Sermon: "Worship All Week"

Third in the "Come, Let Us Worship" series.
Delivered January 22, 2006 by Rev. John Schmidt.
Other sermons in this series - 1 / 2 / 3 / 4

Theme: We sometimes have this image that worship 'just happens.' David didn't think this way. In Psalm 103 we see David prepare himself for worship. Our experience of worship will be determined by our preparation, too, preparation that happens in our walk with God all week long.

The audio file of this sermon is available for download and listening in MP3 format.

Click to Download & Listen (2.6MB)

I haven't had a lot of conversations myself with people and often the issue comes to worship and people talk about what they receive in worship; what they are looking for. And it's a fact that many of us come to worship with a hunger, with a thirst. We want to connect with God, because life is hard and so we are in the workplace and we have to make some kind of decision that's difficult and it dries us out. And so we get parched by all of that pressure and we're making decisions might hurt people. We might have to fire somebody. All kinds of things hit us and so we come dry looking for the worship to come and on Sunday fill us up a little bit. Somebody else might be in a situation and they argue with their family and they sense that they have breached relationships there and they feel again all dried up. There is nothing inside. You come in parched and feeling guilty and not knowing exactly what to do next and you come into the worship and you get some of what you need.

There are all kinds of things that we face that dry us out during the week. We mentioned family and mentioned the workplace, but there's things going on inside of our lives that dry us out too. Maybe we are just so busy, so loaded down with stuff that we don't even get a chance to think about God, so we come in and we are all parched and dry and we come in to worship and get a little bit. Maybe it's sin and so we come in to church, we experience worship, music, preaching, prayer, testimony and we get some of what we need. We realize that we are forgiven and that God is with us. All kinds of things we come in and we get what we need.

This is an entirely natural experience for us; to develop a hunger for God, to develop that need for affirmation in our relationship, to come in to worship and to experience that, but even so, even though this is natural I am going to call it soup kitchen worship, because the whole thing is that you are coming with nothing and somebody else is going to have to make the spiritual meal and they better serve it to you right or it won't work. It's a soup kitchen mentality, because you don't believe that you can bring anything to worship. You come only feeling your need.

I think a more biblical image is, I don't know whether any of you have ever been to an African American church, particularly for a homecoming, but down in the south, and I don't know whether it's all over the country, they have tradition of homecoming and let me tell you that is a day to experience, because a bunch of churches come together to celebrate. So all the pastors of all the different churches start preparing their best sermons because this is almost like a sermon cook-off, you know the Iron Chefs/Iron Pastors thing. The choirs are all prepared, man and let me tell you that we are ready for three hours of music. But that's not what I am going to talk about because knowing me I am going to talk about the picnic that follows, the food. Because when you go that picnic that follows, all these people from all these different churches, particularly the host church, everybody has prepared their best food. So Aunt Sally has made a lemon meringue pie that; well several of them that you just won't believe. It's just amazing. And Mr. Bob has made the best ribs on the planet and they are going to be offered that afternoon. And then that potato salad that Mrs. Lawson made they are still talking about it from last year; well she is bringing it again and lots of it. Everybody comes with something that they have prepared. Everybody has come with something to offer.

I think this is more the biblical picture of what we are to be thinking about when we come in to worship; that we each come with something to offer and I think that's what David is doing in Psalm 103. So I would like you to turn in your bibles to Psalm 103 and let's pray for a moment.

God as we go in to your word we pray that you will help us to understand what's there and respond to your truth whatever way we can. Empower us now by your holy spirit to do that. For we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

Psalm 103 begins with these words:

"Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not his benefits."

Here is David getting ready for worship. David starts worship by talking to himself. Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. The first voice that David hears in worship is his own voice calling himself to worship; preparing his own heart to draw close to God. David takes time to do that because he recognizes what an awesome privilege it is to worship God. What an incredible opportunity and he knows that life is so busy and he is so scattered that it takes special attention to get ready to get his mind focused to be able to worship God with all of who he is. And so he knows also that he has to think about some specific things; to focus his mind. And so David goes on and explicitly talks about some things.

"Forget not all his benefits who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's. The Lord works righteousness and justice for the oppressed."

He focuses in on specific things. This is not a doctrinal exercise. Praise the Lord, O my soul because he is omniscient, omnipotent. No, it's not that. He talks about the experience that Israel has had, the experience that he has had with the grace of God. God provides for us. God heals us. God forgives us and its out of this relational experience that he calls to mind his history and the history of Israel to help him understand and to liberate his heart for worship. He engages his mind with this very real history that he has experienced. He goes on:

"He made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel: The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love."

This is something that had been repeated again and again in the life of Israel; something that we still experience now; that God is slow to anger, abounding in love. This is a foundational truth about God and so he calls it to mind, prophet after prophet has spoken these very words; to call Israel to understand who it is that we are worshipping.

"He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him."

Who wouldn't want to worship a God like that? David's mind is drawn in to this critical central issue of forgiveness; of the compassion of God expressed to us. The whole reason he can have relationship with God is because God is compassionate and gracious and had to deal with our sin. As far as the east is from the west, so far can God remove us from that sin. And so he can worship because he understands that the biggest load about who we are has been dealt with by God. Apart from being created and having existence itself, the most fundamental thing that we experience with God is the recognition that we are forgiven; that there is a wall that is there and out of the gracious action of God he can in love tear that down. The receiving of God's love expressed in forgiveness. And so naturally David focuses in on that. He gets plenty of press time in this Psalm; focusing in on the incredible privilege to be forgiven. And as he thinks about this he goes on to say:

"For he knows, God knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are but dust. As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; The wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord's love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children's children- with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts."

Inevitable in worship we come to the point that we recognize how vastly different we are from God. This is natural, this is good and this is part of what worship is all about. So David starts to recognize that he is here only for a time. He springs up. He has a very eventful and full life, but one day it comes to an end. It dries up and within a generation or so for most of us even the memory is gone. That's who we are. And you know what, we are not only created and here for a short time, but we mess up most of it. That's what sin is all about. And so what's amazing here is this being that's here for just a moment, this one who uses that little bit of time that we get in this life so poorly because of the grace of God who created us, because of the grace of the God who loved us, we can still approach God and worship and we can establish a relationship that lasts for eternity. And David recognizes this. He goes on:

"The Lord has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all. Praise the Lord, you his angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding, who obey his word. Praise the Lord, all his heavenly hosts, you his servants who do his will. Praise the Lord, all his works everywhere in his dominion. Praise the Lord, O my soul."

It's this deep into the Psalm, verse 20, before David directly calls anyone else to worship. Now this might have been used in corporate worship. Other people might be overhearing what David is saying or singing, but the fact is he doesn't call anybody else to join him in worship until verse 20. All of that time there is that focus on getting ready, of preparing his voice to join the voices of the rest. And then when he calls all of creation to worship, we get the same picture in David's few words that we got two weeks ago in the first sermon from the Book of Revelation, where angels and heavenly beings we hardly understand are all uniting their voice along with all of creation to praise God and David is calling for that to happen right now, because of what God has done for me, for us, for Israel. And then the final verse where he says, "Praise the Lord, O my soul." Worship is not a solo for David. He is singing with others, but his voice is important even as angels sing, even as heavenly hosts sing, even as all of Gods creation sings, David's voice is an important part of the whole harmony. And so again at the end he reminds himself "Praise the Lord, O my soul" and joins up in the worship.

There is a lot of preparation, there is a lot of work, not in a bad sense, but in a good sense that goes in to worship and it all begins with a choice that David makes; a choice to prepare himself, a choice to worship. So how do we do that? It all begins a lot before, a long time before we actually come in here to worship. We talked about how so many things wear us down; the workplace, the family, our own weakness, our sin, all these things empty us out. But then we realize I can spend a moment with God today. Let me go to his word for a moment and read a few things, remind myself again who God is. Think about that for a minute, and so we do that and we get a little bit refreshed. And then we realize you know God has promised to actually be with us in these situations. Yes, I am feeling all of those difficulties, but God is with me. And so we pray about it and we get a little bit more refreshed. Then we go and speak with a friend or a mentor or prayer partner and they have faith about this situation and they can see things differently and they give us some encouraging words; yeah you are a good mother or you are good daughter, good son. We are refreshed even more. And then we go to our small group and we study the word together and we hear different ways that people see that and we pray together about our life issues and we even hold each other accountable a little bit and we are feeling a little bit better. And so then when we come to worship well golly, well on the way there you might be able to share something with somebody and then as we join together in worship these fill up and maybe even to overflowing.

Now I have seen some of this in our life together. I have seen the ministry that you have with one another as you talk after the service and before the service; invitations you make to one another, encouragement and exhortation. All of this is part of what we bring to worship. And so when we unite our voices; you might not be somebody who stands up in front and does something public, but what gives power to our music, to our singing, what puts fire underneath our faith in our prayers, what gives a reality to what we do on Sunday is all of what you bring in before we even begin. So we've got a choice; we can come unprepared or we can come prepared for worship. It's our choice. David makes that choice when he says, "Praise the Lord, O my soul. All my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, O my soul and forget none of his benefit." Let us be faithful along with David and prepare our hearts for worship.

Let's pray. God, we praise you. Praise the Lord, O my soul, all that is in me praise your holy name. We praise you and we love you father because you first loved us and sent your son to atone for our sins. Lord, we stand amazed that Jesus who had always been God didn't cling to his rights as your equal, but he laid aside all his privileges to be born as a human being, that he totally humbled himself submitting to the death of a common criminal and that on that cross you laid on him the weight of all our sin and guilt and shame, dying the death that we deserved and how much we praise you that its impossible for death to hold him, that you raised him from the dead to be our savior, to make us righteous in your sight and that he is now exalted having a position infinitely superior to any power, authority or control, natural or supernatural and now we bow at the feet of him who is dead and is now alive forever and ever, we exalt him, we yield ourselves to him for he is worthy. Worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing. Praise the Lord, all his heavenly host. Praise the Lord, all his works everywhere in his dominion. Praise the Lord, O my soul.

© 2006, Rev. John Schmidt
Central Presbyterian Church, Baltimore, MD 21204 410/823-6145
www.centralpc.org