Gratifying Worship

Isaiah 55:1-7; Psalm 63:1-8

Cascades Fellowship CRC, JX MI
February 6, 2005

Growing up in a communist regime, Russian novelist Andrei Bitov had

been instructed from his earliest days that religion was simply the opiate of the

masses – an emotional and mental crutch used to trick the mind into accepting

the harshness of life without despair. God was no more real than the boogeyman

or the fairytales his mother read to put him to sleep.

But as Rick Warren records in his book, The Purpose Driven Life, “God got

his attention one dreary day.” Warren recounts the story in the Russian novelist’s

own words.

In my twenty-seventh year, while riding the metro in Leningrad (now

St. Petersburg) I was overcome with despair so great that life seemed to
stop at once, preempting the future entirely, let alone meaning. Suddenly,
all by itself, a phrase appeared: Without God life makes no sense.
Repeating it in astonishment, I rode the phrase up like a moving staircase,
got out of the metro and walked into God’s light.i

What happened to Andrei Bitov on the Metro that day? Did the despair of

realizing his life had no meaning suddenly short circuit his brain and create such

an intense need for God that he fabricated him on the spot? How does a man

who is never taught to conceive of God suddenly begin when he is twenty-

seven?

In Ecclesiastes 3:11 we read “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He

has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done
ii
from beginning to end.” In other words, God has set this sense of transcendence, this
intuition that something greater than ourselves is at work in the universe. We may not

be able to measure it or weigh it, but we can see the “great something” at work around

us in the world. Psalm 19 tells us that creation testifies day after day in an endless

chorus to the Creator. So much so, says Paul in Romans 1:18-25, that worshipping

anything or anyone other than God is inexcusable. We can’t even plead ignorance,

because God has put eternity in our hearts.

Andrei Bitov came face to face with this truth on the metro that day. What he had

been indoctrinated with since a child didn’t matter. The indelible mark that God has left

on the soul of every human being cannot be destroyed or excised. You, me, everyone

has this mark on us that says “Made by God, for God.” We are made to worship God

and enjoy him forever, to have a vibrant and loving relationship with him. That is what

Andrei sensed that day on the metro – he sensed his purpose for existence, the

meaning for his life. He understood that his life didn’t make sense without God,

because our life is meant to be lived for God.

In the past four weeks we have been talking about worship in a way that perhaps

many of us have never really thought about worship before. Most of us have simply

thought of worship as what we do when we get together with other believers on Sunday

and sing songs of praise, pray together, give our offerings, and listen to a sermon. But

over the past four weeks we have learned that worship is a lot more than just a Sunday

activity. It is an every breath activity. All of life is worship – from the time we emerge

from the womb, every second of life is worship.

That’s the way we were created – to live a God-centered life. When we live the

life God calls us to through the Scriptures, our worship builds up the body of Christ –
strengthening the faith of our brothers and sisters in Christ – and blesses our

community by sharing the glory of God – the reputation God has earned through

everything that he has done to redeem us. When our worship is lived out this way, we

find that it is soul-satisfying. True worship is gratifying.

Let me ask you a question. Is your soul satisfied? Do you find that you are

gratified in your relationship with Jesus Christ – do you find deep satisfaction? If not,

why do you think that is? If we are made for this relationship, why does it seem so

hard? I want to answer these questions by looking at two things, an ingenious design

and an awesome invitation.

We hear a lot these days about intelligent design. School systems across the

nation are experiencing the tremors of a long suppressed truth – God created

everything. Such lofty minds as Dr. Stephen Hawking have come out in favor of an

intelligent design theory. I have even read one scientist – whose name, unfortunately,

escapes me at the moment – say, “The evidence is such that if I did not believe in a

Creator I would have to posit one.”

There seems to be little question that represented in the human form is ingenious

design. TIME magazine’s cover story for the October 25th issue ran with the

rather astonishing title, “The God Gene.” In the article we read about the

controversial work of Dr. Dean Hamer, a behavioral geneticist for the National

Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute. His book titled The God

Gene: How Faith is Hardwired into Our Genes, the basis for the article, is

causing quite a stir in both the scientific and religious worlds. In fact, newspaper
articles are still being written on his work, the latest of which came out yesterday

in the Washington Post and was picked up by the Holland Sentinel in West

Michigan.

In the Sentinel article, Hamer claims to have found at least one gene that

contributes to a predisposition toward a sense of transcendence – that means a

sense that there is something bigger than you that exists and brings some sort of

order to reality. The gene, labeled VMAT2, “controls the brain chemicals that

play a key role in emotions and consciousness.”iii Said Dr. Hamer, “We think that

all human beings have the innate capacity for spirituality and that desire to reach

out beyond oneself, which is at the heart of spirituality, is part of the human

makeup.”iv

Hamer’s claims, as you might well imagine, has some pointing to his work

and saying, “See, we are built with a God-shaped hole in our hearts!” However,

whether you agree with Hamer’s interpretation of the evidence or not – even

whether it can be proven scientifically or not – the reality is that we are created

for God’s pleasure, to worship him. We are given an innate desire to worship –

to connect to the Holy.

This innate desire for God explains Psalm 63. If you simply read the psalm

through it sounds like something that is written during a mountain-top experience.

One of those times where you feel so close to God that you see him everywhere

– just the wind blowing sends a chill of excitement through you because in it you
see the power of God. I used to have a lot of those moments out at sea, times

when the enormity of creation would just overwhelm me. That is when you might

think that a person would write such a psalm – a time of exceptional, existential

awareness of God. A time when God is so real you can almost draw his face.

But that’s not the sort of thing that was going on when David wrote this

psalm. Look at what it says just under the words “Psalm 63.” “A psalm of David.

When he was in the Desert of Judah.” Beloved, if David was in the desert, it

could only mean one thing – he was in trouble.

This psalm originates during the time after David fled Jerusalem for fear of

his life. Absalom, his son, had conspired against him and wrested the throne

away. David knew that if he stayed in Jerusalem, he and all his officials would be

killed. So, the king gathers together his retinue and heads out into the desert for

refuge. The Levites, as part of their sworn duty, gather up the Ark of the

Covenant. But as the last of the refugees fled Jerusalem, David instructed the

priests to return to the city with the Ark of the Covenant. Then, he and those

loyal to him fled into the wilderness.

Now, I want to stop and think about what is going on in the life of David.

He has just been deposed as king by his own son, Absalom – who, by the way,

doesn’t consider the job finished until David is dead. So far it does not sound like

David is on a spiritual high. In fact, it sounds more like he is spiritual crisis.

Maybe even asking those familiar questions, “Why God?” and “How Long, O

Lord?”
 But even beyond the grief and anxiety David must have felt there is an

even more crushing blow that makes Psalm 63 a real marvel. David is separated

from God. Remember, for the Israelites the Ark was the physical manifestation of

God’s presence. It was God’s address, so to speak. To be barred from its

presence was to be banned from the presence of God.

Truth be told, no one could have said a bad word about David if he had

been bitter about the whole mess. After all, a man can only take so much, right?

But in Psalm 63, we don’t read about a bitter, despairing man. Instead, we hear

the heart of worship coming through loud and clear.

Let me point out two quick things in Psalm 63 about how God’s ingenious

design leads to soul-satisfying worship.

The first is the power of passion. God has created us for a passionate

relationship with him. Remember, David is referred to as a man after God’s own

heart. So, he understands the significance of a relationship with God. He has

experienced it, felt it deep in the marrow of his bones. He has known the joy of

being at peace with God, of abiding in the presence of the Holy One and finding

rest there.

So David’s heart and mind begin to translate his real life experience into

the language of worship. “My God, I earnestly – eagerly and fanatically – seek

you! My soul thirsts for you the way my body craves and needs water in the

desert sun. My body longs for you in a dry and weary land where there is no

water.” This is passionate language. His bodily thirst reminds him of his thirst for
God. So great is his spiritual need, that his body aches for the communion he

knew in the Tabernacle, near the Ark of the Covenant.

In other words, his relationship with God becomes the grid through which

he filters all of life’s experiences. His innate hunger for God becomes an all-

consuming passion. The life that leads to worship which is soul-satisfying

regards all other things in the light of our primary relationship; the one we were

created to be most passionate about – our relationship with God through Jesus

Christ.

The second thing I would like to point out is the power of praise. Here is

David, in dire straits. At this stage in the game, nothing is going right for him.

Now, let’s be honest. If it were us tromping through the desert, afraid our own

child was trying to hunt us down and kill us, probably the last thing that would

come out of our mouths would be, “Hey God, because your love is better than

life, I am going to praise you!” But again, that passion rises up in David. He

knows the power of the relationship he shares with his Creator. How? He has

seen God in the sanctuary, beheld his power and glory.

In other words, David recalls all the wonderful things God has already

done. David knows he is secure in the relationship with God because of how

God has dealt with him in the past. And knowing he is secure – even though he

is distant from sanctuary, the place of the manifest presence of God – allows him

to praise God. The result of his praise – his heartfelt thanks and devotion – is

that his soul is satisfied. David’s praise feeds his spirit, sustaining the passion he
has for God even in the face of such extreme reversals and allowing him to

continue to live out his created purpose of worship.

What really catches the eye is the language David uses as he praises

God. It is the way a lover speaks. In the middle of the night, while he tosses on

his bed, David thinks of God. He shrinks into the shoulder of God, knowing he’ll

find safety and protection there. His heart clings to God with the same desperate

intensity we imagine Romeo clings to Juliet. This is passionate language David

uses; a language meant to bring expression only to the most profound

relationships.

Now, you want to know something really fascinating about being designed

for a passionate relationship with God? God, the Creator of all things, is just as

passionate about us! Look with me at Isaiah 55:1-2.

“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have
no money, come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.
Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does
not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in
the richest of fare.

What is so striking here is how similar the language is to that David used in

Psalm 63. Except, in God’s case, he is not looking for something to fill a hunger

or longing in him, he is looking to fill the longing in us! He knows its there, he

knows we were created with an innate desire to know him, our Creator. He

knows that we need him, so he calls out to us, “Hey, you thirsty? Come to me,
the source of Living Water. You need bread? I am the Bread of Life.” It is as if

God moved Isaiah to respond to David’s passion in Psalm 63.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, this is an awesome invitation. One that

goes out to all the world. There is only one catch. You have to come thirsty. In

other words, you have to recognize your need for God, to hunger after him as

you hunger after food; to need him like you need water. It is so easy for us to dull

the pangs of spiritual hunger or forestall our thirst by looking to things that don’t

really satisfy. We try everything from sex and power to philosophy and art and

yet, are never really satisfied – never complete. Some of us even try a form of

religion – we pretend we are drinking deeply from the well, but really we are just

sort of washing our mouth out.

But when you come thirsty – not out of sense of duty, not because you

have been told you need to take a drink – but when you come recognizing your

natural thirst for God that he has built right into your heart, you begin engaging in

gratifying worship; worship that is soul satisfying. True worship happens when

our passion to know God meets up with his passion to be known.

This morning, we celebrate the Lord’s Supper. Let me warn you, it is easy

to simply take the bread and the wine as a matter of practice; to eat and drink

simply because it is there. But this supper is not meant to be a ritual; it is not just

a memorial. It is meant first to remind heighten our awareness of our thirst and

hunger for God. In the same way your mouth begins to water and your stomach

begins to churn when your starved and the smell of fresh baked bread invades
your nostrils, so the bread and wine of the supper are meant to make your

hunger for God more acute.

Second, this supper is meant to satisfy our soul with nourishment and

drink. Even as it heightens our awareness of our need for Christ, it also is meant

to assure us of our place in Christ, that we are included; that we belong to him.

Here, in the Lord’s Supper, we have a concrete instance of where our passion to

know meets up with his passion to be known.

Come hungry to this table – hungering for God, for righteousness and you

shall be filled. Come thirsty to this table – thirsting for God, for a passionate

relationship with God, and you shall be satisfied.

The Meaning of LifeThe Purpose Driven Life
The New International Version
The Holland Sentinel