Conformity, Compromise, and Crisis in Worship by Pastor Penno

"Conformity, Compromise, and Crisis in Worship"

Sabbath School Today

With the 1888 Message Dynamic 

Worship

Lesson 8: "Conformity, Compromise, and Crisis in Worship"

Will it not be a glorious day when the hearts and lives of God's people are free from sinning and they have grown up fully in God's agape-love? They will not be conscious that their characters have been perfected by God's grace. They will not be aware that they have received the seal of God. God will pronounce the words of His covenant before the universe: "Here are they which keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus" (Rev. 14:12). Their only concern will be that they might dishonor Christ by some hidden defect in their lives. However, Jesus "shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied" (Isa. 53:11). The "most precious message" sets forth the prospect of sinless living in tempted sinful flesh. Jesus will demonstrate that His gospel is fully able to deliver us from sin.

"It's not pretty, but there it is--the last word of the Old Testament is 'a curse' (Mal. 4:6), not so much a threat as it is the inevitable Bad News of disaster as the unavoidable consequence of sin. It's the 'curse' that came in the flood of Noah when the earth was destroyed. The human race brought it upon themselves 'in the days of Noah,' and will do so again, unless somehow help can come.

"The 'help' that God promises is a totally impossible miracle for humans: God will 'send ... Elijah before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord, and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers' (Mal. 4:5, 6). That 'turning-of-heart' is the only thing that can avert a global 'curse.' Only 'Elijah's message' can reconcile the desolated hearts and cleanse the pollution. It's more than old covenant resolutions and works; it's a heart-turning 'faith-which-works' proclamation of the cross of Jesus, of grace which abounds more than sin" (excerpted from Robert J. Wieland, "Dial Daily Bread").

In the days of Elijah, through complacency, Israel had fallen into Baal worship. "The apostasy prevailing today is similar to that which in the prophet's day overspread Israel" (Ellen G. White, Prophets and Kings, p. 170). Like the end-time church, Laodicea, Israel had been blind to this perversion of truth, so compromise came easily. Content to allow an "alternative" worship style, Israel saw nothing wrong with the worship of God and the worship of Baal co-existing. Ellen White explains the parallel for our day: "Baal, Baal, is the choice. The religion of many among us will be the religion of apostate Israel, because they love their own way, and forsake the way of the Lord" (Testimonies to Ministers, pp. 467, 468).

"Elijah recognized that Baal had usurped the place of Yahweh. … Baal was solely the creation of man, a counterfeit from the beginning. He was an insult to the Creator, made for human desire "to be mighty … in the earth," and by him cities were built and Babylon was made the capital. Plainly, Baal-worship is none other than self-worship" (Donald K. Short, "Baal-worship and the Long Delay").

God didn't abandon Israel, and as with Laodicea, He reproves and disciplines those He loves. Elijah called for a "showdown." Echoing the Day of Atonement mandate that all must participate (Lev. 23:29), Elijah commanded that all Israel must appear. That Ahab agreed to the showdown was probably a combination of his own weakness and the desperate situation. Ahab hated this messenger who "troubled" Israel as one whose life and message served to constantly reprove his weaknesses and sins. Maybe Ahab hoped the showdown would reveal Elijah and his God to be failures, providing an excuse to rid the earth of the source of the problems.

The test was posed by Elijah: "How long halt ye between two opinions?" (1 Kings 18:21). The question called for a public declaration of belief. "When [Elijah] threw down the challenge, 'If the Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him,' we have in their answer a vivid video tape of the last church. The record says, 'The people answered him not a word.' This means they were not for, they were not against, they were not hot, they were not cold, they were 'lukewarm.' They did not know their condition. Unconsciously they had changed leaders" (Short, op. cit.).

Like the man attending the wedding feast without a garment, the people said nothing. They were accustomed to the entertaining and seductive demonstrations of the priests of Baal and Asherah. The satanic celebration moved to outright frenzy, when about noon, Elijah mocked them and their gods. By late afternoon, the dancers were giving up from exhaustion.

What will Elijah do, another wearisome demonstration of self-mutilation? Attention is riveted. The coarsely dressed Elijah stands alone and unafraid. The spiritual leadership of the day never demonstrated this kind of courage. His first words are unexpected: "Come near to me," words which would echo the One Who years later would say to the world "Come unto Me all ye that are heavy laden, and I will give you rest …" (Matt. 11:28, etc.).

The "Elijah" message is probably most clearly embodied in his prayer: "Let it be known that Thou art God in Israel, … and that thou hast turned their heart back again" (1 Kings 18:36, 37), and Malachi repeated that message (4:6).

This "turning of heart," or restoration, incorporates the idea of repentance, which is what John the Baptist called for when he came in the spirit and power of Elijah before Jesus came. Jesus described how He would accomplish this: "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me" (John 12:32). In the very last days before Jesus returns, those who have identified with Christ's sacrifice when He was "lifted up" will be used to draw all to Christ. They will be so restored, cleansed, and regenerated that they will demonstrate what it means to have their hearts "turned back" again. The result will be a sympathy with Christ for perishing multitudes and an understanding heart toward sinners.

"God's people have the assurance from Malachi that before the Lord can return there will again be a great work performed by Elijah (4:5). … In a morning talk given by Ellen White, she intimates 'Elijah' is that message begun in 1888 (Selected Messages, book 1, pp. 412 ff.). … When we understand our situation, our relation to the 'most precious message' the Lord sent, Baal-worship will be destroyed. … The long delay is over. Baal is cast down. The Divine Bridegroom has at last won the heart of His bride. 'That day' can come whenever the Bride says she is ready to be married. 'That day' could be sooner than we think" (Short, op. cit.).

--Arlene Hill

--------------------------------------------------------
Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. 

"Sabbath School Today" is on the Internet at: http://1888mpm.org

To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to sabbathschooltoday@1888message.org

"Worship in the Psalms"

Sabbath School Today

With the 1888 Message Dynamic 

Worship

Lesson 7: "Worship in the Psalms"

I am delighted to take you on a journey of worship where reading the Psalms blends the message of the gospel with worship in the Sanctuary. Last week we sang our hearts out to the songs written by David, the man after God's own heart. Man was made to sing, to lift up his voice in worship, to speak to God and to others "in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with his heart to the Lord" (Eph. 5:19).

Let's zoom in to the Psalms. The Greek word psalmoi means praise, where the idea of songs of praise comes from. If we look into the Hebrew word for Psalms, Tehilim, which also means praise, it is translated from a root word that means "to sing with instrumental accompaniment." Praise directed to Yahweh, the God of Israel, is the primary emphasis in the psalms. The Book of Psalms is considered as Israel's hymnbook and prayers used in the context of their worship.

Many of the Psalms were composed by David, the shepherd-King, "the singer of Israel's psalms" (2 Sam. 23:1). Other composers include Solomon (Psalms 72, 172), Asaph (50; 70-83), the sons of Korah (42; 44-49), Ethan (89), Herman, the son of Korah (88), and Moses (90). The Psalms can be divided in sections: hymns (145-150) and songs of thanksgiving (30-32); lament (38-39), which are prayers or cries to God in distressful situations; royal psalms (2, 110) pertaining to the earthly king of Israel; enthronement psalms (96, 98), which celebrate the Kingship of Yahweh; penitential psalms (32, 38, 51), which express contrition and repentance; and wisdom or didactic psalms (19, 119).

There is a clear structure to the Book of Psalms. It is divided into five parts, according to Jewish tradition and based on the arrangement of the Torah. For example, there is a doxology or statement identifying the end of one book and the beginning of another. The psalms containing these statements are known as "seam" psalms because they show the "piecing together" of the psalms to form the collection as it now stands. Isn't that incredible? Those who travel through the Holy Land tracing the footsteps of Jesus will indeed hear those sounds of worship among the people.

Next, we will look at the aspect of praising God our Creator and how He is reflected in the sanctuary service. Faith and thankfulness are twins. Faith expresses itself in praise to God. Read as E. J. Waggoner reflected on Psalm 63:

"'To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the Sanctuary.' That is what David longed for. He had been at times wonderfully impressed, during the services in the Sanctuary, with the power of the love of God. He had been greatly blessed. Now he wants to see the Lord just as he had seen Him in the Sanctuary. He believed that a person might enjoy just as much of the blessing of God while about his daily business as when in the church. … Continual remembrance of God must result in praise and thanksgiving; and praise to God is a powerful help in overcoming. Says David: 'So will I say praise unto Thy name forever, that I may daily perform my vows' (Psalm 61:8). Meditation upon God reveals His goodness, and this calls for praise; praise is but an expression of confidence in God, 'and this is the victory that overcometh the world, and even our faith' ("Practical Thoughts on Psalm 63," The Signs of the Times, July 1, 1886).

Thursday's lesson, "Lest We Forget!," cites Psalm 78: "For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children: … that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments: and might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright and whose spirit was not stedfast with God" (vss. 5, 7, 8).

It says that our present day context and experience are very different from Israel during the time this Psalm describes. But is it? Our customs, dress, travel, etc. are different, but in spiritual matters are we really that different from the Jews?

Our church was given a "most precious message" in 1888, which was a special testimony for the church at the end of time. Yet, the leadership of the church in loyalty to "the old landmarks" rejected that truth. Ellen G. White wrote: "There is sadness in heaven over the spiritual blindness of many of our brethren" (Review and Herald, July 26, 1892). And speaking of "those who resisted the Spirit of God at Minneapolis," she said: "All the universe of heaven witnessed the disgraceful treatment of Jesus Christ, represented by the Holy Spirit. Had Christ been before them, they would have treated Him in a manner similar to that in which the Jews treated Christ" (Special Testimonies, Series A, No. 6, p. 20).

Going to school is something most people want to get out of as soon as possible. But does God have a "class" where school discipline continues? In Psalm 25 David seven times prays that he may be a student in the Lord's "class"; "teach me Your paths," he asks over and over. The inspired picture we get in the Bible is Good News--there is never a graduation out of the Lord's school. You are always a student, a learner, and He never expels you from His "university," but of course you are always free to "quit school" if you wish.

There is always a temptation to "quit" because as our Teacher the Lord exercises discipline, which our carnal hearts don't like. "Do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; for whom the Lord loves He chastens" (Heb. 12:5, 6). It's not that He is a severe Schoolmaster, but His tuition appears that way to us, for "no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but grievous; nevertheless afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it" (vs. 11).

In fact, if the discipline or chastening has ceased and you think you have clear sailing, one of two things has happened: either you are indeed ready for translation (way ahead of almost everybody else), or you are in real trouble, for "if you are without chastening, ... then you are illegitimate and not sons" (vs. 8). The writer of Psalm 73 felt at times that the Lord's discipline was too severe. "I have been ... chastened every morning" (vs. 14), waking up each new day to renewed "grief" and "vexation" (vs. 21).

It seemed that the Holy Spirit would never get through "convicting" him of sin (which is His "first grade" tuition, John 16:8). Would he as a student in the "school of Christ" never get out of that "first grade"? Other "students" seemed to be spared that "discipline." Life for them was all fun and games. "It was too painful for me--until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I understood their end" (Psalm 73:16, 17). Something special is happening right now in the "sanctuary"--the Day of Atonement. Stay in school! (From Robert J. Wieland, "Dial Daily Bread").

May Christ direct your destination each day. We who are in Christ are on our way to a wedding of such glorious and expensive proportions that we'll have to change our clothes to survive the thrill of His presence. The psalmist said, "joy cometh in the morning" (30:5). Let God wash your feet in the water of His Word and plant them in His path of everlasting love songs.

--Mary Chun

--------------------------------------------------------
Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe.

"Sabbath School Today" is on the Internet at: http://1888mpm.org

To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to sabbathschooltoday@1888message.org

Worship in the Psalms - Pastor Paul Penno (Notes)

WORSHIP IN THE PSALMS

The purpose of the psalms may be regarded as teaching all men how to worship God in Spirit and truth, how to pray effectual prayers, in what spirit to bring sacrifices in the Temple, how to interpret the natural world around us, and the meaning of Israel’s laws and stirring history. All this is not self-evident: it requires an inspired interpretation.

Many psalms are made by David, the “sweet psalmist of Israel” (2 Sam. 23:1), who had not only a poetic heart and the gift of playing the lyre (1 Sam. 16:18), but also the spirit of prophecy (2 Sam 23:2, 3; cf. Acts 2:30), “being a prophet,” in relation to Ps. 16). He had probably composed a number of psalms as a youth while he was still a shepherd in the lonely hills of Judea. Accompanying himself on his lyre. David must have poured out his sensitive soul in the lyrics of adoration and praise while contemplating God’s works in nature and in Israel’s sacred history. Later, when he was falsely accused and persecuted, his lonely heart cried out to his Shepherd for help, assurance of divine vindication, and revival of soul. The universal purpose of David's psalms in the prayers of all the future saints is well expressed by E. G. White:

“The communion with nature and with God, the care of his flocks, the perils and deliverances, the griefs and joys, of his lowly lot were not only to mold the character of David, and to influence his future life, but through the psalms of Israel's sweet singer they were, in all coming ages, to kindle love and faith in the hearts of God's people, bringing them nearer to the ever-loving heart of Him in whom all His creatures live.

The psalms of David represented not only his personal outreach for God. Arousing similar emotions in the hearts of all Israel, the sacred songs of David were in God's providence accepted in the official liturgy of Israel’s worship in the Temple of Jerusalem. Then all Israel began to sing the songs and to pray the prayers composed by David. Who can tell the far-reaching influence of those inspirational liturgies of sacred songs that praised the faithful love and mercy of Israel’s God? They aroused new courage and loyalty to the LORD in the hearts of God’s people, freeing them from idolatry and superstition. Those who heard and sang the psalms of Israel drank from a fountain of living waters welling up from the presence of God, reviving the soul.

The incalculable religious value of the Psalter is basically of a twofold nature: the psalms furnish both an authentic record of the religious feelings and insights of Israel's saints and a true standard or norm of the emotions and thoughts about God and man for the worship of God by all men.

Israel’s Calling: To Praise the Lord

The psalms reflect Israel’s understanding of God’s work in creation and redemption, of His providence and purpose with the world and its history. Through the Psalmbook God aroused Israel to seek a deeper knowledge of Himself and in that way also of themselves.

The psalms of David pass through the whole range of experience, from the depths of conscious guilt and self-condemnation to the loftiest faith and the most exalted communing with God. His life record declares that sin can bring only shame and woe, but that God’s love and mercy can reach to the deepest depths, that faith will lift up the repenting soul to share the adoption of the sons of God. Of all the assurances which his word contains, it is one of the strongest testimonies to the faithfulness, the justice, and the covenant mercy of God.

Have you ever wondered how it would be possible to spend more than a few moments pondering the sacrifice of Christ? How can individuals come face to face with the reality of what took place at the trial and crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Reading the accounts of Christ’s sufferings in the gospels reveals much, but mostly the physical side of his sufferings.

A few years ago someone shared with me how much more of Christ’s suffering is written in the Psalms. The thoughts of Christ, the description of what He went through mentally while “as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth” (Isa. 53:7). Yet Psalm 69:3 says: “I am weary of my crying: my throat is dried: mine eyes fail while I wait for God.” “As the deer thirsts for water brooks, so my soul thirsts for thee” (Ps. 42:1).

Even while suffering long during his trials before the Sanhedrin, Herod, and Pilate, and being allowed no food or water, Christ’s thirst was more than physical: “My soul thirsts for the Living God, when shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my meat day and night, while they say unto Me all day long, Where is your God?” (Ps. 42:2, 3). “Why are you cast down, O my soul?” (v. 5). But “You have cast off and abhorred, You have been wroth with Thine anointed. You have made void,” have made it no good to Me, “the covenant of Your servant.” The idea being that God's promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was no good to Him in suffering the wrath of God. “You have profaned his crown by casting it to the ground” (Ps. 89:38, 39).

Christ felt the total rejection that God must give in judgment against sin. He asks in His soul: “How long O Lord? Will You hide Yourself forever? Shall Your wrath burn like fire?” His cry, “Father, Father, why have You forsaken Me?” was the total expression of His thoughts and feelings that were whirling in His mind. He was tempted in the face of utter abandonment to reject, to no longer have faith in His Father’s Love. Even when His “soul was cast down,” He knew in His soul, “Hope thou in God; for I shall yet praise Him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God” (Ps. 42:11). And with that He cried out, “‘It is finished!’ and bowed His head and died” (Jn. 19:30).

Take a closer look at these chapters that describe the sufferings of Christ for us.

Have you ever been opposed, misrepresented, misunderstood, and as a result, pained? Welcome to “David’s Club”! The Holy Spirit has provided for you David’s “Prayer Book” wherein you can find encouragement ready—made for every problem life brings to you. You know that you are unworthy to pray David’s prayers as though they were your own, for he was “the anointed of the Lord,” and you have this deep feeling that you are not. But God invites you to do exactly that—to identify with David in his prayers. And here’s the reason why it’s so: King David had a Son, a distant Descendant, who so immersed Himself deeply in David’s Psalms that He earned the title, “The Son of David.” And it is He who invites you to identify with David and pray his Psalms as though they were your own prayers, because that is what He did and they became His prayers. God has “predestinated [you] unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, . . . wherein He hath made [you] accepted in the beloved” (Eph. 1:5, 6). Jesus invites you to pray in His name, so that all the encouragement He Himself derived from the Book of Psalms He wants you to absorb also. You will find this difficult to grasp, that one so unworthy as you know yourself to be should be thus exalted, but you ever afterwards “walk softly” before the Lord and before your fellow humans. David suffered opposition, misrepresentation, even hatred from the people who prided themselves as being God’s people, David’s fellow-Israelites. You may suffer problems in your family (so did David, and so did Jesus), or at work, or even (could it be so?) in your church—the place where you expected peace and harmony. We were reading for family worship a few days ago a reading by a wise writer who reminded us that there is a “supreme court of the universe, from whose decision there [can] be no appeal” (Christ Triumphant, p. 176). David often appealed to that Supreme Court, and so can you. Then you can find rest unto your soul, confident in the decision of that “court.”

Some fifteen times the New Testament speaks of Jesus Christ as “the son of David.” This is spoken of in two senses: (a) Christ’s legal, linear, unbroken genetic descent from David, and (b) His personal spiritual experience that was identical to David’s as revealed in the Book of Psalms. The marks of identification are numerous: No one knows when David wrote Ps. 22, but it is obvious that in a proleptic sense David anticipated Christ’s experience on the cross: the piercing of His hands and His feet (16), the parting of His garments among the soldiers, the casting lots for His “vesture” (18), the ridicule of the bystanders (7), the taunts of the priests and rulers (8), Christ’s cry of dereliction (1, 2). All these details were literally reduplicated in Christ’s experience. David wrote intimate prophecy. Ps. 69 likewise comes from the heart of Christ: the hatred He endured (4), His rejection by His own family (8, 9), His loneliness (20), the bystanders offering Him vinegar when He cried “I thirst” (21), even the ruin of Judas Iscariot (24-18).

Now for the question: can we as believers in Christ “adopt” David’s experiences as ours, too? If Jesus did, why can’t we? When Christ became “Emmanuel, . . . God with us,” His humanity required Him to pray. He could not have lived without prayer. Neither can we! If Christ was “the son of David,” identifying with his experiences in the Psalms, then we too can identify with David “in Christ.” We are “crucified with Christ,” we “abide in Him” which means we live in Him. We identify with Christ; His experiences in battling with temptation become our experiences. As you read David’s Psalms, put yourself in his place, and then put yourself in Christ’s place. Let David’s prayers become your prayers, and then let Christ’s prayers become yours, too. Even if you have never known a moment of pain or sorrow, you can “grow up” “unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” by identifying with Him through the Psalms. Then when you at last meet Him face to face, you will not feel like a stranger in His presence.

The Book of Psalms is everybody’s favorite devotional reading. Those songs say things to God and about Him that we wish we could say but we don’t dare. They are openly honest, laying bare the very deepest emotions in our hearts. No matter how much veneer of “all-is-well” we cleverly put on our surface, inside we wrestle with the same problems that David had. “Why hast Thou forsaken me” we ask when we are going through our valley of shadows. We read of other people's miraculous answers to prayer, but “O my God, I cry in the daytime, but Thou hearest not; and in the night season . . .” (22:1, 2). “Our fathers . . . trusted in Thee, . . . and Thou didst deliver them, . . . and were not confounded. But I . . . “ and then David says what you and I don't dare say even though we sometimes feel that way, “But I am a worm, and no man, a reproach of men, and despised of the people” (4-6). (Teenagers need to read the Psalms; kids are the most prone to depression in society).

But the Psalm of Psalms that defies our understanding most is the one (the only one!) that ends in despair—Number 88. It says the most painful things about God of any. It’s the near-death and near-hell category of prayer. Not the death of some old person who might welcome silent rest, but it’s the death of a very sentient young person whose bitterness is the most poignant because it is the most deeply felt: “Lover and friend hast Thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness” (vs. 18). David has put into words of prayer thoughts that seethe beneath the surface in hearts: “Lord, You are to blame for my divorce! You turned so-and-so against me when he or she had told me, ‘I love you!’ and I believed it. There is no bitterness in life so painful to endure as ‘lover . . . hast Thou put far from me’”! The psychiatrists and counselors can work overtime to heal, but the wound still festers even years or decades later. “God did it, not I! It feels like even He hates me!”

Read that Psalm again (88): David is not bitter, and neither do you need to be. Don’t miss the huge comfort that is here: David is a type of Christ who drank a cup of lover-hatred more bitter than any of us can taste. Through David we learn to know Him—as He is.

Going to school is something most people want to get out of as soon as possible. Kids love summer vacation; school discipline is onerous; “commencement” is great—class work is finished. But does God have a “class” where school discipline continues? In Psalm 25 David seven times prays that he may be a student in the Lord’s “class”; “teach me Your paths,” he asks over and over. We probably don't know if he was old or young when he wrote this Psalm, but the inspired picture we get in the Bible is Good News—there is never a graduation out of the Lord’s school. You are always a student, a learner, and He never expels you from His “university,” but of course you are always free to “quit school” if you wish. There is always a temptation to “quit” because as our Teacher the Lord exercises discipline, which our carnal hearts don’t like. “Do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; for whom the Lord loves He chastens” (Heb. 12:5, 6). It’s not that He is a severe Schoolmaster, but His tuition appears that way to us, for “no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but grievous; nevertheless afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (v. 11). In fact, if the discipline or chastening has ceased and you think you have clear sailing, one of two things has happened: either you are indeed ready for translation (way ahead of almost everybody else), or you are in real trouble, for “if you are without chastening, . . . then you are illegitimate and not sons” (vs. 8). The writer of Psalm 73 felt at times that the Lord’s discipline was too severe. “I have been . . . chastened every morning” (vs. 14), waking up each new day to renewed “grief” and “vexation” (vs. 21). It seemed that the Holy Spirit would never get through “convicting” him of sin (which is His “first grade” tuition, Jn. 16:8). Would he as a student in the “school of Christ” never get out of that “first grade”? Other “students” seemed to be spared that “discipline.” Life for them was all fun and games. “It was too painful for me—until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I understood their end” (Ps. 73:16, 17). Something special is happening right now in the “sanctuary”—the Day of Atonement. Yes! Better stay in school!

The book of Psalms is the prayerbook of the Bible. Here we are taught, not what we want to pray, but what God wants us to pray in the name of Jesus Christ, His beloved Son.

In the New Testament the doxologies of Mary—the “Magnificat”—and of Zechariah—the “Benedictus”—in Luke 1:46-55, 67-69 show that Israel’s hymns were applied to thank God for His present fulfillment of the messianic promises. The psalms also formed an essential part of worship in the apostolic church:

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God (Colossians 3:16).

The singing of sacred songs is “one of the most effective means of impressing the heart with spiritual truth. How often to the soul hard-pressed and ready to despair, memory recalls some word of God’s,—the long-forgotten burden of a childhood song,—and temptations lose their power, life takes on new meaning and new purpose, and courage and gladness are imparted to other souls! . . . As a part of religious service, singing is as much an act of worship as is prayer. Indeed, many a song is prayer.”[1]

In the last Bible book a glimpse is given of the celestial glory around the throne of God. Heavenly angels are singing songs of adoration and thanksgiving (Rev. 4-5). The keynote of heaven is the praise of God for what He is and has done for all of His creation.

---

[1]

Paul Penno

Worship in the Psalms - Pastor Paul Penno

"Happy Are You, O Israel"

Sabbath School Today

With the 1888 Message Dynamic

Worship

Lesson 5: "Happy Are You, O Israel"

What makes people happy? There are as many different answers to that question as there are people. Probably the list would include both frivolous and thoughtful things, but one of the last things for many would be "worship." Yet, properly understood, it is the only thing that can bring real happiness and contentment. When David was trying to find something that brought true joy to his heart, he compared dwelling together in unity of the Spirit with the happiness brought by the oil of dedication that ran lavishly down Aaron's beard, even to the hem of his garments. Notice, the unity was because the Holy Spirit was present and allowed to participate in the worship service of the temple dedication (see Psalm 133).

This week's lesson takes its title from Deuteronomy 33:29: "Happy are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the Lord, the shield of your help and the sword of your majesty! Your enemies shall submit to you, and you shall tread down their high places" (NKJV). Notice what is to make Israel happy: they are a people saved by the Lord, and good things flow from that.

Obviously the concept of worship involved here is different from putting in time once a week at church. All worship involves communication with God. Notice that Moses reminds Israel of what God has already done for them (saved them) and what He will do for them in the future (shield them), and what the result will be (enemies submit, and Israel will destroy false worship). That last point is interesting. Israel kept falling into the worship styles of people around them. Usually, this involved intimate physical acts in groves built in high places. Apparently, God knew this kind of worship would not bring them happiness and they needed to destroy the places where it occurred.

It might seem obvious that God prohibited this kind of worship because it was focused on heathen gods, not Jehovah. Certainly that was part of it, but maybe we can learn more. Generally in pagan worship the affection and allegiance to the deity is expressed by actions of sacrifice, the bigger the better. Since the god is not expected to be able to read the mind, it is not expected that the heart and mind be humbled in submission. It is enough that the act is performed. Whether the god is actually thought of during the act of "worship" is immaterial.

For centuries, Israel had performed the rituals of the sanctuary service in the most exacting manner. So caught up in the details of the ritual, they had forgotten the real purpose of the service. God told them that they were to build Him a sanctuary so He "may dwell among them" (Ex. 25:8), but they had come to consider that what really counted was the doing of the various rituals. This same mind-set can be our peril. God does not live in the rituals. Unless aided by the Holy Spirit, the human mind is incapable of recognizing God. Humans can perform the rituals of worship without ever submitting the heart to God and never recognize it.

God gave the services of the sanctuary because of the sin problem. God and sin could not abide together. The Lord made the sanctuary plan to explain this and provided that even the illiterate could understand. Different kinds of offerings were ordained, each with a specific application to the overall plan which was designed to demonstrate what it would take for God to restore the original Edenic face-to-face communication. The services were to impress minds that the ultimate conclusion of sin is to kill their Life Giver.

Most pagan worship is manipulative, that is, intended to induce the god to provide something beyond the capability of the worshiper(s). If the crops were dying because of drought, the sacrifices were to induce the god to bring rain. In addition to daily necessities, gods were also asked to protect worshipers in the afterlife. Israel had reduced the rituals of the sanctuary to a manipulative pagan level. When Christ, the great antitype, was born in Israel, they were so invested in the virtue of their rituals, they failed to recognize Him.

But there was one, a Boy of 12, who understood. Even at this early age, it dawned on Him that all these lambs and sacrifices "cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to the conscience" (Heb. 9:9). He reasoned that it was all a type of things to come, and eventually Someone sinless, innocent, holy and undefiled must die as the Lamb of God if lost human hearts were ever be reached! His youthful soul surged with a mighty resolve to fulfill His destiny to be that Lamb. He resolved to fulfill Isaiah's prediction that "His own arm brought salvation for Him; and His own righteousness, and it sustained Him" (Isa. 59:15, 16). This 12-year-old Boy chose to go to the cross.

All worship is centered on the sacrifice of Christ which He ministers to us from the heavenly sanctuary. Worship that falls short of being cross-centered is counterfeit worship. The sacrifice of Christ effected an atonement for the world as He "taste[d] death for every man" (Heb. 2:9). Now the race stands as it were neutral before the law of God since Christ received the penalty of eternal death on their behalf. Thus Christ has given a "blessing" of temporal life, unmerited grace, forgiveness of sin, and all good things that follow. All of this was taught by the sacrificial tabernacle services of ancient Israel.

When the love (agape) of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, we choose the way of the cross as readily as the Son of God chose it. By identifying with His death, we also identify with His resurrection. "He who hates his life in this world will keep it for life eternal" (John 12:25).

His church, God's house-tabernacle, comprises humble, submissive people who understand their great need for communion with God to cleanse their heart-tabernacle. This house remains the object of God's interest, and the ultimate purpose of the entire sanctuary service now continuing in heaven is the final cleansing. In this final work, the whole universe is to see the power of the gospel displayed.

The 1888 message brings a special understanding of the final work of the Holy Spirit at the end of time. Rituals are only useful if we allow them to point the mind to God and the cross of Christ. We must understand our true condition of even unknown sin. At the end, the church on earth will begin to understand the whole truth in seeing not only conscious but unconscious sin. The old covenant dealt with the external rituals and ceremonial cleansing, but the new must deal with internal cleansing, having the law put in the mind and written on the heart.

Those who have allowed the Holy Spirit to do His work in their hearts are those who are waiting for the second coming of Christ. The power of His word in their hearts will demonstrate that power so fully that their message will "lighten the earth with glory." The message itself, not their personalities nor any goodness in themselves, will call believers to "come out of Babylon, My people," and honest-hearted people will respond to the "voice" from heaven (see Rev. 18:1-4). Nothing will be able to hold them back from stepping out boldly to honor Christ in the closing work of the gospel.

--Arlene Hill

For further study:

In Search of the Cross, Robert J. Wieland, chapter 5.

And Then Shall the Sanctuary be Cleansed, Donald K. Short, chapter 5.

--------------------------------------------------------
Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. 

"Sabbath School Today" is on the Internet at: http://1888mpm.org

To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to sabbathschooltoday@1888message.org