Reasons for Worship
We are to worship God--and God alone--
because of who He is and what He has
done for us in Jesus Christ.
Here's Gene:
Psalm 134 ends the song of ascents.
And here in Psalm 135 begins a whole
new series of psalms.
All the way to the end.
These are the songs of worship.
The psalms of praise.
And this psalm begins with what I've
called here, "A Call to Worship:"
Hallelujah! Praise the name of Yahweh.
Give praise, you servants of Yahweh.
And let me just underscore that the
Hebrew word really is praise--"Yah."
And "Yah" is a shortened form of Yahweh,
which is frequently translated "one Lord."
Yahweh: it's the personal name of God.
And so when you have "hallelujah" what
you have is "praise Yah."
Praise God, which is where we
get the word "hallelujah."
Now why should we worship God?
See that's the question that's
answered in the psalm
in a beautiful way.
First of all, God is good:
Praise Yahweh, for Yahweh is good;
sing praise to His name, for it is delightful.
In other words, God is good.
He is righteous.
He is holy.
He is perfect.
He is always good.
Now we may not feel that all the time
or understand that all the time.
But God is good all the time.
Because He's righteous.
He's holy. He's perfect. God is good.
Therefore, we should worship Him
because of His holiness, His goodness.
But also we should worship Him
because God is gracious:
For Yahweh has chosen Jacob for Himself,
Israel as His treasured possession.
And that goes all the way back
when the whole world had
turned against God.
And God reached down, He chose
a man by the name of Abraham.
Abraham was a pagan.
He worshiped false gods.
He worshiped idols.
But in God's grace, He chose Abraham
and made him a promise.
He would give him the land.
And He would also give him a great people,
which is Israel.
But the purpose of giving him this land
and these people
is that they would be a blessing to the
whole world through the Jesus Christ.
Well out of the promise to
Abraham came Jacob.
And out of Jacob came the tribes of Israel.
And out of the tribe of Judah
comes Jesus Christ
in order to bring the message of eternal life
to all those who would believe.
God is gracious.
It's His grace.
It's always been His grace.
But thirdly, we should worship God
because He's great.
And we see this in verse 5:
For I know that Yahweh is great;
our Lord is greater than all gods.
And there, when he's using the word "gods,"
he's not saying that there are gods
other than God.
What He is saying is that they're all false gods.
And he explains that if you go on
into the next verses where he says:
The idols of the nations are of silver and gold,
they're made by human hands.
They have mouths but they cannot speak,
[they have] eyes, [but they] cannot see.
They have ears, but cannot hear;
indeed, there is no breath in their mouths.
In other words, they're false gods.
And God is the one who is greater
than all of these Idols.
He is not an idol. He is God.
He is the omnipotent God.
The all-powerful great God.
And that leads us to a question here for application--
as we think about this,
these elements of who God is.
And why we should worship Him:
How can we use these great truths
about God to give meaning to
our praise and worship?
As new covenant believers--
those who know Jesus Christ.
Who came to reveal who God is.
As John wrote:
In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
And all things were created by Him, by Jesus.
But the Word became flesh.
Dwelt among us. We beheld His glory.
The glory of the only begotten of the Father,
full of grace and truth. Jesus Christ.
How does this apply today in our lives
as followers of Jesus Christ?
Well let me take you to a Principle in Ephesians
in the Life Essentials Study Bible,
related to chapter 1 in the book of Ephesians.
And it's very similar to the Principle
here in the Old Testament
in this particular psalm of praise and worship.
But it has another element
and that is the gospel
and who Jesus Christ is:
Because of our eternal hope and secure
relationship with God through Jesus Christ
and the Holy Spirit, we should never cease
to praise and worship Him.
Now when the psalmist wrote,
he didn't understand the Trinity
as we understand the Trinity.
He didn't understand Christ
who would be the one who would reveal God.
He didn't even understand the Holy Spirit
as we understand that today.
But because of our eternal hope in Christ--
our secure relationship with God
because we're sealed with the Holy Spirit--
we should continue with hearts of
love and praise.
Even beyond what they felt
in the Old Testament.
Because we have this incredible,
full revelation of who God is.
We should worship Him.
Praise Him with our whole hearts.
Now if you look into chapter 1 there of Ephesians,
you'll get some very similar statements.
But they're really fulfilled in Christ.
For example, number one in Ephesians 1:4:
We've been chosen in Christ.
Remember one of the reasons in
the Old Testament psalm there
that we should worship.
Because He selected Jacob.
He chose Jacob.
He chose the children of Israel.
Not to be particularistic but to reveal the Savior.
But we read in Ephesians:
He has chosen us even before the
foundation of the world.
Why should we worship Him?
Because of His love.
His grace in choosing us.
Not because of any works we've done.
But because of His love.
In verse 7: We're redeemed by the blood of Christ.
And because we're redeemed
by the blood of Christ,
we should praise Him.
And worship Him.
We're adopted into the family of God.
This is something that Israel didn't understand.
They were a nation.
Yes, they were brothers, sisters, families,
but they didn't understand what it means
to be the family of God.
To be the church of Jesus Christ.
Be this temple of living stones.
We've been adopted into the family of God.
And finally, Paul said there in Ephesians:
We are sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.
Think about that.
And at the end of all of these statements,
three times it says:
Because of these great truths we are
to be to the praise of His glory.
To the praise of His glory.
So here's the Principle to Live By:
We're to worship God--and God alone--
because of who He is and what He has
done for us in Jesus Christ.