God's Word Demands Our Worship

We’ve been answering the question of why we should worship. Today, we move to a third reason: God’s Word demands our worship. Remember back to when you were a child, and how you always hated to hear that infamous response from your parents: “Because I said so!” Boy, I hated to hear those four words. If there is any justification for a child’s annoyance with that response, it has to be that the response isn’t an answer. It seems to lack an adequate explanation of why. Having been a parent for 15 years now, I can say, that’s the point! I understand now that the point in that answer is to state that I, as the father, have a level of authority that demands obedience, whether I have a good reason or not. But honestly, I don’t always have a good reason. Sometimes, I tell my kids to stop doing something just because what they are doing is getting on my nerves. Sometimes, I tell them to go do something just because I don’t want to have to be the one to do it. And I know (and I think they do too) that I don’t have an answer to the question of “why”, other than the fact that it is what I want.

Now, in answering the question of “why we should worship”, we could easily just give the theological version of “because I said so.” We could say that, without adequate reason, God commands that we do it, and therefore we should do it. If we are honest, we might find ourselves thinking (like a little kid) that our Heavenly Father is just like our earthly father – he sometimes commands things just because he wants to watch us jump or because he’s annoyed. But, we would be wrong. God’s commands are always good, and they are always intended for our ultimate good. We know that because we’ve already seen that God made everything to worship him. So, because we were designed to worship him, the only way that we can find fulfillment in life is by worshipping the God who made us. And, we’ve also seen that God is sovereign, which includes the truth that he knows all things. If God knows all things, then he knows exactly what you need. He knows what is best for you. So, when God commands us to do something, that command is good, and it is always meant for our good.

With all of that in mind, let’s consider the truth that God’s command is a motivation for our worship of him. Let’s read Psalm 119:9-16 together. There are two points that I want you to understand today: God’s Word demands our worship, and God’s Word delights our souls.

First, God’s Word demands our worship. To see that, let’s start by backing up to Psalm 119:1. In this verse we find that the one who would live the blessed and blameless life must walk in the Law of the Lord. It is hard for our society to reckon with this, but the God of the universe has the right, as our creator and sovereign, to demand things of us. The CNN anchor, Don Lemon, in response to the Roman Catholic Church’s recent ruling on Same-Sex unions, responded by saying that the church needed to reexamine themselves because “God is not about judging.” Apparently Don Lemon has never read the Bible, because it is full of commandments and judgments. And chief among those commandments is the command to worship. In Exodus 20:3, the 10 commandments begin with two commands about worship: “You shall have no other gods before me”, and “you shall not make graven images”. The greatest commandment, from Deut. 6:5, commands us to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and might.” After settling into the promised land, in Joshua 24:14, Joshua calls the people to “fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness.” Simply put, worship is the first commandment, the greatest commandment, and the commandment that sustains our relationship with God.

Now, we might be tempted to think that God just arbitrarily commands our worship, and that brings me to my second point: God’s Word delights our souls. Psalm 119 is the longest Psalm (and the longest chapter in the Bible), with 176 verses. Every one of those verses deals with the Word of God and all of its benefits for the believer. From the verses we read at the beginning, I want to show you two benefits of the Word of God that should motivate us to worship him.

First, from verses 9-11, we find that the righteousness that God’s Word reveals has great benefits for the believer. The righteousness of the Word of God “keeps our way pure.” It is unfortunate that in our day the words “purity” and “righteousness” have been turned into oppressive terms. The modern man thinks that the concept of purity is restrictive, keeping him from following the desires of his heart and living his best life. But the opposite is actually true. Because God has made you for himself, you cannot know the greatest delights of this life until you submit to the righteousness of God. You may think that having as many sexual partners as you can have will bring you fulfillment, but it is actually in the faithful, lifelong union of man and woman in the covenant of marriage that you will truly find delight. You may think that holding on to the hate that you have for that person who harmed you will bring you some comfort, but it is only in the act of forgiveness that you will find comfort for your soul. You may think that tearing it up on the weekend and waking up hung over and washed up at noon on Sunday is the only way to escape the troubles of your life, but you will never know true rest from the toils of this world until you enjoy the Sabbath and rest in his presence with his people.

Second, from verses 12 – 16, we find that the Word of God is our true delight. The word, “delight”, that is used in verse 14, is the most used word in Psalm 119. It is used 10 different times to describe the Word of God. If you include similar words that are also used in Psalm 119, like “comfort” and “wonderous”, then that number grows to 15. This tells me that above all else, the Word of God brings us delight. But How? How can it be that a collection of 66 books written over a span of 1500 years by at least 50 different authors from as many as seven different cultural contexts could contain the truths that would satisfy my soul? It’s because, even though the words are written over such a great time span by so many different people, yet, they all ultimately have one divine author. 2 Tim. 3:16 says that “all Scripture is God-breathed”, and 2 Pet. 1:21 says that “God spoke through the prophets as he carried them along by His Spirit.” So, when the Bible speaks to an issue, it speaks with the authority of God. And, the fact that God has spoken means that we aren’t in the dark when it comes to his will. We know his design for our relationships, because he tells us in His Word. We know his purpose for our lives, because he tells us in His Word. And greatest of all, we know his great salvation that he has brought through his Son, because he tells us in His Word.

There are two ways that I think these truths apply to us in our context. First,  the truest way to live is to live in light of the Word of God. Our society is obsessed with living true to ourselves. If you feel that you are a woman trapped in a man’s body, then you should be provided with every benefit to make your feelings a reality. If your sexual desires are directed towards people of the same gender, then even the 8000-year-old human institution of marriage should bend to your desires. If you find that your lifestyle has led to an inconvenient pregnancy, then even the concern for another human life can be thrown aside for the sake of the future you want for yourself. But, what our society doesn’t tell you is that seeking a true life apart from God’s Word will only end in tragedy. Did you know that the suicide rate among those who have had sex-reassignment surgery is 20 times greater than among their peers? Or, that the divorce rate among homosexual couples is 10% higher than that of heterosexual couples? Or, did you know that, ironically, 81% of women who have had an abortion experience an increase in mental problems like depression?

You see, the truest way to live is not to live for oneself. The truest way to live is found in the way that God has given through His Word. Jesus said, in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me.” If you want to live as a “true human”, the way you were made to live, then you must turn to Christ and follow him. If you want to know the truth about this life, you must find it in the Word of God. If you want to have abundant, eternal life, you will only find it by believing the Gospel and following Christ. Won’t you turn to him today?

Brothers and sisters, there is a way that these truths apply to us as well. I have found that Christians in America often think of God’s Word in one of two ways. For some of us, we make a distinction between our spiritual life and our secular life. In our spiritual life (church, family), we believe that the Word of God has full authority. But, in our secular life (work, politics, social media), we think that our constitutional rights hold that authority. For example, we will wholeheartedly affirm James 1:19 (“be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger”) until we feel that our first amendment rights are threatened, and then, Katy bar the door! Is it possible that our rant on social media, or our willingness to denigrate our political opponent, or our quickness to say what we think without the first concern for the whole story, could betray what we really believe about God’s Word – that it doesn’t really have authority over all of our lives? Second, some of us may instead place so many caveats on the Word of God that we make it practically useless for any real-world scenario. I see this most often with Jesus’ teachings on turning the other cheek in Matt 5:39. We so quickly put all kinds of conditions on that statement: it’s not talking about self-defense, or being run over, or when you’re being mistreated, or when something is being taken from you, or when justice needs to be done. By the time we are done, this command has absolutely no meaning.

Brothers and sisters, we don’t have two separate laws, one for our spiritual lives and one for our secular lives. And, we don’t have a law that means nothing when it comes to the real world. We have the Word of God that calls us to live as true humans – humans who are not tossed about with uncertainty by our feelings and passions, but those who are sure of who we are in Christ because God has spoken. May we live in light of this Word of God, bringing the whole of our lives to obey every word as an act of worship to the God who has given these commands for our good.