Psalm 81 Worship-Our Relationship with God-Built on Promises

 

Worship is such an important part of our relationship with God, and in our relationship with each other, as we come together each week to worship God. The past couple of years have been an unusual time when it comes to worshipping God together. We’ve been blessed by being able to live-stream our services, but there’s still something missing when we worship alone in our homes. In the past, in times of persecution, there were many times that people were unable to gather together and they were only able to worship alone or in small groups, but the desire and pull from the Holy Spirit is always there to join together with others whenever possible. Our relationship with God is personal, but it’s also lived out together as the body of Jesus in the family of God. Like Paul tells us in Romans 12:5, “so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” Miroslav Volk, in talking about the importance of relationships with each other in the church, writes, “We are the church” doesn’t mean “We meet occasionally” or “We cooperate in a current project.” Instead, we actually become part of one another.” For those of you unable to come together in person, I encourage you to invite at least one other person or family to join you on Sunday in your home.

In Psalm 81, the first three verses are a command for the people of Israel to come together to worship God. This is a time of joy and celebration, an exciting time of lifting our praise and worship to God. “Sing for joy to God our strength; shout aloud to the God of Jacob! Begin the music, strike the timbrel, play the melodious harp and lyre. Sound the ram’s horn at the New Moon, and when the moon is full, on the day of our festival; this is a decree for Israel, an ordinance of the God of Jacob.” Music and song are our heart responses to God, able to express our deepest emotions. The psalms are a large part of the songbook of scripture, helping us to come to God, no matter what our circumstances. These songs take us through the highs and lows of life, leading us to praise and trust in God and his love and grace to us. Worship is not a time for the social club to gather, it’s not school or entertainment, it’s not a passive time, but a time of being with our God, as his people and children. It’s family time where we each have our own roles and place. John Witvliet, a Calvin Seminary professor of worship writes, “We need to be challenged to see worship as a deeply participational, relational activity, in which we are listeners, speakers, promise-receivers, and promise-givers.”

The psalmist then moves into the second part of the psalm, a sermon from God. In worship, we remember the stories of scripture for this is where God reveals himself to us. Scripture reminds us who we are, for better or for worse. The psalmist here takes us back to the stories in Exodus when God rescued Israel from their Egyptian slave-masters, setting them free to follow and worship God. The people called out to God and God acted, he answered them out of a thundercloud. The thundercloud points to power, but also to the hiddenness of God; all the people heard was God’s voice, but they couldn’t see him. The Hebrew word for thundercloud points to secrecy and protection. By speaking from the thundercloud, God was protecting the people from himself. This Psalm reminds the people of Mount Sinai and how only Moses and the elders were allowed on the mountain, and only Moses was invited into God’s presence. Moses speaks to their fear in Exodus 20, “Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.” Worship reminds us that we follow a holy God, a powerful God who calls us to be his and to be holy, dedicated only to him and not turn the good things he gives us into gods.

The psalmist goes on in remembering Mount Sinai, how the people are called into a relationship with only God! “Hear me, my people, and I will warn you—if you would only listen to me, Israel! You shall have no foreign god among you; you shall not worship any god other than me. I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of Egypt.” God chose Israel as his people in order to bless the nations of the world by bringing the promised Messiah through Israel. God chose Israel to give the nations a glimpse of the kingdom of heaven by calling them to a way of life that showed them who God is.

When they listen to God, God promises to fill their mouths, to provide for them. While those who are against God will be punished, the psalmist reminds the people, “But you would be fed with the finest of wheat; with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.” The echoes to how God provided for his people in the wilderness for 40 years and brought them into the Promised Land are loud and clear here. Every morning, except for the Sabbath day, the people woke up to bread on the ground and God provided quail to the people when they complained about a lack of meat. As you read the stories of Israel in the wilderness and in the Promised Land, it becomes clear that the people were seldom satisfied with how God provided food for their bodies or their souls. They complained over and over again. They disobeyed the Law God gave them to shape their lives and hearts into his people over and over and again, often chasing after foreign gods.

Mark D. Roberts writes in The High Calling blog, “The human tendency to follow our own paths is nothing new. In Psalm 81, God laments that his people have been "living according to their own ideas" rather than following God's laws. The result has been dismal. Israel has fallen into all measure of suffering because they prized their own ideas rather than the ways of God. Thus, through the psalm writer, God says, "Oh, that my people would listen to me! Oh, that Israel would follow me, walking in my paths!" If only Israel would abide by God's ideas rather than their own, then they would be delivered from their enemies and satisfied with God's richest blessings.”

God deeply desires a relationship with us; worship is one of the main ways we express our relationship with God, a time to be with God as family. God sends Jesus to call us to repent and believe and come back to God, since we keep doing our thing instead of God’s thing. We often believe we know better how to live our lives than God does, so we ignore God’s commands and Jesus’ teaching and commands and do what we figure is better, listening more to the voices of our time, rather than to Scripture. Do you really trust that God’s knows what is best for you? Do you really believe that God understands our culture and that his ways are still best for us today?

Worship draws us back to God, reminding us of God’s promises to be our God and that we are his people: that he will provide for us, protect us, and save us. In worship, we come knowing that our relationship with God is not something we have because of how good we are, but because of how good Jesus is, and how in his goodness, he takes God’s wrath on himself in our place. God sent Jesus to fulfill his promise to save us from our sin and make us right with God again. In worship we recommit ourselves to Jesus.

We hear the call in Hebrews to come close to God and stay strong in the faith, Hebrews 10:19–25, “Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”

We don’t come to church to make God love us more. We come together to enjoy and express the faith and hope we have in Jesus through our worship. We come to hear God’s promises, and to promise to follow him, and to encourage and bless each other. Our worship doesn’t end at the final blessing, but it carries on into the week as we spur each other on toward love and good deeds as a part of our worship of God in our families and community.