Authentic Prayer: Worshiping
Psalm 145
This morning we wrap up our series on Authentic Prayer: Insights from the Psalms. We’ve covered seeking God (from Psa 63); waiting on God (Psa 25); confessing sin to God (Psa 51); asking God (Psa 86); lamenting before God (Psa 22); interceding before God for others (Psa 67); declaring to God (Psa 119); and thanking God (Psa 107).
And this morning we are going to conclude by talking about worshiping God from Psalm 145. So let’s turn there together. If you need a Bible, go ahead and raise your hand and we’ll have one brought to you. Psalm 145 is on page 524 in the Bibles we are passing out.
This psalm was written by David. There’s ways David was like us, and ways he was different from us. David was king of Israel – that’s a lot more power and authority and clout than we have. But that meant that David had lots of responsibility and lots of pressures; we can relate to that. And David was a sinful man; he had moral failures; we can all relate to that.
So David knew pressure, he knew responsibility, he knew failure – like all of us. So in the mix of that what did David experience in his heart towards God? David tells us himself in vv.1-3 – look at what he says –
1 I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever.
2 Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever.
3 Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable.
Notice three key words: David extols God – which means he sees that God is infinitely greater than anything else that exists, and so he lifts God to the highest place in his heart; David blesses God’s name – which means He tells God that he longs to see God honored over all; and David praises God – which is similar and means that David loves to proclaim that God is infinitely greater than anything else.
What David is experiencing in his heart is worship; he’s seeing, loving, and expressing God’s infinite unsearchable greatness. When David looked at everything in the entire universe, he saw that God was the most awesome, powerful, satisfying, and important reality there is. And he loved God’s infinite greatness, and he expresses to God God’s infinite greatness. That’s worship. That’s what we’re talking about this morning.
Now I would guess that some of you don’t believe in God. All right. I respect your opinion. But for now let me just throw this out.
Consider that everything that exists either came from something personal (God) or something impersonal. But now think of what we know of reality. We know there’s beauty, meaning, purpose. You know there’s consciousness, right and wrong, love. But it’s really hard to account for those things if everything came from impersonal connections of basic elements.
So isn’t it at least possible that everything was created by a personal force – God? I hope you’d grant that it’s possible.
David knew God existed. David had seen evidence of God in creation. David had experienced God’s presence and mighty works in his own life. And David had read about how God created everything, called Abraham, delivered Israel, worked miracle after miracle after miracle.
And David compared God with everything else that exists. God has always been; everything else was created by God. God alone is self-sufficient; everything else depends on God for its existence. God alone is perfectly good, loving, just, faithful, holy; nothing else is.
And so David compares God with all of reality. He sees that God is infinitely great, he loves the fact that God is infinitely great, he loves what it is about God that makes him infinitely great, and he lifts God up to the highest place in his own heart and expresses to God that He’s infinitely great. That’s worship.
Now let me illustrate what this is like – from real life. A few weeks ago I was in the office of a business owner near here. We’ve been getting together to talk about Jesus. But on this particular day he wanted to tell me about his motorcycle. I said, “Oh, do you have a Harley?” He said “Oh, no.” And he pulled out a picture of his motorcycle. He said “I’ve got a Buell.”
And for the next few minutes he extolled and blessed and praised Buell motorcycles to me. And he was feeling sheer pleasure and joy. I could see it in his eyes and hear it in his voice as he told me all about the liquid-cooled 1125 cc V-Twin engine which puts out 146 horse-power at 9800 rpm – and how they are built to hug sharp turns at high speeds.
He was extolling and blessing and praising Buell motorcycles – and what he was feeling was sheer pleasure and joy.
See, we are all wired to experience our highest joys in beholding greatness. And since God has infinite greatness, when we behold God’s infinite greatness, and love His infinite greatness, and express His infinite greatness – we will have the highest joy possible for any human being.
And we can see how strong David’s pleasure was by noticing what he says in v.2: “every day I will bless you and I will praise your name forever and ever.” David is feeling such pleasure and joy in God’s infinite greatness that he is determined to see, feel, and express this every day and forever.
So look inside your heart. What’s in your heart towards God? If we’re honest, many of us will admit that we’ve never felt anything like that. And the rest of us will admit that we don’t feel that very often or very strongly.
So what keeps us from worshiping God? Not – what keeps us from singing songs and praying prayers and going to church. You can do all that without worshiping God. I’m asking – what keeps us from seeing God’s infinite greatness, and loving God’s infinite greatness, and feeling great pleasure in expressing to God His infinite greatness? That’s worship – what keeps us from that?
As I’ve looked in my heart, here’s what I’ve discovered. When I’m not feeling pleasure and joy in God’s infinite greatness, it’s because I’ve exalted something else above God in my heart. It’s because I’m seeing something else as more important to me than God. I’m worshiping something besides God – an idol.
See, we’re all born to worship. We’re all always worshiping something – seeking the pleasure of experiencing the greatness of something.
So how can you tell what it is that you’ve exalted above God in your heart? By looking at what you desire the most and what you fear the most. That’s what you are seeing as most important to you. That’s what to you, at that moment is of supreme importance over everything else. That’s what you are worshiping.
Two months ago I hurt my knee mountain bike riding. I’ve already had two surgeries on my left knee, and I have very little cartilage left. And two months ago after riding I noticed a dull pain that wouldn’t go away. And so I had to stop riding my mountain bike, and had to stop walking the creek trail near my house.
And over the past weeks there were times when what I desired the most and feared the most – all had to do with my knee. Which means that at those times, I was seeing a healthy knee as more important to me than anything else. I was worshiping a healthy knee – I was worshiping an idol.
And as a result I was not feeling any pleasure and joy in God’s infinite greatness. Because I had lifted up a healthy knee over God in my heart.
So what have you lifted up over God in your heart? What do you desire the most or fear the most? What have you elevated to the highest place in your heart? What idols do you worship?
That’s what keeps us from feeling intense pleasure and joy in beholding God’s infinite greatness. That’s what keeps us from worshiping God.
So what can we do? How can our hearts be changed? There’s good news. Because of Jesus’ death on the Cross, our hearts can be changed. No matter how strong that idol feels. No matter how long that idol’s been there. Your heart can be changed.
Now this might sound strange, but what we must do to change our hearts is worship. I’ve already said that worship means seeing and loving and expressing God’s infinite greatness. But there’s more to worship than that. Worship doesn’t usually start there. Worship usually starts with me repenting of my weak affections for God, repenting of my idols, asking God to forgive me through Jesus. That’s where it starts.
Then worship means asking God to change my heart, to show me His glory. And then it means setting my heart on the truth of who God is – declaring to God the truth of who He is. I continue to pray and ask for help, and declare to God the truth of who He is, and as I do that – I start to see God as infinitely great, love God’s infinite greatness, and joyfully express to God His infinite greatness.
So the way our hearts can be changed – is through worship. See, worship is war. When you set your heart to worship, the idols in your heart start to tremble – because their destruction is near. Spirit-empowered, gospel-centered, Scripture-soaked worship destroys the idols in our hearts.
In a moment we’re going to set aside time to worship God. And to help that time of worship destroy our idols, let’s look at vv.4-20. Here David gives us five descriptions of God’s infinite greatness. So to prepare for idol-destroying worship, let’s look at these four descriptions of God’s unsearchable greatness.
First, God works in everything with power, wonder, goodness, and righteousness. Read vv.4-7 and notice how often “works,” “deeds,” “acts” are mentioned.
4 One generation shall commend your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts.
5 On the glorious splendor of your majesty, and on your wondrous works, I will meditate.
6 They shall speak of the might of your awesome deeds, and I will declare your greatness.
7 They shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness and shall sing aloud of your righteousness.
God works in powerful, merciful, awesome ways in our everyday lives. So compare what God can do with what your idol can do. Go ahead. Compare. A healthy knee – vs. God. A healthy knee is a good thing. It can do some things. But compared to what God can do? Or how about money vs. God. Money can do some things. But God controls all the money and what money can do. The same is true with all idols.
Your idol compared to God is like a AAA battery compared to a nuclear power plant. Why would you have a triple AAA battery at the highest place of your trust and reliance, when you could have a nuclear power plant?
Second, God is gracious, merciful, slow to anger, and loving. You can see this in vv.8-9 --
8 The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
9 The LORD is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.
Think about God’s grace and mercy and love. We’ve worshiped idols. We’ve rebelled against Him. But God loved us. He cared so much about us that He came to earth in the person of Jesus so He could be punished in our place – so that when we repent and trust Jesus we can be completely forgiven and restored. How much does your idol care about you?
Third, God’s kingdom works continue forever.
10 All your works shall give thanks to you, O LORD, and all your saints shall bless you!
11 They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom and tell of your power,
12 to make known to the children of man your mighty deeds, and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.
13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations.
If you are trusting Jesus, then Jesus’ goodness will continue towards you forever. And ever. And ever. And ever. How long will your idol’s works continue?
Fourth, God helps all who call upon Him in truth. It’s easy to think that to have God help me I have to earn it or deserve it. But Jesus is the one who’s done the earning and deserving. So what we need to do to receive all of God’s help is call upon Him – call upon Him in truth. Look at vv.10-20a –
14 The LORD upholds all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down.
15 The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season.
16 You open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing.
17 The LORD is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his works.
18 The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.
19 He fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he also hears their cry and saves them.
20 The LORD preserves all who love him …
The moment you look to Jesus, call upon Jesus in truth, fear Jesus in the sense of reverence Him, and cry out to Him – at that very moment – God’s unstoppable, loving, gracious power is rushing towards you to save you. No idol can top that.
Fifth, God will destroy the wicked. That’s the end of v.20 --
… but all the wicked he will destroy.
Some of you might be clinging to idols that you don’t want to let go. In your heart you’ve lifted up something above God, and you don’t want to tear it down. But let me tell you, if you have lifted up some idol above God, then unless you repent and tear down that idol and trust Jesus to forgive you, God will destroy you.
If you don’t let God destroy your idol, He will destroy you. Please, please repent of that idol.
And what will result from this? Worship. When you repent of your idols from the heart, and ask Jesus to forgive you from the heart, and ask for God’s power to change your heart, and set your mind on the truth of who God is – and start to declare to God who He is – what will happen?
He will change your heart. You will once again see that God is infinitely great; love that God is infinitely great; love what it is about God that makes Him infinitely great; and you will lift up God to the highest place in your affections, and express to God your joy in His infinite greatness.
You will do what David says in v.21 ---
My mouth will speak the praise of the LORD, and let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever.
You will speak praise to God for His infinite greatness, and you will long for everyone to praise God for His infinite greatness.
Worship destroys idols. So make worship a priority. Sunday at 10 AM war begins in this room as we join together to worship God – war which will defeat the idols in our hearts. And every day, as we set aside time to pray, and make worship part of that – war is being waged – war which will defeat the idols in our hearts.
So let’s do that now as we worship.