28 Feb Summer Psalms – Psalm 96: Prayer for the ungrateful

Psalm 96:1-13

1  Oh sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth! 2  Sing to the Lord, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day. 3  Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples! 4  For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; he is to be feared above all gods. 5  For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the Lord made the heavens. 6  Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. 7  Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength! 8  Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; bring an offering, and come into his courts! 9  Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness;[1] tremble before him, all the earth!

10  Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns! Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity.” 11  Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar, and all that fills it; 12  let the field exult, and everything in it! Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy 13  before the Lord, for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness, and the peoples in his faithfulness.

One of the hardest times every day for me is waking up in the morning. My work requires me to start early every day. Every day, I start work at 6.30 in the morning. I wake up at 5 am every morning. So often, I just complain “why do I have to work in this industry?”. Another example is early last year, when Coronavirus just arrived in Australia, everyone was panicking including me. All businesses forced their employees to work from home except few industries which one of them is the food industry. When most of my friends are so happy because they work from home, I must wake up early every day and do the same work. What makes it worse is some of my colleagues in my office were able to work from home except me because of the nature of the job. At that time, coronavirus was still a hot topic and people are still uncertain what is going to happen. At one meeting, I was so angry because it seems my company “sacrificed” my life to be in the office so that they can get profit. I was so over the top. I was like a drama queen at that time. Those are just a few examples of myself complaining about life and being ungrateful. But if we look from another perspective, hey I should be grateful that I still have a job and income.

Do you realise when we are in the zone of complaining, it stops us to be grateful? When we lose our job, we complain to God – “why has to be me, God?”. When your life isn’t according to your plan, you complain to God – “Why only bad things happen to me, God?”. On the other hand, when we get blessing, promotion, our mouth is full of praise to God which is not wrong. We normally hear the word gratitude like this “I’m grateful for my home, my family, my job” which is great. We want to identify the blessing from God because All the good things come from God. He is the source of all good things. Somehow, we have this unspoken rule in our heart – “we will be grateful when we get what we want, and we complain when we don’t get what we desire”. But the bible teaches us that we should be grateful in all seasons.

The main reason that we cannot always be grateful to God is because we don’t have the right perspective of why we should be grateful. These are some common reasons why we complain to God.. Firstly, we think that we are entitled to get all good things because I am a good Christian. So, when we are hit by problems, we think that I don’t deserve this which is not true. Secondly, another common one is we compare our own situation to someone else’s situation. We say this “thank God, my life is not like them.”. Sometimes, when we are in the midst of a problem, we get this advice from our friends – “just look at other people who have worse situations than you and be grateful that you are not on their shoes”. Have you got that kind of advice? If we have that kind of mindset, it means that people that have the lowest level of either economic or social status have no reason to be grateful. But the bible teaches us that we should be grateful in all seasons.

So often, the reason we can not be grateful is because we have the wrong perspective of why we should be grateful. We use our expectation as based why we should give praise to God . Or, we use other people’s condition as a reason why we should be grateful.  It means when our life doesn’t meet our plan, there is no reason for us to be grateful. If our life is worse than other people, there’s no reason to be grateful and praise Him.

That’s what we are going to learn today. Psalm 96 gives us three truths why we should be praising God. (1) Praise Him for who He is, (2) Praise Him for He is worthy, and (3) Praise Him for He is coming. Being grateful is not just based on having a good life.

1.   PRAISE HIM FOR WHO HE IS (v2-6)

Before we go deeper into this point, let me ask you this simple question – if someone asks you after the service – “How’s the praise and worship?”. How do you measure good worship and bad worship? Somehow most of us have some measures to decide good worship or bad worship. There is expectation in our heart. These are normally common measures; firstly, whether the worship meets MY level of comfort. Yes, somehow the melody of the music calms me down. Secondly, whether the worship meets MY level of entertainment. We never say this out loud but somehow, we think that if I am not entertained or I am bored, it means worship has not taken place. If my favourite song is not sung during the service, it means that worship has not taken place. If the song is boring, it means that worship has not taken place.

We decide whether worship has taken place or not based on the melody. Good music and level of entertainment become our main factor in the worship, and we do not really care about what the lyrics say. The question- Do you pay attention to the lyrics and its meaning when you are singing? How about if you are singing the song with a catchy melody but the lyric does not align with the word of God? Do you still call it worship? Let me put it this way – if you walk away from worship and what comes out from your mouth is criticism about why you didn’t like this or that, I will tell you that you have not experienced worship. But if you walk away from worship and what comes out from you is “Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised”, you have experienced worship.

There are many times our focus on praising Him is about “I” instead of God. This Psalm teaches us that the reason we praise Him is because of who He is. In verse 2, it says that 2 Sing to the Lord, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day. We praise Him because He has saved us. In verse 4, it says that 4 For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; he is to be feared above all gods. We praise Him because of His greatness. In verse 5, it says that 5 For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the Lord made the heavens. We praise Him because of His power. In verse 6, it says that 6 Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. We praise Him because of His Splendour, His majesty, His strength and His Beauty.

When we understand this, we should shift our focus on praise from “Me, me and me” to God. It should shift our focus from melody and entertainment to declaration who God is. We don’t praise God to impress Him. We don’t praise God because He needs us to worship Him. We worship, give, praise and obey Him simply because He is who He is.

Church, do you know why you are here? What is your purpose for being in service today? Some people come to church to be entertained. Some come to church to fulfil their social needs; they need to interact with other people. Some of you come to the church because you feel that is what you need to do as Christian on Sunday. You are here not because of those reasons. You are here to worship Him.

John Piper says that “The inner essence of worship is to know God truly and then respond from the heart to that knowledge by valuing God, treasuring God, prizing God, enjoying God, being satisfied with God above all earthly things.” In other words, praising Him is always in response to who God is. When we realise how majestic He is, how great He is, the only response from us is praising Him; sing a song to Him. So often our focus when we worship is what we can get out of this praise. “I praise Him so that I can get what I want”. We are so self-centred to the point that we miss big time the main reason we praise God. Praising Him starts with who God is. The question for us now is Do you see Him as He is? We might not experience true worship because we don’t know who God is. We don’t see God as He is. We treat Him like our business partner. As a result, we give Him our praise because we need something. We praise Him because of who God is. Praising Him is not just singing the song and raising your hand but it is revealing to God that we love him and we adore Him for all He has done for us.

2. PRAISE HIM FOR HE IS WORTHY TO BE WORSHIPPED (v4-5)

4 For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; he is to be feared above all gods. 5 For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the Lord made the heavens.

Last year, a miracle happened in soccer. There is one team which I do not want to mention the club name. I am a bit allergic to saying the name. This club has been waiting to get the main trophy for 19 years. Imagine 19 years waiting for the trophy. Not only the club, their fans around the world which some of them are sitting in here right now were waiting for that long. They almost won that trophy previous year but at the end, dramatically, they were overtaken by another team. For their fans, winning last year was like everything. You can imagine how crazy their fans were when the club won the trophy last year. I think the moment the club secured the trophy all their fans were full of joy. They might be screaming or singing their anthem. I can see from their Instagram post that it’s all about winning. Do you think the fans need to force themselves to sing with full joy? Or, those signings came naturally because they do really feel the joy in their heart. They have been waiting for 19 years and finally get the big trophy. Those singing are not fake. It comes from their joyful heart. Same thing as worship, worship is a true reflection of our heart. When our heart is longing for God, we will naturally praise Him. When our heart is amazed for who He is, worship will naturally come out.

Now, the question is “what are you worshipping? Are you worshipping God or worshipping other things which we normally call idols?” If you are Christian, the simple explanation for idol worship is anything or anyone you elevate above God. Something that is more important to you than God.  Idols can be little golden calf or golden ox because this year is the year of ox. But we are living in the modern era, our idols are less tangible and more about our habits, attitudes or someone. Some of you worship your career. You worship your career, and you’re living for that job. Some of you are worshipping money. Some of you are worshipping pleasure, some of you are worshipping sex.

There is one great minister around 1830 Henry Ward Beecher. One time, he suddenly was not able to preach, and one preacher needed to replace him and preach to the church. But the congregation who comes to hear Henry Ward does not know he could not preach on that day. When the substitute preacher walked into the pulpit, some disappointed people started to move toward the exit. This substitute pastor started the sermon by saying this “”All who have come here today to worship Henry Ward Beecher may now leave the church. All who have come to worship God keep your seats!”. Thank God. It did not happen here. I could not imagine that people were leaving when they saw me walking into the pulpit. But, I am well prepared because I told the usher to close the door as soon as I walk into the pulpit.

It is very easy for us to praise people that we adore so much. Praising is fine but when we start putting him/her above God and consider him/her as everything, that’s idolatry. Some of you are worshipping another person who so dominates your life. It could be your husband and wife. It could be your favourite pastor. It could be your favourite president. Yet, this Psalm reminds us that what is the most important that only God Himself is great and most worthy to be praised. Verse 4 and 5 says that He is to be praised and feared above everyone and everything else and compared to other idols He has no rivals because He is the creator. Our God is great, and those idols are meaningless. Just imagine, God is the one made heaven. All creations are the work of His fingers. He created the sun, moon, and stars and all those lights and beauty in the sky. On the other hand, those idols are just man-made gods and meaningless. Therefore, instead we worship another thing, worship Him with all we have.

To see this significant comparison between our great God and meaningless idol, we should think that it is such a privilege to worship Him. When we compare to other religions, all religions worship their god as well, but the idea of worshipping is completely different to our concept of worship. We are not part of other religions in which people try to earn salvation by worshipping their god or doing certain things. We worship Him because of what He has done for us. Our reason for worship should not be because we have to but because who He is, and He is the true God. He is the creator of the whole universe. He is the only one worthy to be worshipped.

3. PRAISE HIM FOR HE IS COMING (v10-13)

10 Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns! Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity.” 11  Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar, and all that fills it; 12  let the field exult, and everything in it! Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy 13 before the Lord, for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness, and the peoples in his faithfulness.

End of world! Judgment day! We tend to have a lot of fear of the idea of end times. It could be fear missing out of all good things in this world. It could be fear of suffering or persecution. If there is one truth that Christian trembles it is the thought of day of judgment. It seems like a dreadful day.

It is a great surprise for me when I read this Psalm. When we read verse 11 and 12 – 11 Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar, and all that fills it; 12 let the field exult, and everything in it! Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy. It is a bit anti-climax. How the writer describes the day of judgment, they talk like something that we should be rejoicing. It says the heavens are glad, earth rejoices, the sea roar and all the trees of the forest sing for joy. Not only in this passage that we can read how the psalmist is so longing for a day of judgment. You will find in many other Psalms that they were longing for a day of judgment.

Let me give you little bit of the context during that time, most people hardly experience real judgment. During that time, many people lost their possessions because of unjust judgements. They had been experiencing unjust judgment for a long time to the point that they were so longing for God to come and judge with righteousness. They saw God coming as good news. They could not wait for God to come and judge with His righteousness. They can see that the world right is a broken world. They can not wait for God to come and make everything new. There is joy that we can expect at the end of times. In Revelation 21 – it talks about new heaven. There is no more sorrow, no more pain, coronavirus, racism, hatred, depression, loneliness and the list keeps going. Right every single wrong. If we know this, we will sing with joy and praise God for He is coming. He will make everything new.

It is so often so hard for us to sing with joy knowing He is coming because we love this world so much. We are afraid that we will miss out a lot of things. For example, (God before you come) I want to get married first. I want to go around the world. I want to have kids first. I still have a lot of money saved.

This passage shows us that end times should not be something that we are afraid of or something that we should avoid but actually something that gives us hope in the midst of this broken world, in the midst of our suffering. We should expect with a joyful heart. This world is just temporary.

Let’s talk a little bit about what will happen during the day of judgment. God will return and judge righteously and we need to stand before God. God will come in His holy wrath and bring justice for our sin. It is a very scary picture. It is a scary thing to face. But here’s a thing if we are in Christ we have absolutely nothing to fear. Because we don’t experience that judgment for our sin if we put our faith in Him. Christ took that for us. In Isaiah 53, it talks about suffering servants who take our place. Isaiah 53:5-6 – 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,  and with his wounds we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. What a wonderful truth. Without Christ, we should be terrified of the day of judgment. We should!because it is a terrifying thing. The good news is that He took that wrath for us. Our judgment has been taken away. Our mourn has been turned to joy. We are given Jesus’ righteousness. We don’t need to be afraid because of union in Him.

As we praise Him, let’s reflect on God’s character; who He is. As we sing songs and praise Him, we reflect on the fact that God is great, He is mighty, just and He is Holy. We reflect on what He has done for us; he has provided salvation for us. The reason why we found many people in the Bible are so passionate in their praise of God is because they realise what God has done. And Church, we have reason to praise Him with gladness and praise because Jesus has saved us from our sins. This is the reason, as said in verse 1, why we can sing a new song. Verse 1  Oh sing to the Lord a new song; Martin Luther said this, “Christ is now as fresh unto me as if He had shed His blood but this very hour.” When we walk with Him daily and experience His Grace every single day, we can not help but praise Him. We may face problems in our life but we can still praise Him because we know that His grace is abundant for us. We may be in midst of uncertainty but we can still praise Him in the midst of this uncertainty because we know that we will not be alone.

This is really the key to how to be grateful at all seasons. It has to start with the Gospel. The truth of the Gospel is we all deserve wrath of God which is death. But God in great mercy sent Christ; His only Son, perfect sacrifice to die for us and to pay for our penalty so that we do not need to receive the punishment of sin. It is really where gratitude starts. It starts by knowing that “I deserve death but God gives us Himself so that we can have eternal life”. Yes, we give praise to Him for many good things given to us such as food, health, family, kid, home, etc because all good things come from Him. But more than anything, we recognise that He has given us the perfect gift; He gives us His Son. He gives us the forgiveness sin. He gives us reconciliation with God. The Gospel gives us no room of thought that we deserve more from God. He has given us the perfect gift. He is the ultimate gift. We have every reason to be grateful in all seasons.

I will close with an application. When you come to service on Sunday, consider that the whole service is an act of worship to God so that you do not come late to service and “participate” in the service. Don’t be a passive Christian. This service is not a music concert. Don’t consider yourself as an audience and worship team as performer. This service is not performance. When you sing the song, you sing it to God. You do not sing because of a good melody and you don’t know what you sing. Do you know every song that we sing today is not picked because the song is popular now but there is a reason for every song picked. As we worship, consider every lyric. Some songs are declarations of God’s majesty. Some songs are songs of confessions and repentance.

Discussion questions:

1. Think about a time where you were ungrateful to God recently. What happened? What do you think caused it?
2. What does it mean to praise God for who he is?
3. How is God (YHWH) different from every idol? How does this truth fuel our worship?
4. How does the anticipation of judgement day give us reason to praise God today?
5. In the light of everything we learned, explain the importance of singing to the Lord in our corporate worship.