Serve the Lord
with Gladness (2012)
Psalm 100
Introduction
I
hope you will get to observe the Labor Day holiday tomorrow. The kids have been in school for a week, and
now they need a break. The rest of you
have been working longer than a week, and you also need a break. Holidays are important, because God made us
to observe a work-rest rhythm. Just as
God created everything in six days and rested on the seventh day, we have been
created to work and to rest.
Hopefully
one day will be all the rest you need.
Once you discover that there’s nothing good on TV during the day, you
will be ready to get back to work. Or,
once you discover how much work there is to do around your house, you will be
ready to go back to your paying job.
Work
is actually a good thing. There is a
satisfaction in a completed task and knowing that our efforts have made a
contribution to a greater good.
In
the 1500’s, Martin Luther was the leading personality in the Protestant Reformation. Most of us think of the Protestant
Reformation as the time when Luther led a group of folks to break away from the
Catholic Church. He promoted salvation
by faith alone and began to teach the priesthood of all believers. According to Protestant theology, we do not
need a priest or a pope to pronounce our salvation or to represent us before
God.
However,
Martin Luther made another contribution to our theology that often gets
overlooked. Luther was one of the first
to recognize that secular work can be a divine calling. You do not have to serve as a preacher, a
monk or a nun to have a calling from God.
You can work for the Lord in any vocation, as long as you do your work
to the glory of God. Or, as we read in
Psalm 100…Serve the Lord with Gladness.
Psalm 100
If
you are like me, you learned Psalm 100 from the King James Version of the
Bible. And, if you are like me, it just
doesn’t sound right to read this Psalm from the New International Version. Instead of “Shout for joy,” we are used to
the phrase “Make a joyful noise.”
Instead of “Worship the LORD with gladness,” we are used to “Serve the
LORD with gladness.” Instead of “It is
he who made us, and we are his,” we are used to “It is He who made us, and not
we ourselves.”
These
are only minor changes in the translation.
They don’t affect the meaning of Psalm 100. But, I believe they diminish some of the
poetry…
Some
of the words in Psalm 100 might have changed in the NIV, but the structure
remains intact. For example, there is a
rhythm in Psalm 100. It begins with an
imperative, or a command to worship.
Then, the command is followed by the reasons for worship. In other words, Psalm 100 does two
things. It commands us to worship
God. Then, it builds a case by stating
the reasons why we should worship God.
In
the first two verses, we read three commands.
Then, in verse three, we read three reasons why we ought to
worship. In verse 4, we read three more
commands to worship. Then, in verse
five, we read three more reasons why we ought to worship.
“Shout
for joy to the LORD, all the earth.” The
KJV translates this as “Make a joyful noise” instead of “shout for joy.” Both translations mean the same thing. It refers to an uncontrollable outburst of
noise. It seems a little out of place in
worship, because we just don’t do this.
At least, we don’t do this at church.
But, we do let out uncontrollable outbursts of joy when the Lufkin
Panthers score a touchdown on Friday nights.
“Worship
the LORD with gladness.” Again, the KJV
translates this differently with “Serve the LORD with gladness.” The Hebrew word can mean either “worship” or
“serve.” If it is used for activity
outside of the sanctuary or Temple, it can actually mean “work.” When it is used for activity inside the
sanctuary or Temple, it either refers to the “work” performed by the priests
and Levites or the “worship” of the regular attenders.
“Come
before him with joyful songs.” For many
of us, Sunday morning church is the only place where we sing together as a
group. But, that has not always been the
case. In many cultures, group singing is
a common occurrence. It makes me think
of the crowds of people at Latin American soccer games. They sing and chant together in unison for
the entire game. Singing is an
expression of their joy.
Serve.
Notice
that each of these commands is a call for us to worship the LORD. I find that significant because of the ways
we tend to think of worship. For many of
us, we think of corporate worship—on Sunday mornings in the sanctuary—as
something that is optional. Sunday
morning at church is nothing more than a “back up plan.” If we can’t find something better to do—like
go to the lake or go to the soccer fields or catch up on our sleep—then we can
always go to church. For other people,
Sunday morning worship is something we do when we feel like it. If we wake up on Sunday morning feeling close
to God, then we will go to church. But,
if we wake up feeling tired or discouraged or even doubtful about our spiritual
lives, then we will not go to church.
These
are the wrong attitudes about worship.
We are not always going to feel like going to worship. All of us have something else we could be
doing this morning. Sometimes, we need
to listen to the words of Psalm 100 and go to worship, because we have been
commanded. There are no other Sunday
activities more important than worshipping God alongside God’s people. And, sometimes, worship is the very thing we
need in order to deal with our feelings of doubt and discouragement.
In one sense, Psalm 100 addresses
worship inside the walls of the sanctuary.
But, we don’t believe Sunday morning worship is the only way to serve
the Lord. And, we don’t believe worship
is something to be contained in the four walls of the church sanctuary. All of our work and service can be an act of
worship.
When Martin Luther taught us that
all vocations can be dedicated as worship of God, he based his teaching on what
the Bible says in Romans 12: 1 – 2.
Romans 12: 1 – 2, “ Therefore, I
urge you, brothers (and sisters), in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies
as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of
worship. Do not (be conformed) any
longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your
mind. Then you will be able to test and
approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
According to Paul, worship is
something we do with our bodies and our minds.
We offer all of ourselves to be used by God. Notice how Paul does not put any time
restrictions on this by saying “offer your bodies and renew your minds on
Sunday.” No. Some of our worship is corporate
worship—which happens on Sunday mornings in church—and some of our worship is
individual—which happens Monday through Saturday by giving our bodies and our
minds to God daily. Whatever we do, we
should offer it to God as worshipful service.
Worshipful
service is different from humanitarian service. There is something about serving other people that is
attractive to us…Many secular groups have gotten involved with service projects
because they have discovered that it makes them feel good to serve others…But
this is not worshipful service.
How
do we know it is not worshipful? Because
the person doing the work is quick to step up and take the credit for his or
her effort.
Humanitarian
service wants to be recognized…Becomes angry if an act of service goes without
an award…Keeps score…I have done this much for you, now you owe me.
That
is not how worshipful service looks…Those who worship God in their acts of
service often go without any kind of recognition…That doesn’t mean it is bad to
be recognized…It’s just bad to desire recognition…
Those
who worship God in their service are just as comfortable behind the scenes as
they are in center stage…Because we know that God notices what people never
see.
Worshipful
service is a life-style. Many people today are comfortable
serving the needs of others as long as they have the opportunity to choose whom
they will serve and when they will serve…
The
Christian who is committed to worshipful service has already given himself or
herself into the Lord’s hands to serve whenever and wherever the Holy Spirit
leads…Perhaps, this is best captured in the words of the Apostle Paul in most
of his writings…Paul usually began his letters with this greeting, “Paul, a
servant of Christ Jesus…”
The
Greek word Paul used to refer to himself literally meant “Slave”…Of course we
have toned it down a little so it would be more acceptable for our
culture…After all, isn’t it better to think of someone as a servant than to
think of them as a slave? Slavery of
human beings is evil…It is despicable…It is embarrassing that we as a culture
accepted it for as long as we did…Slavery grates against all of our modern
sensibilities…Yet that is exactly the lifestyle God has called all of his
people to pursue…
God
wants us to be slaves in the sense that we no longer have a choice about our
lifestyle…Whether we will serve and obey our master or not…
Worshipful
service is community building.
The
best way I know to describe this is to say that in worshipful service we do not
build up ourselves. We build up other
people.
This
would be a very difficult concept for me to try to explain to the average
person on the street of Lufkin…But it should not be difficult for you to
understand…
Traditionally,
our American culture has placed a value on one thing…You might think I mean
freedom, but I do not…American culture has historically worshipped at the altar
of Individualism…It is OK for you to do whatever you want to do, because you
are a free individual…Who am I to judge your freedom or lifestyle?
And
that is exactly the kind of philosophy which is challenged by worshipful
service…When you take the time and expend the energy serving another person,
you have just submitted your freedom and your needs on someone else’s behalf…to
build them up.
In
other words, there is something more important than your personal freedom…There
is something more important than having your needs met…
Serve the
Lord.
Psalm
100 gives us very specific instructions about the object of our worship. On one hand, Psalm 100 commands us to worship
the LORD. On the other hand, it builds a
case for the reasons we are supposed to worship. Psalm 100: 3 tells us three things about God
which proves he is worthy of our worship.
“The
LORD is God.” This may sound strange to
us, because it sounds like the Psalmist uses two titles for God. But, notice that the word LORD is written in
all capital letters. When the word LORD
is written in all capital letters it translates the Hebrew name Yahweh—the name
God revealed to Moses in Exodus 3, “I am who I am.”
“It
is he who made us, and we are his.” The
KJV translates this differently from the NIV.
The KJV says, “It is He who made us, and not we ourselves.” The only difference between these two phrases
in Hebrew is one vowel. Since the Hebrew
Bible was not originally written with vowels, we do not know which one is
intended. This week, I prefer the KJV (I
may change my mind next week), because this is the basic confession of worship… “There is one God, and I am not God.”
“We
are his people, the sheep of his pasture.”
Not only has God made us, but God has made us his people. He has saved us individually and is forming
us into a community. God made us (in the
past tense), and God is making us (in the present tense). God is not through with any of us. He continues to lead us and shape us and
provide for us as a shepherd provides for his sheep.
In
other words, there are three reasons to worship the Lord. He is God.
He has created us. He has called
us to be a part of his people.
Serve the
Lord with Gladness.
There
is something else we need to notice about the commands to worship. Each of these commands tells us to be joyful
in worship.
Psalm
100 does not tell us to be happy. It
tells us to have joy. There is a
difference between joy and happiness. If
you think about it, the difference is fairly obvious. The word “happy” shares its origins with
words like “happen” and “happenstance.” In
other words, our “happiness” depends on the things that “happen” in our
lives. Joy does not depend on our
circumstances. Instead, joy is what we
feel when we reflect on who God is and what God has done for us. Our God not only made us, but he also loved
us so much that he called us to become a part of his people—the people he leads and cares for with the intimacy of a
shepherd who loves his sheep.
Psalm
100 has a lot to say about worship. But,
there is one thing Psalm 100 does not address.
It never tells us how to worship God.
It tells us to shout, to worship and to sing. But, it never tells us what to shout, how to
worship or what songs to sing.
I
think this is because musical preferences differ from one culture to
another. People in Africa do not sing
the same songs we sing in North America.
And, musical preferences change over time even within the same
culture. An example of changing musical
preferences happened just down the road at Houston’s First Baptist Church.
Houston’s
First Baptist Church was founded in 1840.
When they built their first building, there was a disagreement about
whether or not the church should install an organ in the sanctuary. Some people were opposed to installing the
organ, because in the 1840’s the organ was known as “the devil’s instrument.” It wasn’t appropriate to play “the devil’s
instrument” in a church.
The
organ was installed in the first sanctuary.
But, within the first year, something happened. When the church showed up for Sunday worship,
the organ was gone. In the middle of the
night, someone had broken into the church and stolen the organ. It was an unsolved mystery for over forty
years. When workers were dredging
Buffalo Bayou to build the Houston Ship Channel, they found the organ from
First Baptist Church. Someone stole it
and dumped it in the Ship Channel.[1]
That
doesn’t sound like a joyful attitude toward worship.
Psalm
100 has a lot to say about worship. It
commands us to worship the Lord, even when we don’t feel like it. It presents a clear case for why we should
worship God—he created us and loves us.
It instructs us on the proper attitude of worship—joy.
God
does not just command us to be joyful.
God gives us a reason to be joyful.
God himself is the reason for our joy—not the circumstances of our lives
and not the way we feel when we wake up on Sunday mornings.
[1] I first heard
this story in a sermon by Houston’s First Baptist pastor Greg Matte, http://houstonsfirst.org/BeAPartOfTheStory-Part2
.
I also found a reference to the story at http://users.hal-pc.org/~lfa/BBIntro.html
.
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