Psalm 95:1-5 (NIV)
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.
Dr. H. A. Ironside used to tell of an experience he once had at a restaurant. He ordered his meal, and just as he was about to eat, a man walked up to his table and said, “Do you mind if I sit down with you?” Dr. Ironside said that it was quite all right, so the man sat down. As was his custom, Dr. Ironside bowed his head and said a silent word of thanksgiving to the Lord before he ate. The man asked if he had a headache or if something was wrong with his food. Ironside told him that he was simply returning thanks to God for his food. The man said, “Oh, you’re one of those, are you? Well, I never give thanks. I earn my money by the sweat of my brow, and I don’t have to give thanks to anybody when I eat. I just start right in!” Dr. Ironside said, “Yes, you’re just like my dog. That’s what he does, too!”
A dog doesn’t give thanks to its provider because it is an irrational animal. In Romans 1 the Apostle Paul points out that one of the charges God brings against mankind is similar, because “although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him “(Rom. 1:21). It’s one thing for the unbeliever to be ungrateful towards the Creator, but another altogether for any of us who are His adopted children through Christ. The ninety-fifth Psalm is one of a series of psalms which the Israelites sang together as they went up to the temple in Jerusalem to worship. The series begins with the ninety-third Psalm and concludes with the one hundredth Psalm. The Israelites had much to be thankful for and it is reflected in phrases like “sing for joy,” “shout aloud,” and “extol him with music and song.” How often is our worship filled with such passion?
The danger of regular church attendance is that it can become…rather regular. Emotionalism should never be the goal of our praise and worship, but neither should our attitude be like the bumper sticker which states, “I owe. I owe. So off to work I go.” If your praise and worship at a church gathering is more work than response, you are missing the mark…and missing out. The psalmist is singing to the Rock of his Salvation! He is responding to the Great God who has provided every good thing in his life and on the earth! He is interacting with the God that created all things and is above all things and holds all things together in the psalm of his hand! Unlike the mindless dog that gobbles up what is provided with no thought towards its source, you and I know that “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows” (Jas. 1:17).
Do you struggle with self-awareness during praise and worship at church? Worried that you are singing off-tune or off-tempo? Do you restrain yourself, perhaps wanting to lift your hands towards Heaven but fearing that it might make you look weird? On the contrary, do you worry that your lack of outward expression might be taken as cold-heartedness or lack of spiritual fervor? Do you feel like the “hand-raisers” are judging you? Perhaps you feel little to nothing at all. Whatever the case, all of these things are self-focused rather than God-focused and replace worship of the Living God with worship of fallen man. Spurgeon’s opening commentary on this psalm is beautiful and bears repeating:
“It is to be feared that very much even of religious singing is not unto the Lord but unto the car of the congregation: above all things we must in our service of song take care that all we offer is with the heart’s sincerest and most fervent intent directed toward the Lord himself. Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. With holy enthusiasm let us sing, making a sound which shall indicate our earnestness; with abounding joy let us lift up our voices, actuated by that happy and peaceful spirit which trustful love is sure to foster. As the children of Israel sang for joy when the smitten rock poured forth its cooling streams, so let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.”
