Worship (Part 6)

John Calvin once wrote, “The most holy service that we can render to God is to be employed in praising His name.” That is a good way to put it; worshiping God is our profession and calling. And it is the highest thing we can do for our Creator. To dedicate our lives to elevating His name is to be our vocation in all that we do (I Cor 10:31).

Worshiping God is not an easy work. It takes careful thought, practice, planning, a familiarity with the Scripture and a relationship with God. In his commentary on the Book of Psalms, James Montgomery Boice gives us these 4 characteristics of worship in his commentary on the Psalms:

• Worship is work. Our culture is a fun, entertaining, thoughtless and effortless culture. Unfortunately, when we gather for worship we expect the same thing. We expect everything to go as planned, we expect our emotions to be there, we expect no distractions to bother us, etc. Worship is work. It takes disciplined effort to make every moment an act of worship.

• Worship engages and must engage the mind. To know the God you are worshipping, you must understand and think about His nature. Worship is not happening unless you know who God is. It is an activity that must engage the brain.

• Worship occurs because God’s Bible exists. God reveals Himself to us in the Scripture first and foremost. Without attention and study of it, your worship will be weak, shallow and infrequent. We worship God because He is there.

• Worship is personal. In other words, no one can make you do it. In fact, if someone is forcing you to worship you are probably living hypocritically. You must engage yourself. It is something you choose to do.

Before you read this blog post, read Psalm 146. Psalm 146’s praise focuses on the eternal attribute of worship. Because He is the only one who has always been and will always be, He is worthy of our glorification. In this psalm,we see how our worship of God is to never cease in worship and the psalmist’s explanation for why that is the case.

Our Commitment to Eternal Praise (vs. 1-2, 10)

“!”

The psalmist is leading others in worship; he positions himself at the forefront of this worship. He tells himself – his “” – to worship God. He is determined to praise the LORD. His praise is purposeful and intentional. Our worship is an eternal opportunity! If God is eternal, should not His praise be eternal as well? The psalmist is committed to praise God forever. He will commend himself to eternal praise.

Our Convictions for Eternal Praise (vs. 3-9)

1. Because kings are inferior to God (vs. 3-4) – “.”

To truly praise the Lord for eternity, one must disassociate himself from all dependency upon man. In other words, he must not treasure or give any man – including himself – one ounce of time away from his worship of God. He can worship God through being and speaking to others, but he must never pull away from God for any reason.

The psalmist instructs us to not rely on “princes” because they can give you “no salvation.” When they die, that is it. There is nothing else they will do or provide for you. Their resources are not endless like God’s. Their lives are not eternal like God. Their knowledge or wisdom is limited and not like God’s omniscience. They have restrictions; God does not. We are to never look for safety in a place where it cannot be found.

Why is the psalmist concerned about this? He knows that we can value ourselves or others more than God. We can look to politicians or teachers or intellectuals or parents ourselves and think they have something God doesn’t possess or can’t relate to. It may sound noble to pursue help from others but to do so instead of God or at the expense of pursuing him shows self-reliance and not trust in God. Man is frail and his counsel is vain

2. Because creation is dependent upon God (vs. 5-6a) – “…”

God governs all of what He has created. In his book , Jerry Bridges has written, “The Bible teaches that God not only created the universe but that He upholds and sustains it day by day, hour by hour. … All things are indebted for their existence to the continuous sustaining action of God exercised through His Son. Nothing exists of its own inherent power of being. Nothing in all creation stands or acts independently of the Lord’s will. The so-called laws of nature are nothing more than the physical expression of the steady will of Christ. The law of gravity operates with unceasing certainty because Christ continuously wills it to operate. … The stars continue in their courses because He keeps them there. … God did not simply create and then walk away. He constantly sustains that which He created. Further, the Bible teaches that God sustains you and me. … He has not left us to our own devices or the whims of nature or the malevolent acts of other people. No! He constantly sustains, provides for and cares for us every moment of very day. If we are to trust God, we must learn to see that He is continuously at work in every in every aspect and every moment of our lives.“

Creation must have God sustaining it or it will spin out of control. That is a reason to praise Him for eternity, because we are part of that creation. How about another reason for endless praise?

3. Because saints can’t persevere without God (vs. 6b) – “;”

God preserves His people. He will not let them go from His divine grip once He brings salvation to their soul. In fact, even before salvation actually makes us formally into His children, we are still belonging to God. Can you believe that? We belong to God before we even realize we belong to God. We are chosen in Him before the foundation of the world (Eph 1:4).

Rest assured: once saved, always saved. One saved, always preserved by God. That’s the best investment a Wall Street broker could make. Saints cannot persevere without God. Here is yet another reason we should praise Him for eternity. We should be aware of this every day we are in heaven. There is a 4^th reason here for endless praise

4. Because the oppressed will not see help without God (vs. 7a) – “. …”

God especially loves to love the unlovely or the “.” He loves to execute fairness for those who are broken in this world. Even our Lord teaches that we are tested in terms of what we do for the “” (Matt 25:40) – those who are “.” God has a particular concern for those who are powerless, poor, and without adequate human protection.

He also feeds those who are “.” Many times in the Bible we read that God provides for the hungry. We are commanded to pray for daily provisions in the Lord’s Prayer (Matt 6:11). He doesn’t feed us without our own working for it (II Thess 3:10) and staying away from national sin.

Thank God for eternity that He will intervene where we fail in caring for those who are being “.” How about another reason for endless praise?

5. Because the unsaved will not taste salvation unless God gives it to them (vs. 7b-8a) – “. …”

No one is smart enough or clever enough or strong enough or hard-working enough to get, find, discover or earn salvation. It must be granted; it has to be given; it is God’s to grant. It has to be God’s work, because if it were ours, there could be no real assurance. Have you ever considered that? Our unfaithfulness would contribute all too often to our salvation being lost. In fact, I would argue if he left the choice completely up to us without election or predestination, no one would have chosen God (Rom 3).

6. Because righteous people are loved of God (vs. 8b) – “.”

Righteous people are loved by God. “.” He cares deeply for those who love obedience. Why? Because righteousness is of His nature. God is “” and those who want to be like Him – “” – are especially cared for by Him because He recognizes a “” man is really just pursuing God-like character. That is an eternal reason to praise God: for loving those who are “” because of Him and here is one more.

7.  Because the vulnerable are protected by God (vs. 9) – “.”

God is a God of the weak and helpless; he champions their rights. These laws were set up (Exod 12:49; 22:21; 23:9; Lev 19:33; Deut 10:18-19) because the people of Israel were also helpless; they too were strangers in the land. Their duty to also protect those who are vulnerable was a way of returning the divine favor shown to them. God protects these categories of people.

So those are just some reasons to praise God … eternally.

Worshipping God is the purpose for our creation. It is why we were born on earth, it is why we continue to be given life and it is why we will spend eternity with Him. But worship – although it is our purpose – is a decisive choice we make each and every moment of our lives. I wish I could say that worship comes naturally and we don’t ever have to think about it, but that is not true and those moments are rare. Worship is a choice.

Steve Lawson has written, “Praising God is a choice. It is an intentional choice of the will to magnify God in every circumstance and situation of life. Sometimes our trials momentarily obscure our view of God and threaten to steal away the praise that belongs exclusively to God. Whenever the tribulations of life mount, we must maintain our God-centered focus and choose God-enthralled praise of the Lord. We must never allow our praise to be controlled by our circumstance. Instead, we must allow our praise to control how we respond to our circumstances. Let us always choose praise. We have every reason to magnify the Lord’s holy name.”

If you want to be the type of person who responds to trials and sufferings with worship like the psalmist, participate in praising Him as often as possible now when things are rosy. Then, and only then, will the discipline of worship develop in your life. Get used to worshipping God; it is our eternal activity.

Source unknown

Boice, pgs. 1259-1260

, pg. unknown

Lawson, pg. 363