Creation Demands the Worship of God

We’ve spent the last five sermons answering the question of who it is that we worship. Now that we’ve answered that question, we need to move on to “why”? We need to ask why we should worship God for three reasons. First, it’s not a given that we should worship God. That might sound strange, since we are all gathered on a Sunday morning to do that very thing. But, some people, like the Deists, believe that God just created the world, set it in motion, and left it, with no expectation or concern for what his creation would do after that. Second, most religions don’t have a requirement for regular worship. The religions that come out of the “Abrahamic” tradition (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) do have regular requirements for worship, but the pagan religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, and all other religions like them don’t have any such requirement. Finally, we need to ask why we should worship because it’s apparent (especially over the last 20-30 years) that even so-called Bible-believing Christians don’t think we should. According to Pew Research, only 46% of professing Christians say that they attend church on a weekly basis. Even more disturbing, 36% say that they attend church a few times a year or less.

There are numerous causes for this lack of devotion in our churches, but I want to suggest that one reason is because we have lost our “why”. We are so absorbed with ourselves – our hobbies, our families, our leisure, our desires – that we have forgotten why it is that we are called to worship the one true God. So, over the next four sermons, I want to try to answer the question of why it is that we should worship the one true God. I want to start by looking at the motivation of Creation. To see that, turn with me to Psalm 148. There are two points that I want you to see from this passage: The Demand of Creation and the Design of Creation.

First, I want you to notice from this Psalm that the work of God in creation demands our worship. The Psalmist lays out this beautiful hymn of praise to God which steps like a ladder from the heights of Heaven to the earth below. He starts by calling us to praise the Lord, and then, starting in heaven, he calls on all of the spiritual beings to praise the Lord. Stepping down another rung, he calls on the Sun, moon, stars, and sky to praise the Lord. Then, taking another step down, he calls on the oceans and earth and all of the creatures in them to praise the Lord. Finally, he turns to the realms of men, and he calls on kings and young men and maidens, and then children and old men to praise the Lord.

In all of this praise, the Psalmist gives us three ways that God’s works of creation demand our praise. First, in verse 5, he says that the heavens should praise the Lord “for he commanded and they were created.” We find here that the power of God in creation demands our worship. Did you know that up until the 1990s and the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, scientists couldn’t prove that there were more than just a handful of galaxies. Before the Hubble Telescope, we could look out with the most powerful telescopes we had and all we could see were stars. But, when we finally looked with Hubble, we found that a lot those stars were actually galaxies. Millions upon millions of galaxies exist as far out as we can look. Just imagine the power that made all of that! Our earth is just a tiny, insignificant speck of dust in a vast, seemingly unending landscape of stars and planets and moons and galaxies, and we are just tiny, insignificant specks on that speck! We can’t even organize our own week with the few little things that we have going, and yet God created this beautiful, vast, amazing universe with the command of his voice!

Second, in verse 6, the Psalmist says that the heavens persist because God decrees it. In this statement we find that the purpose of God in creation demands our worship. This statement in verse 6 encompasses all of the parts of creation that came before. So, angels, stars, sun, moon, sky – all of it continues to exist by the decree of the Lord. Just consider the Sun by itself. The Sun is 865,000 miles wide. For perspective, you could fit 100 Earths into the Sun. At its core, it burns at 27 million degrees Fahrenheit. Scientists have no way of proving this, but they believe that the Sun’s center is made up of Helium, while its outer layers are made of Hydrogen, and yet, even though it is a flaming ball of fire, the hydrogen never runs out. And the reason the Sun is sustained – as powerful and massive as it is – is because of God’s purpose.

Third, in verse 13, the Psalmist gives us the final reason that creation demands our worship: God’s preeminence above his creation. The Psalmist says that the majesty of the Lord is above heaven and earth. As powerful as the highest archangels are, as splendid as the expanse of the universe is, as spectacular as the great sea creatures are – you know who is above all of that? The Lord who made them! If the Sun - with all its brilliant light that would strike you blind in three minutes flat – must praise the God who is above it, then so must you!

So, now that we’ve seen the demand of creation, let’s consider the design of creation. I know you didn’t miss, in the list of all of the things God made that are called to praise him, the Psalmist listed all of humanity. Kings, young men and women, old men and children – all of mankind is called upon to praise the Lord. God’s design from the very beginning of creation was that mankind would worship God in all that they did. Now, this is often lost on us, because when we read the story of creation in Genesis 1 and 2, we tend to focus on the technicalities of creation. One thing we miss is that God created man and woman to be his priests and the garden of Eden to be their temple. Remember, God placed Adam and Eve in the garden and gave them a command: they were to “be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue it, and have dominion.” Their calling was to represent God in the world - to reign over God’s good creation. They were to extend the Garden out into all the world. We also find the Garden serving as a temple, because God dwelled with Adam and Eve in the Garden.

However, you know the rest of the story. When the serpent came speaking lies, instead of representing God to his creation as Adam should have, he allowed Satan to twist the Word of God and deceive his wife. Through that act of rebellion, Adam plunged all the world into sin. Yet, God was not done with his temple project. Later on, he would take his chosen people, Israel and he would pull them out of the dust of Egypt and place them in a promised land – another garden paradise. For that new Eden, God gave the Israelites instructions on how exactly to build a dwelling place where he could meet with his people. Peter Leithart points out that the instructions concerning the tabernacle are a creation story. In Exodus 25-31 there are seven sections (like the creation week), each beginning with the phrase “and Yahweh spoke to Moses.” The construction of the tabernacle mimics the creation: the walls and the curtains give the form of the tabernacle, and then God fills it with altars and lamps and furniture, just like he filled the earth with all living things. Finally, Moses ordains Aaron and his sons as priests who would represent God to the world. They were to be new Adams in this new promised land and temple.

But, you know the rest of that story, too. Aaron’s sons, in their first official act as priests, offered strange fire before the Lord and were consumed by fire for their false worship. The Israelites as a whole would fail to live as a nation of priests, choosing instead to serve the gods of the Canaanites. This rebellion would ultimately anger God so much that he would destroy the temple where, for hundreds of years, he had dwelt with his people, and he would allow the nations of Israel and Judah to be led away into captivity.

But there is one final temple that we cannot miss. As the Apostle John begins his Gospel, he writes this beautiful prologue that introduces Jesus as the eternal Word of God, and he says in chapter 1 verse 14, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have beheld his glory…” The word that is used for “dwelt” there means “to pitch his tent with us.” Jesus came as the true Word of God, and he pitched his tabernacle with us. Just a chapter over, in 2:19, Jesus tells the Jews, “destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” John notes that Jesus was referring to his body, and to the resurrection he would bring about. Jesus came as the true Priest of God who would represent God to the world, and he didn’t fail like Adam or like Aaron’s sons. He perfectly revealed God to us. In his death and resurrection, he has built a new temple, and he has made all who believe in him to be priests. 1 Pet. 2:4-5 says, “As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” Through his blood, Jesus has made us to be true worshippers, true priests, and a true temple for the living God.

Friend, the witness of creation demands that you worship the one true God. The design of God upon your own soul demands that you worship him, too. If the Sun, moon, and stars cannot help but praise him, then you must do so as well. Won’t you come to Christ today, so that you can be a true worshipper of God?

Brothers and sisters, our fervor for worship is so often dictated more by our own worldly habits and interests and not by the demands of God’s creative purposes upon our lives. We chase after these earthly pursuits, thinking that they can give us some sort of meaning, some sort of satisfaction, and yet all of them pale in comparison to the God who made the universe and made us to worship him. May we commit to the faithful worship of the God whose creation demands it and the God who made us for it.