Loved ones, do you ever feel as if worship is focused on you? Sure, it’s easy to spot in some songs. No, that’s not what I mean. Does it ever feel as if, sometimes, people expect the church (note the little c) to be a product to be delivered, with expectations on the preachers, elders, deacons, and church servants to meet the needs of those in the pews and chairs? In many respects, it feels as if we try and create a church and service centered upon us. Yet there is nothing about worship that should be about us at all, unless it’s our surrender to Jesus as Lord of our lives.
And why? Because there is no one like our God. Consider just a few of our qualities. We are, by nature, selfish. We seek comfort and advantage, and power, and fulfillment of all of our desires. We have a hard time forgiving, and so we talk about one another behind closed doors or in private conversations. We find reasons to complain about the needs of ours that are not being met, and so we transfer it in to the church service (it’s too hot/cold, I don’t like the music, I don’t like the preaching; there’s CHAIRS here! There are PEWS here! and so on…).
But God is not like us at all! He is a jealous God, but not in the way of human jealousy. He made us in His image, and therefore will not share us with anyone else. He is Holy, and Righteous and Just. He does nothing wrong, He does not lie, He confronts sin, and provides the atonement Himself for the sins of many. He speaks, and stars, planets, trees, and animals came in to being. He divides seas, and raises the dead, He performs miracles and enforces the laws of the Universe that He set in to motion. There is nothing we could offer God that He already doesn’t have. He does not need us, but He desires us so much that He sent His son to be the atonement for our sin. There is no one like our God. He alone deserves worship and praise. Let no one else, not even you, not even me, attempt to take it from Him or offer it to anyone or anything else.
Psalm 95
Oh come, let us sing to the Lord;
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
For the Lord is a great God,
and a great King above all gods.
In his hand are the depths of the earth;
the heights of the mountains are his also.
The sea is his, for he made it,
and his hands formed the dry land.
Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
For he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture,
and the sheep of his hand.
Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,
as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
when your fathers put me to the test
and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.
For forty years I loathed that generation
and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart,
and they have not known my ways.”
Therefore I swore in my wrath,
“They shall not enter my rest.”
Psalm 150
Praise the Lord!
Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty heavens!
Praise him for his mighty deeds;
praise him according to his excellent greatness!
Praise him with trumpet sound;
praise him with lute and harp!
Praise him with tambourine and dance;
praise him with strings and pipe!
Praise him with sounding cymbals;
praise him with loud clashing cymbals!
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord!
