and touch, was created by God. All of God's creation, everyone and every thing in the world is singing God's praises. And therefore everything is worshiping God. The chickens in the chicken houses are worshiping God. The corn and potatoes growing in the fields are worshiping God. The children in your classroom and the customers in your store are all worshiping God. So how does a cornstalk or dairy cow worship God? They sing praises to God by doing what God created them to do. The cornstalk grows delicious and nutritious kernels for us to eat as an act of worship. The cows sing God's praises by producing milk. And we worship God just by eating a bowl of cornflakes in the morning.

So if all the world is singing praises to God does that mean that balls and clubs are worshiping God right now on golf courses? Does this mean that boats and fishing rods are singing praise to God this morning on the bay? And if so could we worship God by fishing or playing golf on Sunday morning? Those are trick questions. You have to be in church on Sunday mornings to hear the word of God read and proclaimed and to pray for each other. Only by doing this will your faith grow and you will begin to see all of creation worshiping just as you do. So keep coming to church every week, but when you are in your boat or on the golf course remember that everything you perceive is worshiping its creator God by doing what God created it to do.

You would never condemn anything for doing what God created it to do. God created chicken manure to fertilize fields. Chickens praise God by creating this manure. God created the bay as a home for crabs and rockfish. The bay worships God when if produces seafood in abundance. We sing God's praises when we use chickens manure properly and harvest seafood responsibly so that both agricultural products and seafood will continue to sing praises to God with abundance.

As we gather around this table this morning we see bread and juice. Both of these are God's creation. A wheat stalk praised God by growing the grain. A farmer, a miller and a baker praised God by turning the hard grain into soft bread. A grape vine, soil, sun and rain all worshiped God by producing the delicious juice we now enjoy. And the deacons sang God's praise in setting this table for us. And as we eat the bread and drink the juice we are engaging in worship of our creator.

So we must reject the old notion that God is only concerned with faith and morals. God is much bigger than that. God is the creator of the universe and everything in it was created to sing his praises. We too were created for worship and are given the special gift of God's word which we hear each Sunday morning and equips us to perceive all of creation worshiping God. We see, hear, smell, taste and touch what God has created. And we were created to worship God by using God's creation to glorify him. Let us pray.

Creator God, we come here this morning to sing your praises in worship. Bless us with your presence and be with us as we go into the world. Help us to see, hear, smell, taste and touch the works of your creation as they sing praises to you in worship. Guide us in the use of your creation so that everything we do will be for your glory. This we pray in your son's name. Amen.