A Vision for God-Centered Worship - Psalm 29:2
I was looking through the presentation that I gave at our first informational meeting in Sept of 2016 when we were planting the church, and there was a slide that said, “Our Vision - what will we look like five years from now?” And it said, “Multi-generational, worshipping, gathering, extending.” I used that to explain the vision.
You can find our vision statement in the second paragraph of the inside cover of your WG: The vision was that this church would be “a multi-generational congregation worshipping according to Scripture in a contemporary style, gathering as one body on Sunday mornings and in small groups throughout Florence during the week, and introducing more people to the life-giving community of the local church.”
By God’s grace, that vision became reality, but it is still the vision. It describes how we fulfill our mission as a church. We are revisiting the mission and vision of Good Shepherd to begin this new year. We saw last Sunday that God has a vision for our lives and our church which we should adopt. The Scriptures teach us that folks who make God’s vision their own will increasingly embrace the path God determines and pursue the goals He verbalizes.
“Increasingly.” More and more. God’s Word describes an “increase” that only He can give. Let me restate the GS vision in terms of God’s increase: “a multigenerational congregation with an increasing reverence for the worship of God, an increasing commitment to the people of God, and an increasing zeal for the joy of God in the lives of more and more people.”
Today we are going to focus on the “worshipping” part of our vision. By “worship,” I don’t simply mean “singing.” Worship is showing reverence, honor, and love. All of the elements of our service are ways that we show these things. Not just through music. God’s Word is clear that His vision for His church includes biblical, God-centered worship: displays of reverence, honor, and love directed toward Him and focused on Him.
But God is also clear that we are prone to worship in a different way. Our worship is naturally self-focused. We are bent toward honoring and entertaining ourselves in worship. We turn worship into something that glorifies us, something man-centered. We can say and do the “right things” while our hearts are far from God. But Christ came to restore God-centered worship, worship according to Scripture. God has revealed the characteristics of true worship. He has revealed His vision for worship.
We should pursue God’s vision for worship as revealed in the Bible. But what are the characteristics of God-centered worship? What makes it different? Psalm 29:2 answers that question, although we see the answer throughout the Scriptures. On page 5 in your WG you can find an outline for this message. God-centered worship does two things: it declares the full scope of God’s saving work, and it reflects a right understanding of God’s majestic righteousness.
Psalm 29 was written by the great Israelite king David, perhaps most well-known for his confrontation with Goliath. Two times the Bible refers to David as a man after God’s own heart; he also notoriously took another man’s wife and engineered that man’s death.
But God showed grace to David. David was an ancestor of Jesus Christ. He is a fixture in redemptive history; in many ways, his life teaches us about the saving work of Jesus. David was also a musician and poet. He wrote many of the psalms: songs sung by the Israelites in worship.
Now, verse 1 of Psalm 29 tells us that David is speaking to the heavenly beings: angels and so forth. So this command in verse 2 is directed at them, but later in the psalms, Psalm 96, these same words are directed toward God’s people on earth. Our worship here on earth should be much like the angels’ worship in heaven. And in fact Jesus tells us to pray “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
So how should we worship? Notice the beginning of verse 2 again: [2] Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name.” Another word for “ascribe” is “give.” So “Give to the LORD the credit He deserves for all He has done.” His name is Yahweh. I mention this often. “LORD” in all capital letters signifies the use of “Yahweh” in the Hebrew manuscripts. Yahweh is the personal name given by the one true God; His people were to know and call Him by this name. We think of it as His covenant name, related to His covenant of grace.
God’s name is loaded with meaning. Yahweh made the universe and everything in it. Yahweh showed mercy to Adam and Eve after their sin. Yahweh delivered the Israelites from Egypt according to His promise to Abraham. Yahweh established them as a nation and gave them His law, and through that people, Yahweh, the triune God, sent Jesus Christ into the world to save His people from sin and death.
In Psalm 29, David cries out to the holy angels in the presence of Yahweh in heaven, and says, “Give to Yahweh the honor He deserves for who He is.” Then in Psalm 96, the people of God are commanded to the same.
Who is Yahweh to you? What has He done for you? Take one of these (a breath) and let it out. Yahweh gave you life. He brought you here today. He’s obviously seen you through some things and carried you. He hasn’t turned you completely over to your foolishness or your failures. You’ve heard this morning that through Jesus He makes people into new creations. He saves terrible sinners, people hostile in their hearts towards Him. His blood heals; His grace seals us perfectly as His children.
He carries His people through any tribulation, any sorrow, even to death. He loves His people and supplies every need in Christ Jesus. Yahweh is our creator, our savior, our sustainer, our helper, our counselor, our comforter, our protector, shelter, refuge, our rock and our redeemer. He deserves all of our praise and honor, all glory belongs to Him. His very name should bring to mind the fullness of His salvation.
God-centered worship declares the full scope of God’s saving work. It boldly and unashamedly acknowledges our sinfulness while confidently and victoriously proclaiming the triumph of Jesus Christ over every sin. For worship to be God-centered, it must contain both. To not do so gives an incomplete picture of who the LORD is.
How can we give Him the glory due His name if we don’t revisit the full scope of His saving work in worship each Lord’s Day? He has demonstrated in Scripture many different ways that we are to revisit His saving work. We see God’s call to worship and His benediction, and in between we see the reading and preaching of His Word, and we see prayer, we see singing, we see confessing sin and assurance of God’s grace, we see the proclamation of what the church believes, we see the Lord’s Supper and baptism, we see the giving of tithes and offerings, and on occasion we see people taking vows. God has given us these things to help us worship Him and not ourselves.
This shouldn’t be a time for patting ourselves on the back, nor is it a time for earning things from God. It’s not a time for impressing others. But it can easily descend into that. We come here to know God and seek the gift of repentance. We come to honor Him and be transformed by Him as only He can do in the presence of His congregation.
Notice the second command in verse 2, “worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness.”
Another word for “worship” is “bow down.” Lower yourself. Humble yourself. Certainly our sins and shortcomings are humbling, but notice the second part of the command: “in the splendor of holiness.” This basically means, “in holy attire,” “clothed in righteousness.”
Now, it makes sense that David would address the angels this way in Psalm 29. They were created to exist in God’s holy presence. They are without sin, they freely inhabit heaven. But remember, over in Psalm 96, the people are also commanded to worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness, to humble ourselves before Yahweh clothed in righteousness. We’re sinners though. How can we lower ourselves before Him in holy attire?
The NT actually says a great deal about this: “put on Christ.” “be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.” “he made him to be sin who knew no sin,
so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.”
I could go on. We must worship Yahweh clothed in Jesus Christ. Jesus is the only way we can worship God in the splendor of holiness. God-centered worship reflects a right understanding of God’s majestic righteousness. GC worship is clear that such righteousness is only available to us in and through Jesus.
Clothing is such a big part of life in our society. We sum up people largely by what they wear. And for that reason, we want to dress in a way that will elicit the response we want from people. Perhaps at some time or another you’ve felt either pride or shame over your clothing. In God-centered worship, when the true Jesus is proclaimed in all His fullness, there is no room for pride or shame, because we know we are all dressed the same.
Jesus has so effectively dealt with our sinfulness and so finally restored us to God that there’s nothing to boast about but Him, and nothing to be ashamed of that Jesus did not pay for Himself on His cross. In God-centered worship, we are confronted by our great need and comforted by His great sufficiency to meet that need. Are you clothed in the holy attire of Jesus Christ? Have you trusted in Him, determined to turn from your sins? May today be the day!
As we go to this table this morning, we see that God has accomplished His vision, which was to bring His people into fellowship with Him. God had a vision to bring us to His table as His children and His friends. But the vision is still being fulfilled because our reverence for the worship of God must increase. May God bring the increase as we worship according to His Word.
Let’s bow in prayer.