Oh come, let us sing to the Lord;
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
For the Lord is a great God,
and a great King above all gods.
In his hand are the depths of the earth;
the heights of the mountains are his also.
The sea is his, for he made it,
and his hands formed the dry land.
Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
For he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture,
and the sheep of his hand.
Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,
as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
when your fathers put me to the test
and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.
For forty years I loathed that generation
and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart,
and they have not known my ways.”
Therefore I swore in my wrath,
“They shall not enter my rest.”
This Psalm of worship tells us what true worship is. It opens with an exhortation that tells us that worship is about God and not us. He, not we, is the object. We are exhorted to praise the Lord with singing, the best way to freely and openly express our love, joy and thankfulness. We express these feelings by telling Him how great He is. We enumerate His mighty deeds as well as the glorious and holy attributes that make up His total being. The greatness of our God means that He is superior to all other things and entities that men have worshipped or named as “gods”. Our God is alive and active. Most important, He is a God who loves and cares for us.
Yet all our worship, music, singing, and expressions of emotion can be nothing more than a useless sham. The Psalmist notes that Israel wandered in the wilderness for 40 years because of sin and disobedience. They may have said they trusted God; they may have even worshipped Him with great emotion, but they did not really believe in Him. The Psalmist warns against false worship, praise that is high sounding and grand yet hypocritical lip service rooted in a heart that is not right with God.
In today church this is still a danger. Many churches, large and small, put on a great show but miss the mark of worship, Jesus, and the gospel of grace through faith and repentance from sin. Worship is not limited to music or singing as many evangelical and even liberal churches seem to think, or praying and singing in tongues as the Pentecostal and charismatic churches practice. All the grand and dynamic music and songs sung in many churches can mask a rebellious heart that embraces sin and covetousness. If we want our singing to really exalt the Lord we must realize that worship begins with obedience. Worship means we walk in righteousness. We shun our own way and our own desires, we reject the ways of the world and the media. We seek to do God’s will and work and even when it costs us.