[0:00] Please join me in reading Psalm 95. Psalm 95, beginning in verse 1.
[0:13] O come, let us sing to the Lord.! Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving. Let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise.
[0:26] For the Lord is a great God, and a king above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth. The heights of the mountains are his also. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.
[0:41] O come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker. For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand.
[0:52] Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as at Meribah, as on the day at Massa in the wilderness, when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.
[1:04] 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. Therefore, I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest.
[1:17] This is God's word. Thanks be to God. Well, I am very excited to be behind the pulpit again after some time, especially after my last sermon on Psalm 75.
[1:35] And so I decided to keep the tradition and do Psalm 95 today. And so, my name is Llewelyn Lewis Jr. You can call me Lou for short. And we've been going through the Psalms of Book 4.
[1:49] Book 4 starts with Psalm 90, ends with Psalm 106. And by the Spirit, I poured my all into this text. And I pray that this message may help us either all walk with Jesus or come to Jesus.
[2:08] Now, I'm going to be kind of real. This is probably the weirdest Psalm in Book 4. Because at first glance, it doesn't really fit the overall theme of Book 4, that being over God's lordship as king over all creation.
[2:24] What makes this text strange is this tone shift midway through. And I honestly kind of struggle to understand why the psalmist did this. How can it start with praise only to end in a warning?
[2:43] That was the question on my mind until a guy named Brent, Pastor Brent specifically, I, preach Psalm 103.
[2:55] And so Psalm 103 and Psalm 95 are both similar and unique ways. They're both about worship. Yet Psalm 103 calls us to worship God as Savior and Redeemer, while Psalm 95 calls us to worship God as Lord and Creator.
[3:12] Or what I call the kingly Creator. The one who rules and reigns over all creation with both power and personal covenant love. As Psalm 103 taught us that the source of our worship is rooted in God's unchanging character and not our circumstance, Psalm 95 gives us a practical and theological guide of what worship rooted in God's character looks like.
[3:43] And this is what this psalm is about. Worship. And this makes sense historically as Psalm 95 was written after the post-Babylonian exile. This psalm was used for corporate gathering in Israel, specifically the Feast of Tabernacles and the Sabbath.
[4:00] During the Feast of Tabernacles, Israel would pause from labor to remember and celebrate how God delivered them from Egypt, according to Leviticus 23.
[4:12] Psalm 95 not only helped Israel remember the faithfulness of God, but also to reorient their hearts towards the majesty and authority of God. And with that all being said, in our modern church culture, specifically in America, worship today can either be very emotional, void of any doctrinal truth, or it can be very doctrinal, void of emotion.
[4:41] Psalm 95 calls us to do both. That should be both personal and doctrinal. And it helps give us a shape of biblical worship in three main aspects.
[4:53] The first one is a joyful noise, verses 1 to 5. Relational submission, verses 6 to 7a. And faithful obedience, verses 7b to 11.
[5:05] And each of those aspects are the three points of the sermon. As I titled this message, does worship the kingly creator. Before I get to point one, I want to start with a word of prayer.
[5:20] Lord God, we thank you, we love you. We're so thankful for your grace and your mercy you show us daily. A grace that really none of us really deserves.
[5:32] Lord, I pray that you may open all of our hearts to your word, that it may shape us and convict us to long for you and to bow and worship you as our Lord and King.
[5:44] In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. So starting off with the first section, you see that, like right out the gate, in verse 1 to 2, the psalmist invites us to worship God as he uses the phrase, let us.
[6:04] This phrase is repeated multiple times throughout the first half of the psalm, in verses 1 to 7. This is significant as the psalm uses plural language.
[6:15] And verses 1 and 2, specifically, gives us the how of worship as it explains that worship is communal. This corporate worship didn't just start in the New Testament.
[6:28] God established this way before in the time of Moses. the purpose of corporate worship for ancient Israel was to keep them holy, help them grow closer to God through fellowship, and to be a testimony to the unbelieving world that Yahweh is their God and they are his people.
[6:50] Of course, as you guys know, we're also practicing corporate worship today. The only difference is that Israel had to gather in a specific place place where God's presence literally dwelt.
[7:02] However, Jesus fulfills the law of Moses through his life, death, and resurrection, enabling anyone who has faith in him to obtain the Holy Spirit and make the people of faith the temple of God.
[7:16] Back then, God dwelt in man-made structures. However, today, through faith in Christ, he dwells in the structures of man's heart. And even so, the purposes of corporate worship still apply for us today.
[7:35] To help us draw near to God together. To help us walk in holiness and to be a testimony to the unbelieving world. However, in both instances, whether the Old or the New Covenant, there's a beautiful picture of God's kingdom.
[7:53] We are actually fulfilling what Jesus prayed in Matthew 6, verses 9 to 10. As our Lord says, Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
[8:11] See, corporate worship is not just for our good, spiritually. But corporate worship is a subtle picture of heaven on earth.
[8:22] Now, this is back to a couple of questions. What about viewing church online? Israel didn't have TikTok or Facebook and all that stuff back then like we do today.
[8:34] And so, my question is or my answer is this is a fallen world. Things happen. And I understand that. I think viewing church online is great if you're sick or helping someone in need or traveling or your job screws you over.
[8:49] I don't really know. It's good for those reasons. Sorry. Sorry. But, those are the exceptions, not the rule.
[9:04] God calls us to be in community with one another. For us to be known and know others. And not to neglect the gathering as we see in Hebrews 10 verses 23 to 25.
[9:19] However, the psalmist continues still in verse 1 and 2 as he mentions that we should sing songs of praise and make a joyful noise. The first aspect of biblical worship.
[9:32] Scripture encourages us to sing songs, hymns, and spiritual songs of the St. Colossians 3. Yet our worship is to be rooted or to be rooted in spirit and truth.
[9:47] As our Lord Jesus says in John 4, 24, God is spirit and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. Our singing should be sincere with a genuine heart that is grounded in the truth from knowing God and loving God as revealed in his word.
[10:13] Now, church, I know we're Baptist here, but we can criticize the Pentecostal movement all we want. for their theology or lack thereof.
[10:24] However, those people know how to praise God. And they love praising God. Now, whether their praise is rooted in truth, that's a whole separate issue.
[10:37] But what's unique and amazing is how awe-inspiring it is seeing them have a passion to praise the Lord. Lord? So what about us today?
[10:48] Amen. Do we truly take praise seriously? I want to be clear.
[11:03] I don't care about your denominational or cultural background, nor do I care about your theological leaning. I don't care if you are Reformed, Pentecostal, Charismatic, or whatever.
[11:15] I'm simply just asking what the text is asking. Do you truly sing to God with a joyful noise? That phrase of joyful noise in Hebrew means a loud shout, a cry of victory.
[11:37] See, worship that moves the mouth doesn't move the heart is incomplete. It's shallow, only a facade of surface-level emotion with no depth.
[11:49] However, worship or praise only focuses on singing the right words or holding the right theology, which is important, mainly being doctrinal but not personal, is also incomplete.
[12:02] It's a worship that moves not the heart but the head. True praise flows from a personal and theological reality that the kingly creator truly rescues you from the penalty of sin.
[12:19] our worship is personal as much as it is theological because of who Jesus is and what he's done. He is the king who made your soul and saved your soul.
[12:36] And that deserves more than just simple silence or a mumble. It deserves a joyful noise. Amen, Les. So, in verses 1 and 2 gives us how worship is to be done.
[12:55] Verses 3 to 5 shows us why the kingly creator is worthy of our worship. As in verse 3, the psalmist says, for the Lord is great, a great God and a great king above all gods.
[13:12] Now, verse 3 is interesting. I want to clarify something. What this is not teaching is that Yahweh is the mightiest pantheon among a pantheon of gods.
[13:26] Israel held to the truth that Yahweh is one god, according to the Shema in Deuteronomy 6. But the scripture also teaches that Yahweh is a trinity as well. He consists of one unified divine essence, yet three distinct co-equal co-eternal verses, that being God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
[13:49] What verse 3 is claiming is that Yahweh is the true living God, that all other gods are false and weak in comparison. And this isn't just poetic language, it's a theological gut punch of every other false religion that exalts idols above the true living God.
[14:10] God. So let's take Marduk for example, the so-called king of the Babylonian God. His story is one of chaos and violence, and in the Babylonian myth, the Enuma Elish, Marduk becomes king by slaughtering the goddess Taimut, and using her body to form the heavens and the earth.
[14:35] Then he makes humans from the blood of another dead God, only to be slaves to the divine council. And that's something.
[14:49] However, the God, the Bible, doesn't rule through murder. He doesn't form the world through cosmic butchery. He simply speaks and creation obeys.
[15:03] But let's not just stop there. What about in 1 Kings chapter 18, where the prophet Elijah stood before the 150 prophets of Baal? All day, they cried out to Baal, cutting themselves, dancing, begging.
[15:21] And Baal remained silent because he's not real. He has no voice, no power, or no life.
[15:34] But then Elijah steps forward. And prays one simple prayer. Then just like that, fire came down from heaven.
[15:45] It consumed the altar, the wood, the stone, and the water. All that water he poured on it, consumed all of that. And then all the people fell down on their knees and declared, the Lord, he is God.
[16:01] The Lord, he is God. God. And we kind of see this in verses 4 to 5 as Yahweh shows his kingship through creation.
[16:14] And it says in verse 4, and his hands are the depths of the earth. The mountains are his also. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.
[16:27] See, Yahweh is not the God of a noun, like fire, water, or air. He is the author of those things. He made the dirt of the mountains, and the waters that the pagan nations worshipped.
[16:43] And the psalmist claims that all creation holds the kingly creator's mark, just as a painting holds the signature of the painter. And so, the world we live in is not just some cosmic accident, nor is it the aftermath of some selfish God's battle, nor is it created by an unknowable, distant, cold, sadistic creator like Allah in the Islamic faith, nor is the world with the basic meaning of morality, truth, and just simple physical reality, or simple illusions as with the Hindu faith.
[17:26] Rather, our world is created by an all-loving and all-powerful God. who intentionally designed the universe in such a way for life to flourish, and for life to know him, and for life to be known by him.
[17:45] This is the God of the Bible, Yahweh, the kingly creator. And in fact, this kingly creator loved us so much that out of his grace and mercy he entered into his creation to save it.
[17:59] See, the very God who formed the cosmos, mountains, trees, and the waters, all that so me and you could breathe a single breath, was the very God that gave his final breath to bear the penalty of our sin upon himself.
[18:13] And this is the God we serve. And this is the God who is the root of our worship. And this is the God who is worthy of our praise.
[18:30] But worship doesn't stop there. It then moves deeper from our voices to our knees, from praise to surrender, which leads to my next point.
[18:48] As verses one to five calls us to sing a joyful noise, we now see in verse six a call to bow down, to kneel before the king.
[19:03] We see a worship that now moves the lips and now moves the heart in the form of submission. out of complete reverence to the king.
[19:16] And why does Israel bow? And why should we kneel? The answer is simple yet profound.
[19:29] As it says in verse six, because he is our maker. Just as all in nature bows down beneath his majesty, so should we.
[19:39] even death, the enemy of us all, was crushed under submission under the weight of his glory. This brings another question.
[19:51] How does God define or describe submission? That's a term loosely thrown around today. Well, verse seven eight, the next verse, answers this as the psalmist says, for he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand.
[20:14] We see in this verse that submission is not tyrannical, but it's relational and covenantal. As Israel did not just worship God as their kingly creator, also their kingly shepherd.
[20:31] This recalls back to the covenant language of the promise God made with Israel, something similar to Deuteronomy eight, where Moses mentions how God provided and cared for Israel, how he delivered them for 400 years of slavery in Egypt, according to Exodus 14 verses 30 to 31, how God provided manna in the wilderness, according to Exodus 16, how he disciplined them, Deuteronomy 8, 5, and how he guided them in the wilderness to the promised land, and Deuteronomy!
[21:03] 8, 2, and also Deuteronomy 8, 7 through 10. See, Israel didn't just submit to God as mere creatures. They submitted to him as children.
[21:19] And this is submission. This is what moving, worship moving the heart looks like, a relationship, like a child enjoying the presence and care of their loving parent.
[21:34] man. And you see in John 10 that Jesus himself says he is the good shepherd who willingly laid down his life for the sheep.
[21:47] And additionally, he says that the very sheep he lays down his life for knows his voice and follows him. That these sheep he gives eternal life.
[22:02] And amazingly, the New Testament claims that anyone who has faith in Jesus are no longer slaves but adopted sons and daughters of God. And that these adopted sons and daughters of God will enjoy the eternal pasture we see in Revelations 21, verse 3.
[22:19] it says, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them. They will be his people and God himself will be with them as their God.
[22:38] So how could we not submit with joy to our kingly shepherd? How could we not worship him not only with song, but with our lives?
[22:55] Romans 12, 1 says, I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
[23:10] Worship doesn't just animally joyful noise, nor should it. It continues in how we live. The God who gave everything, deserves nothing less than everything.
[23:22] If we truly have tasted the grace of God, if we truly have been broken by his majesty, you won't just kneel because we have to. We'll kneel because we want to.
[23:37] put it Amen. Amen. however there are some people in this world even some in the church who just won't worship who won't bow to the king instead they fight and resist them to their own destruction you see worship is not only an expression of our hearts nor is it only a posture of our hearts but it also reveals the condition of our hearts and we see this in the final section so here we are the most baffling section of the entire psalm and in verse 7b 8 it says this today if you hear his voice do not harden your hearts as at the mirabah as on the day of massa and the wilderness and what's fascinating is how 7b uses the word today this gives off a sense of urgency like this is a very important matter like a right now matter this section starts off with a confrontation as if the psalmist is expecting a response from us and this is a test not of our voice or our hearts but of our faithfulness towards the king in verse 7 8 through 9 the psalmist gives us an example from the past as it references
[25:26] Exodus 17 verses 1 to 7 when Israel after miraculously passing through the red sea began to grumble because they were thirsty the issue wasn't their thirst but their hearts their unfaithfulness as Exodus 17 7 says he named the place Massa and Mirabah because they tested the Lord saying is the Lord among us or not now I want you just to imagine this for a moment okay Israel the people the nation whom God brought forth from one man who literally walked through the sea they see them split it they walk through it the same people who God provided for countless times in the wilderness and yet somehow they still question whether God was with them despite their eyes seeing all his signs now it was very easy for us to judge Israel here I think to learn how to go to God we're no different today let me ask you a question if you were to be given undeniable proof!
[26:40] that God exists one would you believe him but two would you submit to him? I'm not done what if God is calling you to act and to trust him even if the situation looks completely hopeless would you trust him?
[27:08] and lastly it's one thing for us to hear God do we actually listen to him? I ask these questions because it's easy very easy in fact for us to shout sing and dance for Jesus we love doing that especially when life's going quite well but here's the real test of worship do we love to obey him?
[27:37] do we love to obey him even when it's hard even when the answer is to wait even when his voice says go no yet our fear says no will you still obey him?
[27:59] we see this very problem with Israel in verses 10 to 11 as it says they are a people who go astray in their hearts and they have not known my ways therefore I swear in my wrath they shall not enter my rest these two verses are referencing numbers 14 and in this chapter Israel is literally at the edge of the promised land at the edge and they once again failed to trust God therefore disobeying God and God only simply commanded them to just scout out the land however Israel didn't do that because they feared the other nations inhabiting the land listen to God's heart when they do this listen to this numbers 14 11 the Lord said to Moses how long will this people despise me how long will they not believe in me despite all the signs I have done among them our disobedience grieves
[29:12] God's heart just as Israel grieved his heart here and as a result God judged Israel for their disobedience forbidding that rebellious generation from entering the promised land as numbers 14 22 to 23 says surely all men who have seen my glory and my signs shall not see the land that I swore to give to their fathers you see Israel's failure wasn't behavioral it was their unfaithfulness the problem was the condition of their hearts so God Israel refused to trust God and rejected knowing his ways so God forbade them from entering the promised land because their hearts were hardened now what does it mean to harden your heart in the original
[30:13] Hebrew it refers to a deliberate stiffening a continual willful resistance to the truth this is going to be a bit random but it actually works I have a modern example of this actually so I went to go see the new Superman movie directed by James Gunn the guy who made the Guardians of the Galaxy movies and I thought it was great 8 out of 10 nice good movie what was more interesting to me was the online discourse around the movie there's this loud group of people online who are diehard Zack Snyder fans they love Zack Snyder's version of Superman from 2013 these people are often called the Snyder cultist that's what they call them online and these folks hate the new Superman movie not because it's bad some of them think it is but because they are still holding on to hope that Zack Snyder's version will come back here's the thing though this new
[31:18] Superman movie is pretty good critics love it audiences are enjoying it making a lot of money in the box office and yet these Snyder cultist people refuse to accept it no matter how much success the movie has they already made up their minds they completely closed off their hearts to any idea that this Superman movie might be good they've hardened their hearts so much that they're blinded to reality and as a result being made fun of online now if people can harden their hearts to that degree over a comic book movie imagine how much more devastating it is when someone hardest their hearts towards God and sadly there are many today who continue to resist the truth of God's word in fact some may even be here today maybe you're someone who hardened your heart towards God because you feel like he failed you in some way maybe when your loved one died or maybe you're an intellectual person who views
[32:31] God as illogical asking how can you claim the Christian God is good when there's so much suffering in the world well look it's one thing inhuman to get mad at God or rant at God in frustration especially if we're experiencing great suffering pain or grief in fact there are many people in the Bible like the minor prophet Habakkuk and Job who cried out in a rage towards God in the midst of their suffering even I questioned God as an unbeliever out of confusion and grief when my mom died however even though I questioned God I didn't doubt him or his power I still honored him the same with Habakkuk and Job they never hardened their hearts towards God we see that
[33:33] Hebrews chapter 3 to 4 the author comments on Psalm 95 specifically verse 7 and echoes what I just laid out so far in this section but with a bit more clarity and here is Hebrews 3 verse 16 to chapter 4 verse 2 it says in the NESB for who provoked him when they had heard indeed did not all who came out of Egypt led by Moses with whom was he angry for 40 years was it not those who sinned whose bodies fell in the wilderness and to whom did he swear that he would not enter his rest but those who were disobedient so we see that they were not able to enter his rest because of unbelief therefore let us fear if I promise you may seem to have come short of it for indeed we have good news preached to us just as they also but the word that they heard did not profit them because it was not unified by faith in those who heard we're in the
[34:44] Hebrews Israel hardened their hearts from God and his words and was hardened hearted in unbelief both the psalmist and the author of Hebrews warns against hardening your heart because like the disobedient generation of Israel who didn't enter God's rest so will you not enter his rest if you continue to harden your heart in unbelief now it's very easy for an unbeliever to accuse God of being unloving in moments like this however the reality is quite the opposite he's actually very loving he's so loving that he will not force no one into heaven who don't want to be there with him that's how loving he is so I'll make this crystal clear because the text is making it quite clear if you continue to deny Jesus in this life to the day you die the moment you stand before him in all his majesty and glory he will honor your choice and deny you but as the king's herald
[35:57] I urge you do not harden your hearts turn from your sin trust in Jesus for your salvation and let today be the day you enter into God's rest for tomorrow is not a guarantee but I'm not done you see Israel's heart problem really is the problem of all humanity all of us have wicked and perverse hearts that are naturally inclined to worship things that often destroy our lives our hearts are naturally inclined to worship sex money power and self and if you don't believe me why is it that we do things we know we shouldn't do but do them anyway and secondly why is it so hard for us to do things that are good for us because our hearts are full of sin and wicked and the worst part about it is that every single one of us not only sin against each other but we also sin against
[37:10] God the kingly sovereign who's eternal therefore we all deserve an eternal punishment here's the good news this kingly sovereign became a man and this man was both fully God and fully man in every respect and this God man was Jesus of Nazareth the son of God Jesus heart was perfectly devoted to God therefore making him perfectly sinless and Jesus willingly died the death we all deserve in our place on the cross and then three days later this Jesus rose from the dead vindicating his death to forgive our sins if we have faith in him and him alone but additionally Jesus Jesus also makes another promise in Ezekiel 36 26 he says
[38:11] I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you and I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh he makes a promise that we will be born again if we have faith in Jesus see the kingly sovereign doesn't just command worship he'll give us the heart to do it a heart that not only hears his voice but longs to follow it maybe not perfectly but consistently and this is what psalm 95 is all about to some extent not just a joyful noise not just bowing the knees but a heart made new soft surrendered and obedient to the voice of the king worship is not complete until it produces faith fueled continuous obedience to the kingly sovereign so in the beginning I mentioned how strange this psalm is but as we come to the end of it it isn't really strange at all in fact it makes perfect sense and fits together quite nicely with the rest of the psalms and so what is the main point
[39:27] I bet you're wondering Psalm 95 teaches true worship is not only defined by a joyful noise but also by a submissive and obedient heart and so let's ask some more final questions how's your worship life you know we always say how's your prayer life how's your worship life are you worshiping God with your lips only or with your life and have you grown numb to his voice and has your heart been hardened by the deceitfulness of sin well I pray that God has used this message to reorient our hearts today on him and him alone that we may allow Jesus our maker and king to rule the throne of our hearts in complete worship you see
[40:31] God gave his all to save us gave us his son his only son Jesus Christ who was obedient to the point of death Jesus just didn't give his voice to the father he gave his life and so let us worship our kingly creator with a joyful noise let us worship our kingly shepherd with relational submission let us worship the kingly sovereign with faithful obedience let us worship our God with our all let's close in prayer