The Essentials of Worship. Psalms 92-96

May the mumbling commence!

Listen and obey.  That’s worship.  Plain and simple. 

Sing songs of worship to the Lord.  Hear the sermon.  Know the greatness of our Lord Jesus. 

But listen and obey.  That’s worship.  That’s entering into the rest that the Lord provides.

Read Psalm Ninety-five:

Come, let us sing to the Lord!

Let us give a joyous shout to the rock of our salvation! 

Let us come before him with thanksgiving.

Let us sing him psalms of praise. 

For the Lord is a great God,

the great King above all gods. 

He owns the depths of the earth,

and even the mightiest mountains are his. 

The sea belongs to him, for he made it.

His hands formed the dry land, too. 

Come, let us worship and bow down.

Let us kneel before the Lord our maker, 

for he is our God.

We are the people he watches over,

the sheep under his care.

Oh, that you would listen to his voice today! 

The Lord says, "Don't harden your hearts as Israel did at Meribah,

as they did at Massah in the wilderness. 

For there your ancestors tried my patience;

they courted my wrath though they had seen my many miracles. 

For forty years I was angry with them,

and I said, 'They are a people whose hearts turn away from me.

They refuse to do what I tell them.' 

So in my anger I made a vow:

'They will never enter my place of rest.'"

Worshiping the Lord is more than going through the motions – even though going through the motions can carry us through difficult times.  You know, singing the songs and recognizing the great deeds of the Lord. 

But the imperative of worship is listening to the Voice of God.  The imperative of worship is to obey the Voice of God.  As the old song says, “trust and obey cause there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey.”

Let’s rest in the Lord the Sabbath day.  Let’s listen and obey – the only essential imperatives of worship.

Enough mumbling for now…

Peace Out