Worship Notes for Aug 30th
August 30th, 2009 Soul, adorn yourself with gladness, leave the gloomy haunts of sadness,
Come into the daylight’s splendor, there with joy your praises render.
Bless the One whose grace unbounded, this amazing banquet founded;
He, though heav’nly, high, and holy, deigns to dwell with you most lowly.
—Johann Franck, 1649 (trans. Catherine Winkworth, 1858)
Moses’ call recounts the deep disruptive seizure of a man for whom neither previous faith nor personal endowment played a role in preparing him for his vocation.
—Brevard Childs
~~~
Greetings, members and friends of Tabernacle!
God calls us to worship Him.
Try it this way: God calls us to worship Him.
Corporate or Public Worship has often been described as a dialogue between us (the congregation) and God. In many ways this is true, but this is no ordinary dialogue. Imagine Moses, tending the sheep of Jethro, his father-in-law. He’s in the desert, minding his own business, when he comes upon the strange sight of a bush which is burning but does not burn up. And from within the bush, God calls to him. Moses responds, and the Lord tells him not to come any closer and to take off his sandals because he was standing on holy ground.
No ordinary dialogue, the interaction between God and Moses.
This Sunday as we continue our series of sermons on worship titled Re:forming Worship, we’re looking at the way that our worship of the high and holy God begins with His call to us. In Psalm 100 the Lord not only calls us, but also gives us direction on how we are to respond:
Psalm 100
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.
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.
We respond singing a hymn which is filled with reminders that we are indeed on holy ground, because God has condescended to dwell with us as we worship.
God Himself Is with Us
1. God Himself is with us: let us now adore Him,
and with awe appear before Him.
God is in His temple—all within keep silent,
prostrate lie with deepest rev’rence.
Him alone God we own,
Him, our God and Savior;
praise His name forever.
The first verse is a picture of our worship of the high and holy God who is transcendent (beyond the limits of ordinary experience- for example, Moses and the burning bush!). The worship response toward such a God is one of prostrating oneself in the dust.
2. God Himself is with us: hear the harps resounding!
See the crowds the throne surrounding!
“Holy, holy, holy”—hear the hymn ascending,
angels, saints, their voices blending!
Bow Thine ear to us here:
hear, O Christ, the praises
that Thy church now raises.
Verse two is a picture of worship in heaven, with crowds of angels surrounding the throne in heaven and singing words which Scripture tells us are sung in heaven. But we also ask Christ to hear us, as we add our worship here in earth to the praises in heaven.
3. O Thou fount of blessing, purify my spirit;
trusting only in Thy merit,
like the holy angels who behold Thy glory,
may I ceaselessly adore Thee,
and in all, great and small,
seek to do most nearly
what Thou lovest dearly.
Words: Gerhard Tersteegen, 1729
Music: Joachim Neander, 1680
In the third verse, we ask Christ, the fount of all blessing, to purify us, so that we- trusting in His merit- might ceaselessly adore the Lord like the angels above who see Him as He is. And our response to such worship would be that in everything that we do- the big things and the little things- that our heart’s desire would be to do what the Lord loves. This is the joyful obedience which comes through faith. And in this third verse, as we sing it together, we are indeed singing about the way that worship transforms us and restores our sanity.
In the Lord’s great love for us, worship is not a burdensome thing. The Westminster Shorter Catechism reminds us that we are called to live lives of worship which are filled with the enjoyment and delight of God:
Question: What is the chief end of man?
Answer: Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.
This enjoyment of God is magnified when we begin to understand the magnitude of grace- when we realize how great our sin is in the face of this transcendent God, and the wonder of His mercy to us in Christ in redeeming us to be His worshipers.
Thy mercy, my God, is the theme of my song,
the joy of my heart and the boast of my tongue.
Thy free grace alone, from the first to the last,
hath won my affections and bound my soul fast.
(from “thy Mercy, My God” by John Stoker, 1776)
In worship, the Lord feeds us and transforms us through His holy Word- and we respond to Him in joyful singing- for He has called us…
Let us love and sing and wonder,
let us praise the Savior’s name!
He has hushed the law’s loud thunder,
he has quenched Mount Sinai’s flame
He has washed us with his blood,
he has brought us nigh to God.
Let us love the Lord who bought us,
pitied us when enemies,
Called us by his grace, and taught us,
gave us ears and gave us eyes:
He has washed us with his blood,
he presents our souls to God.
…and we continually add our praise to the worship in heaven:
Let us praise, and join the chorus
of the saints enthroned on high;
Here they trusted him before us,
now their praises fill the sky:
“Thou hast washed us with thy blood;
Thou art worthy, Lamb of God!”
John Newton, 1774
May great joy in the Lord be ours this Sunday and always!
Blessings,
John
John Bennetch, Director of Worship
Tabernacle Presbyterian Church
Worship Notes is a weekly newsletter of Tabernacle Presbyterian Church which discusses a few elements of the coming Lord’s Day Worship service to encourage preparation for corporate worship.
(Copyrighted texts printed by permission, CCLI #2339955)
