Invitation to Worship - Part 1
Rev. Alexander John 
Psalm 95 begins with "Come...". God longs for us to come into His presence. He is not concerned about laying down a bunch of rules and requirements. Instead, John 4:23 tells us that God is seeking worshippers who will adore Him in spirit and in truth. He sends out the invitation to worship to each of us. He wants us to come without hesitation. You and I are invited into His very presence.
There are 3 aspects to God's worship invitation, namely, a call to rejoice, a call to reverence and a call to respond. In the first part of this series, we will focus on the aspect of rejoicing.
I. Call to Rejoice (verses 1-5)
1. Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
2. Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song.
3. For the LORD is the great God, the great King above all gods.
4. In his hand are the depths of the earth,and the mountain peaks belong to him.
5. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.
1. Worship is collective.
Three times in verses 1 and 2, we read, "Let us..." While our worship should have a private element to it throughout the week, the psalmist is stating that worship is designed to be congregational, not merely individual.
2. Worship is vocal.
Too often we think of worship as not only private but silent as well. We may worship God in our heart or even sing quietly, but God is longing for us to sing out to Him.
3. Worship is vibrant.
We are to participate with joyful, grateful praise and to be exuberant in our worship. The phrase, "sing for joy" in verse 1 could be translated, "shout for joy".
Why is it that we are often critical of those whose worship is too animated and enthusiastic? While we should avoid extremes, very few of us come close to being very passionate. Our tendency is to react against such worship, much like Michal disdained David's joyful enthusiasm in 2 Samuel 6. We see in verse 12 that when David brought the ark of the Lord into Jerusalem, he did it with "rejoicing". Verse 14 says he danced before the Lord with all his might and verse 15 indicates that his worship was filled with shouts and sounds of trumpets. When Michal, Saul's daughter and David's wife, saw David leaping and dancing before the Lord, verse 16 says, "She despised him in her heart".
David responded to Michal's accusations by saying that he was focused only on the Lord when he was expressing himself in worship. In the last part of verse 21, he says, "I will celebrate before the Lord". David did not care how he appeared to others because he was intent on fully engaging himself in wholehearted worship.
And so, we are to collectively express our worship vocally with vibrancy and exuberance. When we sings songs of praise, we shout at an incredible volume out of joyful gratitude to the Rock of our salvation.
4. Worship is God-centered.
This is a good reminder because we are not to just get emotional or sing loudly for our own sake. Our focus should not be on how worship makes us feel. Our focus must be centered on God alone. In the first two verses of the psalm, we are to "sing for joy to the Lord", we are to shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation, we are to "come before Him with thanksgiving", and we are to "extol Him with music and song"; David danced and shouted but he did it "before the Lord".
We need to make sure our music is 'Christocentric', not man-centered. Instead of singing about how happy we are to be together worshipping God, the Psalms call us to sing directly to God. In other words, we are to not just talk about how we feel when we worship, but rather engage our body, soul and spirit, complete with our emotions, in a total preoccupation with the Rock of our salvation.
5. Worship is founded on the truth.
In verses 3 and 4, the sovereignty of God is given as a basis for our worship. Verse 3 expresses God's rule in general terms: For the Lord is the great God, the great God above all gods.We are to shout aloud, sing for joy and extol the Lord with music and song for He is supreme. The supremacy of God is the foundation for our joy.
Verses 4 and 5 depict God's sovereignty more specifically. He is in control of His creation. He is in charge of all that He has created and possesses. The expressions, "depths", "peaks", "sea", and "dry land" emphasize the totality of His creation and control of the earth. These are the things that challenge us as humans and hold forth the promise of adventure, excitement, fascination and mystery. He made it all. He is sovereign over all the world is not only the work of His hands it is in His hands.
Thus, our collective, vocal, vibrant God-centered rejoicing must be founded on the truth of who He is and what He has done.
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