Monday, Feb. 24

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Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord;
    let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come before him with thanksgiving
    and extol him with music and song.
For the Lord is the great God,
    the great King above all gods.
In his hand are the depths of the earth,
    and the mountain peaks belong to him.
The sea is his, for he made it,
    and his hands formed the dry land.
Come, let us bow down in worship,
    let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;
for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture,
    the flock under his care.
- Psalm 95:1-7

This Psalm is one of the classic texts in all of the Bible on worship.  It is the called the Venite because that is the first word Venite = “Come”.  It invites us to come into the presence of God and worship him with all that we are.  The word worship comes from the old english “worth-ship”, and it means to ascribe worth, or value to an object.  To recognize the true worth and value of someone or something and to act accordingly.  

Let me give you an example:  Imagine you are cleaning out you grandmothers attic.  As you go through old trunks and boxes of things, you come across an old shoebox full of cheap costume jewelry.  Your mom tells you to either take it home or toss it in the trash.  You decide to take it home with you for sentimental reasons.  20 years go by, and that old shoe box is buried somewhere in your basement.  Then one day, your daughter finds it and begins to play dress up with some of the items.  You notice her wearing a brooch you don’t ever remember seeing before, she says it came from that old box in the basement.  On a whim, you decide to take it to a jeweler to have it appraised.  As the old jeweler is examining it, he suddenly gasps, his eye loupe pops out.  He turns to you and says,”do you realize what you have here?”  “No”, you reply.  He goes on to tell you that this brooch is one of the most rare and precious pieces of jewelry in the world!  It is more valuable than all of the jewels he has ever had in his shop combined.  In fact it’s value cannot really be calculated, it is quite literally priceless!  Now what do you do with that brooch?  Do you put it back in the old shoebox in the basement with the rest of the junk?  No way!  You will act totally differently toward that piece of jewelry now that you know its value.  This is essentially what happens to so many people, even in the church, we just do not recognize the incredible worth and value of what we have in Christ.

True Christian worship is to ascribe ultimate worth or value to the proper object - to God!  This is what the Psalmist is urging us to do in Psalm 95, to recognize, acknowledge, and act upon the reality that God is the only object worthy of our worship.

Notice that each time the Psalmist calls people to “Come” to worship, he follows that call up by giving the people thoughtful reasons why they should come and worship God.

Psalm 95:1 - Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord...

Psalm 95:3 - For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods...

Psalm 95:6 - Come, let us bow down in worship...

Psalm 95:7 - For he is our God and we are the people of his pasture...

Why should we worship God?  Because He is the most valuable and worthy object in the universe!  Because He is the one true God, the great King above all gods,  He made all that exists, and everything belongs to Him.  Not only that, but we also belong to Him, and He cares for us the way a shepherd cares for his sheep.  Therefore, let us come and worship this incredible God!

Jeff Frazier