The Bible Study Hour

Dr. James Boice: The word worship had its origin in the word worthy. It meant ascribing to God his supreme worth. We have a praiseworthy God, and he's to be worshipped for his inherent goodness and grace, and for his elective love, a love that does not spring from anything we've accomplished or any intrinsic goodness found within us.

Guest (Male): Welcome to the Bible Study Hour, a radio and internet broadcast with Dr. James Boice, preparing you to think and act biblically. Despite the original meaning and intent of the word, the trend in modern worship shows just how far many churches have strayed from its true purpose, and have instead embraced a feel-good style that pleases man more than God.

Join Dr. Boice as he continues his study of what worship really should be and to whom it should be directed, as indicated in Psalm 135.

Dr. James Boice: Not long ago I was invited to take part in a worship service in another country. It was an hour and a half long. Four congregations had gotten together to hold the service, and it was advertised as a time when the four different congregations could worship God together. It was a lively service. About half of it was music led by a youthful worship and music team. There were overheads and choruses. There was even one hymn.

My part of the service was about 40 minutes long. There was a scripture reading because I had asked them to read the portion of the Bible that I was going to preach on that morning. But what impressed me about this service was its lack of the traditional worship elements, especially since this was a Sunday morning, and because the service had been advertised as a worship service for the four congregations. There was no invocation, there was no confession of sin, no pastoral prayer, and although there was a scripture reading, it was only because I had requested it.

Now, it wasn't a bad service. But it was part of what I regard as a sad contemporary trend, and it shows how far our churches, particularly our evangelical churches, have departed from that older, better worship that was genuinely God-centered, as all true Christian worship should be. That brings us to Psalm 135. We've been studying for the last 15 psalms those psalms of ascent that the pilgrims apparently sang together as they made their way up to the city of Jerusalem for one of the three annual feasts that were supposed to be attended by all the male Jews, Psalms 120 to 134.

We begin a new section here with Psalm 135. It's a final section of the Psalter. It emphasizes worship or praise of God specifically, and this psalm, the psalm that leads it off, tells us who should worship God and why. It signals the fact that this is the start of a new section by the words "Praise the Lord." We already saw that in the preceding psalm, which was the climax or peak of the psalms of ascent, but here in verse 1 of Psalm 135 we find those words.

In Hebrew it's only one word; it's the word Hallelujah. We know it very well. It occurs seven times in this psalm, lest we miss that that's what's happening here. You find it twice at the beginning in verses 1 and 2. You find it five more times at the end in verses 19 through 21. Besides these imperatives, the single word praise, either as a verb in verses 1 and 21 or a noun in verse 3, occurs four times more. Since the psalm both begins and ends with these words, it's a way of saying that all of life should be seen as an opportunity of praising God and should be filled with praise of God.

It's a noteworthy feature of this particular psalm that every verse in it either echoes, quotes, or is quoted by some other part of scripture, which is probably a way of saying that the theme of this particular psalm, the worship or praise of God, was regarded as central to the Christian life by all of the other biblical writers. It falls into four clearly marked parts. There's an opening call to worship, an invocation in verses 1 and 2. There's the specific worship section explaining why God should be praised, verses 3 to 14.

Then there's a contrast between the one true God and the impotent gods of the heathen, verses 15 to 18. And then there is a final section calling on all who know God to praise him. So it ends with praise just as it began. I'd just like to go through that because this is a psalm that will teach us something about worship, and I trust if we pay attention to it, it will increase our own ability to worship God and do so rightly. I said the first two verses are an invocation or a call to worship.

They are specifically a call upon those who serve God in his temple to lead the way in worship. That's what we found in the psalm preceding, and these two verses echo what we find in Psalm 134. It's not unusual to read in books that deal with worship that worship is hard to define. I don't find that to be true. I think there are problems with worship, but it's not in the area of the definition. They are in other areas entirely. But as far as worship itself is concerned, it's not that hard to understand what it's about.

If we had been living in England in the days of the formation of the English language as we know it, between the time of Geoffrey Chaucer on the one hand and William Shakespeare on the other, we wouldn't even have used the word worship. We would have spelled it out the way it actually is intended and would have spoken of worth-ship. What we would have meant by that is that when we refer to someone as being worthy, we are giving them the honor or the recognition they deserve.

If we were using it of a king, for example, we would be saying that the king is a noteworthy person. That is, his worth is worth noting. And if we used it in regard to God, we would be saying that in worship, what we're doing is ascribing to God his true worth. Over time worth-ship, which became a little awkward to say, became worship. But that's what worship actually means. It refers to praising God as he has revealed himself to be by the creation and also specifically in his written word, the Bible.

Since worship means to attribute worth, to worship God rightly is to ascribe to him supreme worth because he alone is supremely worthy. That's the first thing that has to be said about worship. Worship is honoring and praising God for who he truly is. Worship also has a bearing on the worshipper, of course, which means that it changes the one who is worshipping God. That's the second most important thing to be said about it. No one ever truly comes to know, honor, or worship God without being changed in the process.

Probably the best definition of worship that I've ever come across was from the former Archbishop of Canterbury, William Temple. It goes like this: "To worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to feed the mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty of God, to open the heart to the love of God, and to devote the will to the purpose of God." In that definition, the attributes of God are foremost. You go back and look at it, you find that it's talking about the holiness of God, the truth of God, the beauty of God, the love of God, and the purposes of God.

But these, if they're rightly understood, change us by quickening the conscience, feeding the mind, purging the imagination, opening the heart, and devoting or winning the will. That's what worship is and how it affects the one who is truly worshipping according to this psalm and according to other specific worship portions of scripture. What it suggests is that if we are not quickened, fed, purged, opened to God, and deepened in our spiritual understanding and devotion, we really are not worshipping, whatever else we may be doing.

The heart of this psalm is in the four stanzas that occupy verses 3 to 14 because it's in these verses that God is actually praised. He's praised because he alone is praiseworthy. These verses give reasons why. They introduce several of them by the word "for," which is a synonym for the word "because." For example, "Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good." It means because he's good. That's why you ought to praise him, verse 3. Or "For the Lord has chosen Jacob to be his own." It's because he has chosen Jacob that he should be praised, verse 4.

Or verse 14, "For the Lord will vindicate his people." It's because he will do that that he should be praised. All in all, there are many reasons throughout these verses why we should be praising him. Let me just look at a few of them. First of all, because of God's inherent goodness. This is the first thing that is said about God in verse 3: "Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good." Derek Kidner is one of the great commentators on the psalms, and he says at this point, this is one of three related verses in the Psalter in which we are reminded that the Lord's name, that is, the reputation he deserves, is good.

Further, that he himself is good and that praising him is good. What could be more basic than to acknowledge that God is good? Nothing, of course, because God is supremely good. He is, in fact, goodness himself, just as God is love itself. God is love and God is good. The very name God is a shortened form of "the good." And so you think of all the ways in which God is good. He is good in all things and in all ways. He is good in himself. His wisdom is good, his knowledge is good, his judgment is good, his power is good, his works are good.

When God was creating the universe, after each step of the creation, he stepped back, as it were, and looked at what he had made and said it is good, and so it was. Nothing that God has ever done could possibly be done better. And it's the same in matters of salvation. God's thoughts toward us are good. It was good that he loved us and chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world. The way he chose to save us was good. It was good that he sent Jesus Christ at the appointed time to be the Savior.

It was good that he has called us to faith in Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit. It's good that he's called us to fellowship with himself and with one another in the church. God's ways with us are good. And at the end of all things, at the time of the final judgment and beyond, the glorified saints will praise God in heaven, confessing that he who has begun a good work in them has kept on perfecting it unto the very end. The writer of Psalm 119 said of God, "You are good and what you do is good."

David challenges us by saying, "Taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the one who takes refuge in him." So we should praise God because he's good. Do you believe that God is good? Have you experienced God's goodness? Then praise him for it and tell other people also. Verse 4 talks about God's electing love. That is the second reason why we should be praising him. It acknowledges this in the case of Israel because the verse says, "The Lord has chosen Jacob to be his own, Israel as his treasured possession."

The reference to Jacob is not just incidental. Jacob, of course, was one of the patriarchs, and the significance of Jacob is that he's the best illustration in the Bible of the electing grace of God entirely apart from human merit. It's the way Paul refers to him in the ninth chapter of Romans where he's discussing election. What Paul does in that ninth chapter of Romans is talk about three generations of election involving each one of the patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Abraham was chosen by God when he was a pagan in Ur of the Chaldees without any knowledge of the true God. It was grace and grace alone. Isaac, his son, was chosen rather than his half-brother, and that becomes a case of election. But above all, the chief example is the case of Jacob. Paul writes, "Not only that, but Rebecca's children had one and the same father, our father Isaac. And yet before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad, in order that God's purpose in election might stand, not by works but by him who calls, she was told the older will serve the younger."

That's a remarkable example because it proves everything that Paul wanted to prove. First of all, Jacob and Esau were born of the same Jewish parents, a case of them being a Hebrew of the Hebrews. Each was a pure-blooded Jew, so there's no case of one having been chosen rather than the other on the basis of an imagined superior ancestry. They were both alike before God. It was grace and electing grace alone. Second, the choice of Jacob rather than Esau went against the normal standards of primogeniture, according to which the older was the one who would receive the blessing.

It's true they were both twins, but Esau actually emerged from Rebecca's womb first, and yet he was not the one that was chosen. Jacob was chosen. There's no explanation of that except in the sovereign right of God to choose and bless whom he chooses to bless. Third, the choice of Jacob instead of Esau was made before either child had an opportunity to do either good or evil. It was made while the children were still in the womb. And this means that election is not on the basis of anything done by the individual chosen.

So it's no wonder that Psalm 135, which is praising God for his electing love, looks back to this choice and sees it as an expression of the sovereign grace of God. If you come to know God through the work of Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit, you should be praising him for that because there is nothing in you on the basis of which you should receive praise. It's solely the grace and the sovereign grace of God. So if you know him, you should praise him that you do. It's God's work and God's work alone.

Verses 5 through 7 talk about God's sovereign power. This refers to God's power in creation, and it echoes similar phrases elsewhere in the Old Testament. In Psalm 135, the writer sees the glory of God in the heavens and the earth, the seas, the clouds, the lightning, the rain, the wind, and all of them declare that the Lord is great. He should be acknowledged and praised and worshipped by the creation he has made.

The fourth thing is this: God's persevering grace. It's worth noting that most of the phrases in this psalm, verses 8 through 12, also appear in the next psalm, Psalm 136, and they are followed in each case by the words "his love endures forever." In other words, what's involved here is God's continuing grace toward those he has called by his electing love. When did God call the Jews to be his chosen people? It's when he called Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to know him, and yet that wasn't the end.

Having chosen his people, God continued to bless them, first by setting them free from bondage at the time of the Exodus, and then by bringing them into Canaan where they finally possessed their inheritance. And even then it continued by specific victories over their enemies. The psalm mentions some of them. It talks about a victory over Sihon, the king of the Amorites, and the victory of Og, king of Bashan. In the same way, we praise God not only for our deliverance from sin but also for his persevering grace with us throughout every moment of our lives.

Do you do that? Are you aware of that? That you are where you are today, you've been preserved as you have today, because God is good and he is working powerfully, winsomely, and wisely in your life? If you do, then you should be praising him for that, and that constitutes your worship. Finally, the fifth thing: God's everlasting renown. It's talked about in verses 13 and 14.

The importance of these verses is that they look to the future just as the previous verses have looked to the past, concluding that the God who has been gracious in past days will continue to vindicate his people and have compassion on them in days yet to come. God's love will indeed endure forever, and therefore his praise will also last forever. God does not change. God is immutable, to use the proper theological term for God's unchangeability. God's not only good; he will always be good.

He's always the same in his eternal attributes. We will never find God to be less good than he has already been to us in the matter of our salvation. Now, there are two more sections. We ask the question: but are there not other gods who should also be worshipped? Is it all right for Christians to worship their God, but are there not other gods that should be worshipped too? No, says the psalmist. How could they be if God alone is the good, great, gracious, persevering, and unchangeable God?

These verses begin to talk about God and the gods of the heathen by contrast. The problem with these other gods is that they're not gods at all, because there's only one holy and true God. If we worship things which man can produce, we'll become as empty and impotent as those things, and many are. But if we worship God by the grace of God, we'll become like God and we will be enabled both to worship him and enjoy him forever.

The very last stanza calls upon us to worship God again. And it calls upon everyone to worship him. "House of Israel, praise the Lord. House of Aaron, praise the Lord. House of Levi, praise the Lord." And lest you think that's only referring to Jewish people, it says, "You who fear him"—that is, those who know God and trust him—"praise the Lord." And the final verse says the same: "Praise the Lord." John MacArthur has written some good things about worship.

He explains at one point what happened in his own church when people began to take the worship of God seriously. This is what he wrote; it's his testimony: "They began to look at superficialities as an affront to a holy God. They saw worship as a participant's activity, not a spectator sport. Many realized for the first time that worship is the church's ultimate priority—not public relations, not recreation and social activities, not boosting attendance figures, but worshipping God. And they were drawn to the only reliable and sufficient worship manual, which is scripture."

I think that's exactly what God wants. Don't you? Let's pray. Our Father, we're thankful that we've had time this morning to study this great psalm, one which seems to have been so meaningful even to the other biblical writers that they quote it throughout the scriptures, Old Testament and New Testament as well. We thank you for what it tells us about true worship, for the way it redirects our thoughts away from ourselves to you, and from our feelings to your mighty acts in creation, in history, and in our salvation.

And when we come to the end and we read "Praise the Lord," we understand that to be not merely an invitation but a command. And so we would praise you. Give us grace to do it now, in this service, throughout the week, indeed throughout all our lives until we join the company of the elect in heaven and fall on our faces before your throne and say "Praise the Lord," for our Lord is a great and gracious God. Amen.

Guest (Male): Thank you for listening to this message from the Bible Study Hour, a listener-supported ministry of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. The Alliance is a coalition of pastors, scholars, and churchmen who hold to the historic creeds and confessions of the Reformed faith and who proclaim biblical doctrine in order to foster a Reformed awakening in today's church. To learn more about the Alliance, visit AllianceNet.org, and while you're there, visit our online store, Reformed Resources, where you can find messages and books from Dr. Boice and other outstanding teachers and theologians. Or ask for a free Reformed Resources catalog by calling 1-800-488-1888.

Please take the time to write to us and share how the Bible Study Hour has impacted you. We'd love to hear from you and pray for you. Our address is 600 Eden Road, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 17601. Please consider giving financially to help keep the Bible Study Hour impacting people for decades to come. You can do so at our website, AllianceNet.org, over the phone at 1-800-488-1888, or send a check to 600 Eden Road, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 17601. For Canadian gifts, mail those to P.O. Box 24097, RPO Josephine, North Bay, Ontario, P1B 0C7. Thanks for your continued prayer and support, and for listening to the Bible Study Hour, preparing you to think and act biblically.