Worth-ship: Sermon on Psalm 29

Psalm 29

Ascribe to the Lord, oh Mighty ones,

Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.

Ascribe to the Lord the glory due to his name;

Worship the Lord in the splendour of his holiness.

The voice of the Lord is over the waters;

The God of glory thunders.

The Lord thunders over the mighty waters.

The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is majestic

The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars; the Lord breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon.

He makes Lebanon skip like a calf, Sirion like a young wild ox.

The voice of the Lord strikes with flashes of lightening.

The voice of the Lord shakes the desert; the Lord shakes the desert of Kadesh.

The voice of the Lord twists the oaks and strips the forest bare.

And in his temple all cry “Glory!”

The Lord sits enthroned over the flood;

The Lord is enthroned as King forever.

The Lord gives strength to his people;

The Lord blesses his people with peace.

Let us pray: Lord Father, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of each of our hearts bring your glory and honour. Amen.

Our reading this evening speaks of God as the God of the storm. It describes a storm coming in from the sea, over the land churning up the desert and the trees and the mountains.

To remind you back to your school geography days: A storm is what happens because evaporation changes water into vapour on a hot day, the water vapour being hotter than the air around it rises and cools. At a certain point in the atmosphere, the water vapour cools to a point where it reforms water droplets and high up in the sky we see the clouds beginning to form. Within the clouds the air keeps rising creating tall columns of cloud which result in the water droplets high up freezing into hailstones. As more water vapour rises the cloud grows until the air is saturated with water, and when the cloud cannot hold any more, the water droplets and hail fall to the ground. With the air moving in the cloud, static is created and the charge of the static discharges to the ground with a spark – creating lightening, the air particles vibrate with the power of the spark and we hear thunder.

 

When we look at a storm today we forget that in the days of the Psalmist, storms were huge scary entities that were not understood. There were no instruments or predictions, and the cause of rain was attributed to gods of nature.

But if we stop and consider it – a storm is so much more than the geographical description. If you remember two years back we had that series of horrific storms passing through Gauteng – remember where the hail did so much damage that in areas of Joburg it was difficult to source glass panels, and if you wanted PG Autoglass to come fix something there was a 6 week waiting list because so much had been destroyed. Theo’s car got pitted while he and I were on a pastoral visit, simply because it stood uncovered for 5 minutes too long. I had a meeting that November in Benoni, and I drove into one of these storms. It had to be one of the most terrifying experiences of my life – golf ball size hail pelted my car, I couldn’t see the road for the sheer amount of water that was pouring from the sky and I contacted the office here and asked for prayers. By the time I arrived at my destination I was in tears, my car damaged and my adrenaline pumped. At that moment, all the geography in the world meant nothing to me. A storm is so much more than a bunch of water droplets that have unbalanced and fallen.

Have you ever watched a lightening display from a hill top – or lay awake at night in amazement at the power and force of the rain coming down, or heard thunder so loud that it shook your house?

This is what a storm is.

In talking about storms Theo shared with me about John Muir, an explorer. And he sent me this quote from Eugene Peterson describing him: “He tramped up and down through our God-created wonders, from the California Sierras to the Alaskan glaciers, observing, reporting, praising, and experiencing–entering into whatever he found with childlike delight and mature reverence.”
In 1874, Muir was staying at a friend’s cabin in the Sierra Mountains. A storm set in one December day. It was a fierce storm– trees were bending over backwards. Instead of retreating to the safety and security of the cabin, Muir left the cabin and entered the storm. He found a mountain ridge and climbed to the top of a giant Douglas Fir. He held on for dear life “experiencing the kaleidoscope of colour and sound, scent and motion.” Muir rode out the storm “relishing weather: taking it all in–its rich sensuality, its primal energy.”

Our Psalmist describes God as the Storm God – as the God whose voice thunders…. Listen to how the Message Bible interprets verse  3-9:

God thunders across the waters,
Brilliant, his voice and his face, streaming brightness—
God, across the flood waters.

⁴ God’s thunder tympanic,
God’s thunder symphonic.

⁵ God’s thunder smashes cedars,
God topples the northern cedars.

⁶ The mountain ranges skip like spring colts,
The high ridges jump like wild kid goats.

^7-8 God’s thunder spits fire.
God thunders, the wilderness quakes;
He makes the desert of Kadesh shake.

⁹ God’s thunder sets the oak trees dancing
A wild dance, whirling; the pelting rain strips their branches.

A Storm is so much more than a bunch of air particles vibrating and water droplets forming.

God too, is so much more than the way we name or describe or analyse him.

Our theme for this week is Worship – looking at what it means to be a worshipping congregation. In our blurb given on the leaflet it reads that worshipping is:

 to respond to God's goodness and love with the whole of our beings and to become the kind of community where God's presence is recognized and celebrated. The church in Antioch was marked by the "evidence of the grace of God." People could see that God had touched their lives.

Where God’s presence is recognised and  celebrated.

I was interested in the word worship – and discovered that it comes from the word “Worth” – literally meaning worth-ship - or the condition of being worthy. Worship at its heart, at its center is about a God who is worthy.

It’s not about the music or the song choice. It’s not about church. It’s not about orders of service. In fact it’s not about us at all.

It’s about God. A God who is worthy. It’s about seeing who God is, and once we see Him – Worship is the only response that is possible.

And the trap I believe we so often fall into here – is that we talk about and understand who God is and what Jesus has done for us, we unpack Scripture and learn about His character and His promises. If we are especially interested we could even start studying the theology of His imminence, or His Trinitarian being or His incarnation. All of which is good and wonderful and right.

But the danger is that we get stuck in the geography and forget to go and stand in the storm.

That we know all about God, all about how present and powerful he is.

And we forget to encounter his presence and experience his power.

And so our worship becomes functional obedience rather than an awestruck response.

The Psalmist begins by saying: Ascribe to the Lord, oh Mighty ones,

Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.

Ascribe to the Lord the glory due to his name;

Worship the Lord in the splendour of his holiness.

This is speaking of an encounter – ascribe, give to the Lord the glory that he is worthy of, Worship him because you have seen him in the splendour of his holiness.

The power described here speaks of a God who is so beyond and above our studying and our descriptions anyway; a God who is so powerful that not only did he speak creation into being, but he orders and controls it. And while today we have the unbelievable privilege of relating to Him as our Father, as our friend, as our comforter – let us never lose sight of the truth that our God is GOD. Is Lord. Is Master. Is Majestic in holiness. The mistake we make is we think of God as like us. He is Not.

Listen to a few times in Scripture where people have encountered God.

In Exodus 33, Moses on Mount Sinai, asks to see God’s glory and God’s response is:

“I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.²⁰ But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”

You cannot see me and live.

Isaiah chapter 6 reads:

I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. ² Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. ³ And they were calling to one another:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;
    the whole earth is full of his glory.”

⁴ At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.

⁵ “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”

Job on encountering God says:

“I am unworthy—how can I reply to you?
    I put my hand over my mouth.
⁵ I spoke once, but I have no answer—
    twice, but I will say no more.” My ears had heard of you

    but now my eyes have seen you.

6 Therefore I despise myself

    and repent in dust and ashes.”

And John in revelation 1 describes encountering Jesus:

¹² I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, ¹³ and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man,^[d] dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. ¹⁴ The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. ¹⁵ His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. ¹⁶ In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.

¹⁷ When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. ¹⁸ I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.

I fell at his feet as though dead.

Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.

Ascribe to the Lord the glory due to his name;

We fall to our knees—we call out, “Glory!”

There are times and sermons where I stand in holy terror realising who it is that I preach about. At times I feel like Job where I simply want to say – I put my hands over my mouth because I speak of that which is too great for me.

And yet the inconceivable has happened. As we encounter God today, we have Jesus who can place his hand on us and say – do not be afraid. I am alive. I hold all the power. And because of what I have done you can know my Father, you can encounter Him, you can worship Him.

The last part of the Psalm is the result of our Worship. Not the purpose – but the result.

                                                                     

The Lord sits enthroned over the flood;

The Lord is enthroned as King forever.

The Lord gives strength to his people;

The Lord blesses his people with peace.

The God we worship is present with us over the floods, and as our King. When we recognise His greatness, we can know that he is powerful enough to reign over the storms in our lives, to reign over the confusion and doubt and fear in our lives, that He is greater than our problems or our limitations. That His Lordship gives Him authority to change us, to change our circumstances, to change our world. He is powerful enough to give us strength.

And He is close enough to give us peace.

I pray that as a congregation, as individuals, we will not only analyse the storm and actually step into the rain. That when we gather together that we realise that we are singing and speaking TO our God, the God of power and might and strength and not just about him. That worship becomes entirely about encountering Him, encountering Him here in our music and prayer and teaching – and responding with hearts wide open saying, “Forever you will be, the Lamb upon the throne – I gladly bow my knee and worship you alone.”

And I pray that as you go out into your week that you live a life of worship, a life that recognises who God is, and so trusting that He is able, that He is present and that He is willing to give you his strength and his peace through any storm. That He is Lord over the floods in our lives.

Revelation 5:11-14

¹¹ Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. ¹² In a loud voice they were saying:

“Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain,
    to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength
    and honor and glory and praise!”

¹³ Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying:

“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
    be praise and honor and glory and power,
for ever and ever!”

¹⁴ The four living creatures said, “Amen,” and the elders fell down and worshiped.

Let us do the same.