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Let us Worship the Lord in His Splendor

Psalm 96

Let us Worship the Lord, Our Shepherd (Psalm 95)

Psalm 95

Worship is ascribing worth. What is the worth of the Lord? His worth is beyond the universe, which is merely a reflection of His glory.

God of Vengeance!

Psalm 94

One of my favorite movies over the years is Gladiator. It tells the story of a Roman General who has been faithful and effective in his service to Rome and the Emperor. But when the emperor is killed by his son, the general is viewed as a threat and is betrayed. His family is killed and he is sold into slavery. You feel the wrongness when you watch and you root for the general to find his revenge. When he finally gets it, you can’t help but feel a release of satisfaction. Most movies that deal with a revenge stir you up in this same way. It is a popular genre.

Have you ever thought about why it is such a popular genre? Why are those desires for vengeance so strong? It is a universal sentiment. So, is it wrong for a Christian to have desires for vengeance? Not according to the Bible. This morning’s psalm is a plea to God, in the context of corporate worship, to bring vengeance. This is not incompatible with the character of God.

In the past few psalms we’ve seen a great emphasis on the steadfast love of God. His “hesed.” We think of his great mercy. We will also worship him for his holiness and majesty as the psalmist highlights these attributes of God. We resonate with these.
But here the psalmist calls upon God, as the God of vengeance. How do we reconcile this with what we know about God?
The Westminster Divines define God as: infinite, eternal and unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. (WSC4)

Where does vengeance fit in? It fits into his justice. What does it mean that our God is a God of vengeance?

The Lord Reigns

Psalm 93

Niether my mother or mother-in-law will drive in Houston. The size of I-10, the volume of the traffic, and the chaos of bringing drivers together from all over the world with their imported driving habits is terrifying. You can attest. So when my mother-in-law comes to town and we pick her up from the airport, we’ve learned to ask her to close her eyes while we drive. Otherwise she wears out the imagined brake on the passenger side of the car and fills the silence with the sound of bracing yourself. However, by the time she goes back to the airport, she is a bit more calm as she’s had time to trust the driver. Have you experienced that?
Jesus shows us a similar experience he had with his disciples one day when they were out on a boat in the Sea of Galilee.

The disciples were learning that if Jesus is with them, they need not fear. Why? Because Jesus was Lord of the storm. In fact, he is so much so, they could have gone to sleep even with the storm raging around them. How do you get to this point in your life? There is only one way. With a sovereign God who is for you.

That’s what we see in this Psalm. It is a celebration of God’s absolute governorship of the world. God is in control.

Song of the Sabbath

Psalm 92

I think I will write you a prescription for joy this morning. I can do it. I have been granted access to it, only it isn’t in pill form. I’d like to write you a prescription to join me in corporate worship every Sunday. Worship of the Lord leads to joy and a glad heart. This is the testimony of the Psalmist. He writes in verses 1-5.

Do you think about coming to worship with this expectation? Do you experience it? Let’s talk about why this is statement is true. Worship of the Lord leads to joy and a glad heart.

Taking Shelter

Psalm 91

When I was in the 5th grade, my family moved into a house in which my room shared a wall with my parents’ room. That’s when I realized my sister was scared of the dark. She is 3 years younger than me and on some nights, I would be laying in bed and could hear her the pitter patter of bare feet slapping the parquet wood floor down the hallway as she ran from her room into my parents’ room. She had taken shelter with mom and dad. That, I knew, was a safe place. No matter what terror was hiding under the bed, we knew that if you could just get to mom and dad’s room, you would be safe. Nothing could get you.

The key was getting there. When I was younger, before we moved into that house, there were times I would get scared at night of the monsters that I believed were hiding under my bed. But I rarely made it to the shelter. I was afraid the monsters were faster than me; that if they even knew I was in the bed above them, they would get me. So I often layed there, not moving, barely breathing, hiding under the covers, enduring the sweat from the heat, for hours. I wanted to reach the shelter, but rarely made it. Did you ever have moments like that when you were young?

When you get older you eventually realize that there were no monsters under the bed. They were just figments of your imagination. However, you also discover that there are real monsters lurking about in the world today. If I asked you to make a list, what would you put on it? Politicians who threaten your freedoms? Viruses? Vaccines? Ideologies? Corporations? Hollywood? Climate change? In 2020 so many people let their fears keep them from taking shelter. We saw this literally with the shutting down of churches and the demands that people made to stay at home rather than come together for corporate worship. Society had become like me as a child, too afraid to make the dash from my bed to my parents’ room for shelter. Instead, like me, they tried to “shelter in place” and hope for the best. You know how long that works? Only as long as you can tiptoe through life quiet enough to never, ever get the attention of those monsters. That’s untenable long term.

We need a real shelter. And that’s the focus of this Psalm. God is our safe space. He is the only shelter that can withstand every danger that exists. If you take shelter with God, nothing can harm you. Period. End of story. The end.

Gaining a Heart of Wisdom

Psalm 90

Wisdom. If I could bottle it, would I make a fortune? It’s what everyone knows they need. But it isn’t at the top of many people’s list. Most of us are more eager to pursue things that are exciting, interesting, or attention grabbing. Wisdom can seem like broccoli: good for you, but much less of a draw than ice cream. We ignore her as we walk past her in the streets.

It should, however, be at the top of our list. So how do we gain a heart of wisdom? That is the focus of Moses' prayer in Psalm 90. Wisdom leads us to life.

What is Truth and Why Does it Matter?

John 8-14-18

Golden Chain of Redemption

Romans 8:18-30

We are the Chosen

John 15:1-17