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Venite
Psalm 95You and I receive many different kinds of invitations during our lifetime. We get invitations for birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, weddings and the list goes on and on. Do you like getting invitations? How do you respond to them? Obviously, how we react to those invitations depends on who invited us, what type of celebration it is or even how close we feel to the person who invited us?
When Jane and I got married, it seemed like we invited everybody. I’d grown up in Atlanta and am the youngest of five, I went to high school and college in Watertown, had worked in Chicago and Texas, and on top of that had already served in two churches when we got married. I had a lot of family and friends to invite! One of the blessings of getting married, at least for the guy, is that he doesn’t usually have to address all of those invitations. And I remember Jane asking me, “Do you really know all of these people?”
My Bible is open to Psalm 95 (p. 426). Psalm 95 is an invitation…an invitation to worship. Throughout the history of the Church it’s been used as a call to worship. In the Latin Church this Psalm is known as Venite which simply means “O Come.” The first Latin word in the Christmas Carol, O Come All Ye Faithful is Venite. This Psalm is one of the great teaching Psalms on the subject of worship. It presents some of the various aspects of worship in a wonderfully balanced manner.
Over the last few decades the Church of Jesus Christ has gone through what’s been dubbed Worship Wars. That’s because most of us define worship by our own personal preferences but God wants us to understand what true worship is. Mark Horst insightfully writes, “I am dismayed by the popular phrase ‘worship experience’ to describe the church’s corporate worship. Worship has the capacity to transform us, because it focuses our hearts and minds on God. However, the phrase ‘worship experience’ suggests that worship is important because it induces feelings. In this context worship is focused more on the worshiper than on the One worshiped…We need to ask ourselves what a true worship experience is so that if we had one, we could recognize it.”
To be candid, I’m a bit nervous about doing a series on worship. Worship has become one of those overarching, very emotional, often conflict-ridden topics that at the same time is vital to our faith. To talk about worship is difficult and at times dangerous. To not talk about it is to ignore one of the most important and fundamental elements in the practicing of Christianity.
The reason this topic is so difficult to dialogue about revolves around us, not God’s Word. We’re the problem. We approach worship much like we approach nearly everything else in American culture, we’re consumers. We’ve made worship about us and it’s not. It’s about our awesome God!
It’s time to Venite. It’s time to for the Church to come and truly worship. Psalm 95 helps us evaluate a true worship experience. In its three movements this Psalm gives three invitations, three summons to worship. A holy God longs for us to come into His presence. He's not concerned about laying down a bunch of rules and requirements. Instead, as John 4:23 says, God is seeking worshippers who will adore Him in spirit and in truth. He’s sent out the invitation to each of us. He wants us to come without hesitation. You and I are invited to Venite, to come into His very presence. If you’re taking notes…1. God invites us to rejoice, vss. 1-5. These first five verses provide us with at least five characteristics of worship.
a) Worship is plural, not just personal. In other words, worship is something that happens in community. The worship being encouraged here is collective in that it is congregational. Three times in vss. 1-2 we read, “Let us.” The NASV has four. While worship may be done privately, that’s not how it’s viewed here. Those who claim to be able to worship God just as easily from a secluded spot on the lake are hard pressed to explain how they can worship in the corporate manner described in Psalm 95. Here and elsewhere in Scripture, worship is described as congregational, not just individualistic and personal.
That brings us in direct conflict with a problem that’s a continual topic of discussion amongst our worship leaders here at Grace. Many contemporary Christian songs are individualistic, rather than corporate. They more frequently use “I” or “me,” rather than “we” or “us.” It’s indicative of our narcissistic culture creeping into our worship music. Obviously, worship has a private element to it, particularly during the week. But the psalmist here is stating that worship is primarily designed to be congregational, not merely individual. That’s why fellowship and the local church are vital for true worship. It reminds us that worship is about us, not just me.
b) Worship is very vocal. The worship promoted here is loud, “let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.” Often we think of worship not only as private, but as silent, or at least very quiet. We’re sometimes told to sing a song worshipfully and what’s meant by that is we’re to sing it slowly, softly and quietly. No doubt this stems from such scriptural statements as, "Be still and know that I am God" (Ps. 46:10, KJV). But "being still" is not commanded in the context of public worship, instead it refers to the ceasing from strife. It’s also addressed primarily to unbelievers. The words employed in vss. 1-2 refer to vocal, public praise of God. If we’re right with God, we’re excited about God. We’re on the winning team! Winners are vocal. Do you think that Phillies’ fans had a whisper celebration last week?
c) Worship is vibrant and vigorous. We’re to participate with joyful, grateful praise. We’re to be exuberant in our worship. Someone has said that the consistent characteristic of Old Testament worship is exhilaration. The terms employed here describe activity which somehow seems more appropriate at a Badgers game than a church sanctuary. This phrase, "sing for joy" could be translated "shout for joy." When we’re told to "shout aloud" in the second half of vs. 1, the Hebrew literally means to "raise a shout."
The Israelites did this when they were anticipating a battle or celebrating a victory. The expression was used in Joshua 6:20, when the Israelites were marching around the walls of Jericho: "When the trumpets sounded, the people shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the people gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed.” It's also found in 1 Samuel 4:5, where we read about what happened when the Ark of the Covenant was brought into the camp, “All Israel raised such a great shout that the ground shook."
Dr. Rod Cooper shares, “I used to be the chaplain for the Astros and the Oilers when I was in Houston. After I’d do a chapel, they’d give me tickets. One time in the Astrodome I watched Earl Campbell run over everybody, his own men included, to get to the goal line. When he got to the goal line, he put the ball down. The place went crazy. People were giving high fives and jumping around. The scoreboard went off…It was a ringing shout, because their man scored a touchdown. I’m not saying that when you come to church you need to give each other high fives or do cartwheels down the aisle, but worship is a time of anticipation and expectation. We come together because all week God has been scoring touchdowns in our lives. Worship is a time to celebrate what God has done for us."
Our worship must be vibrant and vigorous, just as we see in the Old Testament. I don't know why mine is sometimes so somber. Maybe it's a cultural thing. More likely it’s that we're in a rut. Maybe we’re just not very expressive in general. Or, maybe it's because we don't have much joy in our hearts. I'm not sure what all the reasons are. I’ve been personally challenged by this Psalm to become much more exuberant and expressive in my worship.
Why is it that we too easily become critical of others whose worship is animated and enthusiastic? While there are extremes we should avoid, very few of us even come close to being too passionate. Our tendency is to react against such worship, much like Michal disdained David's joyful enthusiasm. 2 Samuel 6:12 tells us that when David brought the ark into Jerusalem, he did it with "rejoicing." Verse 14 even says that David danced before the Lord with all his "might" and verse 15 says that his worship was filled with "shouts and the sound of trumpets." But when Michal, his wife who was also King Saul's daughter, saw David leaping and dancing before the Lord, “She despised him in her heart (v. 16).” David responded by saying that he was focused only on the Lord when he was expressing himself in worship. In the last part of vs. 21 he says, "I will celebrate before the Lord." David didn't give a rip how he looked to others or what they thought. He worshipped an audience of One, God. That’s why he was intent on fully engaging himself in wholehearted worship.
In the same way we’re to collectively express our worship vocally with vibrancy and exuberance. As we sing songs of praise, we should sing out at an incredible volume level in joyful gratitude for the Rock of our salvation. As Oswald Chambers puts it, "A joyful spirit is the nature of God in my blood." When God so penetrates our lives, we’re consumed by a burning desire to worship Him. We can't help but break out in joyful praise.
d) Worship is God-centered. But we’re not to just get emotional or sing loudly for our own sake. Our focus shouldn’t be on how worship makes us feel. It must be centered on God alone. Notice these first two verses. We are to "sing for joy to the Lord," we are to "shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation," we are to "come before Him with thanksgiving," and we're to "extol Him with music and song." David danced and shouted, but he did it "before the Lord."
Our worship must be Theocentric or God-centered, not anthropocentric or man-centered. Instead of singing about how happy we are to be together worshipping God, the Psalms call us to sing directly to God. In other words, we’re not to just talk about how we feel when we worship, but we’re to engage our body, soul and spirit, complete with our emotions, in a total preoccupation with the Rock of our salvation.
A.W. Tozer in answering the question, "What is worship?" said, "Worship is to feel in your heart and express in some appropriate manner a humbling but delightful sense of admiring awe and astonished wonder and overpowering love in the presence of that most ancient Mystery, that Majesty which philosophers call the First Cause, but which we call Our Father Which Art in Heaven."
The focus must be taken off of ourselves and turned only on God. He alone is Creator, Almighty, Redeemer, Lord, the Holy One, our Rock and our Salvation, the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, Abba, Father, and Jesus. We worship Him because He and He alone is worthy of worship. We must let go of our intellectual idea of worship and realize there’s more to worship than a sermon; we have to let go of our evangelistic notion of worship and come to grips with the fact that worship is not primarily directed toward sinners who need to be converted; we must let go of our entertainment expectations and remind ourselves that we are not in church as spectators, watching a Christian variety show. You and I gather in worship to meet Almighty God. God, the Creator of the Universe, the One who sustains our lives, our Redeemer and King, is present through proclamation and remembrance. He wants to communicate to us, to penetrate our inner self, to take up residence within us.
e) Worship is founded on truth. In verses 3-4, the sovereignty of God is given as the basis for our worship. Verse 3 expresses God's rule in general terms, “For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods.” We’re to shout aloud, sing for joy, and praise the Lord with music and song for He is supreme. The supremacy of God is the foundation for our joy. John Piper writes, “We also believe that our joy shows the supremacy of God's value. If His greatness is the basis of our joy, then our joy is the evidence of His greatness. God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.” If we’re not joyful, if we don't respond to this call to rejoice, we’re failing to give evidence of God's greatness. Would those around you know that you have a great God by the joy evident in your life?
Verses 4-5 depict God's sovereignty more specifically. He’s in control of His creation. He’s in charge of all that He has created and possesses. The expressions "depths," "peaks," "sea" and "dry land" emphasize the totality of His creation and control over all the earth. These challenge us as humans and hold forth the promise of adventure, excitement, fascination and mystery. God made it all. He’s sovereign over all. The world is not only the work of His hands – it’s all in His hands.
That’s why our plural, vocal, vibrant, God-centered rejoicing must be founded on the truth of Who He is and what He has done. He’s in control of everything. No matter where you go, He’s already there. The psalmist calls each of us to rejoice in His awesome transcendence. Venite – come and rejoice!2. God invites us to be reverent, vss. 6-7a. Recently, actor Paul Newman passed away. In 1990 when he was in Kansas City filming Mr. and Mrs. Bridge, a woman entered a Haagen-Dazs store on the Kansas City Plaza for an ice cream cone. After making her selection, she turned and found herself face to face with Paul Newman. Newman’s baby blues caused her knees to buckle. She managed to pay for her cone, then left the shop, heart pounding. When she gained her composure, she realized she didn’t have her ice cream cone. She started back to the store to get it and met Paul Newman at the door. "Are you looking for your ice cream cone?" he asked. She nodded, unable to speak. "You put it in your purse with your change."
When was the last time the presence of God so quickened your pulse and brought you to such a point of mystery, discovery and encounter that you lost track of everything else you were doing? If we find that worship is boring and irrelevant, it only means that we simply have no sense of the presence of God in it. It’s impossible to be bored in the presence of God, if you know that He’s there.
Verse 6 and the first part of vs. 7 give us the second invitation to worship, it’s a call to reverence, “Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; for He is our God and we are the people of His pasture, the flock under His care.” Did you catch the change in tone from enthusiastic, loud songs of joy to awe-inspired reverence and humility before God? We’re called to move from praise to prostration. In vss. 1-2, the worshipper stands in God's presence, shouting forth praise. Now, in vs. 6, the worshipper falls on His face before God in humbled silence. Worship involves both animated rejoicing and speechless reverence.
Not only has the mood of the Psalm changed, so has the focus. It’s now no longer God our Creator who’s in view, it’s God as our Redeemer and Savior. We’re the flock under His care and the people of His pasture. God is our loving shepherd who pays close attention to each of us personally. This should cause us to bow down in worship and to kneel before the Lord our Maker. Bowing and kneeling helps us get "low" before God, which is the essence of worship. We accept our place before Him while at the same time acknowledging His place before us.
It’s noteworthy that the call for rejoicing is based upon God's sovereignty as Creator in the first part of the Psalm but the call for reverence in verse 6 is based upon relationship. It seems like it should be the other way around, that we’d rejoice over our relationship and stand in awe because of His mighty deeds of creation…and then it hit me. The deeper our relationship with God is, the more profound our sense of awe and reverence. The key word that characterizes the first five verses is praise, while the theme of vss. 6-7 is summarized by prostration. These words, incidentally, are the basic nuance of the original terms for worship, both in Hebrew and Greek. Worship involves both animated praise and speechless prostration.
On a couple of occasions this happened with the disciples. After Jesus did a miracle by providing more fish than the fisherman knew what to do with, Luke 5:8 records that Peter fell at Jesus' knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!" Knowing the Lord is the means to fearing Him. Experiencing God's caring hand in our lives should induce us to greater submission and reverence. Sadly, those who have little reverence for God also have little intimacy with Him.
Our worship should contain elements of both expressive rejoicing and contemplative reverence. We must be committed to have our worship services filled with praise and prostration; shouts and silence; happiness and holiness; rejoicing and reverence. Venite, Come and be reverent!3. God invites us to respond, vss. 7b-11. In the last part of vs. 7 we have a transition, “Today, if you hear His voice.” It concludes the first part of the Psalm, yet at the same time, it’s an introduction to the final call of the invitation – the invitation to respond. The Message translates it, “Drop everything and listen, listen as He speaks and don't turn a deaf ear.”
There’s another dramatic mood change here. From the jubilant praise of the opening verses to the call to reverence in verse 6, we come now to a solemn warning that’s not to be taken lightly. There’s also a change in the speaker. In the first seven verses, the psalmist has spoken, now we hear from God Himself as He warns us against the dangers of a hard heart. “Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the desert, where your fathers tested and tried me, though they had seen what I did. For forty years I was angry with that generation; I said, 'They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they have not known my ways.' So I declared on oath in my anger, 'They shall never enter my rest’” (vss. 8-11). Essentially, what God wants in worship is that we’d listen to His voice. More than just coming together to sing, He wants us to live out what we hear. That's why we look at our entire service as corporate worship, not just the musical part. A vital part of worship is listening and responding to God's Word as it’s preached.
God warns us against the danger of having a hard heart by using two illustrations from Israel's history. He reminds them of what happened when those who escaped Egypt failed to possess the land of Canaan. Massah and Meribah are not just geographical names, but also designate two evils, both of which characterized the conduct of God's people who hardened their hearts. Massah is a Hebrew word for test. Meribah is derived from the word for strife or contention. Exodus 17 mentions the first instance of Massah and Meribah. God recently freed His people from slavery in Egypt by parting the Red Sea. In chapter 15, the people sang a song of praise to God for His redemption. But then the Israelites got thirsty and began to grumble at Marah, God sweetened their water and gave them both manna and meat. But in Exodus 17 the people began to quarrel with Moses because they’d run out of water. Moses told them that they were really grumbling against God, and then the people threatened to stone Moses. So God instructs Moses to strike the rock with his rod. Water gushes out and the people are able to drink. The place was named Massah and Meribah because the people had grumbled and tested God.
The second event is found in Numbers 20 but this time only the term Meribah is used. The scene is similar to the one in Exodus, but this one happened forty years later, just as the people are about to enter the Promised Land. The Israelites are grumbling and complaining again. Moses and Aaron fall on their faces before God and His glory appears to them. This time God instructs Moses to speak to the rock so that water will come out. But instead of obeying God, in anger Moses scolded the people, and strikes the rock twice with his rod. While water came out, God rebuked Moses for his unbelief and lack of reverence before the people. We see this in verse 12, "Because you did not trust in Me enough to honor Me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them." Moses’ sin cost him dearly. He wasn’t allowed to lead the Israelites into Canaan. In Exodus 17, it was the people who sinned but in Numbers 20, it was the people and their leaders.
These two accounts reveal a common sin of every generation. Let’s be honest, grumbling and complaining is much easier than gratitude and worship. But when we do, we test God. What’s easier…to praise or complain? We get ticked when things don’t go our way. While it’s not wrong to ask God for help, it’s a sin to complain and gripe. And like Israel in the wilderness, our grumbling proves our lack of trust in God. Do you know the saddest thing of all? Most Christians don’t even think that complaining is really a sin, at least not a serious one. Massah and Meribah are historical events recorded by God to expose a deep-seated and recurring tendency to harden our hearts. That's why the psalmist says, "Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah…as at Massah." The word "as" indicates that it’s a Massah like attitude of heart which God despises.
So what’s the message of Psalm 95? We should worship, both by our rejoicing and our reverence. Our worship is to be based on God's sovereignty as our Creator and His sufficiency as our Shepherd. Vss. 7-11 reminds us that we also worship God by our response of obedience.
It's more than just the shouting of praises or acts of reverence; wholehearted obedience is the evidence of true worship. If we worship God as our Shepherd then it’s imperative we follow Him as the sheep of His pasture. Worship without obedience is worthless to God. Verse 10 says it ticks God off. Failure to worship through our obedience causes our hearts to harden, which is repulsive to God and destructive to us.
Leonard Sweet, in his book Aquachurch, points out that we like to sing and praise God, yet we often don't want to go beyond that. He says, “Our pews are occupied by people who want to be moved, but who don't want to move.” True worship always leads to action. Let's come Sundays not just wanting to be moved, but committed to move! Venite – come and respond!Conclusion: John Gough told of being in a church service and hearing a hoarse, off key voice behind him singing, Just as I am. He cringed, he said because the man was the worst singer he’d ever heard. There was no melody, no tune…nothing. After three stanzas, the organist mercifully played an interlude. As it was being played, Gough said that he felt a hand on his shoulder and this man with this terrible voice asked him, “Could you tell me the first phrase of the next stanza? I think I could get it if I had the first few words.” John Gough said he looked around into the face of the terrible singer and saw that the man was blind. He passed onto him the words to the next stanza of Just as I am which went, “Just as I am, poor, wretched, blind; Sight, riches, healing of mind, yea all I need in Thee I find, O lamb of God, I come! I come!” John Gough said as the next stanza began, he didn’t hear discordant notes anymore, he heard a man speaking to God…and God speaking back. Let’s close today with two observations.
a) Worship is to be primary. God has called us to exaltation and the invitation from God to worship is fundamental. He’s worthy of our worship and longingly seeks those committed to worship Him in spirit and in truth. When we fail to worship, our hearts become hardened which can lead to disobedience and even discipline. Someone wisely said there are two times to praise and worship God – when we feel like it and when we don't.
b) Worship is to be persistent. Every single day is "today" with God. Ruth Bell Graham kept a sign over her kitchen sink that said, "Worship services held here three times a day." We can't put off God's invitation. When we do, it's to our own peril. Instead of waiting until another time, do it today, do it right now – or it may be too late.
Psalm 95 teaches us that worship is not incidental; it’s fundamental. It’s not peripheral, it’s primary. We should worship God because He is worthy of it. We should worship God because He desires it (John 4:23-24). We should worship because God commands it (Ps. 95:1-7). We should worship God because to fail to worship hardens our hearts, leads to dissatisfaction and disobedience and ultimately to discipline.
Venete – we’re invited! Let’s come. Venete – We come together to celebrate and rejoice. Venete – We come together to fall at His feet and show reverence. Venete – We come together to worship and obey. When we do these things, then we’re the people Jesus spoke of in John 4:23, true worshipers whom the Father seeks and we will be among that company that worships the living God in spirit and in truth (John 4:24). Let’s Venite!
