Why do you come to church? What’s the reason that you get up out of your chair to come along on a Sunday evening? There could be any number of reasons why you’re here - habit, or duty, or desire, or delight, or anything in between. So why do you come to worship? Or, in the title of our sermon, why worship?
Hopefully, tonight’s Psalm, Psalm 135, will give us some more reasons to worship. It will help us to see why we worship, and expand our vision of God, leading to even more worship of him. Now, we’ll break the Psalm down into three sections (each with 7 verses), and see just who God is, and why we should worship him.
But as we dive into the Psalm’s opening verses, we’ll see that before we get to the ‘why’ of worship, we get the ‘who’ of worship. There’s a call to worship; a call to praise the Lord. And who should praise the LORD?
‘You servants of the LORD, you who minister in the house of the LORD, in the courts of the house of our God.’ (1-2)
This is a call to the servants of the Lord - to those who serve him; those who obey him. And as verse 2 focuses in, it’s those who minister in the house of the Lord. We’re in Jerusalem, in the temple. And the people who are there, in the temple, are urged to praise the Lord!
Why would that be? Why would the people who are working for the Lord, who are serving in the temple - why would they need to be reminded to praise the Lord? Could it be that we sometimes get used to the way things are? That we are so used to the fact that we come along to church, that it’s just normal, regular, and we almost take it for granted?
You see, just because we’re in church, doesn’t necessarily mean that we are here to worship. But even if that’s the case, we get these gentle reminders, these little prompts and encouragements to really worship; to actually worship God. So why should we worship God?
The first reason comes in verse 3. ‘Praise the LORD, for the LORD is good.‘ The Lord is good, and it is pleasant to sing praise to his name. We see how the Lord is good in verse 4: ‘For the LORD has chosen Jacob to be his own, Israel to be his treasured possession.’
The Lord is good, and it’s seen in his choosing the children of Israel. You see, it’s not that we choose to worship God - he has already chosen us. And so our worship and praise is a response to God’s goodness, and his choosing us. Now, those two names, Jacob and Israel, they both refer to the same person, Jacob the grandson of Abraham, and the father of the twelve sons of Israel, the twelve tribes. It’s a way of referring to the whole nation of Israel.
And God chose them to be his own people, to be his treasured possession. In the Old Testament, the people of Israel were God’s special people, but now, we are included in the church, and the things said of Israel are now said of the church (e.g. 1 Peter 2:9 - ‘But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God...’)
God is good - as seen in his choosing. But then verses 5-7 show that God isn’t just good; he’s also great. And that’s in particular in comparison to any other small-g gods; whatever or whoever anyone else may worship. And how do we know he is great? Because he can do whatever pleases him, wherever he pleases - in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and all their depths. Everywhere is within his control, and under his rule. Whether the weather is good or bad, God is in control of it all. So we see the clouds and lightning with rain and wind. And it’s God who makes it all.
Why should we worship the Lord? He is the God of creation. But that’s not all. You see, as verses 8-14 go on to tell us, he is also the God of salvation.
These verses are a mini-history of the people of Israel. We see just what God has done for his people - how he has acted in creation to save his people. One commentator suggested these verses are how God vanquishes his enemies and vindicates his servants. So what did God do?
‘He struck down the firstborn of Egypt, the firstborn of men and animals. He sent his signs and wonders into your midst, O Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his servants.’
That’s all about the Passover - how God brought his people out of Egypt, out from their slavery, saved from Pharaoh and his servants. When they got across the Red Sea, they then spent some time in the wilderness, forty years in fact, before they started to receive their promised land. But it wasn’t the Israelites doing it. No, it was God;
‘He struck down many nations and killed mighty kings... all the kings of the Canaan - and he gave their land as an inheritance, an inheritance to his people Israel.’ (10-12)
Sihon and Og - they were both defeated in Numbers 21. And the kings of Canaan, they were defeated in the time of Joshua. The people came in, and God gave them the land, to be their inheritance. God is active in salvation. And verses 13-14 provide a summary of this section:
‘Your name, O LORD, endures for ever, your renown, O LORD, through all generations. For the LORD will vindicate his people and have compassion on his servants.’ (13-14)
The LORD vindicates his servants by vanquishing his enemies. He is the God of compassion, for all his servants. Do you see the contrast? You have Pharaoh and his servants in verse 9, and the servants of the Lord in verse 14. To serve Pharaoh is to stand against God; to serve God is to know his compassion and salvation.
And we who are New Testament believers can see this point even more vividly. It’s in the cross of Jesus that we experience the rescue of God, and it’s through the cross that we are given our promised inheritance, as we look forward to the new heaven and the new earth, where righteousness is at home.
So why worship? God is good and great - seen in his choosing and creating. Further, God is in control, seen in his salvation. As we come to the final section, we have another comparison running. So as you look at verse 15, think - how is God in comparison to this?
‘The idols of the nations are silver and gold, made by the hands of men. They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but they cannot see; they have ears, but cannot hear, nor is there breath in their mouths.’ (15-17)
The writer looks at the idols that other people worship. They’re made of something - silver or gold; and they’re made by someone - by the hands of men. In comparison, what is God like? God is the maker, he wasn’t made. He made us, and everything else. Whereas these idols are made by someone. not very worthy of worship, are they?
And even if these idols look impressive, they’re not actually very impressive. They might look the real deal, but they’re not. They have all the features, just no ability. They can’t speak, or see, or hear, or breathe. They just kind of sit there. Unable to ‘do’ anything. Do we even need to compare them with our God? There’s no comparison! our God speaks, sees, hears, is alive and in control.
Now, even at this point, it’s clear that you would rather worship the living God rather than these useless idols. But verse 19 shows that we become like the thing we behold; that we become like the thing we look to and worship:
‘Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them.’
You see, if you trust something that is useless and worthless and dead, then you will become the same. It’s a dead end, literally, to worship an idol. It can’t save you. It will only lead you to be like it.
But the same is true of the living God. We who trust in him will become like him. As we look to the Lord, as we trust in him, so we become more like him.
With these reasons, with even more ‘why’ to worship, the call comes again to praise the Lord - whoever you are, in whichever category you find yourself - to praise the Lord. Why? He is the God of creation - he made us and chose us. He is the God of salvation - saving the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt, and saving us from slavery to sin. And he is the living God, who is re-making us in his image.
Those are great reasons to praise. So let’s do it. Let’s praise him, because he is worthy.
This sermon was preached in St Matthew's Church, Richhill on Sunday evening 12th August 2018.
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