Please turn to Psalm 96. Sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord, bless His name. Proclaim good tidings of His salvation from day to day. Tell of His glory among the nations, His wonderful deeds among all the peoples. For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised. He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before Him. Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary. Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory of His name. Bring an offering and come into His courts. Worship the Lord in holy attire. Tremble before Him, all the earth. Say among the nations, The Lord reigns. Indeed, the world is firmly established. It will not be moved. He will judge the peoples with equity. Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice. Let the sea roar, and all it contains. Let the field exult, and all that is in it. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy before the Lord, for He is coming. For He is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness, and the peoples in his faithfulness. That's the Lord's blessing. O Lord, as we come now to the sacred text of your holy word, we pray that you would use this word to spark a holy joy in our hearts, that we might render to you the worship that is due you in Jesus' name. Amen. Over the past several months, we have been looking at the Psalms specifically related to living the Christian life. How should we live out our faith in this world of woe? I think as we've examined these Psalms, we have received both instruction and encouragement And now our next major topic in the Psalter is that of the Church. What do the Psalms teach us about the Church? Well, in order to both conclude the Christian living section and to introduce those on the Church, we want to look tonight at the topic of worship, especially as it is outlined for us in Psalm 96. Worship is a frequent subject in the Psalms and rightly so. The worship of the true God is at the core of life. This is what we were created for, to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. I think that the human race is undeniably, by its very nature, a worshiping race. people will worship something or other that is how they are made up. Either it's going to be the triune God of the scriptures or some other so-called God. I think the reason that our hearts tend to be idle factories is because we were originally designed for worship. and so even idolatry becomes something of a twisted witness to the inescapability of worship and yet idolatry in its various manifestations always leaves its devotees empty and miserable there can be no joy in false worship of a false god there is only a counterfeit feeling of happiness which very quickly fades away. It's only in true worship of the true God that we can experience the exhilaration of holy joy. Already this psalm helps us by reminding us that true worship is and always should be a very joyful experience both for God and for his worshippers so we want to look at this joyful psalm tonight first considering your highest duty and your greatest privilege then we want to look at a powerful rationale for joyful worship and close with the joyful dance of all creation. Now in reviewing this psalm, Psalm 96, we find here many, many statements about worship. They dominate verses 1 through 3 and then again in verses 7 through 9. But on closer examination, We find that these are not mere indicative statements about worship, but rather all of the verbs in those verses are imperatives, they are commands. There is imperative after imperative after imperative, command upon command upon command as our obligations are outlined for us. All told in these verses there are ten different imperatives, two of which are repeated three times. And so the grand total would be fourteen commands if you're counting the repetitions. Now just walk through these verses and feel the force of these commands. Sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord. Sing to the Lord. Proclaim good tidings. Tell of His glory. And then in verse 7, ascribe to the Lord of families of the peoples. Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory of His name. Bring an offering. Come into His courts. Worship the Lord. tremble before him. Say among the nations, the Lord reigns. You see, all of those verbs are commands. They are loaded with duty and obligation. All of these imperatives together really make the same point to us. It is your highest duty to offer true worship to the true God. God commands you to worship Him because He is seeking worshipers who will worship Him in spirit and in truth. Now we don't tend to think about this in this way. We realize that worship is good, that it's right, that it is vaguely pleasing to God, but we don't often think of it as a commanded duty. We think of it as an option that I might exercise if I feel led to do so. But really, this is much different. This is a command by God which we must do. And for us to not offer the prescribed worship is to sin against God. In other words, refusing to worship God constitutes moral rebellion and it is a sin of omission. God is not pleased when His creatures steadfastly refuse to worship Him. and he will not and does not bless those who fail to follow his commands and so we must view worship as an obligation to be kept this is a duty to be rendered we must worship God but at the same time as seeing that this is our highest and holiest duty we also should recognize and realize that this is our greatest privilege if you got a call one day from the president and he were to say I'd like you to fly to Washington and we're gonna have a dinner tomorrow night and we want you to be there you would think wow That's kind of neat. The President wants me to come have dinner at the White House. I like that. And so you would buy your plane ticket, you'd get your clothes in order, and you'd go to Washington and you'd probably have your picture taken and you would tell your grandchildren about this. The King of Heaven is saying, come into my presence. and worship me. Come into my presence and fellowship with me. Come into my presence and eat with me. Oh, this is a great obligation, but this is a wonderful privilege. In fact, no greater privilege could ever be imagined than to be brought to be with God in worship and praise of Him. Now as we look more closely at these various verbs, we begin to see some of the nuances of true worship. The first thing that we must notice is that singing is very important to the Lord. He says it not once, not twice, but three times He commands it. Sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord, bless His name. Three times we are commanded to sing. Now, this emphasis also corresponds very nicely with our created being. God has given us these vocal cords which can make marvelous music. Some of us more marvelous than others. And yet the human voice makes this thing look like nothing at all. The ability of a human voice to make a variety of sounds and to put those sounds together with words and to constitute a song of praise to God is one of the great wonders of our creation. And so God has fitted us to be singers and then he has called us and commanded us to sing to the Lord. Have you ever stopped to think about this? To not sing to the Lord, to refuse to sing to the Lord is a sin against your created condition and His clear commands. I have been, I don't know, in how many churches and how many worship services, and as I am singing from the front, I am usually trying to look around at other worshipers. And I see many, many people in the Church of Jesus Christ who don't sing. Now, there are some people who can't sing. And I will give them a pass. If they've got some vocal condition that renders it impossible, well, who am I to look down on that? But there are people I know who can talk fine, who can make all manner of noises, who can sing, and yet they don't. Because they won't. God calls us. to be singing to Him. And this song is not just to be some sort of outward ritual. Oh, we've been assigned number 529. Who knows what that is? Who cares what it says? Let's mumble through the words. No, He calls us to reflect upon His great works. And as we begin to think about what He has done, our hearts begin to make melody. And as our hearts are singing, our voices give those words and we praise God by singing to Him a new song. I think there is a very vital connection between pondering the great works of God and singing His praises. And the two seem to play back and forth in a very powerful sort of way. Think about Moses and Miriam and the children of Israel They had just come through the Red Sea. Hoo, was that a difficult time for them. They thought they were going to die, or be taken back to Egypt. But no, God opened the sea, and they went through the sea, and they came out on the other side, and when Pharaoh and his army chased them in, you remember what happened, their wheels and their chariots started to fall off, and the Egyptians knew, we are in great trouble, we need to get out of this sea, and before they could get out, the waves covered them, and killed them. And as the bodies of the dead Egyptians were washing up on the shore, Moses and Miriam and the children of Israel were singing, Praise to God! He has triumphed gloriously, the horse and the rider. He has hurled into the sea. The Lord is my strength and my song. He has become my salvation. You see, as they thought about God's great work and his victory over Pharaoh, they had to sing. They couldn't but sing because they saw God's great work. And so singing is a very, very important part of our worship. And here at Grace Church, we try to encourage singing. We give you good songs with singable melodies. We have hymnals before you so that you can join in this aspect of true worship. Well, we also see in these commands that there is a duty to speak. We see speaking verbs here. Bless His name. Proclaim good tidings of His salvation from day to day. Tell of His glory among the nations. And then again, ascribe to the Lord, ascribe to the Lord, ascribe to the Lord the glory of His name. You see, we are to be speaking. True worship is a very verbal, vocal thing. And again, think of this in terms of our corporate worship services. As we gather together for worship, there are points where I am speaking as the leader, and then there are points where you are speaking, or we're all speaking together. The Apostles' Creed, which we recited this morning, was an excellent opportunity for you to proclaim the truth to speak out what you believe. And so there's points in worship where we're speaking the glorious praises of God and where we're proclaiming His salvation day after day. We also see that there are commands here that have to do with heart attitudes. And I'm thinking especially about verse 9. Worship the Lord in holy attire. Tremble before Him all the earth. You know, we are to be trembling before the Lord as we understand who He is and what He has done. Our hearts should be filled with a humble adoration and we should tremble in our hearts as we bow with our knees. One last thing to note about these verbs, we see here that as we enter into his courts to offer him worship, we should bring an offering and be clothed in holy attire. Now for the Old Testament worshipper, that meant that they must undergo ritual purification before they would bring their spotless male lamb into the temple or into the tabernacle to offer it on God's altar. But for us in the New Covenant, it's quite different. As we come into worship, we come in Jesus' name. We are robed in Jesus' righteousness. We are trusting completely in His sacrifice, Jesus' blood. And so we are worshipping in and through Christ. He is our offering. Christ is our holy attire. He has opened up for us the new and the living way. Well, this psalm not only commands us to offer true worship to the true God, but it also gives to us a powerful rationale for joyful worship. And this is found largely in the middle section of this psalm, starting in verse 4. And here in this center section of the psalm, I find five compelling reasons that we ought to offer truly joyful worship to God. And the first reason is God's greatness. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised. As you think of how amazingly awesome, how thoroughly magnificent, how truly great in every respect the true God is, you begin to understand that His worship is to be offered in accordance with his greatness. He is great and he is greatly to be praised. I think sometimes the reason that people give such paltry worship and have such a shallow view and shallow experience of worship is because their view of God is far too small. They see Him merely as a being that exists to get them out of the jams that they get themselves into. They view God as something of a vending machine or a bellhop. If they need something, they might approach Him and He might give them what they need. But that's all God really is to them. He's their problem solver. Now, I don't deny that God is a very present help in times of trouble, but God does not exist solely and merely to solve our dilemmas. He dwells between the cherubim. And when the angels, the holy angels, look upon Him, they cover their faces. When men see Him, they fall down before him as though dead God is very great and because he is so great we ought to joyfully worship him the second reason for this joyful worship is the sheer folly of idolatry those gods of the nations they're good for nothing They are worthless idols. They are empty deceptions. I find it interesting that the word that is used here for idols can either mean an idol or a worthless thing. Because by definition an idol is a worthless thing. They deserve no worship. They deserve only scorn, contempt, and mockery. If you really think about it, the idols are mere creations of the hands of sinful men. And when you compare that to the Lord, you see there's quite a difference because the Lord made the heavens. these things are the creations of creatures he is the maker of all things and this is the real gist of the problem in idolatry refusing to worship and serve the creator wicked men bow down to images of creatures and when we begin to have a handle on how absolutely ridiculous Idolatry actually is. We see, oh, we must worship our Creator. He is the one who made all things by the word of His power in the space of six days, and He made them all very good. I want to worship my Creator. Well, if you need further rationale, look no further than the qualities of our God. We see this here as well. Splendor and majesty are before Him. Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary. Gaze upon God and see that He is both strong and He is beautiful. Look upon Him and find Him to be splendid and majestic. If you will get to know your God, if you see Him as He truly is, if you gaze upon His beauty and marvel at His majesty and tremble before His great strength, it drives you to your knees in reverent worship of Him. Reason number four in this psalm is His sovereignty, and this is highlighted in verse 10. This is both a part of our worship and a reason for our worship. Say among the nations, the Lord reigns. Indeed, the world is firmly established. It will not be moved. Recognize He is the Sovereign God. He has established the earth. The world is in His hand and it will not be moved. This is the Sovereign and Holy One we serve, and not only is He Sovereign in creating, but He is also Sovereign in His justice, for He will judge the peoples with equity. He will judge the world in righteousness. He will judge the peoples in His faithfulness. And so, because He is the Sovereign God, we should joyfully worship Him and the final reason for rendering true worship is I believe the greatest reason of all for he is coming he is coming to judge the earth here we find a very subtle but very powerful and beautiful messianic illusion he is coming Jesus came to earth he set aside his heavenly glory and he came and he dwelt among us he came from his father full of grace and truth to reveal his father to a fallen broken sin cursed world he came for salvation but he is coming again He is coming again for judgment. At His final return, the Lord will set every wrong right. He will judge in justice and in righteousness and in faithfulness. And when we begin to ponder that not only did He come once, but He is coming again, oh, my heart swells with joy to worship Him and to cry out, as Paul cried out, Maranatha! Come quickly, Lord Jesus! And so as we think back to His incarnation, and as we look forward to His final return in justice, we say, I worship Christ, the coming one, the present one, the one who rules with power and will judge with justice. And so you put all of these things together and you say, those are some strong reasons. We have good rationale for offering up this joyful worship. And when you put it all together, the commands, the strong commands with this powerful rationale, you get to the point where the psalm is in verse 11. where the creation is breaking forth in a joyful dance of worship to God. These last verses of this psalm throb with holy joy. Let the heavens be glad, let the earth rejoice, let the sea roar in all that it contains, let the fields exult in all that is in it. that all the trees of the forest will sing for joy before the Lord, for He is coming. He is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in His faithfulness. And you get to the climax of it and you say, Yes! Yes! He is coming! He is coming! And the creation sees it! And they rejoice! Because they know Him for who He is and what He is, and they see His coming to them, and they cannot contain themselves. You see, this is the joy that should course through our veins as we worship God. This is not some dry, dead ritual that we mechanically go through because it is the religious thing to do and we account ourselves religious people. Ritualism is the shell of true worship. What God wants is people whose hearts are set ablaze with this kind of love and joy and wonder before the Lord, who are shouting and clapping their hands and singing His praises irrepressibly filled with awe and wonder. You see, that is what true worship ought to be. That's what worship is in heaven. Do you really think that the choirs of angels sit up in heaven and say, Praise God through whom all blessings flow? This could be over. Oh, the angels in heaven are filled with a pure and holy joy as they gaze upon the Lamb who was slain and as they weep tears and as they sing His praises and as their hearts burn within them. And the church on earth can experience that same dynamic in her worship It is not impossible that you could enjoy coming to church and not just for the people you might talk to or the cookies during refreshment hour. But to come, to be in God's presence, to experience fellowship with Father, Son and Holy Spirit and with the saints gathered and to join your voice with that of creation in saying, Oh Lord, come, come, come, come among us. Come in your power, come in your justice, come in your purifying presence. Come and renew us, quicken us, light us aflame so that we can burn brightly for your glory and honor. I think oftentimes our expectations dictate to us our experiences and I think this is very true and very common in worship oh I expect it's going to be an hour of boring religious ritualism and that's what you get but do you come to worship saying oh I hunger for the living God I thirst after his spirit I want to enter into His gates with thanksgiving in my heart, to be in His courts with praise. Oh, it would be better for me to be a doorkeeper in the house of my God for a single hour than to dwell forever in the tent of wickedness. The best place, the place I want to be is in God's presence worshiping Him. One of the amazing contributions by our great friend John Calvin in the area of worship was to suggest throughout his writings in his institutes that in the context of corporate worship it is not so much that God comes down to us as he lifts us up to him. And that when we enter into corporate worship in the Spirit of Christ, our hearts are transported somehow, mystically, to the heavenly courts of glory where we praise and bless our Redeemer. And you see, when you expect that, when you pray for that, when you yearn for that, God is often pleased to grant your heart's desire. And so we can move to the place in our experience where worship becomes truly the highlight of our life here on earth. It is the pinnacle from which we can look to the celestial land and see that beautiful country that we yearn to be in. This is the lookout place where we look to glory. And what a joy and what a great blessing that is. This ties in very nicely with the subject of the Lord's Supper. One of my seminary professors, Dr. Alan Currie, an OP minister, used to talk to us in class about what he called the Protestant meat grinder. And in Dr. Currie's estimation, in many reformed churches, many OP and PCA churches, this table becomes the Protestant meat grinder. And what Dr. Curry meant was this. We look at this table and we say, this is a table where I ought to feel bad. Very bad. The worse I feel, the better I must be. And so my experience of the table is to come to this table and feel as wretched and horrible as I can make myself feel. Now, there is a sobering element about this table because this table reminds us that his body and his blood were shed for my sins and for yours. And that should bring us a sense of shame. That it was our guilt that put him on the tree. But Dr. Curry's appeal was to say, brothers, this is a table of holy joy and of celebration. You don't have to come here to feel wretched about yourself because this table, as much as it reminds us about our sins, also reminds us about Jesus' sacrifice. And here's where joy begins to steal over the heart, his body, and his blood cleansed my sin and yours too.