Sermon – Psalm 29 - Worship the Lord

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

Sermon – Psalm 29 - Worship the Lord

Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Churches

Baptism of the Lord

January 8, 2012

Last Sunday we talked about how all of creation is called to praise the Lord. Praising God is what we were created for. And we praise God by doing what God created us to do. And so we come to church to hear scripture read and proclaimed and we attend Bible studies to find out exactly how God created us so that we may appropriately praise God as we were created to do.

Praise is something all of creation does. But today we will look at something that is reserved for believers. Only the faithful believer can worship the Lord. And that is why evangelism is so important. We invite people to come with us to church and Bible study so that they may praise their creator and come to belief that in Jesus the creator is worthy of our full worship. Today we will talk about what worship is and how we, as believers can worship God. 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)

There is no more misunderstood word in the American church than the word “worship”. There are those who think that worship is the same thing as music. Many churches have what they call “worship leaders” who are in fact musicians leading contemporary music. People in these churches enjoy the music and confuse this enjoyment with worship. As we will see worship is very different from singing praise songs.

Other churches believe that worship involves the use of rituals. People in these churches love the ancient prayers in Latin or Elizabethan English. They love the beautiful liturgies for communion. They love the old hymns. All these things are wonderful, I love them too, but they are not the same thing as worship.

Still other churches believe that worship affects us emotionally. In worship we experience a warming of the heart, or we exhibit our spiritual gifts. In these churches it is not uncommon to hear people equate speaking in tongues with worship. An inner experience of the Spirit and manifestation of gifts is important, but it is not worship.

In our tradition we believe that worship starts in praise for God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We believe that God is with us in worship. And we believe that we are renewed and transformed by the Holy Spirit in worship. This enables us to respond to God in worship and align ourselves with God's mission in the world.

Let's turn to Psalm 29 and it's description of heavenly worship.

A psalm of David.

1 Ascribe to the LORD, you 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 his holiness.

3 The voice of the LORD is over the waters;
the God of glory thunders,
the LORD thunders over the mighty waters.
4 The voice of the LORD is powerful;
the voice of the LORD is majestic.
5 The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars;
the LORD breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon.
6 He makes Lebanon leap like a calf,
Sirion[b] like a young wild ox.
7 The voice of the LORD strikes
with flashes of lightning.
8 The voice of the LORD shakes the desert;
the LORD shakes the Desert of Kadesh.
9 The voice of the LORD twists the oaks[c]
and strips the forests bare.
And in his temple all cry, “Glory!”

10 The LORD sits enthroned over the flood;
the LORD is enthroned as King forever.
11 The LORD gives strength to his people;
the LORD blesses his people with peace.

Suppose that you are an officer in the king's army, and you have just been defeated in battle. You king is dead and the new king can do with you whatever he pleases. He can kill you if he wants to. He can make you a slave. He has all power over you. Your only hope for survival is that the king will choose you for his service. And the king will only choose you if he is confident of your loyalty to him and has a reasonable expectation that you will obey his commands. How will you convince the king of your loyalty and promise of obedience? The only way you can do this is if you worship the king.

To worship the king you lie face down in front of him. You mouth and nose are buried in the ground he walks on. Though this act you demonstrate your total loyalty. You will serve no other king but him. And you promise your total obedience, you will fully obey all of the king's commands. If the king receives your worship your life will be spared and you will enter into service for the king. This is worship, bowing before the king and pledging your total loyalty and full obedience.

This is what the worship of God is all about. We worship God by pledging our loyalty to him. We pledge to follow no other god. God will be the sovereign of our lives. And in worship we promise that we will fully obey all of God commands.

You can see from this that worship is very different from just coming to church. People come to church for many reasons: They like singing, they find prayers comforting, maybe the sermons are interesting, and they are able to meet friends and family. Church satisfies a variety of needs and all of these are good. But coming to church to satisfy a need or out of habit is very different from worship. Coming to church is pleasant and nonthreatening. You can come to church every Sunday without having any affect on what you worship, whom you are loyal to, and whose laws you obey. But as believers we are called to do far more than just come to church. We are to worship the Lord.

In today's psalm the angels and all the heavenly beings have gathered before the throne of God for worship. They have pledged their total loyalty to God and have promised to obey all of God's decrees. God has responded to their worship by speaking with the voice that created the world. This voice was so powerful it caused a category 5 hurricane to form in the Mediterranean. This storm came ashore in the forests of Lebanon ripping giant cedars from the ground and tossing them in the air. The storm twisted massive oaks into corkscrews, and shook up the sand of the desert like it was in a blender. The picture we have is of a mighty, powerful God. This is the God we are called to worship. This is God we are to bow down before. This is the God to whom we are to pledge our total loyalty. This is the God whose laws we are to obey.

The voice of God that can trigger a massive storm, the voice that created all that is, is the same voice that came from heaven and said, “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” (Mark 1:11b) And so we know that the one we are to worship is Jesus. We are to bow at Jesus' feet, pledge our total loyalty to Jesus and promise to do everything Jesus commands us to do. This is the essence of Christian worship.

I hope you all enjoy coming to church this morning. We have all the old stuff. We are singing the familiar hymns. We are reciting familiar prayers. We hear familiar texts read and proclaimed. Your old friends and family members are here. I love coming to church. But I invite you to experience the power of the sound of God's voice which you will only hear if you are ready to bow down before God in worship. So I urge you to pledge your total loyalty to Jesus Christ. Decide that you will follow no one and nothing else in you life. And do this by promising with your whole heart to obey everything that Christ commands you to do. This is worship.

Almighty and powerful God we approach you in worship this morning. We know that one word of your voice could end our existence, and we tremble as we come before you. Bless us this day with the gift of faith in your son so that we may approach him, engaged fully in worship, pledging our total loyalty and promising our total obedience. We ask for the gift of the Holy Spirit to strengthen us as we worship. And we offer up this prayer to you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit in worship. Amen.