Word of Salvation – Vol. 18 No.34 – August 1972
Worship God As Well As You Can
Sermon by Rev. W. F. Van Brussel, B.D. on 1Chronicles 16:29
SCRIPTURE READING: Psalm 96
PSALTER HYMNAL: 162:1,3,4; 262; 321:4 (Tune 471);
10:1,2; 145:18,19; 10:3; 444:1,2
The day when the Ark of the Covenant was brought up to Jerusalem as the symbol of God’s presence among His people was of the greatest days of King David’s reign.
You remember, do you not, that the Ark had been away to the country of the Philistines for a little while? This day when the Ark had been taken had been a day of national mourning. The news concerning it had broken (the high priest’s Eli’s) neck, in the literal sense of the word. The Ark had been away only for a brief period, but although it had come back into Canaan it had never been brought back to a central place among the people of God. This was done only after another seventy years had elapsed.
We all know of course that David was the king who established a powerful NATIONAL CENTRE. He had a palace built in Jerusalem, but it was his strong desire that Jerusalem would become a holy city; that it would become the RELIGIOUS CENTRE of God’s special nation.
It was due to this desire of the king that one day the Ark was carried into the Holy City in a joyous procession and that it was placed in a special tent which David had prepared for it.
A dedication Service was conducted to mark the occasion. Appropriate sacrifices were offered, expressive of devotion to God and of communion with Him. The people’s hearts rejoiced and were glad in the Lord God.
David instructed the priests and the Levites to praise the Lord in the words of a beautiful Psalm which he had composed personally perhaps for the occasion. And the words of our text are a section of that Psalm:
“Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His Name;
bring an offering and come before Him!
Worship the Lord in holy array…!”
Shall we ponder this message today:
“God’s people are encouraged to worship God as well as they can!”
1. the AIM of that Worship;
2. the METHOD of it;
3. the SPIRIT of it.
1. WORSHIP, what is that?
Is it not that we acknowledge God’s Supreme Dominion, His Greatness, His Glory, His Grace, by some formal act? All genuine Worship must aim at ascribing to God the glory which is due to His Name. This is the most exalted task to which a person can be called. “The glory due His Name.” What glory is that?
Well, if we want to worship God in a worthy manner we must have a definite, a distinct picture of Him in our minds. We must have an idea of His greatness. In other words, we must KNOW God before we are able to worship Him in a responsible fashion.
That is not a simple matter. For even after our best efforts to become more familiar with the Lord God and with His many virtues, we shall always remain deeply conscious that we have but an insufficient knowledge of the infinite greatness of God.
But we are in the blessed position of being able to turn to our Bible for guidance and inspiration under the light of the Holy Spirit. The Book of PSALMS in particular proves most helpful time and again for this particular purpose. For in this Book we are told that God is absolutely superior to all those so-called gods. He is perfectly Self-sufficient; He is not bound by any limits of time, space, or anything. He is the Almighty One Who called this whole universe into existence by speaking the Word of His will. He holds this universe in the hollow of His hand. He fills heaven and earth with His presence. His knowledge is unlimited, for He knows all about the past, the present and the future. He understands the thoughts of man however carefully man may seek to keep them secret. He is the Sovereign Ruler of all things; the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, His greatness, majesty, and splendour are incomprehensible.
Yes, ascribe to the Lord the glory due His Name! That is, tell all nations about it, once you have discovered and acknowledged it in your own heart.
He controls the elements of nature. He speaks in thunderstorms, floods, and earthquakes. And He is King on behalf of His people. He gives strength to His people, and light; He supplies them with all their needs in abundance.
Even this Dedication-Psalm itself gives plenty of food for thoughtful Worship. The people are called upon to observe God’s footsteps as they could easily be traced in the history of the nation; to count carefully the numerous blessings they had received from their God in times gone by.
And what about the judgments of God, and His marvellous works in their interest? His Covenant of which He remained ever mindful! Had He not given them the Land of Promise for an inheritance by making them victorious over all their enemies?
Yes, ascribe to the Lord the glory due His Name!
And should not we ourselves follow the same pattern? Think of what the Lord has done for US, in our personal lives, and as a Congregation of Jesus Christ. We may not always have appreciated it the way we ought to, but God has always been showing Himself to us as a God, righteous and holy on the one hand, but just as much rich in grace and compassion on the other hand.
Recall what GOD has done in making us members of His Church; in granting us the privilege of having our children baptized as young members of the Church of Jesus Christ. Recall what He did for us as He upheld us in seasons of trial and temptation, Think of all that He has been doing in our hearts through the operations of the Holy Spirit Who makes us willing and desirous to FOLLOW our Lord Jesus Christ from day to day despite our inclination to do the opposite and to wander away from the way of salvation.
No, we have not one single reason why we should glory in our own achievements, but only in the Lord our God. Should it not be OUR chief concern to magnify His Name?
Yes WE ALSO should ascribe to the Lord the glory due His Name!
2. As far as the METHOD of Worship is concerned, we must, according to our text, “come before Him”; that is, enter into His presence.
Of course, since God Himself is present everywhere, and not confined to any particular locality, it is possible for us to worship Him anywhere and at any time. And this is allowed, too! Let us do more of that, by all means. We may worship God in some beautiful spot outside as we admire Him for the beautiful works of His hands in the things around us. We may also reverence God in our private home, or room.
But the SUPREME acts of a believer’s worship will always be connected with the Sanctuary, the holy place of worship, the House of God. The ancient Israelites were told to assemble in the court of the Tabernacle, and later on in the Temple-court, because God was symbolically present in the Most Holy Place over the Mercy-Seat, on top of the Ark between the Cherubim. Whenever the people came to the Temple it was as if they were entering the PALACE of the KING.
The words of Psalm 100 come to mind here: “Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into His presence with singing!” “Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise! Give thanks to Him, bless His Name!”
Or otherwise, those familiar phrases of Psalm 27: “One thing I have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the House of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His Temple.”
But is there any place today in which God is present in a unique way? The Tabernacle and the Temple are outdated; they have disappeared. But this does not mean that there is no New Testament counterpart for them, be it not in any material building. The New Testament Temple rests on a living foundation and is constructed of living stones. It is a spiritual Temple, namely the Church of the Living God.
The special presence of God today is in the assembly of His people. Whenever the church gathers together for worship the special presence of God is among them, no doubt. He is THERE as He is nowhere else on earth in that sense as long as the people are assembled together in the Name of Jesus and around His Word. That’s why it is essential for true believers to come to church every single Sunday, whenever the congregation meets. If we fail to come we are missing out on God’s SPECIAL PRESENCE on that particular day!
And, as our text says, we must bring our offering. We should never appear before God empty-handed. The word used for ‘offering’ in the original text denotes a sacrifice of devotion and gratitude. Just as the Israelites used to bring their burnt-offerings, and their meat and drink-offerings, to the Lord.
The New Testament offerings are of a different nature. We are to bring SPIRITUAL sacrifices. We are to place OURSELVES on the altar of God as living and spiritual sacrifices well-pleasing to Him in Jesus Christ.
We offer up to Him, sacrifices of PRAISE, and we prove the sincerity of our devotion by setting apart AT LEAST A TENTH PART of what we earn for the service of God, and the promotion of His Kingdom Cause,
Each time we bring our offering to God in every single Worship-Service we do this as an act of worship, For we are always looking for avenues to give way to our gratitude for this amazing fact that GOD loves US in His grace, and is ready to forgive us all our sins whenever we confess them before His throne.
“Worship the Lord”, our text says. And we are to do that in anything we are doing in the House of God, in our prayers, in our singing, in our confession of sin and in our praise, in our offering and in our thanksgiving.
The word employed for ‘worship’ in the Hebrew means, ‘to prostrate oneself’, that is, to bend in humble reverence.
It calls attention primarily to the posture of our body. The Jews were always extremely demonstrative in giving expression to their feelings of joy and sorrow, love and hatred, reverence and contempt. They would give evidence of their respect or reverence by falling prostrate to the earth and touching the ground with their foreheads.
Christians of the Western world are different in this respect, and we are always emphasizing that the physical posture of the worshipper is NOT the essential thing in true worship. And this is done because we are convinced that it is rather a matter of the HEART, of true humility and reverent devotion. Yet, the attitude of the heart should also find expression in how we behave OUTWARDLY, should it not?
The deeper meaning of the word used for ‘worship’ is, ‘to render obeisance to God from the heart’. And the posture of our body while worshipping in church should always be expressive of the respect and reverence we feel deep down in our hearts for Him Whom we may meet in His House.
Thus the METHOD of our worship plays its part in our ‘ascribing of glory to God which is due His Name’.
3. And finally, the SPIRIT of worship: “Worship the Lord in holy array!”
Remember that in the days of the Old Testament the whole Service of God was carefully regulated by laws. Little, if anything, was left to the personal choice or taste of those conducting the Services. Special garments for the priests were compulsory. All the ceremonies were stacked with spiritual meaning. The pure white, for instance, of the priests’ clothes was a symbol of perfect holiness. It spelled a message without words: These priests, and in them the people whom they represented in the presence of God, had been separated from the world of sin in consecration to God. The priests had to do literally what is said here: “Worship the Lord in holy array”.
But even in the Old Testament day God demanded MORE than mere symbols. There too, it was the attitude of the HEART which was the main thing. The holy array was meant to be the external expression of the spiritual condition of the person wearing it. This becomes evident when we ponder, for instance, Psalm 132:9,16, “Let your priests be clothed with RIGHTEOUSNESS, and let your saints shout for joy”. And, “Her priests I will clothe with SALVATION and her saints will shout for joy”.
But what does it mean for US, today? “Worship the Lord in holy array!”? The New Testament Church is no longer bound by an endless series of rules and regulations for all the details of its worship. We enjoy a great deal of freedom. To a certain extent we could even say that our New Testament worship is much more relaxed.
But this does NOT mean that we can take it easy. The more freedom we have the GREATER is our responsibility. Are we ready to accept our New Testament freedom together with its ADDED responsibility? We can’t look in the book of regulations anymore and do everything according to what the book states.
No, what WE must do is, that whenever we set ourselves to worship God in church we must be most particular in regard to the frame of mind in which we appear before God. There may be no indifference, no coldness of heart; and there ought to be a warmth of devotion which finds its expression in a spirit of joy and thanksgiving.
The God Whom we meet in church is the Holy God Who also requires holiness in those who worship Him. Remember that when Moses came close to Him in the burning bush he was told to take off his sandals as he was standing on sacred ground.
In other words, we must be well aware of what we are doing when we meet the Lord and worship Him in His House. We cannot be too casual in the way we are going about our worship. Let’s be aware that this is a tendency of our day: to be casual about everything, even about how we shall worship God. We need to have a special place of worship, a place of simple beauty and holiness, and we OURSELVES must come to that place well-prepared, both inwardly and outwardly.
The main point of all is that, while we are in church we dissociate ourselves from the world. All worldly thoughts and desires must be banned. We must concentrate on God, His promises, the salvation He offers to sinners, the demands He makes, the mandates He gives.
We must concentrate on every single part of the Service. And the main beauty of the House of God, of course, is that HE is there amidst His assembled people, according to His great promise.
Let our worship always remain a matter of the heart, controlled by the Word and the Spirit of God, and ascribing to the Lord glory due His Name.
We must keep seeking to understand more of God’s revealed Truth. And the desire must grow in our hearts that His will be done in our lives.
We must avoid all formalism and serve God in spirit and in truth.
May our worship increasingly become what it is meant to be, for it is such a great miracle of Divine grace that we ARE allowed to ENTER into the presence of the Most Holy God in His House Sunday after Sunday.
Amen.