Wednesday, October 12, 2011

It Starts in the Mind

"Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth. Worship the LORD
with gladness; come before Him with joyful songs. 
     
Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are His;
we are His people, the sheep of His pasture.

Know that the LORD is God. It is He who made us, and we are His;
we are His people, the sheep of His pasture.

Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise;
give thanks to Him and praise His name.

For the LORD is good and His love endures forever;
His faithfulness continues through all generations.
(Psalm 100, NIV)

     I preached from this Psalm on Sunday, the "Old One-Hundredth." Every so often (and it is rare) a text just outlines itself as you prepare. This is one of those texts. Five verses, four stanzas. The first stanza (verses 1 and 2) and the third stanza (verse 4) speak of things we are to do in worship. The second stanza (verse 3) and the fourth stanza (verse 5) speak of what we need to know in order to do what we are called to do.
     What are we called to do? Worship with a focus on God, not on ourselves. See how many times the name of the LORD (Yahweh, the great "I AM") or God shows up in this Psalm. It really is all about Him. In this narcissistic age we live in, we really need to hear this again and again.
     And worship with exuberance. Look at the commands of verses 1,2 and 4: "Shout," "worship" (or serve) with gladness (not out of obligation); "come with joyful songs"; "give thanks", "praise", and (the second "praise" in verse 4, "bless" (literally, to bow, give homage). There is true overflowing joy combined with deep reverence and awe of God.
     The same idea can be found in Psalm 95, where we are told twice to "come." (Latin, venite) Remember, "Venite adoramus - O come, let us adore Him." First the Psalmist says to come with singing, shouting, thanksgiving, extolling. Then further down he says to come bowing down and kneeling. Both of these are expressions of exuberance, and we do not need to pit them against one another.
     This is obvious, and yet many Christians come to church with an apparent attitude of boredom. When the Willow Creek Church near Chicago was just starting out in the 80's, they surveyed whole neighborhoods to ask why people had stopped going to church The number one and two answers given were, "Church is boring," and "Church is irrelevant." So what's the problem?
     I think the answer is found in Psalm 100, verses 3 and 5. Verse 3 begins with the command, "Know..." We do not know God as we should. We do not know that God is GREAT (verse 3). He is God, the only God. He made us, He is our Creator. We are not products of chance or evolution. We are not merely the product of our parents. Our genes do not determine who we are, God does. And then He redeemed us through Christ, so that "we are His people." He made us. He bought us. If we are believers in Jesus Christ, we are twice His. What an awesome God!
     But wait, there's more! (I've always wanted to say that.) In verse 5, we are told that God is GOOD. He is good, He is loving, and He is faithful. And He will be these things forever. And we, as New Testament Christians, only need to look at Calvary to know how true this is. He died for us while we were yet sinners, and when we look to Him in faith as our Savior and our Substitute, He will keep his covenant with us, no matter what.
     God is great. God is good. When we really know this, worship becomes the easiest, most natural thing in the world. No wonder Jesus, when asked what the greatest commandment was, quoted the Shema from Deuteronomy 6. We are to love the Lord our God with all our heart and all our soul and all our strength (exuberant worship and service); but don't forget the last part - and with all our mind. We need to know God to worship Him - and knowing God starts with knowing about God. This is why Bible study and active listening to sermons is so vital - because theology leads to doxology, and orthodoxy is the only true way to orthopraxy (that is, right doctrine leads to right practice). Treasuring Christ, worshiping Him from the heart, really does begin in the mind - so crack open that Bible and ask Him to show Himself to you more and more. As He does, your response of worship will also grow more and more each day.
     "And He is the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything He might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him ... In Him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." (Colossians 1:18-19; 2:3, NIV) So let's start worshiping like this is true.

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