PSALM 95:1-7
1Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord;let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.2 Let us come before Him with thanksgivingand extol Him with music and song.
3 For the Lord is the great God,the great King above all gods.4 In His hand are the depths of the earth,and the mountain peaks belong to Him.5 The sea is His, for He made it,and His hands formed the dry land.
6 Come, let us bow down in worship,let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;7 for He is our Godand we are the people of His pasture,the flock under His care.
Psalm 95:1-7 DO WE BOW DOWN WHEN WE WORSHIP GOD?
Springford Baptist Church: July 11, 2021.
What are the things you have already needed to be reminded of today?
Did you have an alarm to remind you that it was time to get up this morning?
Did a conversation with someone remind you of important things that will happen today.
Perhaps you are a person who writes things down to ensure that they will be remembered.
All of us need reminders. Sometimes we can admit that and appreciate reminders. Sometimes we think we will surely remember and so we neglect to have reminders in place.
I want us to approach our Scripture from Psalm 95 today as a key reminder about what is involved in approaching God in worship. We are being invited throughout these worship services during the summer months to be LISTENING FOR GOD AS WE WORSHIP GOD.
Let me ask you something. When you come for church to worship God, what do you bring with you? I have found since our daughter Geneva and I have been hiking the Bruce Trail that people have varied ideas of what is necessary for their trek. Some people have backpacks with several items including various articles of clothing and food and water bottles and bug spray and maps. Other people travel very lightly.
This Psalm 95 gives important reminders of what is necessary as we come to our God in worship.
The whole Psalm is a call to worship. In traditional church services, there has been a call to worship at the beginning of the service. It is intended to be a reminder of why we have come together.
This Psalm starts with a call to praise: 1Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord;let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.2 Let us come before Him with thanksgivingand extol Him with music and song.
This is the part of worship we are intended to enter into with enthusiasm. Our hearts are moved to sing for joy to the Lord and to recognize God as the Rock of our salvation. We are urged to come before Him with thanksgiving and to worship Him with music and with song.
Here I want to say that sometimes we will come to a time of worshiping God with joyful hearts. Sometimes we will come with heavy hearts. We will have concerns weighing us down and it will be hard to think about singing for joy to the LORD. We can always come to God as we are. We can still thank Him for who He is and what He has done. In our worship, we can recognize God as the Rock of our salvation and we can commit to Him what He alone can save.
The next part of the Psalm reminds us of God’s power to move or take charge of what we cannot:
3 For the Lord is the great God,the great King above all gods.4 In His hand are the depths of the earth,and the mountain peaks belong to Him.5 The sea is His, for He made it,and His hands formed the dry land.
When I read these words, I am reminded that there is nothing impossible for our Creator God. There is no corner of the universe that is not in His hands. Our greatest distress is known to Him and the One who formed the world we live in can form answers for whatever we are going through. This is reason to worship God. This Psalm was first sung by the people of Israel as they entered into worship of our God. Their lives had not been easy, but they had discovered God in the midst of whatever pain and difficulty and uncertainty they were experiencing and so can we.
Be reminded along with me of God’s tender compassion in these concluding verses of our Scripture for today:
6 Come, let us bow down in worship,let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;7 for He is our Godand we are the people of His pasture,the flock under His care.
When I ask the question, “DO WE BOW DOWN WHEN WE WORSHIP GOD”? it highlights the reminder of the attitude we will need when we come to God in worship. This is more than our physical posture, this is the necessary posture of our hearts. The Jewish people would kneel before God as they worshipped Him. Some churches today have kneeling benches where people do kneel before God in prayer. We speak of bowing our heads in prayer.
Bowing down before God calls us to acknowledge who God is and who we are. This is essential to worship.
Remember last week I said that “worship is recognizing God for who He is and responding to Him with all that we are.”
When we do come to worship God with humility, we are declaring that He is our God and we are His people.
“We are the people of His pasture, the flock under His care.” vs. 7b)
This is why we are drawn to worship God! We really are the flock under His care. He is our Shepherd and we are His sheep.
When we are reminded through worship of who God is and who we are, the only response is to bow before Him.
Our bowing before God in worship is our indication that we are inviting God’s way and not ours. We pray for His, will, His way, and His time. If we are the flock under His care, then we are surrendering everything into His hands. We are repenting of trying to manage or direct things ourselves and asking God to take charge.
Knowing that our loving God does hold our world and us in His hands is reason to humbly bow in worship as we come into His presence and respond with these words, “Have Your own way LORD.”