If I have not met you, my name is Robert Knuth. I am the campus minister for ministry out of our presbytery, out of Christ Church called Reformed University Fellowship to the University of Michigan. So I'm here most Sundays. You see me maybe in the back with my kids. But this Sunday I am privileged to bring you God's Word. We've been going through a Psalms series, if this is just kind of your first time walking in with us. This is kind of like our Advent series leading up to Christmas. And this morning we're going to be hearing from Psalm 92. And so without further ado, would you read God's Word with me? It should be right there in your bulletins. A Psalm. a song for the Sabbath. It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to your name, O Most High, to declare your steadfast love in the morning and your faithfulness by night, to the music of the lute and the harp, to the melody of the lyre. For you, O Lord, have made me glad by your work. At the works of your hands, I sing for joy. How great are your works, O Lord, your thoughts are very deep. The stupid man cannot know, the fool cannot understand this, that though the wicked sprout like grass and all evildoers flourish, they are doomed to destruction forever. But you, O Lord, are on high forever. Behold your enemies, O Lord, for behold, your enemies shall perish. All evildoers shall be scattered. But you have exalted my horn like that of a wild ox. You have poured over me fresh oil. My eyes have seen the downfall of my enemies. My ears have heard the doom of my evil assailants. The righteous flourish like the palm tree and they grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They are planted in the house of the Lord. They flourish in the courts of our God. They still bear fruit in old age. They are ever full of sap and green. to declare that the Lord is upright. He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him. Would you pray with me? Gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for your word this morning. Thank you that you have given us a psalm, a song for the Sabbath. Lord, I pray for your people this morning, that you would give them eyes to see you, ears to hear you, hearts to behold you, and that, Lord, the words of my mouth and the meditation of all our hearts would be acceptable in your sight, our rock and our redeemer. It's in your name I pray, amen. Boredom. It's every kid's worst nightmare, right? It's every parent's maybe frustration. And if you had parents like mine growing up, you never said that you were bored, right? Because that's just the time you're going to get extra chores to do. Because to them, as busy parents, like I'm sure many of you feel, it's a struggle to comprehend with every fiber of your being how someone could be bored. There's always more work to do. And given that reality, many of you actually might be surprised to find out that it has only been recently that boredom has become an emerging psychological field of study. Maybe it has something to do with the pandemic, maybe it's just a 21st century thing. But in a relatively recently new book entitled Out of My Skull, The Psychology of Boredom, James Dankert, a neuroscientist, and John D. Eastwood, a psychologist, they define the condition of boredom as, quote, a cognitive state that has something in common with tip-of-the-tongue syndrome, a sensation that something is missing, though we can't say why, end quote. A sensation that something is missing, though we can't say why. I can't help but wonder, is that how you feel coming to church on Sunday mornings? A feeling that you know it's good and important to be here, but there's something, I don't know, missing? The hymns don't have pop to them. You don't understand what the Old Testament or New Testament readings are saying. The sermon is good when you find yourself paying attention to it, but with screaming kids in the back, it's hard to pay attention, right? You might even have half a night's sleep while getting here. And so you tell yourself it's just a season, or maybe it was just like that one Sunday. You had a lot on your mind. But what happens when you feel that something is missing consistently? What do you do then? Do you just go through the motions? Hope it gets better? So the cynical side of you begins to question, wait, why is it I'm actually supposed to be here again? If I don't feel engaged in what's going on, is there anything actually really happening? You're not alone. A recent Wall Street Journal article chronicled another decline in the amount of Americans who find attendance in a local church on Sunday, something they find worth their time. And so the question I think that is raised by these statistics has to be, why is corporate worship no longer worth people's time? Some churches try to get around this and put a big fog machine or something in there to make it feel like it's worth your time. But I think it raises that question, which is, why are we here? What are we doing? I think there are a lot of potential answers to this question. But I think implied in every single one of those answers, no matter how you might answer that, is the reality that something else is more worth my time on Sunday morning. And so put another way, right, like, I'd rather do something more interesting. I'd rather not be bored. If this relates to any of your experience on Sunday mornings, maybe now or in previous seasons, then buckle up for Psalm 92. It's a psalm for the Sabbath. I know that's not in your bulletins, but it's literally in the original Hebrew. It says a psalm, a song for the Sabbath. Meaning that it was originally meant to be sung in the synagogue on the Sabbath day as God's people gathered together for worship. And so embedded within the very DNA of these 16 verses is an explanation. It's an overarching perspective. It's a communication of benefits to corporate worship. And when we begin to break down all the various ingredients to the sum, we gain a perspective of not just why we worship together as a church, not just why you're here, but also what worship communicates about the beauty of God. And so you could say, that's my big idea this morning. Worship is glorious and good. Church on Sunday morning is glorious and good because God is glorious and good. And so for you note takers out there, I want to communicate this idea through three points. Point one, corporate worship is good. Point two, God is good. And then point three, goodness comes to those who worship. So point one, corporate worship is good. Honestly, I can't think of a better season to be unpacking this psalm than the Advent season. It's in these weeks leading up to the celebration of Jesus's incarnation that our weary world actually goes out of their way to look for reasons to worship together. I stumbled upon an online conversation this week about why non-Christians celebrate Christmas. Listen to what atheist Maureen James has to say. She says, I'm an atheist and celebrate a season of generosity, love, and happiness. There is usually a feeling of joy wherever you go. And just for a change, people are kind. End quote. I was actually walking through the Carytown Farmer's Market yesterday, and they were playing Oh Come All Ye Faithful over the speakers, which I found to be ironic. Obviously, the words weren't being played. But you know exactly what Maureen is talking about, don't you? Regardless of who you are and what the year has been like, it is something about Christmas that collectively calls out every type of person, whether you're a Christian or not, to hope for something greater in this season. When people are mean the rest of the year, it's just people are mean. When people are mean in Christmastime, where are they, Scrooge? But it's that hope, right? It's that hope that actually ultimately calls people to worship together, right? Whether that be the person, or the worship of the second person of the Trinity, taking on flesh to lie upon straw and hay in a stable, or it's the collective worship of consumerism, good feelings, and self. The point I'm trying to make is that worship is never done alone. Regardless of what you worship, it's always a communal experience. And so take verses one through three. It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to your name, O Most High, to declare your steadfast love in the morning and your faithfulness by night, to the music of the lute and the harp, to the melody of the lyre. So I think here's the challenge in our modern day context, is that you read these three verses and nothing explicitly is staring you in the face saying, join Christians in person and worship the living God together on Sunday morning. All right, in the age of Zoom and Spotify, we could realistically read these three verses and think, man, as long as somebody's singing and I'm giving thanks, we're good. That could be on the golf course, that could be in my living room, Right? But I want to suggest that this sort of thing isn't, this sort of thinking isn't actually faithful to the original context of the psalm. And I think there's three reasons for that. First reason is the psalm starts off by saying it's a song for the Sabbath. Immediately acknowledge that the Sabbath as a biblical category is not only for rest, but for worship. Two, we know this We know this because it is on the Sabbath that the psalmist says it is good to give thanks to the Lord to sing praises to your name. And three, the singing of praises to God is supposed to be done to the music. Did you catch that part? To the music of the lute and the harp, to the melody of the lyre. And so in other words, it's a communal activity where physical bodies are present with other physical bodies, each playing its own part in the collective worship of God. And so a very quick implication from verses one through three is that virtual worship in your living room isn't actually biblical corporate worship. And please hear me, y'all. I get it. I really do. Especially in the age of COVID-19, right? We've had to do what we've had to do. I'm not calling anybody sinful if this has been your reality. I'm not calling anybody sinful if this has been your only option. I would 1000% rather you tune in to view the worship of a local church than not do anything at all. But that's the way it is, you're viewing worship. It will be spiritually edifying. You will hear the gospel preached and sung. But the point I'm trying to make is that isn't corporate worship as the Bible defines corporate worship. I'll go more into this here in a second, but it doesn't do the same things for you as corporate worship in person does to you. So you might say, okay, well, I'll concede that point. The two aren't the same. I can understand maybe what you're saying, but what's the big deal? Why is corporate worship in person as we hear each other sing and as we declare the Lord's love for us through the liturgy? Why is that an important enough difference to forego the virtual experience, to forego the golf course? And here's just the plain and simple answer. Is that corporate worship, as we have done already this morning and as we will continue to do, corporate worship reflects God's character. Verses one through three, their call for you to gather with other Christians on the Sabbath to worship God is a call for you to play out the gospel. So it's a call for you to play the part. It's a call for you to physically embody what it is like for God to love you, but also what it is like for God to love himself. You see, it is only with the triune God of the Bible that corporate worship actually makes coherent, logical sense. When we gather here on Sunday morning, each of us distinct individuals and distinct families, raising our voices collectively of one accord, we reflect what is ultimately true about how the universe was made and who that God who created the universe is. We participate in the reality that God is three distinct persons, yet one inseparable God. The entire experience of looking around and seeing, sometimes smelling, hearing, touching differences among us, while simultaneously walking through one corporate liturgy, it's supposed to communicate something internally to you that's profound. You could say worship is formative in that way. But not only that, not only that, it also begins to form us into people who embody truth. Different people whose lives sing the beauty of a God who has wedded himself to one collective broken and messed up people. So corporate worship is good in every sense of the word, no matter how you might define good. But let's not lose sight of the fact that corporate worship is a means to an end. It's not an end in itself. Throughout scripture, we see God's people make this mistake. Worship itself becomes the end-all, be-all. We see this with the Pharisees. Kind of maybe the most classic example. Knowing God became a matter of how much you knew and obeyed the law. It was just bland religiosity. It was dull. There was nothing life-giving to that religiosity. But in the same way, I think God's people today can also fall into the same trap. or knowing God is simply a matter of whether or not you attended and participated in corporate worship on a given Sunday. This was especially true when I did ministry in the South, but I think it's just as true up here. And so I just say that to be clear, that corporate worship is ultimately good. Corporate worship is good because God is good, which is my second point, God is good. There's a key detail we need to zoom in on before we completely dive into verses 4 and 5. It's the use of the second person singular pronoun at the beginning of verse 4. It's peculiar because the psalmist has already directed our attention to the worship of the Lord in verse 1. So when he reiterates in verse four that it is you, that it is the Lord, it kind of acts like a doubling down of his efforts to cast a spotlight on God. And that the source of our praise and corporate worship is both from him but also for him. I can't stress the importance of this last statement enough. The source of our praise and corporate worship on the Sabbath is both from him but also for him. And so you could say, in other words, worship, what we're doing right now, begins, continues, and ends with Him. And so now that we've kind of zoomed in to see the psalmist's intent in these two verses, let's take a step back and ask a question. Why is our praise, why is our worship both from Him but also for Him? Verses four and five seem to make it clear. It is his work that makes us glad. It is his works that cause us to sing for joy. How great are his works. And while the English reading of these two verses uses the same word three separate times to refer to work, in Hebrew, these are two completely separate words. The first word refers to one singular work previously performed, which has now made the psalmist glad. And the second word there in verse four refers to a collection of deeds done, giving reason to sing for joy. And so a lot of y'all are looking at me like, oh my gosh, what's the difference? Why is this noteworthy at all? And here's why you should care. The psalmist is communicating that the multiplicity of God's good deeds that he both creates and makes every single day. You know, you're sitting down for dinner, you're thanking the Lord for the food and your family and all the things. The multiplicity of God's good deeds is first set in context of one singular performative work. The Hebrew word for that first word, po'al, literally communicates a task of physical labor in order to produce something. So you can tell I was having a little bit of fun with the Hebrew this week. And do you know what I found fascinating about that first word, poau? It's Greek translation in the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament. It's Greek translation is used only twice in the entire New Testament. 27 times in the Old Testament, twice in the New Testament. One of those times just happens to be in Ephesians 2, verse 10, when Paul writes that, in Jesus Christ, we are God's workmanship. I love, actually, how the New Living Translation puts it. It says that we are God's masterpiece. So if you want to bring that language back to Psalm 92, verse 4 might read, for you, O Lord, have made me glad by your masterpiece. So hopefully by now you might be wondering, well, if God's people are the Lord's masterpiece, then how can the Lord make me glad by God's people? You might have actually been in churches where that's the exact opposite. God's people make you want to run away sometimes. They don't make you glad. And so this is where I want to be extra careful. The Lord doesn't make you glad by the people at church and of themselves, although they can make you glad, and I'm looking out on a lot of awesome people we have here at Christ Church. But what the psalmist is trying to communicate here in verse 4 is that the church, God's people, the workmanship of King Jesus, the masterpiece of heaven itself, is merely the fruit of the arduous physical work that God first had to perform. God in the person of Jesus Christ first had to do the work of taking on a human body. Then he had to do the work by the power of the Holy Spirit to keep that human body tainted from original sin. Then he had to do the work of every living second of every day of every year of his life to actively obey, breathe, and consume every word within the law. Then he had to do the work of withstanding all the temptation and power of the devil. Then he had to do the work of willingly giving his life over to the authorities. And finally, he had to do the work of hanging like a Christmas stocking upon a Roman cross while he slowly suffocated to death. You can simultaneously be God's masterpiece, and God's masterpiece can also make you glad. because your master, the Lord Jesus, was broken to pieces for you. Hebrews 12 verse two reads that Jesus, who for the joy set before him, endured the cross. What if it instead, you know, if Robert was writing Hebrews, what if it instead read, who for the masterpiece before him endured the cross? If you believe that Jesus did this for you, that he endured the cross for you, then you are presently, right now, God's masterpiece. In this very moment. I don't care what you did or didn't do this week. God's masterpiece are people with dirty thoughts. God's masterpiece are moms who feel like they're failing to raise their kids. God's masterpiece are college students who are exhausted by the semester. God's masterpiece are people who are bored. In Jesus Christ, you are God's wonderful masterpiece put on full display for a watching and weary world. And it's because of this masterpiece of God's arduous physical labor that we can know that God is good. We can know it. Lastly, though, I want us to see that not only is corporate worship good, not only is God good, but goodness comes to those who worship the living God. Something that nobody tells you when you take a job in campus ministry is that this job will actually change you. I mean, maybe you guys feel the same way about your job. But I had no idea how much I would learn from students via Instagram. right? Maybe this just means I'm on Instagram too much. That's maybe another story. But I've started to find myself, like, look at the world through, through memes. And again, this could be a funny thing or a really scary thing sometimes. And I tell you this because, because I keep coming across the same versions of, or different versions of the same meme. It goes something like, on the left side of the picture, the caption reads, how it started. And it's maybe a picture of two friends. And they're laughing. They're hugging. They're high-fiving. It's in color. Their faces are radiant. And then on the other side of the meme, it's how it's going. And all of a sudden, now they're arguing. And they look kind of dull. Their expressions are not good. They're angry. It's basically a commentary on the contrast between how things appear at the start versus how things are in reality. I can't help but to read verses six through nine with this meme in mind. Verse seven says that the wicked sprout like grass and all evildoers flourish. Right? In meme language, how it started. Verse 8 is the confession that even though that this first point is true, even though when you look out on your life and across the world and that this point is true, it is the Lord who is on high forever. And it's in light of this reality that how it started just cannot be how it ends. Because God is good. We just made that point. But it's in light of this reality that how it started can't be how it ends, and it can't even be how it's currently going, even though you might feel that. And that's really, honestly, verse 9, is that, And obviously, I realize that this verse is set in the future tense, that this will happen, that these things shall eventually happen to the wicked, but I also wanna argue that there are present manifestations to this future reality even this morning. I think this point is a little bit more implicit because of what we draw from verses 10 through 14. I want you to pay attention to the tense of the verbs that are used in verses 10 and 11. God has exalted my horn. You have poured oil over me. My eyes have seen. My ears have heard. All past tense. So now listen to the verbs used in verses 12 through 14. The righteous flourish. They grow like cedar. They are planted. They flourish. They still bear fruit. They are ever full. All present tense, right? What's going on here? God wants you to see that when you believe Him to be good, when you come to worship Him together with other believers on the Sabbath, then you right now, and every Sunday morning, presently experience an amount of goodness and blessing. For now, but blessing that will also have future ramifications. Why? Because of the work that he has already done. But the opposite also is true. When corporate worship is neglected, When God's people don't come together to worship him on the Sabbath, then there is a very real sense that we don't get to experience his goodness in all the deep ways that our souls crave. We don't get to encounter his goodness in all the ways that he desires us to bathe and immerse ourselves in it. So my first question that I ask Christian students when they come to me and they're struggling with their faith is always, have you been going to church? I don't ask it to kind of like take attendance, you know, oh this student goes to church, this one doesn't, dish out holy points. No, that's not why I ask it. I ask it because hopefully you see that it is the most vital spiritual exercise you could ever do for your soul. Just showing up to church and immersing yourself in the goodness of God. Even if it's just for an hour and a half, that God by the power of His Holy Spirit would lift you up above the clouds and the muck and the mire of this world so that you might actually see Him for who He is. That you would leave the anxiety of this world, the confusion, the anger, the sadness, and you would just immerse yourself in His goodness. The picture the psalm ends with is a picture to the end of corporate worship, or the goal of corporate worship, right? It's a picture of corporate worship's purpose. And being here and immersing yourself in the goodness of God is all designed, it's all designed to actually transform you into a person who in all types of seasons can, quote, declare that the Lord is upright. He is my rock and there is no unrighteousness in him. In short, worshiping our good God together this morning is to let the power of the Holy Spirit change us so that we might be people of integrity. That we might live in a way that reflects who we are as God's masterpiece. And so, Christ Church, brothers and sisters, friends, how am I believing that you are the masterpiece of God by faith alone this morning? change how you actually view and experience this time. Here's something I definitely know. None of it is boring. Let's pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, we confess our boredom to you. We confess that oftentimes we come into this space and we Don't wanna be here. The kids are a mess. We didn't sleep the night before. We're spiritually struggling and we just don't believe that this space, this time is worth it. Because oftentimes we just don't feel it, Lord. I pray that for your people this morning, that even if we might not feel it this morning, that Lord, you would reassure us of what is true. You would help us to see King Jesus high and lifted up, the one who physically and laboriously poured out his life for us, so that we might be God's masterpiece. Help us to believe that this is true, that we might live in such a way that reflects who we already are, and that you would be at work right now in just the ordinariness of your means of grace in the ordinariness of corporate worship. Thank you for it. Thank you that you call us out of our lives for even an hour and a half to be in this time with each other. It's in your name I pray, amen.