Behold His Glory

Behold His Glory

Psalm 95

Main Idea: In order to glorify God in our worship, we must recognize him for who he is and respond appropriately.

When God delivered his people out of slavery in Egypt, he did it for a reason. He told Moses to say to Pharaoh, “Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival for me in the wilderness” (Exod 5:1). God freed his people so they could worship him.

God delivered his people out of slavery in Egypt, and he guided them to Mount Sinai, where they gathered for worship before God. Imagine this scene in Exodus 19:16-20.

On the third day, when morning came, there was thunder and lightning, a thick cloud on the mountain, and a very loud trumpet sound, so that all the people in the camp shuddered. Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Mount Sinai was completely enveloped in smoke because the Lord came down on it in fire. Its smoke went up like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain shook violently. As the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him in the thunder.

The Lord came down on Mount Sinai at the top of the mountain. Then the Lord summoned Moses to the top of the mountain, and he went up.

Right after this, God gave his people the Ten Commandments and the rest of his instruction. What happened there would become a pattern throughout the Old Testament. While it was not always at Mount Sinai and not always in this exact kind of scene, it did serve as a pattern for God’s people gathering regularly to worship God and hear his Word. In a sense this is what it meant to be a member of God’s people—to have this privilege of standing in the great assembly before God.

In Nehemiah 8 the people of God gathered and stood for hours, worshiping and listening to God’s Word. With their hands raised, they cried out, “Amen, Amen!” and they bowed down with “their faces to the ground” (Neh 8:6). God’s people gathered to behold his glory and hear his Word.

When you get to the New Testament, the word for “church” (Gk ekklesia) literally means “assembly.” The church is the gathering of God’s people. Thus, we read the author of Hebrews encouraging those who were not assembling together in the church (and probably growing lukewarm in their faith as a result) not to neglect this important means of grace (Heb 10:24-25). His description of the church’s gathering has echoes of the scene mentioned above.

For you have not come to what could be touched, to a blazing fire, to darkness, gloom, and storm, to the blast of a trumpet, and the sound of words. Those who heard it begged that not another word be spoken to them, for they could not bear what was commanded: If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned. The appearance was so terrifying that Moses said, I am trembling with fear. Instead, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God (the heavenly Jerusalem), to myriads of angels, a festive gathering, to the assembly of the firstborn whose names have been written in heaven, to a Judge, who is God of all, to the spirits of righteous people made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which says better things than the blood of Abel. (Heb 12:18-24)

The author of Hebrews reminds us that we are not coming to an earthly mountain like Israel did in the Old Testament. No, we are coming to something greater, for we are joining with a heavenly assembly filled with throngs of angels and saints throughout the ages, and together we are giving glory to God and hearing him speak—not through thunder but through his Word.

We tend to miss the significance of the church’s gathering. We come into the gathering casually because, well, this is what we do on Sundays. It doesn’t even cross our minds how awesome, mind-boggling, breathtaking, and distinct this is compared to anything else we do throughout the week. When we come together, we are joining in what God’s people have done ever since Mount Sinai: we are gathering to behold the glory of God. We are joining with angels in heaven and saints throughout the ages to sing God’s praise, to stand in awe of him, and to listen to God speak! This is why John Stott said, “True worship is the highest and noblest activity of which man, by the grace of God, is capable” (Christ the Conversationalist, 160, as cited in Boice, Psalms, vol. 2, 775).

We should not miss the wonder and the weight of what we’re doing. More specifically, we shouldn’t miss the wonder and the weight of whom we’re worshiping.

In my opinion, the great single need of the moment is that lighthearted superficial religionists be struck down with a vision of God high and lifted up, with his train filling the temple. The holy art of worship seems to have passed away like the Shekinah glory from the tabernacle. As a result, we are left to our own devices and forced to make up the lack of spontaneous worship by bringing in countless cheap and tawdry activities to hold the attention of the church people. (Tozer, Tozer on Worship and Entertainment, 27)

It is not necessary for us to bring in “countless cheap and tawdry activities” to hold the church’s attention. The glory of God is more than sufficient to hold our attention, that is, if we’ll just realize who he is. We desperately need to rediscover the wonder and the weight of worship before God, and I know of no better psalm that expresses that than Psalm 95.

For centuries, going all the way back to Israel’s experience in the Old Testament, Psalm 95 has been used among God’s people as a call to worship. The first half of Psalm 95 (vv. 1-7) depicts the wonder of worship, while the second half of the psalm (vv. 8-11) depicts the weight (or the seriousness) of worship.

We Need to Remember Whom We’re Worshiping

We are tempted to forget whom we are worshiping, though not intentionally. For instance, when someone prays in corporate worship, we close our eyes, but then, before we know it, our minds can start to wander. Within seconds we are thinking about all kinds of other things. If we’re not careful, prayer can become a perfunctory exercise that takes place in worship. Meanwhile, you can imagine all of heaven shouting, “Do you realize whom you’re talking to? Do you realize the wonder and the weight of what you’re doing? You’re talking to God! ”

Stop to consider that, even with thousands or even millions of people praying to God at the same time, he is listening to you! Sure, he’s upholding Mars at the same time, in addition to trillions of stars that he knows by name and 7.2 billion people on the planet that he’s sustaining right now, but you have God’s attention. So don’t let your mind wander!

Psalm 95 lifts our eyes to the wonder of the one we worship. Just think about all the different descriptions of God in this psalm:

He Is the Self-Existent Lord over All

In verse 1 “Lord” is in small capital letters. That’s a translation of the Hebrew name for God, Yahweh, which is how God revealed himself to Moses in Exodus 3. It means “I AM,” which may include a reference to God’s self-existence, that is, the reality that God exists, has always existed, and will always exist. The classic children’s question, “Who made God?” has one answer: “No one made him.” God has always been, and God will always be. We gather to worship before the self-existent Lord over all.

He Is the Supreme King above All

In verse 3 God is the capital “K” King who reigns over all the lowercase “k” kings in the world. He rules them as the supreme King above all.

He Is the Creator of the Universe

Verses 4-5 contain wonderful imagery. The world is hand-shaped and handheld by God.

He Is the Owner of the Universe

God is not only the Creator of the universe but also its Owner. It all belongs to him, including the mountains, the seas, and the land. We think we own possessions and property, but ultimately God alone owns it all.

He Is the Maker Who Forms and Sustains Us

The psalmist gets more personal in verse 6. The psalmist is in awe not just by how God has made everything in the universe but that God has made him. We assemble before the God who formed our hands, our feet, our legs, and our arms. He is the one who is causing our lungs to breathe right now.

He Is the Shepherd Who Loves and Leads Us

According to verse 7, this God, the self-existent Lord over all and supreme King above all, is our Shepherd, and we are his sheep! He is protecting us and providing for us and caring for us. But this leads to a question: How is this possible given that we are sinners who have rebelled against God and run away from him in all of his holiness? How can we be sheep in his pasture? That question leads us back to the first verse.

He Is the Rock Who Saves and Delivers Us

We’re reminded of God saving his people from slavery in the book of Exodus so that they could worship him in freedom. That’s exactly what has happened in the life of every follower of Jesus. Our worship gatherings are full of men and women who were slaves to sin, separated from God, and destined to pay the penalty for sin—eternal death. But God in his mercy made a way for us to be saved from our sin.

Amazingly, the God referred to in Psalm 95 has come to us in the person of Jesus Christ. John’s Gospel introduces Jesus as God in the flesh (John 1:14). Then in John 8:58 Jesus echoes God’s revelation of himself in Exodus 3, saying, “Truly I tell you, before Abraham was, I am” (emphasis added). John writes later in Revelation 19:16 that Jesus is the supreme King above all, for written on his robe and on his thigh is the name, “King of Kings and Lord of Lords.” Colossians 1:16-17 says Jesus is the Creator and owner of the universe: “All things have been created through him and for him”; and Jesus is the one who forms and sustains us: “By him all things hold together.” Jesus is the “good shepherd” who has laid down his life for us his sheep (John 10:11). Indeed, Jesus is the rock of our salvation, for he has died on the cross for our sin and risen from the grave in victory over sin so that you and I can have the privilege of knowing and worshiping God.

We Need to Realize How We Worship

Once we get a glimpse of whom we worship in Psalm 95, the question becomes, How do we respond to this God?

We Sing and Shout to Him

Verses 1-2 talk about making a lot of noise in worship, which we see in other psalms as well. Psalm 66 begins, “Let the whole earth shout joyfully to God!” Psalm 47:1 says to “shout to God with a jubilant cry.” This picture of shouting is like a triumphant war cry that strengthens an army and strikes fear in the enemy. Shouting like this needs to be a part of our worship.6

Throughout the first seven verses the phrase let us is emphasized. Worship is not a spectator sport; this is a participant’s activity. When those leading the congregation in musical worship are up on a stage while you’re in a seat, it’s so easy to think you’re a spectator. That perspective misses the whole point of worship because there are no spectators. God is the audience, and those who lead up front, including pastors, are participants. We come together, and we sing and shout.

We Bow Down and Kneel before Him

The Hebrew word for “worship” literally means to prostrate oneself. This is a biblical response to God. During times of spiritual awakening in the past, it was common for people, in the middle of singing or in the middle of the sermon, suddenly to come down to the front and just kneel before God in worship. I would even say that if we really realize whom we’re worshiping, we will be compelled to do this at points. This kind of response is entirely appropriate in private worship as well. May none of us be so prideful that we wouldn’t bow down and kneel before God.

We Thank Him for All He Does and Praise Him for Who He Is

According to verse 2, there’s praise and thanksgiving in this psalm, and both are involved in worship. We exalt God for his attributes, and we thank God for his actions—in history, around the world, and in our lives.

We Listen to Him Humbly

Many people stop part way through verse 7, but we can actually miss the whole point if we stop there. Worship doesn’t only involve our singing and shouting and speaking to God. Worship also involves God’s speaking to us, like thunder from heaven, which makes corporate worship even more breathtaking.

Worship involves hearing the voice of God, which is why the proclamation of Scripture is such a large portion of the weekly worship gathering. We worship God by opening up his Word and listening to him. We should bring our Bibles to corporate worship because Scripture is the Word of God, and this is how God—the self-existent Lord over all, supreme King above all, the Creator and owner of the universe—speaks to us.

We Obey Him Immediately

Psalm 95 closes with a weighty warning (vv. 8-11). This is a warning of God’s wrath on those who claim to worship him while ignoring his Word. This is what happened at Meribah and Massah: God’s people complained and quarreled before him (Exod 17:1-7). They ultimately disobeyed him by not trusting him. An entire generation of God’s people were left to wander in the wilderness until they died. They hardened their hearts toward God.

Based on Psalm 95, Hebrews 3–4 urges Christians not to harden their hearts toward God and his Word. We are to have soft hearts that hear God’s Word humbly and obey it immediately. We can come into the church’s weekly gathering, sing and shout, and even bow and kneel; but if, when it comes to God’s Word, we either don’t hear it or harden our hearts to it by living however we want, we will miss the point of worship.

It is extremely serious to open up the Word of God and hear what he says. We will be accountable before God for our response. We don’t want to be found to be mocking God if we sing some songs, bow our heads for some prayers, and then walk out ignoring God’s Word. That kind of response, according to Psalm 95, is a recipe for wrath. This is similar to what Jesus himself warned against in Matthew 15:8-9: “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. They worship me in vain.”

I think of the number of people who grow up in the church, attending week after week, going through the motions, but their hearts are far from God. There are kids who attend worship to please their parents and husbands who attend worship to appease their wives (or vice versa). Based on the Word of God, it is dangerous to be cold toward God in worship—eternally dangerous.

We Rest in Him Completely

In the Old Testament God’s rest was the promised land, an abundant land flowing with milk and honey that he promised to Israel. But an entire generation missed it because they disobeyed God’s Word. When you turn to the New Testament, and Hebrews 3–4 in particular, the rest represented by the Old Testament promised land becomes symbolic for the rest that’s found in following Jesus. We have abundant life now and abundant life for all of eternity. Hearing and obeying God’s Word, then, is the path to life, to rest in God. When we truly worship, it brings glory to God, and it is good for us.

We Rejoice in Him Wholeheartedly

Don’t miss the logic of heaven in this psalm. We shout “joyfully to the Lord” (v. 1) and “enter his presence with thanksgiving” (v. 2) because “the Lord is a great God, a great King above all gods. . . . He is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, the sheep under his care” (vv. 3,7). In other words, we rejoice in God because he is supreme! And when you exalt his supremacy, you will experience his satisfaction.

Do you want to experience satisfaction in your life? I’m talking about a joy that’s deeper, higher, and greater than anything money can buy, a joy that supersedes circumstances and cannot be taken away from you. It’s a joy that endures through sorrow and suffering. If you want this kind of joy in your life, then, according to Psalm 95, worship God!

Reflect and Discuss

1. What’s wrong with a casual, lighthearted approach to worshiping God?
2. How would you respond to someone who said worship should be filled with truth rather than emotion?
3. How does our view of God affect the way we worship?
4. What are some truths about God that should evoke praise and awe in us?
5. According to Psalm 95, what are some appropriate ways to respond to God in worship?
6. What role should Scripture play in our worship? Why is this so important?
7. Why is it dangerous to observe worship with a heart that’s cold and unbelieving toward God?
8. How is our worship related to our obedience?
9. God promised Israel “rest” in the promised land. What is the “rest” that God offers to his people today?
10. What are some specific ways you can better prepare your mind and heart to worship God weekly with your local church?