Psalm 95B - Supplemental
Kingdom of God & Suggestions for Worship
The Worldview of the Kingdom of God
If God is the King, then the only proper response is to bow before Him. To resist Him, if He truly exists, would be foolishness. God was not petty to reject those who came out of Egypt. They had been worshiping the gods of Egypt while they lived there. When they came out, they continued to worship those false gods, and they were not honoring the true God.
The Ten Commandments' first commandments are about the worship of God and the worship of false gods. Why? Because false gods are not real, they are false. If we worship anything other than God, we are living in untruth - we are living according to lies - we are living with an incorrect world view - we are missing the most crucial point.
God is the King, and God is the judge. If people reject Him and choose to worship that which is false, He is entirely right and correct to reject them. It is not out of hate; it is because they are wrong. How could He be connected to a worldview which is incorrect and faulty? That would be hypocrisy - He cannot do it. So His rejection of those people is the result of them making the wrong choices. They choose to reject the truth, and they select untruth.
In our generation, people continuously make similar choices. People make good choices, and people make wrong choices. They choose to reject God, and as a result, God decides to reject them because they connect themselves to falsehood - to a false worldview. He is disappointed by their choice to deny the truth. That choice angers him because it is foolish, and it is wrong. God made the heavens and the earth. If people choose not to believe that He did, then they are wrong. They have made incorrect choices about the true nature of reality. They are therefore missing that which is most important about how reality is. They miss the essential truth upon which all other truths are based in understanding the way things really are - Truth, with a capital “T."
God cannot support a false understanding that is invalid. To say that the universe exists without God is not correct, and God cannot support such a false premise. How could He?
God supports the truth, with a capital “T” - the way things really are. When Truth is the foundation for our worldview, God will want to work with us, support us, and help us accomplish what He wants to do.
So Psalm 95 exhorts us to follow Him with energy. We are to sing joyfully. We are to shout! When was the last time that you shouted to the Lord? I mean, really shouted? Not just in your mind, but out loud?
In East Africa, the Pentecostals who come for GTN (Global Training Network) training are not bashful about shouting to the Lord. They shout when they sing, pray, and preach. For a Western person, such verboseness is unfamiliar because we restrain emotion during worship. We don’t ever shout. Then we judge those whose worship is different from ours, as though our worship is better, more refined, and based upon more excellent knowledge.
The opposite might just be the case. We may be the ones limiting our expression of worship unnecessarily. Why would we do that? One reason for a restrained style of worship might be related to our world view. If some in the Western church do not acknowledge God as the Creator, they miss the truth and fall into error. Their worship of God might then be less enthusiastic. Adding to the error, they may look down on those who have a more accurate and God-oriented worldview. They would judge those who follow God enthusiastically as being weak, uninformed, needing a crutch, or without proper understanding - when it is precisely those who reject the God of creation who have the wrong perception of the way things really are.
Such a mistake is a severe error for modern humanity. To not see God correctly is to miss the most crucial truth of all. To worship that which is not God is to make the most fundamental error which one can make. The mistake of the first commandments of the Ten Commandments is to worship that which is not God.
Then God spoke all these words, saying,
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
“You shall have no other gods before Me.
“You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain. (Exodus 20: 1-7, NASB)
What are the consequences for those who reject God completely? The same as in the Ten Commandments. The same as in Psalm 95. If one denies that God is, then God won’t work with them as He would if they demonstrated faith. They are missing the most fundamental principle of reality. If they are wrong in that, then that which falls from that error will also be error.
Think in terms of math or computer programming. If there is a fundamental mistake in a proof of geometry, then the conclusions of that proof will not be correct. If there is a fundamental mistake in a computer code, then the program will not run properly.
So as we consider the encouragements to worship in Psalm 95, we should begin with a proper worldview. The universe is the domain of the King, who rules His Kingdom. If we start here, we can worship as He would desire, provided we focus on that worship.
Suggestions for Focusing on Worship
So what do we do to improve the focus of our worship? Here are some suggestions.
1 Anticipate and Prepare to Worship
Worship starts at home.
As we are getting ready to go to church, we should already be praying, and asking the Lord to help our hearts and minds to prepare to meet with Him in corporate worship.
Be early and prepare to worship.
By leaving early, we arrive early, and we don't rush. As we enter the sanctuary, we can greet people and listen to prelude music to prepare our hearts.
Pray.
Pray especially for ourselves - that we will be free of distractions to worship. We should pray the same for those around us.
2 Choose Not to be Distracted
What are our distractions?
Room - people; clothes; smells; paper; projection; songs; instruments; lighting; volume.
Preacher - style, content, clothes, habits;
Family disagreement (even on the way to church);
We make conscious decisions not to be distracted.
We pray for the Lord through the indwelling Holy Spirit to help us not be distracted, or when we are distracted, to move past it quickly without letting it interfere with our worship.
3 Be Willing
Repentance - willingness to face our sinfulness.
Yield - willingness to bow before the Lord and bow to the Lord
4 Choose to Worship
God established the principle of choice before creation.
We have a choice to worship.
It is our choice.
Similarly, we have a choice not to worship.
“The Heart of Worship is Your Heart”
Our hearts are both our intellect and our emotions.
Our hearts are a function of our choices.
Our hearts can be made clean.
Our hearts can, and should, love God.
The greatest commandment: Matthew 22:37; Mark 12:30; Luke 10:27
“You shall love the Lord Your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength, and your neighbor as yourself.”
We make our heart a heart of worship.
“Come, let us worship and bow down.”
Think of a football coach who needs to talk with his players at the beginning of practice. He tells them to “take a knee." All of the players who were standing, bend down and put one knee on the ground. One purpose of doing this is so that all of the players can see the coach as he stands to talk with them. In American football, that is easily 50 or 60 players on a roster. It also serves to remind everyone to stop talking and to listen to the coach. It is symbolic of his authority to lead as the coach. It is a good picture for us to bow down before the Lord.
