[Note: Most of the text below is directly quoted from Pastor Tim Keller as I transcribed part of his sermon on "Worship," based on Psalm 95. It may seem a little long, but that's because everything I wrote down was so good that I couldn't bear to cut anything out! Trust me, it is well worth reading through! Also, I have copied the text of Psalm 95 at the bottom for reference.]
"Worship"
Psalm 95
How do you face troubles with peace, with rest, with equilibrium? It’s not mainly through petitionary prayer, although that is also very important. The ultimate and main way to handle the troubles of life with peace is through worship.
Psalm 95 answers the questions, “What is worship?” “Why should we do it?” and “How can we worship?”
1) What is it?
Worship is the act of ascribing ultimate value to something in a way that energizes and engages your whole person, your entire being.
It engages your mind, will, and emotion.
Three calls: vs. 1, vs. 6, vs. 8
Vs. 1 – Our emotions – sing, shout aloud, thanksgiving, extol, music
Vs. 6 – Our will – language of submission and volition – come, kneel, bow down
Vs. 8 – Our mind – language of reason, of thinking and understanding – hear His voice, accept what He says
If you go through the ritual and affirm the doctrines and beliefs, but never experience in your inner being a ravishing sense of beauty and joy, it’s not worship. On the flip side, if you go to a service and have a great emotional and aesthetic experience but it doesn’t change the fundamental way in which you live, if it doesn’t change your character and your life patterns, then it’s not really worship. Worship entails the entire being (mind, will, AND emotions).
All of the emotion, the worship, the great engagement, and the life transformation is stemming from something the psalmist is doing (v. 3, 7). He is taking inventory of the excellencies of God. He’s going over them, he’s going through them. He’s enumerating them and reflecting on them until there is an explosion in his life.
It starts rationally. It starts with thinking. Look at who God is and what He has done. Then you will begin to see the beauty and value of who God is. The word “worship” comes from the old English word, “worthship,” which means to see what God is worth and give Him what is of worth, to see and grasp His worth in such a way that you begin to live in accordance with it.
Worship is an act of ascribing ultimate value to God. It is seeing what He is worth and living in accordance with it in such a way that it will transform your whole life.
2) Why worship God?
Because you’re already worshipping something. Your whole life is already controlled and oriented by something to which you’ve ascribed ultimate value. The world is not divided into people who worship and people who don’t. It is divided into people who worship things that will distort your life and people who worship the only proper object worthy of the worship of your soul. There are only two prospects – you’re either worshipping the wrong things, or you’re worshipping the only One whose worship will not distort your life.
You have to recognize where your worship already is, and transfer your ultimate value to God.
Vs. 3 – Worship because the Lord is the great God and the great King above all Gods.
Worship is not just coming and doing a duty. Worship is recognizing that you’ve already ascribed ultimate value to something in your life, and worship is a process of every time you reflect on Him through singing and praising…every act of worship is healing yourself, moving yourself, pulling your heart off of the wrong things and towards the One who will not distort your life.
As we worship and as we get better at worship, we change where our heart looks and reassign our ultimate value to the One who will satisfy us if we get Him and forgive us if we fail Him. If you are seeking achievement and you fail that god, it will never forgive you and you’ll hate yourself forever. If the thing you’re looking for is love or romance or a family, and somehow you fail that god, it will never forgive you and you’ll hate yourself forever. The real God is the only Shepherd. We’re the people of His pasture, we’re the flock of His hand. He’s the one God who forgives you. He’s the only God who died for you.
Worship is the ultimate need of your heart and your life. But we don’t worship perfectly and therefore we need to get better and better at it. Which leads to the next point…
3) How do we worship well?
Four tools from the psalm:
a) Community. The psalm is written in the plural. We are being called to worship in a group. It’s very important to be good at private individual worship, but that is a preparation for corporal worship, which is the real transforming experience. The more diverse your worshipping community, the more accurate picture you’re going to get of God and the more you’ll understand Him.
b) Truth. How does the psalmist know the accuracy of what He writes about God? He is submitting to what the prophets said about God, and to the scripture as the self-revelation of God.
c) Spirit. The Holy spirit isn’t specifically mentioned in the psalm, but we’re told that the purpose of worship is to come into God’s presence and come before Him. In spite of the fact that God is everywhere, by the mediation of the Holy Spirit, if you use the truth, if you do this in community, if you understand the purpose and nature of worship, sometimes the Holy Spirit will make you aware of the very presence of God. You will sense His reality, almost as if you could feel Him. Your expectation and your goal is to sense and come into His presence and know His presence.
d) Gospel Sabbath Rest. In the gospel, we spiritually rest from our good works. The ultimate rest is to believe the gospel and know that you don’t have to be perfect for God to accept and bless you. We don’t merit His favor by our good works, and we certainly don’t achieve salvation through works. This knowledge allows us to rest inwardly and outwardly. If you don’t understand gospel rest, you’re going to turn worship into one more work and you won’t have a life shot through with joy and thanksgiving.
Conclusion:
In Psalm 57, the psalmist is experience very difficult times, and calms himself not through asking for things, but through worshipping God.
I don’t know what’s going to happen in my life, but in the end it doesn’t matter. The evil we experience will be nothing more than a little blip in our memory. We belong to a God of such light and high beauty, who is so much greater than all the evil in the world, that compared to who God is, compared to His majesty and glory, all the evil and suffering in the world is nothing more than a pin prick. That comes out when you worship. Worship really gives you rest.
Psalm 95
Let Us Sing Songs of Praise
1Oh come, let us sing to the LORD;
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
2Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
3For the LORD is a great God,
and a great King above all gods.
4In his hand are the depths of the earth;
the heights of the mountains are his also.
5The sea is his, for he made it,
and his hands formed the dry land.
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
2Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
3For the LORD is a great God,
and a great King above all gods.
4In his hand are the depths of the earth;
the heights of the mountains are his also.
5The sea is his, for he made it,
and his hands formed the dry land.
6Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!
7For he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture,
and the sheep of his hand.
Today, if you hear his voice,
8 do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,
as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
9when your fathers put me to the test
and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.
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."
11Therefore I swore in my wrath,
"They shall not enter my rest."
let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!
7For he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture,
and the sheep of his hand.
Today, if you hear his voice,
8 do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,
as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
9when your fathers put me to the test
and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.
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."
11Therefore I swore in my wrath,
"They shall not enter my rest."
