Matthew F. McKellar, Professor of Preaching and George W. Truett Chair of Ministry at Southwestern Seminary, preached from Psalm 95 in SWBTS Chapel on October 24, 2024.
The following is an uncorrected transcript generated by a transcription service. Before quoting in print, please check the corresponding audio for accuracy.
Good morning, Southwestern and Texas Baptist College and thank you, Dr. Grace for your kind words. It’s great to be in chapel. It’s great to be at Southwestern a place that has been important to me for about as long as I can remember, a place that I’ve loved and treasured, and I do so today. Our text is Psalm 95 While you’re turning there, I’ll tell you of an experience I had when I was doing my MD work. And for Greek class, I had Dr. Jack MacGorman, for whom this building is named. And I remember one day in class he was talking about, we were translating the book of James, and he was talking about James one five. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives generously, I think the King James says without upbraiding.
And in the Greek text there, Dr. McGorman pointed out that God is so secure, he’s not insecure. He doesn’t wrap up his gifts with lecture. And then his illustration was the father who is going to toss the keys to that teenage son or daughter, and says, here’s the car. Here are the keys. Now I want you to be careful. Don’t drive over this speed limit. Do that. And there’s this long lecture. It gets so long that the teenager is standing there going, forget it. Here are the keys back. I don’t want the lecture. And so, Dr MacGorman went on to say, God is good, but then God also, as a part of that goodness out of His love, issues, warnings. Now today, we’re looking at a passage that is rather unusual, because in Psalm 95 you had this invitation to worship. And thank you to our musicians and instrumentalists for leading us so beautifully this morning, because it is a wonderful invitation. I mean, what a privilege. Come. Let us worship. Come shout, come, sing joyfully. But Dr. MacGorman said, You know God offers in love, admonition. In fact, he said, I’ll never forget it admonition.
Admonition is God’s authentic expression of love in time of danger. And you look at this text today, and it’s Psalm 95 now we don’t know exactly, specifically who wrote the psalm in terms of human authorship. We’re not even given a specific setting in which the Psalm was used. We do know that historically it is referred to as the Vinita, the first words of the Vulgate, Vulgate, oh come. And it was used in the worship of Israel. Most scholars think that this Psalm was used during the Feast of tabernacle celebrations, and you’ll see in a moment why that is highly likely. Because at the Feast of Tabernacles, remember the children of Israel. They actually enacted or acted out, living in tents for those few days, remembering the wilderness, the Exodus and the wilderness to live. Words of the Lord. And so, when we come to Psalm 95 in book four of the Psalms, it’s one of five psalms that are particularly focused on worship.
And so, we have this Psalm, and it’s this powerful invitation. But then, as da Carson says about halfway through, like Stinger alert, and you have this quotation that comes right out of the account that happened during the wilderness. In fact, it’s pretty important for us to remember that at rep of him early on, the people have been delivered out of bondage in Egypt. They’ve crossed the Red Sea. God has provided for their every need, and now they get out there and they need some water. And so, what do they do? They begin to complain. They are marked by quarreling, and they are marked by unbelief, right? You it. And so, what happens? They don’t take God at His Word. They take him for granted. They don’t think he’s enough. They want to go back to Egypt.
And so is this experience that our psalmist in our text today connects to worship. So, let’s think a few moments about worship and warning. You’re going to see in the Psalm a very clear structure. You’ve got two invitations and then a warning, two invitations and then a warning. And what’s even more fascinating is within each of those two invitations, and the warning you have the invitation, in the case of the invitations, and then the reasons why, same thing with the warning. Here’s the warning. Here are the reasons why we have the warning. It makes me think of some of the music that I’ve heard, both ancient and modern I’ll say over the years that music tells you praise the Lord, love Jesus, give your heart to Jesus, love Him, serve Him, worship Him. But sometimes it’s like they’re little more than what have been called 711 songs, seven words, 11 times.
You know, you just repeat, God. We love you, Jesus, we praise you, but we never know why it is. What is the reasoning for this praise? That is not the case in this psalm, as you’re going to see, two invitations and a warning and reasons for all three. Well, let’s move into the text, and in verses one through five, if I were going to put a heading over that, I would say it’s an invitation to hasten to worship. And I was growing up, I remember seeing that singing that old song, I am resolved no longer to linger charmed by the world’s delight. Things that are higher, things that are noble, these have allured my sight. And then you remember the chorus, I will hasten to him, hasten so glad and free. And then Dr Crider had that great face part, you know, I won’t sing it. I’ll let you sing it, but you can get the idea. There’s this sense of urgency, and that’s what’s in this psalm. Look at it come. Let’s shout joyfully to the Lord, to Yahweh, the covenant God, shout triumphantly to the rock of our salvation.
Fascinating that the word rock is used there, because that’s a part of the backdrop of what happened to Israel in the wilderness. Remember, Moses strikes the rock and water comes out later at Kadesh Barnea, Moses strikes the rock instead of speaking to the rock, and therefore forfeits its opportunity to enter the promised land. So right at the first of this psalm, we’re reminded that God is a is a rock. He’s our security, and he’s not just our security. He is our source. He’s the source of every blessing. You know, we use that terminology. We have a friend or we have an associate. We say, Man, that guy is a rock. He can be counted on. There’s just such security and stability there.
And so it’s that idea of security and something that is substantive. This is our God, come with shout joyfully to the Lord. Shout triumphantly to the rock of our salvation. Let’s enter his presence with thanksgiving. Let’s shout triumphantly to him in song, now often in Old Testament poetry. You see the repetition, and that repetition is there for a person purpose to drive home the point. And you don’t have to be a homiletical Einstein to know that. Here’s the invitation early on in the Psalm, to joyfully, to urgently seek, to worship the Lord. But notice, notice how this worship is. Described.
First of all, it’s corporate. Would you notice in the text, let us, let us, let us. It’s not just in private. As important as private worship is, it’s corporate. It’s corporate. And then the second thing is, it’s loud. It’s loud. Several years ago, I was at a busy intersection. I pull up behind the car, and it’s one of those cars you’ve seen these. The music you can tell is so loud in the car, that car is rocking, and as I pulled up closer, that thing is thumping, I’m hearing that bass. And then I looked on the bumper of that car, and this is the bumper sticker I read, by the way, this was just after I complained to my daughter in the car. Man, why do people turn up their music so loud? No kidding.
The bumper sticker said, if it’s too loud, you’re too old. And I thought, well, I guess I am. But you know what? There’s a place in worship, for as one commentator says, full throated cries, just worship. Spurgeon says of this passage, it’s like that every believer is itching for a harp to play so that praise can be lifted up to the Lord. So, it’s exuberant, it’s loud, and then most importantly, it is God centered, to the Lord, to Yahweh, the rock of our deliverance, the source of our deliverance. You know, sometimes I think we get confused. In this modern age. We tend to think worship is about us, or it’s about the people we want to visit our church or come to our church, but the Bible says Worship is about God.
It’s God centered. And here we are in this Texas morning, and we see this picture of what I’ll call God centered, text driven, biblical worship. It’s corporate, it’s loud, it’s God centered. It’s not about us, it’s about him. Now look at the reasons in verses three through five. Well, why should we worship this way. Why should I hasten in worship? Look at that word for because the Lord is a great God, a great King above all God. So why should I hasten to worship? Because there’s nobody like God. He’s incomparable, right? Nothing can compare with his greatness. He is Lord over galaxies and governments, right? Nobody’s in a category with him. But not only that, look at the rest. He’s a great King above all gods. What’s going on there?
Well, the other gods, little g they’re figments of people’s imagination. There’s no reality there. There’s no substance. In contrast, our God is real. He’s reality. And then watch this. Look what the author does. The depths of the earth are hidden his hand, and the mountain peaks are his. The sea is his, for he made it his hands formed the dry land. You see the sovereign hands of God in creation. And notice it’s almost like the psalmist is ransacking creation. Go to the highest mountain peak. Go to the deepest part of the Earth, every place in between. The Lord is in charge of all of that and the sea, which is often associated with chaos and uncertainty and difficulty and tumult in the Old Testament. Hey, the Lord God made the sea, and he controls it. So why do I hasten to worship him? Because he’s great, because he’s the reality, and because his sovereign hands, these hands that shape the world. Now hold the world.
I don’t want to get ahead of myself. But later on, we see how this is ultimately fulfilled in the Lord Jesus. What do you read in Colossians? One He is the image of the invisible God, the first born of creation. And what about Jesus? In Him, all things hold together. So he is the agent of creation, and He is the sustainer of creation. In this psalm, here is the Lord. His hands shape the world, and now he holds the world in his hand. Let me ask you this morning, what about your investment in corporate worship? I’ve heard, and you’ve probably heard a lot of people say, well, you know what, I just get a cup of coffee.
Me to go out on the back porch. And, man, I can really feel the presence of God. Or I love to go hunting. I get in the deer blind. And, man, I just I’m on the lake. And, well, I’m not arguing with that, but I don’t care how powerful your private quiet time is. The Lord is with the Lord, according to the psalm, if you’re not engaging and hastening to corporate worship with other people of God, you’re out of bounds with God’s word, and you ought to address that quickly. And I’m talking about this Sunday. Well, there’s that first invitation, hasten to worship, and then the second invitation, it gets more specific, heed the call to reverent worship. Notice the repetition. Verse six Come, let’s worship and bow down. Let’s kneel before the Lord our Maker. Let me just stop there. Here’s this invitation again come, and then it is followed by three verbs, okay, worship. Bow down and kneel. And they’re all very similar, and all of them together speak to the importance of prostration before the Lord, we might say, getting low before God.
It’s like when you hasten to enter the presence of God, guess what happens? You begin to be awed by his greatness and awed by His glory and awed by His power. One commentator says, we move from animated speech to speechless prostration. I mean, it’s like that. It’s in the matter of a verse. So What’s that telling us there is a place for loud, boisterous worship, but that worship is incomplete unless it also includes, regularly, a time where I want to get low before the Lord, I want to bow down before Him. I realize, God, you are great, you are ultimate reality. You’re the rock, you’re the source of everything. You’re perfect, you’re incomparable, you rule everything, you hold everything together. And none of those things can be said of me and so Lord, I want to hit my face. I want to bow before you. I want to prostrate myself before you. Well, why do I want to do that?
Look at verse seven, because He is our God. Now we’ve just been told to kneel before the Lord our Maker. Notice what the psalmist is doing here. This this God who made everything, created out of nothing, holds it all together, this God who made everything, made you and made me, but we are the people of His pasture, His provision, and literally, the sheep of his hand. Do you see that connection there? Be sure you don’t mess miss it. The hands of creation are the hands of care. You see what the psalmist is doing. You don’t worship God rightly until you grasp His transcendence. He’s above and he’s beyond everything.
But the beauty of the Gospel is that this great sovereign God has come near. He’s done it ultimately, in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, but he comes near, and he comes alongside his people, and he identifies with them. So, Lord, you’re so other, you’re so holy, you’re so great in power. Lord, you’re so strong, you’re so big. Lord, here’s a here’s a psalm, if you really think about it, that should pulverize our pygmy sized views of God. There should be in worship an accompanying Awe, I don’t mean a cringing alarm, but I do mean a sense of the commanding presence of God, who superintends all of creation, and yet whose superintending care includes. The next breath you’ll have. That’s it. Well, let me, let me hit you with a couple of quotes this morning that I think speak to this.
First of all, Dorothy Sayers, this is something she said about the tendency of modern worship. She said we have efficiently paired the claws of the line of Judah, certified him meek and mild, and recommended him a fitting household pet for pale curates and pious old ladies. That makes me think of the Chronicles of Narnia. He’s not safe, but he’s good. You know, we want to. Try to control God and limit him and make him manageable, but he resists that entirely. He’s the great Sovereign Lord of the universe and should be worshiped as such. Annie Dillard, a Pulitzer Prize winning poet, wrote these words, does anyone have the foggiest idea of what sort of power we so blithely invoke? It’s madness to wear ladies’ straw and velvet hats to church. We should all be wearing crash helmets.
Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares. They should lash us to our pews. Wow, pretty strong image there. But let me just ask you this morning, when’s the last time you were so awed, you were so staggered by the bigness and greatness of God, you hit your knees, or, better yet, got on your face, prostrated yourself before the Lord, reminding yourself, Lord, You are so great and so mighty and I’m none of those things.
When’s the last time you were staggered and awed like that? And it’s been a long time. Why is that? Maybe you need to take the tonic of this Psalm and be reminded again of the greatness and the majesty of God. You know, one writer says strong affections for God rooted in biblical truth. This is the bone and marrow of biblical worship. And not to be hyper critical this morning, but I’m pointing the finger at myself too often. My worship is meaningless because it’s not biblical. It’s not informed by it’s not guided by Scripture. It’s too selfish.
But then we come to this Psalm, and what do we see? We’re reminded of the majesty and the mind of God, and when you lose that sense of His Majesty and His magnificence, guess what happens? The Christian life becomes simply a strategy for coping, or a comfortable hobby that we just cultivate and try to enjoy? Well, those are the two invitations hasten to worship and then worship with reverence. There. Here’s the warning. Heed the timeless warning. Notice what happens the last part of verse seven. The last part of verse seven, you have this quotation, and, by the way, from this verse on this point the last part of verse seven all the way to the end, you have the author of Hebrews. Pick this up in Hebrews three and four.
The book of Hebrews is a is a beautiful sermon. It’s an extended exposition. And the author of Hebrews picks this up and basically preaches a sermon about Psalm 95, seven through 11. And apply, he applies it to the original readers of Hebrews. And he says, hey, that word today, the application didn’t stop with God’s people who died in the wilderness. It didn’t stop with the people who finally entered into the promised land in Joshua’s day, it has application today, and in that beautiful God’s Word is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, and what does it do? It has a timeless application today.
If you hear His voice, well, how do I hear God’s voice? This is how I hear God’s voice, his word, empowered by the Holy Spirit, I hear God’s voice. Well, what’s the invitation? Do not harden your hearts. Look at that word harden. Now in the Greek Septuagint, as you have the Greek in Hebrews chapters three and four, the verb there, it’s interesting. It’s a passive verb, almost like a passive of provision, permission. Don’t allow yourself to be hardened. And the word for Harden, the verb there, gives us our English word doctors use it, sclerosis, arteriosclerosis, a hardening, we might say here, of the spiritual arteries. So, stay with me here.
The psalmist, in this psalm, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is connecting right worship and a tender heart. Listen, haphazard worship results in hardened hearts. And you say, well, Matthew, Matthew, Matthew, what are you saying? Well, look at what the Lord says, don’t harden your hearts, as at Meribah, the word means quarrel or contention, as on that day at masa, testing in the wilderness, where your ancestors put me to the test. Then look at this. They. Tried me, though they had seen what I did, and then look on why? What’s the reason for 40 years, I was disgusted.
That’s a great translation. I loathed them. Let me tell you what this morning. What disgusts God is distrust. Okay? He wants you; he wants me to take him at his word and in the wilderness. Remember, after that glorious deliverance from bondage in Egypt, across the Red Sea, into the wilderness after all of those events, there wasn’t a lack of evidence there. No, no, no. Instead, those people became complacent. They were unbelieving. It’s like they said, hey, Lord, what have you done for me lately?
Oh, I know you gave me those promises, but that’s not enough. You’re not enough. You don’t satisfy. Don’t you realize every time we sin, that’s essentially what we’re saying to the Lord. Lord, I know you’ve given me these promises. I know you’ve said You alone can satisfy, but you know I’ve got to step out of bounds and do my thing, because you’re just not enough. And that discuss God. Now they tested me. Though they had seen what I did for 40 years, I was disgusted with that generation. I said there are people whose hearts, from the core of who they are, they go away. They’re Prone to wander.
There was a Baptist pastor in Cambridge, England by the name of Robert Robinson, and in preaching folklore, he’s remembered because he was instrumental in the translation of some key works from French to English. But you know, I think one of the greatest things about Robert Robinson is he wrote a song that we still sing today. Come thou found of every blessing, tune my heart to sing Thy praise, streams of mercy. Never cease and call for songs of loudest praise. And you remember one section of that great hymn? It’s a confession Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it prone to leave the God I love. Here’s my heart. Lord, take and seal it. Seal it for thy courts above. You see, here’s a psalm that’s saying, if you think you don’t need a warning, you better think again. If you think you’ve advanced the place of spiritual maturity and development that you don’t need a warning, think again. You see, there’s a real difference between profession and possession. There were some people in the wilderness that professed with their lips, oh Lord, you’ve delivered us out of Egypt. We’re going to follow you all the way. But when they’re going got tough, what did they do?
They said, let’s go back to Egypt. Moses, you brought us out here to die in the wilderness. They were marked by unbelief. Now I’m not saying that to tell you need to doubt your salvation or question your salvation, but look, many people today are depending on a profession they made years and years ago that they’ve really not stacked anything onto. There’s been no sanctification. There’s been no walking and dependence upon the Lord, and that’s not the kind of faith that will get you home and you see what the author is doing here. He’s saying worship, boisterously, exuberantly, worship, open your mouth and praise me. But don’t just open your mouth and praise me. Model with your lives the reasons for which I am to be praised. Hear O Israel, the LORD our God, the Shema, understand the insanity of sin and our nature is to go go astray and to wander. And look at what the Bible says.
Notice how the psalm ends. It’s rather abrupt. So, I swore God can’t swear above anyone greater than himself. I swore in my anger. The Hebrew there’s the nostrils were flaring. I swore in my anger. We don’t talk a lot about the anger of God today. We don’t talk about the wrath of God today, maybe we should some more. My favorite definition of the wrath of God is that God’s wrath is his settled hostility towards sin, his refusal to compromise with it, and his resolve to condemn it, and he will certainly do those things you. And if you and I persist in unbelief, guess what, we’ll be subject to that wrath.
And so, here’s the whole warning, and that’s why the author of Hebrews uses it in chapter four of Hebrews, the people who are tempted to turn their back on Jesus, he says, Do not quit clinging and cleaving to Jesus. He’s your only hope. The ultimate rest of God is found through the priestly ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ, we boldly approach the throne of grace to find mercy and grace to help in time of need. If you don’t cling to Jesus, you’ve got nothing, and you’ll have nothing. So how am I hearing AW Tozer said left to ourselves. We reduce God to manageable terms. I tried when the majesty of God is diminished, worship is degraded. God is dishonored. So, what about you and me this morning? Do we? Do we go to corporate worship in an obligatory fashion? Well, I just need to be here or do we anticipate it with longing? I mean, every week we have an opportunity to take God’s word and the power of the Holy Spirit and to spread a banquet in the wilderness. You for people that are starving for God, and they don’t even know it. I think too often, on the basis of this psalm, I’d have to say that we ask the wrong questions.
Well, how was the worship service? Were you fed? Did you like the worship service? Did you like the music? Did you think the preaching was good? Do you think our visitors like that? Do you think our guests will come back? Those are the wrong questions. Here’s the one question, Was God pleased? Was God pleased? Do we lift our voices and praise in a manner that’s consistent with who he is. Did we get low before him, reminding ourselves that He is God and we’re just his people.
I can’t get away from the psalm without reminding myself that what you see in the Psalm is that it’s a short journey y’all from in gratitude to unbelief. Let me tell you why biblical worship is important, praise, adoration, lifting our thoughts and our hearts to God. Because once gratitude goes, unbelief begins to enter in, and you see this in the Psalm. So here’s the takeaway this morning, because you’re prone to wander, because I’m Prone to wander, prioritize worship in order to persevere in obedience, that’s what pleases God. I’m going to say that again, because you and I are prone to wander prioritize worship in order to persevere in obedience to God. This is chilling.
One writer says you are as likely as your forbearers to harden your hearts and refuse to listen. It is entirely possible for God to be as disgusted with you as He was with them. How do I avoid the wrath of God? I put my trust in Christ, the great high priest. I cling to him. I cleave to Him with all of my heart. I commit myself to finishing well, to the glory of God. I don’t have to tell you, in recent months, we’ve seen the antithesis of that around us, and so for all of us today, because God is great and so glorious, it ought to be our aim to finish strong and to finish well in the recent Olympics in Paris, Simone Biles was the winner of the all-around gold medal, and you’ve probably seen this with gymnastics.
Maybe you’ve heard it in aviation. She comes off the parallel bars or comes to the end of a routine and the commentators say, oh, watch this. She’s going to stick the landing, and she proceeds to do just that. I think this is a Psalm that says, believer, follower of the Lord Jesus, stick the landing. Persevere. Stick the landing to the glory of God.
God Father, thank You for Your word. Thank you for its power. Grant that we would be warned worshipers who worship you with every fiber of our beings, for Your glory. In the name of Jesus, our Great High Priest, we pray, amen.
