Easter 1 2024 Psalm 95:1-11 The God We Worship… April 7th, 2024

Pastor James Albrecht

Come, let us sing joyfully to the Lord. Let us give a loud shout to the Rock who saves us.
Let us approach His presence with thanksgiving. With music we will shout to Him.
For the Lord is the great God and the great King above all gods.
He holds the unexplored places of the earth in His hand, and the peaks of the mountains belong to Him.
The sea belongs to Him, for He made it, and His hands formed the dry land.
Come, let us bow down. Let us revere Him. Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker,
for He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture and the flock in His hand.
Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as they did at Meribah,
as they did that day at Massah in the wilderness, where your fathers challenged Me and tested Me
though they had seen what I had done.

INI
What were you thinking about when you walked through the church door this morning? Do you
remember? You might have come with problems on your mind. You had a tough week… health issues,
family strife, office politics at work. Maybe you were thinking about the conversation you had in the car,
or wondered who else would be here today. It is possible that you weren’t thinking about anything in
particular at all. You were just relieved to get out of the wind and cold.
How many of you came here to be in the presence of the almighty God?
It’s worth thinking about because our text is one of the “call to worship” Psalms. Psalms in this group
have the same general theme: “The Lord reigns,” and because He reigns, His people should come before
Him with shouts of joy.

Today, let’s think about The God We Worship… 1. He is infinitely greater than all that He created 2. He is
more merciful than we are sinful 3. He is more faithful than any trial we face.

1. Come, let us sing joyfully to the Lord. Let us give a loud shout to the Rock who saves us. Let us approach
his presence with thanksgiving. With music we will shout to him.
There are a few things this passage teaches about worship. One, is that worship should involve everyone.
It isn’t just the pastor who should speak or only the choir that should sing. Every believer has reason to
praise God.

Secondly, our worship should be vibrant and joyful, not dull and monotonous. That doesn’t mean we
should ditch our 80-year-old Hymnal. We don’t have to part with familiar liturgies or replace the organ
with a praise band. It simply means that every Christian has a reason to be engaged in worship. Each
believer has reason to shout for joy to the Rock of our salvation.
That might be easier if we started each service with a reminder of Who God is. The God we worship is
the God Who filled the night sky with stars. How many stars? The number is too large to count. In our

galaxy alone, the estimate is at 200 billion. The better our telescopes become, the larger the number
becomes. Consider this: there are more molecules in 10 drops of water than there are stars in the
universe or grains of sand on the earth. The God we worship, the One in Whose presence we stand,
spoke and the creation was formed and functioning.
For the Lord is the great God and the great King above all gods. He holds the unexplored places of the
earth in his hand, and the peaks of the mountains belong to him. The sea belongs to him, for he made it,
and his hands formed the dry land.

The more deeply we probe, the more amazing God’s creation is. He made the birds on day 5. There are
so many different kinds of birds, and so many fascinating things about each kind, that you could spend a
lifetime studying and never know everything about them. Just when you think you’ve seen it all, God
introduces the American Dipper – a songbird that lives along the mountain rivers out west. It can float
along in the swift current, and suddenly sink to the bottom like lead. The Dipper then walks underwater
searching the streambed for food. It can fly, float, sink, walk, and sing praises to its Creator.
The depths of the earth, the mountain heights, the vast and billowing sea — were created by His Word.
He is so much greater that He holds Creation in the palm of His hand. And He is here. Right now. In this
very building, He has come to be with us!

2. The God we worship is more merciful than we are sinful. Come, let us bow down. Let us revere him. Let
us kneel before the Lord our Maker, for he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture and the flock in
his hand.

There is a shift in mood: from joyful shouting, to reverent silence; from standing to praise to bowing in
humility. The Lord we worship has made us His very own. Sounds simple, but it isn’t. He took His
enemies and made them members of His family. He became One of us in order to make it happen. Who
can possibly understand the love of God that led Him from heaven to earth to save us and make us His
own? The wonders of Creation make you step back in awe, but God’s mercy brings you to your knees.
For all our lives, we shook our collective fist at God, resenting His righteous demands. Like Israel dancing
around the Golden Calf, we broke His commandments and made light of His will. And yet, we are now
sheep of His flock and the people of His pasture. That is only possible because of His mercy.
Mercy means undeserved kindness. There is no greater kindness than the love God demonstrated when
He took our place on the cross. Can anyone be too sinful for Jesus? No. Where sin abounds, God’s grace
abounds even more. Every day of our lives is filled with spiritual failures and disobedience. Every day is
filled with God’s mercy and grace. He embraces us with forgiveness, peace, and the sure hope of heaven.
3. Finally, the God we worship is more faithful than every trial we face.

Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as they did at Meribah, as they did that day at
Massah in the wilderness, where your fathers challenged me and tested me though they had seen what I
had done.

Meribah and Massah were technically not places on the map. They refer to two events in the history of
Israel. The first was at Rephidim, where the people ran out of water. These are the people who had seen
the Ten Plagues, had crossed the Red Sea, had eaten, day after day from the Lord’s hand. But the
moment their faith was tested was the moment things got ugly. Meribah means bitterness; Massah
means contention. The people became bitter and contentious. They shook their puny fists at God and
screamed: Why did you bring us out into the wilderness to die? Then they challenged: Is God among us
or not? The only surprising thing about the account is that God did not strike them all dead. Instead, He
told Moses to strike the rock and fresh water flowed.

Meribah and Massah happened again at Kadesh. This time God told Moses to speak to the Rock. Moses
lost his cool, struck the Rock with his staff, and lost the privilege of entering the promised land.
The two incidents happened in two different venues, with two different generations of people. The
takeaway? It’s a very common sin. The cause is no surprise: it happened when people focused on
themselves instead of on God. In every test the Lord sent, they refused to trust Him. The result was that
their words of praise were replaced with bitter complaints. If only they had focused on God, because God
is always faithful.

The God we worship does not fail or change. We are the people of His pasture and the flock in His hand.
He holds all of Creation in His hand in one way. He holds each of us in His hand in a special way. Every
trial we face comes with a choice: Focus on me, or focus on the faithfulness of God.
Malcom Muggeridge was an author and statesman who had been converted to Christianity. As an elderly
man, he contrasted his youthful dreads and desires with those of his old age. He said that the things he
felt were most desirable in his youth turned out to be of little importance. The things he dreaded in his
youth had proven to be the richest experiences of his life. That’s the way it works when our faith is
focused on God. He is so trustworthy that He makes the trials we go through become the richest
experiences we receive.

Come, let us sing joyfully to the Lord. Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. The God we worship is
infinitely greater than His creation, is more merciful than we are sinful, and is more faithful than every
trial we ever face. Amen.