JackieBeanJean: "Reasons to celebrate" Psalm 98 Sermon

Last week Theo spoke about Psalm 103 and looked at the “who what why where when and how of worship”... and if you missed it – ask Theo for a set of notes… I’m sure there are a few spare!!

Tonight we going to continue a little along the same vein and look at another Psalm and see what it teaches us about Worship… particularly the “why” and perhaps reasons why we struggle to truly worship.

So the Psalm we’re going to look at it Psalm 98 – it’s on page…. In your pew Bible. Psalm 98 forms part of what are known as the “enthronement Psalms” which – exactly as the name sounds, are Psalms that focus on Praising God, that the Lord is King and that he reigns. They include Psalms like the Psalm 95 that you heard in the Call to worship… or the well-known Psalm 97 which reads:

The Lord reigns, let the earth be glad;
    let the distant shores rejoice.
²Clouds and thick darkness surround him;
    righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
³Fire goes before him
    and consumes his foes on every side.
⁴His lightning lights up the world;
    the earth sees and trembles.
⁵The mountains melt like wax before the Lord,
    before the Lord of all the earth.
⁶The heavens proclaim his righteousness,
    and all peoples see his glory.

For Psalm 98 we are not given an author but simply the title “A psalm” so let’s read from verse 1:

¹Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvellous things, his right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him.

²The Lord has made his salvation known and revealed his righteousness to the nations.

³He has remembered his love and his faithfulness to the house of Israel; all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.

⁴Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music;

⁵Make music to the Lord with the harp, with the harp and the sound of singing,

⁶with trumpets and the blast of the ram’s horn – shout for joy before the Lord, the King.

⁷Let the sea resound, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.

⁸Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy;

⁹let them sing before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples with equity.

May God bless to us the reading of His Holy Word, now and forever.

Let us pray – Father God, be with us as we speak about worship and about your greatness, May the words of my mouth and the meditations of each of our hearts be pleasing and acceptable to you who are our rock and our redeemer. Amen

I love how this Psalm is all encompassing – we are to sing a new song, the earth shouts for joy, the sea resounds, rivers are applauding and the mountains form a choir. Everything is created and has its expression in worshipping its creator – it just sounds right and straight forward.

And yet I think if we honest for us – sometimes it’s not. Worship doesn’t seem to spring from our lips as quickly as it does from the these Israelites. We find that during services we get distracted by the tune or by thoughts flying around our heads. We find ourselves singing but singing words without necessarily recognising their meaning. We go through life not always recognising God or His work around us…

And yet here we are called to a place of simple rejoicing and revelling in the glory of God.

Why do we struggle?

I think there are a couple of things.

Firstly – when we think of God, we often think about him to ask him for stuff, or to measure Him according to whether we feel he is meeting our specific needs at that given time… and if he’s not – we tend to question Him.

Israel simply Praised Him.

Praise is our amazement at God and God's greatness, our recognition of the power and tenderness of the creator. Praise enjoys and celebrates God's love, and it is our best attempt to feel, say, or sing something appropriate to God. Praise doesn't ask "What have you done for me lately?" but instead exclaims "How great Thou art!"

And so it’s important to have an entire mind-shift in terms of what we do in church, and how we relate to God in our day-to-day relationship with him. Praise isn’t something that works for us, or that we tick off in a box once it’s done so now we can get on with important business of asking him for something. Praise isn’t productive… it’s not even about me at all. Praise is about a God who has done marvellous things, who has worked salvation for us, who has remember his love and his faithfulness. Praise is about an expression of love that honours Him in his holiness.

Just for a moment focusing on Sunday Church… many people who come to worship think that church is a lot like the theatre. So they come to watch, to observe, to listen, perhaps, to be entertained. They see themselves and the other members of the congregation as the audience. And that all seems to make sense. After all, the ministers are the ones up front on an elevated platform not unlike a stage. The ministers can at times dress up in something like costumes. The ministers are the ones who seem to have the leading roles. And they are the ones who are ably assisted by a supporting cast which our musicians and our welcomers, and our elder on duty and whoever leads the prayers... It is only natural that most people who come to worship think of themselves as the audience.

But Soren Kierkegaard, the nineteenth century Danish philosopher, said we have it wrong. If the ministers have the leading roles, if the choir and organist are the supporting cast, if the congregation are the audience, then what role does God play when we worship? The problem with thinking of ourselves as the audience is that it leaves God out of the picture, and out of our worship. So Kierkeggard proposed a different model. He asked, “What would it be like if we understood worship like this: we parishioners the congregation – ‘you’ are the primary actors and actresses; and have the leading roles? The clergy, the musicians and all those involved--they form the supporting cast. And God, said Kierkeggard, God is the audience. All that we do in worship is directed toward God. The way we say the prayers, the way we sing the hymns, the attentiveness we give to Scripture and sermon, the money we offer: all of that contributes to our worship performance before God.

Then Kierkeggard raises the truly troubling question: What, do you suppose, does God think of our worship performance?

And worship, when done with sincere hearts, in spirit and in truth – is one of our best defences and weapons against the evil in the world.

Because let’s be honest for a moment, what this Psalm says – and what we see when we walk out these doors into the world are often in complete contrast to each other. The nations are not praising God. The ends of the earth are still closed to the Gospel. There are situations where it can be hard to see His love and His faithfulness and righteousness in the busyness and harshness and illness and brokenness we witness. Many times it would even seem that a large chunk of the world are getting along without God quite comfortably.

And Praise is also cheap, today. Everything is praised. Soap, beer, toothpaste, clothing, mouthwash, movie stars, all the latest gadgets which are supposed to make life more comfortable -- everything is constantly being "praised". Words like divine, awesome, wondrous are overused to the point of powerlessness. Praise can thus become empty . . . Are there any adjectives left for God? Is everything now as important, as glorious - as the creator is? Have we therefore lost sight of what awesome and majestic and powerful really mean? Have we forgotten what God has done, what he is doing and what he will do?

The power of this Psalm is that it defies that idea. It is utterly opposed to a world where the promises of God have no bearing on the rest of our lives. At the heart of our psalm where it says "make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth . . . make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord" (verses 4a, 6b) declares that God is creator of heaven and earth and thus is God of all life and all people, whether they acknowledge it or not, whether they are religiously inclined or not, whether they worship other gods or not. The truth that we proclaim and that the Psalmist lays bare is that there is only one God to whom alone belongs our worship and praise.

And so Praise is one of our best counters to evil in the world. If we are "lost in wonder, love, and praise," there is not much chance we will stumble towards sin, or find ourselves jaded and cynical.

The song that tells us – “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of the earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of his glory and grace.” Is speaking about exactly this… we defy the evil and the brokenness and the loneliness because we choose to look upon the one who is the source of all goodness and wholeness and relationship.

And so worship is actually a faith response. Its about singing the praises of God louder than than those who will shout about the evils in the world.

In Greek mythology, Sailors were constantly shipwrecked when seduced by the songs of the sirens. They would hear the sounds of this evil singing and wouldn’t be able to help themselves from being drawn to it. One of the heroes - Odysseus managed to sail past their perilous rocks by stuffing wax in the ears of the rowers and strapping himself to the mast of the ship; but Orpheus simply pulled out his lyre and played a song more beautiful than that of the sirens, and the rowers listened to his song and sailed to safety.

This is what we do – we sing a song with our voices and our actions and our thoughts and our conversation and with our lives – that speaks more about the beauty and majesty of the creator.

And so we choose to celebrate. We also need to realise that the news we receive is skewed, its one sided and papers write about what sells. What sells are the stories of devastation and cruelty. The dirtier the secrets the uglier the picture – the more it sells. These are some of the songs of the sirens. And so we listen to the radio and we find ourselves talking about the horrors that we hear about. We find ourselves becoming negative and fearful. We forget that in the midst of all this – God is at work. God is on his throne. And God will return all things to how it should be.

This is where our Psalm ends in verse 9 we read:

⁹let them sing before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and he peoples with equity.

This is what we look forward to. A time of no more tears or mourning or crying or sickness or pain. Where the old order of things have been defeated. So with defiance we hope and we praise.

But here and now the kingdom is spring up among us. I see families which are thriving and striving to follow Jesus. I see schools where God has placed Godly teachers being turned around and kids being mentored and encouraged. I see the Bible being translated into more languages every day. I see beauty in sunsets and mountains and oceans. I see healing and reconciliation happening. I read about people being rescued from slavery. I watch the wonders of the medical world bring health and wholeness to patients. I know people who have discovered Jesus as their Lord and Saviour – I’m one of them! I baptised a little girl this morning declaring her to belong to God.

God is at work.

God has not left.

God is doing beautiful beautiful things.

And this is what next week is all about. Our Missions expo has four purposes attached to it

Awaken, Connect, Testify, and Support.

We are praying that what happens in the hearts of all that attend is that they come and they are awakened to the fact that God is at work, that they may connect to this work and testify about it – that they support his work in prayer or finances or involvement or in whatever way God has prompted them.

We celebrate that God is at work here at Emmanuel, that he is at work in Pretoria East and South Africa – and that he is at work throughout our world.