Psalm 96 — O sing unto the Lord a new song: sing unto the Lord, all the earth. Sing unto the Lord, bless his name; show forth his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the heathen, his wonders among all people. For the Lord is great, and greatly to be praised: he is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the nations are idols: but the Lord made the heavens. Honor and majesty are before him: strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. Give unto the Lord, O ye kindreds of the people, give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come into his courts. O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness: fear before him, all the earth. Say among the heathen that the Lord reigneth: the world also shall be established that it shall not be moved: he shall judge the people righteously. Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof. Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein: then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice before the Lord : for he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth: he shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth.
I was prompted to write about worship today. The psalms are full of wonderful verses about worship. Psalm 96 is one of my favorites. Perhaps I should have shortened my extract — but I love every word!
There are two attitudes about love that I think are quite wrong headed. The first is the notion that “worship” is something we all do when we congregate together in church. Now please don’t mistake me … that certainly can be worship, when we do it right. The Spirit-filled worship leader who takes us to the foot of the cross guides into that true worship.
The second wrong-headed attitude is the one that says “worship is holistic — it’s how you live your life, not something separate”. That’s such a good “spiritual’ sounding perspective – but it’s wrong. I have seen Jesus’s statement of the greatest commandment — “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind;” used to “prove” this notion — but if Jesus had meant “worship” He would have said “worship”, not “love”!
Psalm 96 tells us a lot about how to worship: Worship should be:
— “new” — Every time we worship, we should turn our hearts to God and refresh our understanding of why we worship Him.
— expressed out loud
— daily
— publicly shared
— with a confessing heart, in the beauty of holiness
— reverent — fearing The Lord
And what is the subject of worship? It is the wonder and glory of The Lord — as best we can. Francis Chan, in his book “Crazy Love” says:
“Many Spirit-filled authors have exhausted the thesaurus in order to describe God with the glory He deserves. His perfect holiness, by definition, assures us that our words can’t contain Him. Isn’t it a comfort to worship a God we cannot exaggerate?”
We cannot ever worship God as He deserves — but this wonderful Psalm gives us some great
clues about how to get started … and demands that we witness through worship. O sing unto The Lord, declare His glory among the heathen!