To Psalm 96. Psalm 96. We're going to be continuing in the Psalm that we were looking at last week as we continue in our series called creatively Summer Psalms. So we'll continue the Summer Psalms series. Before we do that, I just want to begin with a word of prayer. Lord, we sing the words asking that you would tune our hearts to sing your praise. And Lord, we want to ask now that you would tune our hearts to hear your word and to receive it as your word, to receive it as your word with all its authority and with all its power to change, all its power to bring conviction, to stir affections, to conform us into the image of your Son, all of its power as your word is preached, as your word is read, to conform us more into the image of your Son. So, Lord, I ask you would tune our hearts right now. As you say in the Psalms, that you would incline our hearts to your testimonies. So, God, would you do that? Brush away all distractions. Blow out the cobwebs. Push aside anything that is not pertaining to you and your word in this moment. Give us supernatural ability to concentrate and to hear and to receive and to be changed in the next 45 minutes. Because we want to savor Jesus. We want to see him and know him and treasure him. So do all those things for your glory, for the glory of Christ. Amen.
Well, turn with me to Psalm 96. Turn our attention again to this psalm.
Here's what the psalmist says: Oh, sing to the Lord a new song! Sing to the Lord, all the earth! Sing to the Lord, bless his name! Tell of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples. For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the people are worthless idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and beauty are his sanctuary. Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the earth, of the peoples! Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength! Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name! Bring an offering and come into his courts! Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness. Tremble before Him, all the earth! Say among the nations, "The Lord reigns!" Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved. He will judge the peoples with equity. Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice! Let the sea roar, and all that fills it! Let the field exult, and everything in it! Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord, for He comes. For He comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in His faithfulness.
Now, if you remember last week, we said we're going to take 2 weeks looking at this Psalm. And the real reason we're taking 2 weeks is because last week, as I was preparing the message, I realized there was just way too much material. And so rather than try to cram in too much material, I cheated and decided to make it two sermons, which isn't really cheating. So last week we looked at the question from this Psalm: What does Psalm 96 teach us about why we worship? Remember that? We looked at the reason from this Psalm. Why are we being called in these words to worship God? And we noted first, because God is Creator. Second, because He's the Most High God. He's the true God. He's above all other worthless gods and idols of human creation. We worship Him because of His attributes, the things of His character, the fact that He's holy, He's majestic, He's powerful, He's infinite, all of those things. And we worship Him because of His acts, His actions, or as the psalmist says, because of His marvelous deeds, His marvelous works. He has done saving, incredible things in human history, right? All of those are reasons why we worship God. The question this morning we want to answer from this same Psalm, although you could answer it from many Psalms, is this: In light of why we worship, how should we worship? So in light of all that we talked about last week, all those reasons why God is worthy of being praised, why He's worthy of being esteemed, how should we do that? Now, remember we used this definition last week. Biblical worship, this is by Bob Coughlin. Biblical worship is God's covenant people recognizing, reveling in, and responding rightly to the glory of God in Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. That's what biblical worship is. And this morning we want to take that broad definition again and narrow it down specifically to worship in song. That's specifically what this psalm is talking about. It's guiding us and teaching us how it is We should worship God when we sing.
Now, there's a fancy theological term for this called the regulative principle. Now, that probably doesn't mean much to most of you. The regulative principle just talks about the way that we should think about how we worship God when we gather together corporately. So everything we do on a Sunday morning should be guided by the regulative principle. It's really just— a simple definition would be this: that God's people should worship God the way that God wants to be worshiped. That make sense? The regular principle is just saying God's not arbitrary about the way He wants us to come into His presence. He's given us guidelines in Scripture, and the regular principle just says, what does the Word show us about how God wants to be worshiped?
Now, that's a good thing, and we're gonna spend today considering that, especially as it pertains to singing. But like any good thing, it can get abused and twisted, right? So Christians sometimes use the regulative principle to bludgeon and beat each other up with it. They'll take personal preferences and stylistic questions, things that aren't addressed explicitly in the details, and they'll draw battle lines. That's not what we're trying to do this morning. The Bible doesn't give us an intricate description of the one and only liturgy that God takes pleasure in. When we sit down to plan Sunday morning, we're not looking Well, let's go to the book of Colossians and it'll tell us exactly how many minutes we should spend singing. It doesn't do that. But it does give us prescriptive and descriptive statements. It prescribes things that need to be present if biblical worship is going to happen, and then it describes what that looks like. So things that should be included in worship in broad parameters.
6 · The pastor pivots from the theological groundwork to the first of four practical points derived from Psalm 96, signaling the sermon's structural progression
So, how should we worship? How does Psalm 96 instruct us to worship? We're going to consider this morning. First, we see, and this is very obvious but still needs to be stated, we worship with song.
7 · The pastor expounds the first two verses of Psalm 96, establishing from the text that singing is not a mere tradition or preference but a biblical command for corporate worship, directly addressing why Providence begins services with song
It's appropriate that when God's people gather together, they sing. The opening two verses of the Psalm: "Oh, sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord, bless His name. Tell of His salvation from day to day. The psalm starts out calling for God's people to gather, and not just to gather, but to gather in song. It's not just arbitrary that we start out the service each week with song. It's not just some personal preference of mine. It's not just some tradition that's been established over hundreds of years, so we keep doing it. We don't do it just to kill time. We do it because God has called us to do it. We start with singing because God's Word makes it clear that when his people gather together, when they come together to worship him, they should worship him with songs of praise.
8 · The pastor argues that Psalm 96:2 establishes content requirements for worship songs—they must bless God's name and tell of His salvation—and uses this standard to critique contemporary worship music that substitutes romantic sentimentality for theological substance
And the kind of songs are informed by this passage. It's not just that we're supposed to sing. We're supposed to sing in a particular type of way. In other words, we don't want to sing a song simply because we hear that song on the radio. Just because you hear a song on Christian radio doesn't mean it's necessarily a song that we would want to highlight and sing corporately. Now, it doesn't mean if you hear it on the radio you shouldn't sing it. Don't hear what I'm not saying. But we want to be careful. In fact, a lot of what gets played on Christian radio and passed off as worship music are at times songs we want to avoid. Here's why. Notice what verse 2 doesn't say. It doesn't say this: "Sing to the Lord. Tell of His romantic nature from day to day." You don't see that in verse 2, right? I don't see it there, and I've studied that verse a couple times in the past few days, and I still don't see that there. "Jesus is my boyfriend" songs? You hear those on the radio today, on Christian radio stations, songs that seem to be almost articulating that there's some sort of romantic sense of God. Maybe ladies like those songs. I don't know. For me, it's just a strange thing to sing romantic type songs like that. I don't think that they're appropriate in a lot of ways. And I think you can sense this when you notice that a lot of worship music confuses us about who God is, and it's hardly recognizable from secular love songs. Some of the songs that get passed off as worship, if you just substitute the name of God in there? John? Peter? Howard? It could be just a romantic song, something anybody in the streets— there's something deficient in that kind of song. Psalm 96 is showing us. Verse 2 says our songs should bless God's name. They should tell of His salvation from day to day. In other words, our singing should be informed by who God is and rejoice in His saving activities. The purpose of singing is to sing songs that celebrate the fundamental truths of God and that celebrate the gospel. If those elements are missing from your singing, you're singing songs that are deficient.
9 · The pastor expounds Colossians 3:16 to establish that the primary purpose of worship music is to carry biblical truth into hearts, not to provide aesthetic pleasure; melody serves truth, and singing is one means by which the word of Christ dwells in us richly
The most important thing about our singing is not the melody. Songs need to be singable. The melody doesn't matter. I mean, if you've got a melody that just— you can't sing, you can't sing a song, right? Corporately, people are stumbling over it, they can't keep track. So it's important, but not the most important thing. The melody is not the most essential element of what makes a worship song. It's the truth that the melody carries. The melody is a vehicle for driving truth home into our hearts. Listen to the connection in Colossians 3:16: Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thanks— thankfulness in your hearts to God. So let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Let Christ's words, let the words of Scripture dwell in your hearts. That's a command. That's significant. You need that to be healthy, to grow in godliness, to commune with God. And one of the ways that you do it is by singing, singing songs and psalms and spiritual songs that are connected to the truth of God's word.
10 · The pastor draws out the practical implication that if Scripture is the centerpiece of corporate worship, Christ will remain central, and applies this principle specifically to singing—Word-centered songs push the gospel deeper into the soul and produce transformation
The Word orients all of worship. We read from Scripture and pray from Scripture and preach from Scripture on Sunday morning because we want the Word to be the centerpiece of what we're doing. Because if the Word remains the centerpiece of what we do corporately, Jesus, which the Word consistently points to, will always be the centerpiece of what we do. And our singing is no different. The Word should inform our singing. If we sing songs that celebrate the Gospel, it becomes an activity that promotes the Word of Christ dwelling in us, which is just another way of saying, I would say, it pushes the Gospel deeper into our souls. And that's a significant thing. That's a life-changing thing.
11 · The pastor introduces a second theological reason for singing by recounting Bob Coughlin's teaching that we sing because God sings, then expounds Zephaniah 3:17 to establish that God Himself sings over His people with joy and affection
But that's not the only reason that we sing. We worship with song. I'll never forget Bob Coughlin explaining one of the reasons why. It was at the pastor's college. Each Wednesday we would gather. Bob Coughlin would lead us in worship. Each guy had to get up and lead in worship, whether you could sing or play an instrument or not. And then Bob would sit in the back and he would give encouragement and critique. And sometimes there wasn't always a balance, appropriately so. But it was so helpful. He always just had constant wisdom and nuggets to give us about developing a theology of worship. And he described one day one of the most overlooked reasons for why we sing. We sing, Bob said, because God sings. We sing because God sings. Listen to Zephaniah 3:17: The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save. He will rejoice over you with gladness. He will quiet you by His love. He will exalt over you with loud singing. The prophet Zephaniah predicts a day when God will sing over us, when He will sing over His people, when He will exalt and rejoice.
12 · The pastor illustrates the intimacy and affection of God singing over His people by drawing an analogy to a parent singing over a child at bedtime—a universally recognizable expression of tender love
I get the impression when I think of that, I don't think it's inappropriate to think of when I put my daughter Sadie to bed and I lay her in her crib. Sometimes she wants me to scratch her back, and when I do it, I sing, right? You ever done that with a child? You ever been a child and had your parent do it? "Sing me a song, Daddy. Sing me a song, Mommy." There is something powerful about a father or mother singing over their child.
13 · The pastor draws out the implication of God singing over us—that our singing in worship is a natural and necessary response to His affection—and expounds Ephesians 5:18-20 to establish that Spirit-filled Christians will corporately express that fullness in song
And Scripture tells us God will sing over us. Singing is no arbitrary expression of praise. It's a reflection of the very way God expresses affection for us. So it is the most natural and necessary response that we would also show our affection to God in a similar way, right? If God shows affection to His people by singing over them, isn't it appropriate that His people would respond with affection in singing back to God? It's no mistake that in Ephesians 5:18, Paul calls us to be filled with the Spirit. So, be filled with the Spirit of God. Be filled with God. And here's the implication that he draws with this in the very next verse. Be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always for everything to God the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Be filled with the Spirit. If you are filled with the Spirit, if you are filled with the Spirit of God, you will respond. You will address one another. So there's a corporate sense of this, right? Not just in your bedroom all by yourself. With psalms and songs.
14 · The pastor establishes a direct connection between spiritual fullness and singing—the redeemed cannot help but sing—and argues that depth of communion with God correlates with frequency and intensity of sung worship, citing David and the 150 Psalms as biblical evidence
We sing. Because God sings. And when we are filled with God's Spirit, the natural overflow is to raise our voices in song. We sing because God has quite literally put a song in our hearts. The redeemed sing the song of redemption. That's what it means to be filled with the Spirit. Christians sing because we can't help ourselves. It's one natural expression of encounter with God. And the deeper our communion with God, the more likely we are to sing to God. I don't think that's an overstatement. The deeper our communion with God, the more likely we are to respond in song. The clearer our knowledge of God, the gospel, and Christ, the more inclined our hearts will be to react with singing. That's why there's 150 examples of responding to God, His character, His salvation in the Bible with song. David is held up as this man who communes with God, right? And who do we see again and again in Scripture writing songs? There's a level of emotion that only words put to music captures, and the gospel is worthy of our deepest emotional engagement.
15 · The pastor pivots from the first point (worship with song) to the second point (worship with declaration), signaling the sermon's continued structural progression through Psalm 96
So we worship with song. We also worship with declaration.
16 · The pastor expounds verses 2-7 of Psalm 96, drawing attention to the repeated imperatives (tell, declare, ascribe) that call God's people to verbally proclaim His worth, establishing the foundation for the second major point about declarative worship
Look at verse 2. Sing to the Lord, bless His name. Tell of His salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous works among all the peoples. "Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. He is to be feared above all gods." In verse 6, "Splendor and majesty are before Him. Strength and beauty are His sanctuary." In verse 7, "Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the people. Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name." Now, sometimes we're a little bit slow on the uptake, but when Scripture repeats something over and over and over again, it's trying to make a point. Declare, tell, ascribe, ascribe, ascribe. It's calling us.
17 · The pastor warns against prioritizing emotional experience over content in worship, arguing that the repeated commands to declare and ascribe establish that worship is a thoughtful, responsive act—hearing what God has done and then proclaiming His worth with specificity
We worship in song because music has the ability to engage our emotions and affections in unique ways. But this can lead us to the mistaken notion that emotional experiences are the reason we sing. That's just not the case. This psalm shows us that our songs should be informed by their words. So shallow words lead to shallow worship, and it implies that God has done shallow things in our lives. Shallow words, shallow worship, implying that God does shallow things for you. The call to tell and declare and ascribe to God in our singing recognizes the responsive nature of worship. You're responding to what God has done. Biblical worship thinks and it considers and it hears what God has done and who He is, and then it responds appropriately. It hears and it hearkens.
18 · The pastor unpacks the etymology of 'worship' (worth-ship) to establish that sung worship is an act of ascribing worth to God by verbally declaring His glory with specificity; the more detailed the declaration, the more God-honoring the worship
The repetition we see, especially the word "ascribe," is calling us to give credit to God. In fact, the word worship, it's derived from an Old English word that means worth-ship. Worth-ship. It's an activity that ascribes worth to an object. It's saying this object is worthy for these reasons. It's worship. It doesn't mean we're making God worthy. More worthy. Does that make sense? It means that our singing should give credit to the worth that is already inherent to God. So the more specific our words of worship, the more worth they will ascribe. The more generic the words, the more generic the worth. But God has not been generic in His revelation to us. He has been explicit and He has laid out great detail. The clearer the descriptions of His glory, the more God-honoring the songs. It's not just a fad to sing the gospel. It's not just a fad to sing gospel-centered, cross-centered, Christ-centered psalms. Psalm 96 testifies that God's people have sung songs that, quote, "tell of His salvation from day to day." For thousands of years, God's people have always sought to sing songs that proclaim and hold up His worth, His worthiness of worship because of the acts of His salvation. We worship God appropriately when we sing songs that see God for what He is worth and describe that in glorious melodic detail. Worship is treasuring God by acknowledging and stating why He's worth treasuring. It's not enough to ponder what God is worth. His worth, if it's pondered at all, must also be declared in song.
19 · The pastor uses Matt Redman's '10,000 Reasons' as a contemporary illustration of declaration-centered worship, showing how specific attribution of God's attributes (rich in love, slow to anger, great name, kind heart) exemplifies the psalm's call to ascribe glory; he then emphasizes the corporate benefit—that declarative singing builds faith in the body
We sang a song that describes this really well. We sang several songs this morning that I could have tied into this sermon. I was sitting there as we were worshiping thinking, "Ah, I kind of wish I had a pen. I could be writing in the margins." had to have self-restraint. But one, as I was considering this and saw the set that Zach had put together, jumped off the page at me was Matt Redman's song "10,000 Reasons." It expresses this perfectly, right? Bless the Lord, O my soul. Worship His holy name. Sing like never before. O my soul, I worship Your holy name. You're rich in love. You're slow to anger. I'm ascribing. I'm describing. I'm telling of salvation. Your name is great and Your heart is kind. For all Your goodness, I will keep on singing. 10,000 reasons for my heart to find. Was your heart stirred when you sung that this morning? Because there are 10,000 reasons. We're never going to exhaust worship songs. There's never going to cease to be an end of creativity and thinking of ways to worship God. We're not going to get to heaven and worship writing will be done. It will just be getting started, and it will only get better. Declaration has necessary connections with truth. We read Scripture and hear exhortations and sermons because they direct our hearts by their truth. They turn our eyes and our affections to God in Christ. And when the truth of God's Word is brought to bear Through its reading and its preaching, the appropriate response is singing that is filled with these truths. The appropriate response is hearts and voices crying out together, "Bless the Lord, O my soul! Worship His holy name! Sing!" Because there's 10,000 reasons for my heart to find. The reason it's significant to do that corporately is because you're declaring those truths not just to God, but to each other. And that builds faith. That strengthens the person next to you. It stirs up the worship of the person next to you. That's why it's weighty and significant and glorious to sing with a room filled with people versus all by yourself.
20 · The pastor pivots to the third point (worship with reverence) by expounding Psalm 96:9-10 and recalling last week's historical context (1 Chronicles 15-16, the Ark entering Jerusalem) to establish that reverence is not optional but necessary in light of God's holiness and the danger of casual approach
So we worship in song, we worship with declaration, and we also worship, if we're doing it biblically, with reverence. We worship with reverence. Listen to verses 9 and 10. Worship the Lord in the splendor of His holiness. Tremble before him, all the earth. Say among the nations, "The Lord reigns." Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved. He will judge the peoples with equity. Now, there's little mystery behind why the psalmist writes verse 9 with such a sense of awe. The call for the earth to tremble, to shake before the holiness and the majesty of God, recognizes that reverence is appropriate, is necessary in worship. The writer would have been freshly aware of just how dangerous it was to enter into God's presence flippantly. Remember we talked last week about the context this psalm was written in? Remember the context in 1 Chronicles chapter 15 and 16? We read about the Ark of the Covenant entering into the City of David. So David and the Levites and all of Israel is gathered to watch and see as the Ark, which contained God's presence, was making its way into the holy city.
21 · The pastor narrates the story of Uzzah from 1 Chronicles 13—a man struck dead for irreverently touching the Ark—to illustrate the deadly seriousness of casual approach to God's holiness and to set up the contemporary application about reverence in worship
Well, that wasn't the first attempt. A couple chapters previous in 1 Chronicles 13, we read of the initial attempt where the Ark is placed on an ox cart, and two men are driving the cart, and there's something that happens to the cart. An ox stumbles, and it appears from the text that the Ark is falling over, or something's happening, and Uzzah, one of the men driving the ox cart, reaches out his hand and he touches the Ark. And the text would lead us to the conclusion that there was something in his action, something in his heart that was irreverent, that was casual. And he's struck dead. The story goes on to say that David feared God. On that day. He stops the procession. He says, "The Ark goes no further. It stays right where it is. We can't trifle with God."
22 · The pastor applies the Uzzah narrative to Providence's worship culture, distinguishing between acceptable casualness in dress and unacceptable casualness in heart; he pastorally guards against conflating cultural informality with irreverence while maintaining that fear and trembling are appropriate responses to God
I sometimes worry, myself included, that we're too cavalier in our attitudes to worship on Sunday mornings. Now, we've got a casual culture at Providence. I like the casual culture. I despise wearing ties, if you haven't figured that out. Being casual isn't a bad thing. Formality and being overly formal isn't a bad thing either, but it can bring a sense of stodginess that stifles appropriate expression in worship. That can happen. So I'm okay with casual dress. I'm okay with us coming and looking the way that we do. But I'm not okay with casual dress if that represents hearts casual to worship of the true and living God. There is a place for trembling and reverence when we gather before the Lord. When we consider God, we're right to do so with fear.
23 · The pastor connects Psalm 96:10 (God will judge with equity) to the Uzzah narrative, establishing that God's judgment of Uzzah was just, and argues that the same holy God we worship demands reverent approach—an approach made possible only through Christ
Verse 10 explains, "He will judge the peoples with equity." Uzzah reaches out his hand, touches the Ark. He dies. That's not an unjust action by God. That is God perfectly and rightly judging the motives of that man's heart in that instance. There's nothing offhand or casual about entering into the presence of an all-knowing, impartial judge, which is to say, He sees all our hearts perfectly. The God we worship each Sunday is the same God who would not tolerate a man touching the Ark of the Covenant. He's not to be trifled with. Our approach to worship should be reverent and mindful of the significance of coming into His presence, and the fact that we enter it only because of what He's done for us in Christ.
24 · The pastor uses C
I love the Chronicles of Narnia. I've read it several times. As soon as I mention that, some of you know probably exactly where I'm going with this illustration. The reason it's so beloved is because Lewis has a way of painting a picture that draws out the truths of Scripture. In the first book, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, they're sitting there and Mr. Beaver is describing to Lucy, a young girl, that Aslan is coming. Aslan is the lion in The Chronicles of Narnia who represents Christ. And as he's describing, there's this exchange, and Lucy isn't grasping the significance of who Aslan is. And Mr. Beaver declares, "He's not a tame lion!" Right? Later in the same passage, Lucy is still not getting it. She seems to be thinking that because he's not a tame lion, if he's coming, at least he's safe, right? He might not be tame, but it's safe. And I love how Mr. Beaver responds, "Safe? Who said anything about safe? Of course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the king, I tell you." That's an appropriate disposition for worship. Our God is He is not safe. You got a Sunday school version of Jesus that makes you think he's safe? You need to spend some time in the book of Revelation. When he comes back, he will not be safe. He will come with a sword and with fury, and he will come to judge the nations. He's not tame. He's not safe. You don't come casually or flippantly into His presence. But He is good. And if you come into His presence clothed in His blood, you will be protected.
25 · The pastor applies the call to reverence to specific practices (punctuality, concentration) and lifts up Capitol Hill Baptist's culture as a model—not of legalism, but of a corporate sense that gathering under God's Word is a holy moment requiring awe and devotion
When we gather to sing and worship on Sunday mornings, we can't do it carelessly. Our attitudes and actions our punctuality, our concentration, those should all reflect a level of reverence in our hearts. Our corporate worship is guided by the way the Word of God describes and calls us. And when God's people hear, preach, and sing and pray His words, they should do that with awe and devotion. It's a holy thing to gather together as God's people to worship by His word. I love the sense that Mark Dever has created at Capitol Hill Baptist. I was actually just talking with a pastor intern there for a time this last year, and he was describing— he's a sovereign grace guy, worships in sovereign grace church, loves sovereign grace worship— but he said, "Man, there was something that they created about the significance of the Word of God in worship and the requisite reverence because of that. There was a culture that came to worship with a sense of holiness, a sense of the majesty of the moment. That the Word of God, the words of God, are about to be held high. They're about to be prayed. They're about to be read. They're about to be sung. God's people are gathering together. They're stopping all else they could be doing to come together specifically for the opportunity to take God's Word, to hold it high, and to worship under its authority. And when that happens, there should be reverence. I want to have that kind of culture at Providence. Not legalism. Not overly stodgy. But reverent.
26 · The pastor recounts his father's correction during childhood church services—physical reminders to sit up and pay attention—as a personal illustration of reverence for the Word being taught and modeled, expressing his desire for that same culture at Providence
I remember when I was a kid, we had pews, you know, a little more high church setting than we have here at Providence, a little more liturgical in the strict definition of the word. And there were good things about that. There was a reverence for the Word of God. And I remember I would sit, you know, you're a little kid and so it's hard to concentrate Sometimes you'd doze off. And if I started like slouching down in my chair, if my dad was next to me, I got the vice grip on my knee. And you know that feeling, right? It's just like clamp, ooh, and you slide back up. If I was fortunate enough to have a couple-person gap, he would lean forward and just discreetly put his hand out and pop his thumb in the air. And I knew, scoot up. Pay attention. Have some reverence for the ministry of the word of God amidst his people right now. I want us to have that at Providence.
27 · The pastor applies the doctrine of reverence by reminding the congregation that God's unique presence and Spirit-ministry in corporate worship demand that we treat the gathering as holy, resisting any attitude that treats it as ordinary
We have the great privilege of worshiping Christ together, of coming corporately into the presence of God. When his people gather, he promises that his Spirit is present in a unique way. There is a unique dispensation and giving of the Spirit when His church gathers to sing His praises. There is a unique ministry of the Word, and so our worship should resist anything that treats as ordinary what's been consecrated to us.
28 · The pastor pivots to the fourth and final point (worship with expressive joy), correcting his own phrasing mid-sentence to emphasize that expressiveness and joy go together as the concluding element of biblical worship
So we should worship with reverence. And we should also worship with humility. Expressive joy. We should worship with reverence, with declaration, with song, and we should worship with expressiveness, with joy.
29 · The pastor clarifies that reverence and joy are not opposed but complementary, and guards against two errors: that reverence requires emotional dryness, and that worship is only valid when affections are fully engaged; he pastorally affirms that longing for joy when it's absent is itself worshipful
Sometimes people misconstrue reverence to mean that it's dry, it's emotionless, and that couldn't be further from the truth. The psalm recognizes there is a place for trembling before God. And you know who trembles? The psalm says all of earth. The mountains tremble before the glory of God. They quake. One passage says the mountains melt like wax before the glory of God. There is a place for reverence, and right alongside that place for reverence, it calls us to exalt, to be glad, to rejoice, to roar, to sing for joy. They don't stand opposed to each other. Joy is not the only way to express worship to God. There's times when silence, even tears, are appropriate. But joy, especially expressed in songs of praise, is one of the best ways to express love for God. I don't want to create the impression that worship always has to look the same way and it's only real if your heart is fully stirred. Sometimes the lack of joy combined with a longing for its return is itself worshipful. You ever been there? Lord, I'm not stirred right now. I'm not moved. My heart isn't engaged. Help me. I want it to be engaged. That's worship. Don't confuse— that's a worshipful thing to do. Desire for joy, desire for a stirred heart, desire to be moved by God, and sorrow when it doesn't happen, That's worship. So even when zeal flickers, if the heart still longs for the return of that zeal, worship is real.
30 · The pastor argues that joyful celebration is not optional but commanded by Psalm 96, and establishes that emotions are legitimate in worship only when they are responses to truth, not to musical manipulation; true worship moves affections from idols to Christ
But the psalm makes clear the suitability of celebration in our songs for God. Our songs should celebrate God. There should be a sense of celebration. We call this time together Sunday Celebration for a reason. We want to have time and make room, and our songs should give themselves to, in the style, to being able to express with joy all who God is and all that He has done for us in Christ Jesus. Celebration and expressing joyfully those things is appropriate. It's not just appropriate, it's called for. Our emotions are a legitimate part of worship when they are a response to the truth of God. It should not be the music that makes us emotional. It should be the words. It shouldn't be the music. It should be the truth expressed in the words. And where God's truth is being sung, God's people should be moved. If our affections aren't engaged and aren't moved from earthly idols towards Christ, then we have not worshiped.
31 · The pastor identifies the heart's idols as the greatest hindrance to worship—not stylistic preferences or external factors—and defines dead worship as going through motions without engaged affections, while reaffirming that longing for engagement when it's absent is still worshipful
Our idols represent the biggest hindrance in worship. It's not that the music is too loud or too soft or too fast or too slow or too formal or too informal or too big or too small. None of those things are the real things that get in the way of our worship. It's the idols of our hearts. They are the biggest hindrance in worship. And when our idols are engaged, expression will not be. Our hearts are the greatest difficulty we face in worship every week. And when our affections for God are dead, worship for God is dead. Remember what I said? If the affections aren't there and you're praying and asking, that's still worship. There's still a desire for those things, right? But if you come in here and you're just going through the motions, you're not really paying attention, not really singing, not really aware of what's being prayed, It's not worship. It's not a box to be checked off.
32 · The pastor confronts the objection that some people are 'just not expressive,' arguing that everyone has a bandwidth of expression and that the gospel should elicit the highest expression within that bandwidth; he illustrates this with weddings and football games, demonstrating that we express what moves us most
Now, some people hold that expressiveness in worship is not important. They maintain that being emotionally expressive is just not who they are. "I'm just not an expressive person." Now, I will grant, not everybody has the same range of expressions. Not everybody is Kramer on Seinfeld, right? No, certainly not. Some people have a very narrow bandwidth of expression. To the person who says, "I'm just not expressive," I want to ask the question, "Have you ever smiled?" Of course they have. And if you've smiled, you're expressive. You do have a bandwidth of expression. And whatever your bandwidth of expression is, The peaks of your bandwidth, the highest expression you ever have in all of life, should be expressed when you are worshiping God. And the worship of God and the truth of God should work to expand the bandwidth of your expression. Does that make sense? I've seen the most reserved men I know cry at at their daughter's funeral. Daughter's wedding. Daughter's funeral too. But you've seen that, right? Father giving away the bride. Tears. Emotion. Sometimes from men that you'd never expect it from. Men who describe themselves as stoic. Seen guys cheer at a football game. Classic illustration? Seen them cheer loud? Seen them get silly in their cheering? The reason is simple. We respond physically and emotionally to that which moves us most. You are a spiritual, emotional, physical being, and when you are moved by something, all of those things will express the fact that you are being moved. Your body will express it. Your voice will express it. Your affections will express it.
33 · The pastor provides two brief analogies—weddings/funerals and football games—to demonstrate that even people who consider themselves unexpressive will express emotion when something truly moves them, setting up the argument that God should move us most of all
I've seen the most reserved men I know cry at at their daughter's funeral. Daughter's wedding. Daughter's funeral too. But you've seen that, right? Father giving away the bride. Tears. Emotion. Sometimes from men that you'd never expect it from. Men who describe themselves as stoic. Seen guys cheer at a football game. Classic illustration? Seen them cheer loud? Seen them get silly in their cheering?
34 · The pastor draws out the anthropological principle from the illustrations—that human beings are integrated creatures who necessarily express what moves them most—establishing the foundation for the claim that if God does not elicit our highest expression, something is wrong
The reason is simple. We respond physically and emotionally to that which moves us most. You are a spiritual, emotional, physical being, and when you are moved by something, all of those things will express the fact that you are being moved. Your body will express it. Your voice will express it. Your affections will express it.
35 · The pastor guards against misunderstanding by clarifying that expressiveness is not the goal of worship—God Himself is the goal—and that emotions are only legitimate when they are responses to enjoying, glorifying, and being satisfied in God
Now, the goal— hear this— the goal is not, is not expression for expressiveness' sake. It's not emotion for the sake of being emotional. "Worship was so good. I was just so emotional." That's not the goal. That's not the end goal of worship. God is the end goal of worship. Enjoying Him, glorifying Him, being satisfied in Him, proclaiming with our voices, hearts, and bodies that He is worthy of praise. That's the end goal.
36 · The pastor recalls Rick Amash's vivid image of worship as receiving from God rather than giving to Him—holding up a cup to be filled—and illustrates the appropriate response with a 3-year-old's joy at Christmas, showing that gratitude for God's gifts naturally produces expressive worship
Remember Rick Amash a few months ago talking about worship and saying, "You know what you do in worship? You're not giving something to God. In worship, you're coming before God and you're holding up your cup and you're saying, 'Fill it! Fill me with all of You!'" all that you are. And when God gives a good gift like that, you should respond like a 3-year-old at Christmas opening a present. There's expression.
37 · The pastor returns to the 1 Chronicles historical context of Psalm 96 to illustrate that David's dancing before the Ark—an expressive, physical act of worship—was pleasing to God even though it drew scorn from his wife, establishing biblical warrant for expressive worship
God is the goal of worship. We see that in the historical context of this psalm. Remember Psalm 96, written as the Ark is coming into Jerusalem? Remember what happens in that story? David dances. The king, separate from the people, dances before the Ark of the Lord. Dances before all the people. His wife looks down from the tower and scornfully judges what what he's doing. But the Lord is pleased with David's joy, and he's pleased with David's expression.
38 · The pastor qualifies his call for expressiveness by acknowledging cultural differences in worship expression (Swedes vs
Now, our expression should be culturally appropriate. Does that make sense? I don't expect a Swede to worship like an Italian, or an Italian to worship like a Dominican. I spent a couple weeks in the Dominican Republic. Those guys could worship, and they could express their worship. But that looks very different from a church in rural Minnesota full of Norwegian and Swedish people. Norwegian and Swedish people have a narrower bandwidth for expression than someone from the Dominican Republic. It's just, on average, it's the truth. And there's something to be said for culturally appropriate expressions. You don't go into a church service, in a church setting, where They have different expectations, and bring streamers and dance in the back, that's not appropriate. You're distracting people from worship at that point. But every body that gathers corporately to worship should be seeking to expand the bandwidth of their expression. And those who are present should be worshiping as joyfully, with as much engagement, and as expressively as they can within those parameters. Parameters.
39 · The pastor argues that expressive worship (raised hands, loud singing) should be the norm rather than the exception because Christ is worthy, and our worship should testify to unbelievers and to our children that Jesus is the most significant reality in the universe; failure to express this reveals either bad theology or broken hearts
Raising your hands on the chorus doesn't guarantee that person is worshiping. Singing loudly, it doesn't ensure that somebody's heart is engaged. But those are often proper expressions of worship. Hands raised are better than hands in pockets. They are appropriate because our worship should authentically express that Jesus, the High King, the risen Lamb, is worthy of our deepest affections, our most heartfelt passions, our most joyous physical expression. Because Jesus is worthy. He's worthy of worship. Our worship should express to an unbeliever that what they see when we gather corporately reveals there is something more significant going on here in this room than anything else in all of life. That should be the testimony of our worship. If a guest or unbeliever doesn't sense in our worship that Jesus is the most momentous and meaningful thing in all the world, then there is something inherently lacking. In our worship. Fathers, mothers, if your kids don't sense in the worship of Sunday morning that this is the point in the week when your heart is most fully engaged, they are learning that Jesus is not the thing most worthy of worship. Jesus is not the treasure to be most valued. They're watching. They're learning. They hear and see more than you can ever imagine. If our worship doesn't give expression to this, then our theology and our practice of worship is broken, or our hearts are broken. Because Jesus, as the object of our worship, is most certainly not broken.
40 · The pastor argues that Christians alone can know true joy because we alone have seen God's perfect provision in Christ, and this joy should be undeniably evident in our worship; he confesses his own need for a bigger heart and calls the congregation to have their capacity for joy expanded through time in God's Word, culminating in the promise of Psalm 37:4—that God will give Himself to those who delight in Him
When we worship, the celebration should be such that it is undeniable to anyone watching: Jesus is the delight of my soul. Jesus, the one who died in my place, the one who interposed his precious blood He is the thing that I find most satisfying in all the world. Only Christians can know true joy in this world. That's an offensive statement to someone who's not a Christian, but it is true. God's Word says that it is true. True joy can only be found in and only expressed by the redeemed of the Lord. If you don't know Christ, if you haven't been redeemed by Christ, if you don't have communion and fellowship with God, then you do not know the true depths of joy. We are the only people who have seen and have known in our hearts the perfect provision of God in Jesus Christ. And because of that, our singing and our worship should reflect this deep, unassailable joy. As I read this psalm, I'm convicted. I need a bigger heart. I need to have my bandwidth expanded. To consistently worship in the way this requires, I need to have my palate stretched. I need to be stretched by the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. We need greater capacity for joy to worship God as he deserves to be worshiped. I don't care who you are, Swede or Dominican, you need to be excited expanded to worship God as He should be worshiped. We need more time in His Word to appropriately ascribe to Him the glory due His name. Left to ourselves, our hearts are simply too small. They're too earthbound to respond appropriately. But praise God, we are We are not left to ourselves. God has promised, "Delight yourself in the Lord, child, and he will give you the desires of your heart." Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you himself.
41 · The pastor concludes by calling Providence to delight in Christ and worship Him with song, declaration, reverence, and expressive joy in proportion to His infinite grace, returning to the language of Psalm 96 to frame corporate worship as the greatest joy of God's people
So Providence, let us delight ourselves in Christ. Let us worship him in light of the gospel with song and declaration and reverence and expressive joy in proportion to His glorious grace, and that is an infinite proportion. May the engagement of our hearts in worship be limited only by the riches of His great mercy for us in Christ. And then let us gather with hearts anticipating the corporate singing of His people, that we would sing to the Lord a new song, that we would sing to the Lord all the earth sing to the Lord and bless His name, that we would tell of His salvation from day to day, that we would anticipate and find great joy, the most joy, in declaring His glory among the nations, His marvelous works among all the peoples, because great is the Lord and He is greatly to be praised.
42 · The pastor closes in prayer, rehearsing the sermon's main themes—that the redeemed have a song from the Spirit, that corporate worship should be Spirit-filled and Word-centered, that we should respond with song, declaration, awe, and expressed joy—and asks God to bring about these realities for His glory
Would you bow your heads? Lord, if you have saved us, you have put a song in our hearts. If you have redeemed us, you have implanted us with your Spirit. Your Spirit has caused us to be born again to a living hope. Your Spirit has granted us new life in Christ, and with that comes a song to sing praises to the God who redeems, to the God who saves. And so, Lord, we want to be stirred up. We want that song to spill out of our hearts. And when we gather for worship, we want you to do that. We want you to pour out your Spirit in our midst, that we would see your truth, that we would hear your truth, that your word would be the centerpiece, that your word would make Jesus the most glorious, precious treasure in the room. And that we would respond appropriately. That we would sing. That we would declare. That we would have awe. And that we would express our joy in Christ. We would do all this for His glory. In Your name, Jesus. Amen.