SERIES: Psalms: The Cry of the Heart
The Cry of Worship
SPEAKER: Paul T. Stolwyk
The Psalms contain the cries of God’s people to their God. As we have seen over the last few weeks, God’s people cry out to God for all sorts of reasons. Injustice prompts us to cry out to God in confusion. Pain causes us to cry out in faith. Sin causes us to cry out in confession.
At different times in its history, Israel had leaders who firmly understood the nature and character of their God. Their understanding compelled them to worship and to call others to join them. Psalm 99 was written by one of those leaders. Turn there with me this morning as we read.
The Lord reigns,
let the nations tremble;
he sits enthroned between the cherubim,
let the earth shake.
2 Great is the Lord in Zion;
he is exalted over all the nations.
3 Let them praise your great and awesome name—
he is holy.
4 The King is mighty, he loves justice—
you have established equity;
in Jacob you have done
what is just and right.
5 Exalt the Lord our God
and worship at his footstool;
he is holy.
6 Moses and Aaron were among his priests,
Samuel was among those who called on his name;
they called on the Lord
and he answered them.
7 He spoke to them from the pillar of cloud;
they kept his statutes and the decrees he gave them.
8 Lord our God,
you answered them;
you were to Israel a forgiving God,
though you punished their misdeeds.
9 Exalt the Lord our God
and worship at his holy mountain,
for the Lord our God is holy.
The book of Psalms is the compilation of five small books. Psalm 99 is part of book four of the Psalms. Book four begins at Psalm 90 and continues to Psalm 106. The major theme of book four is worship. In these sixteen psalms there are calls to God’s people for both individual and corporate worship. Different forms of worship are illustrated, and there are descriptions of who should worship. Psalm 99 will show us what caused God’s people to worship.
Though we have grown considerably in the area of worship, what would compel us to worship if all the extras were taken away? If the band didn’t show, would we still want to come? And if we came, what would motivate us to worship? This morning, the psalmist invites us to a clinic on worship. Worship 101. For the psalmist and for us …
Worship begins with understanding God—His character and His work.
Psalm 99 has a very simple structure that we will follow. There is a statement about who God is followed by a call to worship. This pattern is repeated three times.
In John 4 Jesus tells the Samaritan woman that the Father is seeking true worshipers who will worship in Spirit and in truth (John 4:21-24). When it comes to worship, our greatest need is to know the truth about God. To worship God truthfully, we must know the truth about God. The psalmist’s calls to worship are prompted by four characteristics or attributes of God.
The Lord is holy in His being. (3,5,9) Each call to worship in the Psalm is followed by an all-encompassing refrain. Did you notice the repetition? See verse 3. “Let them praise your great and awesome name– he is holy.” Verse 5, “Exalt the LORD our God and worship at his footstool; he is holy.” Look again at verse 9, “Exalt the LORD our God and worship at his holy mountain, for the LORD our God is holy.”
The truth that the Lord God is holy permeates the mind of the psalmist. The word “holy”comes from an ancient word meaning “marked off,” “to cut,” or “to separate.” Holy was used to describe objects set apart from common objects. Holy objects were different than common everyday objects. To say that God is holy is to say that He is set apart. He is different. He is unique. He is different morally, spatially, and qualitatively than anything or anyone else. He is morally pure and perfect. He is not stained by sin. All His thoughts and actions are perfect. He is spatially different. He is not bound by time or height or depth.
Astronomers estimate that the size of an average galaxy is 600 thousand trillion miles and that the average distance between galaxies is 20 trillion miles. They estimate that there are billions of galaxies.[i] These numbers leave us numb because we cannot begin to fathom the depths and distance of the universe. God is greater than even the immensity of the universe. He is above and beyond it.
Pantheism is the belief that equates God with the physical forces of the universe and the physical substance of the universe. It is the predominate view of the various sects of the New Age movement. Pantheists would say that God is in everything and is everything. I scripturally disagree.
He is qualitatively distinct. He is not dependent on any created thing. He needs no one or anything to define His being. Theologians use the word “transcendent” to describe this aspect of God. He exists above and beyond everything. He exists beyond the limits of our experience. He exists in ways that are beyond our comprehension. James Boice says that “holiness is the characteristic of God that sets him apart from his creation.”[ii]
Holiness is the quality about God that the angels recognize most and declare before God. In Isaiah 6 we read, “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.’” (Isaiah 6:1-3)
In our language, we communicate superlatives by saying, “Mike’s sermon was good, Gene’s sermon is better, and Paul’s sermon is the best.” (Yea, in my dreams!). In Hebrew, superlatives were communicated by repetition of the same word. Song of Songs is the same as saying the best song. “Jesus is King of King and Lord of Lords” means that Jesus is the best King and the best Lord.
R.C. Sproul observes that holiness is the one characteristic of God which is repeated three times. The Lord is not just holy. He is not even holy, holy. But He is holy, holy, holy. No other characteristic of God is elevated to this level of superlative in the Bible. It is not used for God’s love, His mercy, or His wrath.[iii] It is reserved only for His holiness.
God’s holiness motivates the psalmist to worship. With holiness as a foundational characteristic, each movement in the psalm highlights another characteristic of God that will motivate worship. In the first movement the psalmist tells us that
The Lord is King over everything. (1-3)“The LORD reigns, let the nations tremble; he sits enthroned between the cherubim, let the earth shake. Great is the LORD in Zion; he is exalted over all the nations. Let them praise your great and awesome name.” The term “cherubim” refers to the two carved angelic figures that sat atop the ark of the covenant. The ark of the covenant was the box that contained the stone tablets given to Moses that had God’s law written on them. The ark was kept in the innermost part of the Temple known as the Holy of Holies, the holiest place. God was enthroned on earth between the outstretched wings of the cherubim. The ark symbolized God’s reign on earth. His authority was not simply over Israel or Zion; it was over the whole earth. This is why the nations should tremble, because though we think we are in charge, God is really in charge.
What makes the Lord’s kingship holy? We are accustomed to a bicameral, representational form of government where we have a say. This was established by our founding fathers out of the experience of seeing that absolute power in the hands of one person was a dangerous thing. Our government is limited in scope, but in the Kingdom of God, He is the president, congress and the judiciary. He is all in one. What also makes it different is that it does not end. He is never overthrown. The world has known some powerful kings and leaders of nations. Lenin. Kruschev. Brezhnev. Pol Pott. Eventually they are overthrown. God’s control is not only limitless in scope but eternal in time. He will always be king.
In the next movement the psalmist sees that we should worship God because …
The Lord is fair in His judgments. (4-5) Loo “The King is mighty, he loves justice—you have established equity; in Jacob you have done what is just and right. Exalt the LORD our God and worship at his footstool; he is holy.” The one who reigns also has the responsibility to sit in judgment over everything and everyone under His reign. But what is holy about God’s judgment? What is different about God’s sense of justice and ours? On a good day, we might be able to exercise good judgment a good portion of the time. There will be times, though, when we will not be fair judges. We will jump to the wrong conclusion without having all the facts. We will react emotionally rather than on principle.
But the text says that God loves justice. From His holiness comes perfect judgment about all things, all the time. He has established equity, the text says, which means He does not show partiality. He does not have a double standard. He never acts out of ignorance. He does not respond to bribery. He is fair in His assessments.
The psalmist says that Israel had experienced the fairness and righteousness of God’s dealings with them. But the Lord’s righteous judgment extends not only to our affairs now; it will also be characteristic of His final judgment. Look at the end of Psalm 98 beginning in verse 7. This celebration song ends this way: “Let the sea resound, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it. Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy; let them sing before the LORD, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples with equity.”
Both the Old Testament and the New Testament teach that there will be a judgment before God when all things will be made right. We should be infinitely grateful that God is just. If He isn’t, then this whole thing is a joke. But since His word says that He loves justice, it gives me tremendous hope.
A recent Smithsonian Magazine article gives the account of forensic pathologists as they excavated a mass grave in Vukovar, Croatia.[iv] Over 400 bodies lay tangled and twisted together in this grave. As each body is exhumed, they find holes in the skulls where bullets entered and exited. The evidence points to each person being executed. Who were these 400 people? Military and political leaders leading the resistance in an ethnic conflict? No. Most were staff and patients at the Vukovar hospital. They were collected by Serbians and executed just because they were Muslims.
The universalist says that God’s love is so great that He will welcome everyone into an eternal relationship with Him. That thought makes me sick, because it denies justice. It denies justice to the families of the people killed at Vukovar. It denies justice to the child who has been molested by a predator. It denies justice for the sins we commit against Him.
Engineering students are dependent on partial credit. Since most problems are very complex, professors give a portion of a grade for problems that are worked on satisfactorily, though not solved. I was the king of partial credit. One professor didn’t believe in this philosophy. After the first exam, the average grade was 25%. Our whole class was stunned. When we asked why he didn’t give partial credit, he said that the people who fly in our planes and drive over our bridges would appreciate it if we got more than half the problem right. God does not give partial credit either.
We should be sober and carefully consider God’s offer of mercy and forgiveness because all people will be judged according to their works. We will be judged not by our own standards of moral mediocrity, but the holy standard established by God Himself.
All people fall short of the glory of God. You fall short. I fall short. Mother Theresa falls short. God will judge us fairly based on His standard. He won’t make decisions based on church attendance, ethnic background, or deeds done. Nor will He change the standard to fit the mediocrity we call holiness.
The last movement in the psalm focuses our attention on the reality that …
The Lord is personal in His relationships. The psalmist recalls in verse 6 how some of the great leaders of Israel—Moses, Aaron, and Samuel—called on the name of the Lord. Notice what God does in verses 7-8, “He spoke to them from the pillar of cloud.” Then in verse 8 it tells us further, “O Lord our God, you answered them; you were to Israel a forgiving God, though you punished their misdeeds.”
How do you approach a holy God? You don’t. If you are to have a relationship with Him, you must wait for Him to approach you. This is what God did with Israel. He spoke to them. He not only listened to their prayers, but He also answered them. They found God willing to forgive them. Though He could have destroyed them, instead He intentionally involved Himself in the affairs of people. He does it on His terms. Though He forgives the sins of His people, He is just in His forgiveness. He disciplines those whom He forgives. He allows us to experience the consequences of our choices.
A new book is entitled, The Trivialization of God: The Dangerous Illusion of a Manageable Deity. Though I have not read the book (the Cliff Notes aren’t out yet), I like the title because it is a danger we must avoid—reducing God to what He is not and making God in our image. God called this “idolatry.” The psalmists of Psalms 93-100 did not know a manageable deity. They understood the majesty of God reigning over the world as THE King, how He was fair in all His judgments; frightfully holy, yet personal.
Worship becomes a response to what we understand about God.
The recognition or encountering of God in His glory calls for a response. The response is collectively known as worship. In Psalms 93 to 100 there are a multitude of responses to God that we notice. I’ve attempted to give them some order for our benefit. The first response is …
Humbling ourselves before Him. The proper human response to God’s holiness, justice and majestic reign is awe, reverence, and silence. It is the realization of being a creature.[v] Of being powerless. Of needing help. Our understanding of God should affect our hearts. In Psalm 99:1 the psalmist calls the nations to tremble and for the earth to shake. In Psalm 95:6, we are to “bow down and kneel before the Lord our Maker.” We are to show our reverence.
Paul says of Jesus in Philippians that “God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”(Philippians 2:9-11) Someday every knee will bow at the name of Jesus. One of the privileges of the Christian life is that we can bow in submission now. We can choose now to submit to His authority and His reign.
Another response is …
Celebrating His being and work. Notice in verse 5 the two actions called for. First, we are to exalt and then we are to worship. To exalt means to elevate in estimation. This engages our mind. Thoughts of God are not to merely predominate our lives, but they are to be preeminent in our lives. They are to permeate all aspects of our life.
Many years ago, J.B. Phillips wrote a book entitled Your God Is Too Small. Our problem is that we often think of God in terms of ourselves. When we do this, He becomes only a slightly improved version of the collection of our strengths and weaknesses. A slightly improved Paul Stolwyk is only slightly more able to address the concerns of your heart. We must dwell on and meditate on God’s character so that our hearts are full of wonder.
The third response is also the response we most often associate with worship, that is …,
Singing and shouting before Him. There are not many words that are used to describe the singing of God’s people before Him. We are not told to sing good, or sing on key, or which songs to sing. But Psalm 95:1 exhorts us to sing with joy to the Lord. Twice in this section of the Psalms we are exhorted to not only sing, but to sing a new song. Psalm 98 says, “Sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done marvelous things; his right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him.” (Psalm 98:1, see also 96:1) “Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music; make music to the LORD with the harp, with the harp and the sound of singing, with trumpets and the blast of the ram’s horn—shout for joy before the LORD, the King.” (Psalm 98:4-6)
New songs are written as new people experience and grasp the majesty of God. Many of us are not going to like the musical style of the next generation of worship songs. If we thought the jump from hymns to choruses was scary, wait until you see what is coming. This is not your father’s Ford Explorer. But what is exciting is that in the hearts of a new generation, God is big enough to warrant them to want to write new songs.
Our concern in worship should not primarily be musical style. Musical styles will change from generation to generation. We ought to become gravely concerned when there are no new songs being written. It may be a sign that God is not doing marvelous things in our midst. But when God is doing things, let us not quench the creative expression of His poets as they freshly articulate their jubilation.
Worship is to be expressed through humility, celebrating, and singing. But the psalmist also calls God’s people to worship the Lord in two other ways that we may not immediately equate with worship. The psalmist says that another appropriate response to God is …
Seeking holiness in our life. A true understanding of God should make us more acutely aware of sin in our own life and our need to be different. The psalmist exhorts us in Psalm 97:10,“Let those who love the LORD hate evil” (Psalm 97:10). Jesus said, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching.” (John 14:23). There must be an ever-increasing continuity between saying “I love you Lord” with my voice and saying “I love you Lord” with my life. The incongruence between what we say and how we live drives seekers crazy. The word to describe it is “hypocrisy.” Peter exhorts the church, “But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy.’” (1 Peter 1:15-16). If we exalt the Lord as King, we will become more like Him.
One final response of worship is …
Telling others about Him. Look at Psalm 96, beginning in verse 1: “Sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth. Sing to the LORD, praise his name; proclaim his salvation day after day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples.” Worship is not only praising God directly; it is also expressed indirectly as we praise God before other people. Telling someone how they can be forgiven by Jesus and have a relationship with God is worship. The gospel is always communicated best by people who cannot contain their thoughts about God.
The most lasting fuel for missions is not guilt. It is not even obedience to the Great Commission. The jet fuel for missions is being so filled with the awe and wonder of God that we cannot sit still until all people know that they too can be forgiven and worship our God. A worshiping church and a mission church are inseparable; you cannot have one without the other for very long. Soman Varghese, who led our family prayer time, is going to New Delhi, India. What will sustain his passion to reach Muslims and Hindus for Christ? Will it be a heart that feels sorry for them? No. He will be sustained if his understanding of God becomes boundless.
These are the five responses to God in this section of seven psalms. It appears that each individual response was seen as appropriate for the God they knew. We don’t get to pick and choose which responses we like best or feel most comfortable with. We must be ready for each one.
Conclusion: One of the problems we Americans have is that we overuse superlatives. To say God is awesome has become rather trite. God is different. God is holy! God is revealing Himself through His Word, His works, and His world. Worship is the appropriate response to God as He has revealed Himself, a response that involves our hearts, our minds, and our bodies.
As we close in prayer, I know that some of you are dying to respond to God somehow, some way. I want to give you that opportunity. I want to open the floor to responders. Before I pray, if you want to worship the Lord through prayer, I invite you to pray out loud in the congregation. To keep it orderly, after I open, we will start on my right and follow my lead as we move from one section to the next.
Psalm 98:4 says to shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
Prayer: The psalmists knew, Father, that the seas roar and the mountains bow down just at the sound of your great name. We do not want to be outdone by them. You are so great, why would You even consider us? We are so grateful for Jesus. So grateful that You did not leave us in the pitiful state of sin, but You have sought to rescue us, so we might know You as You are, but then be able to call You, the God above all gods, “Father.” What can we do except offer our whole selves to you this morning as living sacrifices? Fan into white hot passion the sense of your glory we have seen in your Word today. In Jesus’ name, amen.
DATE: August 17, 1997
Tags:
Worship
Holiness
Fairness
Humility
Singing
Mission
[i] Robert Jastrow, God and the Astronomers, 11.
[ii] James Boice, Foundations of the Christian Faith, 127.
[iii] R.C Sproul, The Holiness of God, 40. God’s holiness is one of the topics Sproul handles best. As you read his work, you are left with a shuddering sense of God’s greatness!
[iv] Smithsonian Magazine, The Grave at Vukovar, March 1, 1997.
[v] Rudolph Otto, The Idea of the Holy.