My son loves video games, especially ones that star the adorable pinky hero, Kirby. Kirby can fly through space and time on a star! He can eat just about anything, and when he does, he gets special powers from what he eats. He routinely saves the universe from galactic catastrophe; Kirby is the ultimate hero, and my son absolutely loves him. 

We introduced my son to these games by letting him watch me play them first. However, these games are incredibly child-friendly, and it didn’t take long for my son to learn how to play these games on his own. Now, not a day goes by that he doesn’t want me to sit with him and either watch or play a Kirby game with him. It’s an experience that he loves, and he loves to share it!

Just like my son loves to experience, and share his experience of video games with me, the Bible teaches us that we should have that same child-like fascination with our experience of God. In a similar way, the Book of Psalms points us to this beautiful experience called worship, and it challenges us to be part of the collective experience of worshiping God.

As we begin our summer season, we are going to be looking at selections from the Book of Psalms. This is an eclectic book that contains 150 different poems, prayers, and hymns written by different authors throughout Israel’s history. Even though each Psalm varies in style and emotional expression, the purpose of each Psalm is the same: they are written to guide believers into a personal and congregational experience of God through the act of worship.

I’ve entitled the sermon for today “The Worship Experience”, and we’ll be looking at Psalm 95. This is a short passage that describes a deeply profound experience of God. In it, the author (who is unknown) invites us to collectively celebrate, acknowledge, and experience the greatness of God with an urgent plea to remain faithful to Him. So, let’s take a look at this psalm and see how it addresses us and the worship experience.

(read the passage)

This psalm is very straightforward, and it contains extremely profound truths that apply to those who know God. It calls us to experience Him and His greatness with joy, humility, and receptiveness. So, today we’re going to be looking at how the structure of this psalm guides and urges us to worship God with an appropriately responsive heart. Let’s begin with this first point: An invitation to worship.

This psalm opens with an all-inclusive invitation to enter into the presence of God. The author invites “us”, not as isolated worshippers, but as a collective group of people to enter God’s presence with praise, and then he tells us what that looks like.

Beginning in verse 1, the psalmist invites us to “…shout joyfully… and triumphantly”; we are to “…enter (God’s) presence with thanksgiving… and joyful song.” We are invited to have an attitude of joy, triumph, and thanksgiving, and we are encouraged to be loud about it! This is an incredibly emotional experience, filled to the brim with joy and thanksgiving. However, we should take note that it’s not haphazard or disorganized; this act of worship is focused and purposeful.

It’s easy for us as worshipers to get caught up in this experience that we focus more on the motions of worship (ie; the joyful shouts and triumphant songs)  and less on the object of worship. So, the psalmist reminds us that we are worshiping “…the Lord… the rock of our salvation”. Our worship should be fixated on the God of our salvation, and it begins with our knowledge of who He is, which is exactly where the passage takes us next.

Picking up in verse 3, the psalmist explains that we are not worshipping just any god; our God is the supreme God; He is “…a great God and king above all gods”. In a world full of rulers, authorities, and other recipients of worship (whether those are people or false gods), God remains the ultimate authority over all things.

Then, the passage continues to describe the extent of God’s authority. Verses 4-5 tell us  “…the depths of the earth are in His hand… the mountains are His… the sea is his… the land was formed by His hand”. God is the authority over all things because He created all things and all things belong to Him. This idea is repeated all throughout scripture. Hundreds, if not thousands of years after this psalm was written, the Apostle Paul would reiterate this idea in Colossians 1:16:

“For in Him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through Him and for Him.”

This ultimate authority is the object of our worship; this is God, and we would do well to consider the magnitude of Him. We are not being called to merely appreciate the existence of an exceptional peer-like entity who craves verbal affirmation; we are being called to enter the presence of the all-powerful creator of the universe who holds the very fabric of reality in His hands. We’re told to go before Him with unrestrained joy and boldness because, while being the authority over all creation, He is also incredibly personal. He is “…the rock of OUR salvation”, and this leads to the second point of this passage: Our security in relationship.

The psalmist has led us through exuberant expressions of praise, which are absolutely appropriate. But as the passage continues, we are redirected into a posture that is less boisterous and more restrained. Let’s look at verse 6-7 again.

6Come, let us worship and bow down;

let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.

7For he is our God,

and we are the people of his pasture,

the sheep under his care.

We are called to bow down and kneel in worship. We started with shouts of joy, but in the recognition of God’s magnitude, we are now called to the only appropriate response: humility. In Jewish culture, standing was an acceptable posture for prayer, but kneeling signified a greater depth of reverence. It is the outward expression of an inner understanding; it expresses a profound reverence and earnest submission to God.

It’s in this position that we experience the beautiful security we have in God’s relationship with us. The passage calls God “…our Maker”, and then in verse 7, “…the people of His pasture, the sheep under His care”. It’s awesome that God, whose hands are mighty enough to form the earth and strong enough to hold its depths, is also capable of such intricate work to form each of us, and gentle enough to lead us as a shepherd leads his sheep. It’s remarkable that someone so powerful can also be so incredibly gentle and personal.

Throughout the Bible, God is constantly described as being a shepherd to His people. Probably one of the most famous passages like this comes from Psalm 23, and in it, David describes God in this way:

1The LORD is my shepherd,

I shall not want.

2He makes me lie down in green pastures;

He leads me beside quiet waters.

A shepherd’s role is extremely important; they lead and care for their flock. They are completely responsible for the sheeps’ well-being. If we are truly “…the people of (God’s) pasture, and the sheep under His care”, we can take comfort in the fact that our shepherd has authority over all things.

However, this analogy (as beautiful as it is) paints an unflattering picture of ourselves. Sheep, even those belonging to God, are inherently stubborn, not particularly insightful, and prone to wander away from their shepherd. The last section of our passage highlights this unfortunate trait of ours, which leads us to our third point: a warning from history.

Shepherds are uniquely qualified to care for their sheep, but sheep can (and usually do) make a shepherd’s job difficult, if not frustrating at times. I have a video that shows what it looks like to care for a sheep who clearly has other ideas about their well-being (video clip). This video is an amusingly accurate depiction of God caring for His sheep.

This last section of the psalm ends with a warning NOT to be this sheep. The psalmist describes an attitude that completely contracts everything we have been called to do so far. Let’s read these last few verses, starting in the middle of verse 7:

Today, if you hear his voice:

8Do not harden your hearts as at Meribah,

as on that day at Massah in the wilderness

9where your fathers tested me;

they tried me, though they had seen what I did.

10For forty years I was disgusted with that generation;

I said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray;

they do not know my ways.”

11So I swore in my anger,

“They will not enter my rest.”

Verse 8-9 describes an event that happened in Israel’s history, which is documented in the book of Exodus 17. So we can understand the context of this reference: God’s people were slaves in Egypt, but God miraculously set them free. God physically led them out of Egypt and into the wilderness, providing and protecting every step of the way. Our psalm says in verse 9 that God’s people “…had seen (everything He) did”. 

However, as soon as God’s people experienced hardship, they turned away from Him, complained, and asked if God was even with them. This attitude is described as a “hardened heart”. This is an attitude that “…tests and tries” God; He was actively disgusted, and the result was God’s anger and an inability for His people to enter rest with Him.

This “hardness of heart” is a stark contrast to the joy, thanksgiving, and humility that we discussed earlier. Unfortunately, this stubbornness is a common theme throughout the Bible. The prophet Isaiah has this to say about us in Isaiah 53:6:

“We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way…”

We are all prone to this same hardness of heart, but take note: this warning begins with a hopeful statement. Verse 7 says, “…today if you hear his voice“. The psalmist tells us “today” we can hear God’s voice; “today” we can respond to God, not with a hard heart, but with humility, thankfulness, joy, and triumph. This is the whole point of this worship experience: that we recognize God, and respond appropriately. This is the bottom line of this entire Psalm: worship God with a responsive heart.

This passage recognizes the struggles we face. Be encouraged that God does not write us off before we have a chance to respond. 2 Peter 3:9 tells us that God “…is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance”. God wants us to experience His rest because He loves us. Don’t take my word for it though. Psalm 103:8 tells us that,

“The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion.”

We should find comfort in the fact that God, the supreme Creator of all things, is compassionate and loving. He desires us to experience His love and goodness, and if we find ourselves fighting with an attitude that is not joyful, thankful, or humble, we can remember that God has provided for that situation as well. We referenced Isaiah 53:6 earlier, but let’s look at the entirety of that verse again. 

“We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way, and the LORD has punished him for the iniquity of us all.”

In God’s loving devotion for us, He recognized our faults, sent His Son Jesus (who is the “Him” in this verse); He would pay the cost for our shortcomings, He would take the testing, the trying, and the disgust for the hardness of our hearts so we could “enter God’s rest”. We have an inexpressibly remarkable God whose supreme authority is over all things, most significant of which is our sin. THAT is why the psalmist tells us to enter God’s presence with “…shouts (of triumph) to the rock of our salvation”. Let this Psalm challenge you in the following ways:

(Gospel presentation & closing prayer)

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