Turning to Psalm 95, we are continuing our series, summer and the Psalms, we're calling it, we're getting a chance to look at different Psalms and different types of Psalms, and the one we're going to look at today's Psalm 95 is more of a traditional kind of praise and worship Psalm. And it talks a lot about seeing, it talks a lot about music, and I thought it would be appropriate here if we, as you're turning there and things like that, talked a little bit about music. Here are some facts that you may not have known about music that might prove insightful or not so insightful, you can decide, but the Motown female group, the Supremes. Anybody heard the Supremes before? Yeah, thank you, older generation for stepping up, which dominated the pop charge in the 1960s. Was originally called the, in my memory? No, the primates. Primates? I don't know, hey, I was, I was barely born in the 60s. Anyway, Beethoven's fifth was the first symphony to include what instrument? Beethoven's fifth, huh? Nope. Nope, give you a hint. Trombone, verse one. All right, here's one a little bit more modern for some of you. The rock band Leonard Skinnerd, okay, took their name from a high school teacher named what? Leonard Skinnerd, that's right. He had suspended several students for having long hair, so they changed the spelling around and that could be kind of an honor if you were that teacher, I think. Now, here's one here that some of you definitely will know, but most toilets flush and what key generates a tone. You probably didn't know that and what key? Any guess? Come on Tim, you're a music major. Evan? For those who are wondering, it's E-flat. It's E-flat, so kind of suspected it was flat, but anyway, what is the only musical instrument that you play without touching it? Very good, Russ. The Theraman. Anyway, the technology is simple. Basically, it has a sonic field around it, the antenna, and the closer you get to the antenna, it makes a high-pitched noise. Farther away, it takes a low-pitched noise. In the US, this instrument became popular by what group and what song? Because most of you would know it and recognize it. The beach boys and it was what song? Good vibrations. So look, good trivia there. Look, you're learning a lot. No one knows where this famous person is buried, famous, one of the most famous musical persons of all history. No one knows where he's buried. Who? Huh? Did you say Jimmy Hendrix or would you cough? That's not what I have. Most Zart. Apparently, his actual exact burial place is unknown. Well, here's the interesting one here, especially if you're not real awake, see if you can track with this one. Any Rolling Stones fans out there? Rolling Stones? Yep, a few of you not afraid to admit it. At age 47, the Rolling Stones bassist, Bill Wyman, began a relationship with a 13-year-old Mandy Smith with her mother's blessing. Six years later they were married, but the marriage only lasted one year. Are you tracking so far? Not long after, Bill's 30-year-old son, Stephen married Mandy's mother at age 46. That made Stephen a stepfather to his former stepmother. If Bill and Mandy had remained married, Stephen would have been his father's father-in-law and his own grandfather. Bet you didn't know that. A wealth of knowledge here this morning, all kinds of music trivia for us to think about this morning. I found that on a website called Useless Facts. I know that's not real surprising to you all, but although those facts might be useless, music is anything but useless. Think about it for a second. Think about the importance of music. Music enhances reality. Have you ever watched either a really old movie that was silent or if you watched a new movie when you're like audio in your TV or DVD player is not working and you had no sound? Yeah, you kind of know the story, you know what's going on. But what if there was voices, but there was absolutely zero music? Most of you probably don't think about it, but go close your eyes and listen to any movie, any modern-day movie, and the vast majority of it has some type of music going on underneath. Because music is used as a tool to enhance the feeling of reality, whether it's suspense music at a suspenseful moment, whether it's really soft and beautiful music at a tender moment. Music is used to express us. Think about love songs. Think about a wedding. How many of you have been to a wedding where there's absolutely zero music? Anybody? You have been one, one person. I never even heard about wedding with no music until this morning. Most of us would think that's as hardly impossible. How can you do that? How can you express something such a deep commitment and intimate moment without the tool of music in some way, shape or form? Think about the blues. How the blues have been totally originated and come out from a tradition of a culture of wanting to express something that simple words cannot do. Think about music. It's power to unite us. When you're at a ballgame and you stand, you sing the national anthem. Or perhaps when you're even at that same ballgame and the music starts to play a dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. Be a start clap. It can bring and can rally thousands, tens, hundreds of thousands. Think about the power of music to lift us up emotionally. You can go there. You can go to see your favorite group in concert or your favorite singer in concert or instrumentalists in concert. And all of a sudden, you have been lifted up to a place emotionally where you weren't before. If you weren't going to be lifted up emotionally, you probably never would have paid the 30 or 40 bucks for the ticket to go in the first place. Think about music as the power to keep hope alive. I remember one of my favorite shows, movies grown up as a kid was the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang movie. Remember, and they go in there, and they, uh, when they finally get to this big make-believe castle, whatever else, there's no what allowed in this village. No children are allowed, but all the children have been shuffled away and hidden underneath in a place where there is no singing. And why is there no singing? Huh?
They're not happy and they don't have hope. And of course, singing is brought in there, right? The famous song, Hushabai Mountain, is sung in there. But think about the power there. It's not acts by accident that many of those who were martyred, who were burned at the stake for their faith centuries ago, often there are accounts of them singing as the brushes put to fire underneath their feet. Hope alive. So you see the importance of music, you see why the scriptures would involve music, you see why the Psalms, most of which are entirely involved around the use of music, being portrayed with music, is important to enhance our reality, to help us to express ourselves, to unite us as a people. There's a whole section of the Psalms called the Psalms of Ascent that they used, and they sang as they were walking to the temple. It's like a road trip with the family in the car and singing. You'll be coming around, and getting the kids going on the thing. They sang as they went to worship. The Psalms were used for that. The Psalms were used to lift us up emotionally or help us to express a part of ourselves that was very maybe down emotionally. The Psalms give and keep hope alive. And so as we look at this Psalm 95, we will find that it is filled with that. We've already read part of it this morning. We'll hear things like that. So let me read the text together. Psalm 95, again we read the first few verses already. I'll read it again for us. I think it's printed in your bulletin. It says this, 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 or the depths of the earth. And the mountain peaks belong to him. The sea is his for he made it and the hands form the dry land. Come, let us bow down in worship. Let us kneel before the Lord our maker for he is our God. And we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did at Maribah. As you did at that day, a massa in the desert where your fathers tested and tried me, though they had seen what I did. For 40 years, I was angry with that generation. I said, they are people whose hearts go astray and they have not known my ways. So I declared an oath in my anger. They shall never enter my rest. This is God's holy and inspired word. If you look here, there are seven exhortations that are given in Psalm 95. Let me just recap them. Come, let us sing for joy. Number two, let us shout aloud. Three, let us come before him with thanksgiving. Four, let us extoll him with music. Five, come, let us bow down in worship. Six, let us kneel before the Lord our maker. And seven, do not harden your hearts. We see here in the first sixth, we are invited to join the Psalmist in worship. And in the last one, we are warned to not harden our hearts if you hear his voice. You see, a singing heart should be a hallmark of the Christian faith, but it is a hardened heart that quenches it. So we're going to look today here at two things. I think are part of the secret to having a singing heart. At least that's revealed here in Psalm 95. Two secrets. And before we do that and touch on that, let me pray one more time for us. God, we thank you for your word. And pray right now, Father, that it would be alive and active and sharper than any two-edged sword. And by your spirit, who wields it, that you would pierce our hearts this morning, that you would reveal your truth this morning, that you let your word take seed and root and be planted, and it would grow, and it would bear fruit. For your glory, that your kingdom might come here on earth as it is in heaven, that we might reflect your glory and your radiance as your people. And we pray this in Christ's name. Amen. One number one, I think it's in your outline. If you have that with you, singing hearts know God's presence. Singing hearts know God's presence. You look at verse three. After he's given a couple of exhortations to come and sing, let us come before him and thanksgiving and extoll him in music. He says, why? For the Lord is the great God, the great king above all gods. All right, it's confession time. Anybody here, a fan of Boston Legal, the TV show? One, it's okay. You can't lie in church now. Anybody watch Boston Legal? Is it just Russ Anger? Russ will talk later. But yeah, I've watched it actually from time to time. Actually, I think it's actually a pretty well written show as far as things like that. But they have a character on that and the fact that maybe I'm a formal, former Star Trekky guy. When you have a William Shatton or he plays a guy name, Crane, there, see here's another watcher. Yeah, you're not, Danny Crane. Danny Crane is famous for being one of the very old lawyer in this TV show, but he's most known for being notoriously and obnoxiously crazy about himself. Let me give you a few Danny Crane, Danny Crane quotes. He said, listen, one show, board, how can I be board? I'm Danny Crane. Even the sound of my name fascinates. Give you a little picture there of Danny. Now, here's the second quote, which I like to. I'm going to tell you this one more time with all the humility I can summon up. I'm the greatest trial attorney that ever lived. So you kind of get a picture here of who the Danny Crane is, although he's kind of on the border of senile and some would say, you know, not just the border, he's well, well into that, but he's consumed with himself. Now, sometimes if we're honest, aren't we, if we think about it deeply and long enough, don't you kind of look at the Bible sometimes and think, is God just kind of all up about himself? I mean, come on. I mean, just look at this song, for example, some of the exhortations, let it come, let us sing, let us shout aloud, let us kneel before Thanksgiving, let us extoll with music, come let us bow down a worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. And we kind of grow up thinking, look, it's not really all about you. Now, you're not really supposed to draw so much attention to yourself. What makes Danny Crane popular? And why are their websites where I found these quotes about him? Because we all enjoy, we all know it's part of who we are to think that the center of the universe is us. But because the center of the universe is not us, and we all know that, if we're honest, it doesn't mean it's not about somebody else. It doesn't mean that it's beyond the possibility that there is someone who is at the center of the universe. There is someone who's praise and glory is appropriately given. When we look at this, we think, and we often are consumed with our own greatness like Danny Crane. But most of us here would say, you know, that's not kind of the Christian way to do it. That's not a Christian thing to do. In fact, I don't think all that great about myself, if we're honest. You know, I don't like things about myself and I like who I am. I don't feel good. I feel insecure. But if we're even and we don't think great about ourselves, we fall into the same trap of a Danny Crane, and we think that about ourselves is the most important thing though. You see, we can fall in the trap of being like a Danny Crane and thinking that one, we are the greatest thing that ever happened. We are God's gift to the earth or we can also fall into the same trap of thinking the world revolves around us because what's most important though is me and how I feel and how insecure I am and how much I need things to boost me up. There's different ways you can take this on, but all of these fall in the face of the one who is great, the one who is the most important, the one who is the great God, the one who is the great king above all gods,
all gods, the Scott Puckett God, who I worship at the idol of often, the David Bailey God, the Debbie Haughton God, the Tim Sharp God. You know these gods. You know your gods, putting ourselves as the greatest, the most important thing. What matters most rather than God himself? And the Psalmist says, look, singing hearts know who God is. And they know there's only one deserving of the place of centrality in our lives. He is the ultimate ruler. Well he doesn't just say that about knowing God and God's presence in verse 4 through 5, he says, in his hand are the depths of the earth. And the mountain peaks belong to him and the sea is his for he has made it and his hands formed the dry land. He is the creator, he's the sustainer of everything. And singing hearts know this about him and know his presence. They know that he is the one who created the depths of the earth. You know the deepest that any man is recorded to have gone for what I could track is 2.3 miles deep underneath the crust of the earth. 2.3 miles that's pretty far to me going straight down. You know I was at the beach I stayed just digging a sand a couple of feet down took a lot of effort. 2.3 miles. Do you know what the diameter of the earth is if you were to go all the way? 7,926 miles at its widest point. God knows the depths of it. He created it. He knows the mountain peaks. He created them as well. Mount Everest, right? We know the highest mountain in the world. How tall is it? Above sea level. Huh? Yep, how many miles is that? 5.5 miles straight up. I mean put that in. Imagine some you might run or walk a mile. Imagine that straight up five and a half times and you get a picture of it. He made the sea the sea as his it says and the dry land is his. The dry land encompasses roughly 60 million square miles. The sea 140 million square miles across the face of the earth and he created it and not only did he create it he sustains it. They'll make your heart sing. You think about who he is, what he's done and singing hearts know God and know his presence. But the warning comes later in this chapter when he says don't let your heart be hardened. The end of verse 7. Today if you hear his voice, verse 8, do not harden your hearts. Do not harden your hearts. Do not harden your hearts to who he is today. Do not harden your hearts to what he's created and what he has done. You see singing hearts yield to the loving and just merciful great God and King and they cannot help but sing. Singing hearts look through the design of creation to see the creator and the sustainer of all things. They don't just see a marvelous sunrise. They think look at the artist who created that sunrise. They don't go to the beach like I did yesterday without thinking that the Bible say that he knows the number of sands that are on the seashore as I wiggle my toes in it. As I tried to get out of my bathing suit last night, he knows the very number. He sees the design behind it. You see singing hearts know God in this presence and when they see his work, they don't just marvel at his work. They marvel at him. They marvel at who he is.
Questions, do you have a singing heart this morning? Do you know him? Do you know his presence?
Well that is one secret this morning. The second one, like it. First, singing hearts know God's present. Second, singing hearts trust God's provision. Singing hearts trust God's provision. What does verse 7 says? It says, for he is our God. He is our God, the Psalmist writes here. You know, I just mentioned I was at the beach yesterday with the family. I was out there with Davis my two-year-old and most of my other kids don't value me holding them in the surf. You know, quite as much as Davis does who can't stand in the surf. But you know what was important? What was neat about the whole thing too is that he wanted me to hold him and other them but exception of his mom could take him. Every single other kid came at one point and basically asked, you know, hey, Davis, can I hold you? Davis, you want to come to me? Michael, Connor, Riley, Rees, even Gracie. And he was like, nope, nope, nope. He wanted to be with Dad. He knew I was his Dad. He trusted me. And again, with the exception of his mom, the only other one he would go to, actually I did go out with Jerry. Where's Jerry? I did go out with Jerry one time. But he knew his Dad and he trusted and he wanted that. You have a dad, a father in heaven. And Jesus says, that's how you ought to pray to him. That's how you ought to look to him as a father in heaven. He is yours. And he will be there. He is one you can trust in. You know, one thing Davis didn't understand yesterday. Davis knew he needed my provision and help, but he knew he needed about this much. You know, he didn't have to wave far out of the ocean before he realized that these waves are kind of strong. He didn't have to go out too far to realize that I can't touch at a certain point. He realized some of that stuff. But he doesn't even know anything about something called an undertow, does he? And just last week in the news, they were over 700 people were rescued over on the East Coast, I think, from lifeguards. And one didn't make it, I heard. Undertow, a powerful force, a dangerous force that he's not even aware of. I'm pretty certain, although he thought he saw Nemo several times. Davis was absolutely unaware of the reality that there could be sharks in the ocean. And I've lived in Florida long enough to know that yes, there are sharks in Florida's waters. And perhaps you know that too. He's not thinking about that once. Every time I step on something kind of weird and the thing, I'm thinking about it. Every time I see a bunch of little fish activity over there, I'm thinking about it. He's not. But he knows there's one that loves him. There's one that he can trust. And he never wanted to be set down the entire time. He insisted on being held. There's a reason why the Bible says, and why Jesus says, we must become like little children. We're going to come to God. We must have that kind of trust that doesn't have it all figured out. And let me tell you, God understands the dangers and the temptations and the struggles of life better than any of us ever do. And we see a glimpse of him, just like Davis did. And we think, wow, I need my dad. And God sees so much more. He understands so much more. And he's looking out for us in ways we cannot even possibly imagine. He is there. Life is dangerous, but he's our father in heaven and has promised us. In fact, his very last words on earth, his very last phrase was what? What was it? Now, his last phrase before he left earth, I should say, he went to heaven. Last phrase. This is a good promise. Y'all remember this. And low on with you always, even to the end of the age. And then he disappeared. And we're waiting for him to come back. But he says, I'm with you always. We are people of his pasture. The scriptures tell us as well here too. Verse 7, where he's our God. And we are the people of his pasture, the flock, under his care, the flock, under his care. And he gives us, by the way, this example, he says, you know, remember Meribun and Massa. And we ought to think about that for a second here. I'm not sure if you remember that. He's referring back to Exodus 17. And what happened in Exodus 17 here? That he's warning them not to be like. Let me read it for you. Exodus 17. Let me just read the first seven verses of this story. Remember they had to come across the red sea. They had started going through the desert, headed towards the promised land. Pick it up. The whole is or light community is set out from the desert of sin, traveling from place to place as the Lord commanded. They camped at referendum, but there was no water for the people to drink. So they quarreled with Moses and said, give us water to drink. Moses replied, why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the Lord to your test? But the people were thirsty for water there and they grumbled against Moses. They said, why did you bring us up out of Egypt and make us and our children and livestock die of thirst? Then Moses cried out to the Lord, what am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me. The Lord answered Moses, walk on ahead of the people, take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff in which you struck the Nile and go. I will stand there before you by the rock at horror, strike the rock and water will come out out of it for the people to drink. So Moses did this in the side of the elders of Israel and he called the place Massa, which means testing in Maraba, which means quarreling, because Israelites quarreled and because they tested the Lord God saying, is the Lord among us or not? But the psalmist brings that story back up there. He reminds some of that of what happened there, that they quarreled and tested God. They challenged his character and they challenged his promises. They wondered, has God had the ability? Yeah, he's got the ability to move in a carvet trail, a dry trail of the red sea. But as you really have the power to give us water in the desert and by the way, that was just a few chapters before this. They come and they question his desire. Okay, what if he has the power? We saw his power displayed, but is he really care about us? I mean, we are thirsty and at the moment there's no water and we don't see a well and we don't see a stream or a river and behind us is a sea that we probably can't drink from or whatever. They didn't see the reality of it. They didn't see God's ability. They didn't trust God's desire. Their immediate thirst led them to doubt the eternal God. Now, think about that in your own case. Think about it in your own example. Think about it in our own lives. Our biggest problem of all life is the fact that we had a sinful relationship, a separated relationship from the creator of the universe, from God the Father Almighty. And as cool and as wonderful are 70 years roughly we have here on earth, there is an eternity that we will spend somewhere, even in his presence in the New Heavens and in the New Earth or apart and separate from his presence in a place the Bible calls hell. And God knowing the priority of things and knowing what was most important, knowing what was our greatest enemy came and defeated it by sending his son to come to earth two thousand years ago to son Jesus Christ to conquer the enemy and to conquer death in our place. God knew that. God has come. God displayed his ability. God displayed his desire to crush sin, to crush Satan, to give us life. But do you still adopt his provision for you today? Do you still quarrel in your heart or maybe not just in your heart outwardly about his lack of provision for you and doubt his ability to provide to take care of you when he has defeated the greatest enemy you've had or he has provided for you an inheritance that will make Donald Trump look like a peasant? Do you doubt that? Do you struggle with that? Can you identify a little bit more with the Israelites with the daily struggle that we have with that? But don't think about that without just forgetting to think about how God provided for him. Think about God's unexpected source of provision. I mean, let's just think about it. They were looking for a well. They were looking for a river. They were looking for fresh water. And God said, you know, that's fine. We can do it that way. But there's a rock right here. Guarantee you, nobody had looked at that same rock and thought, water. Nobody had because you see rocks just don't pour out water by tapping it with your staff. It just doesn't happen that way. There was no water there. There was just a rock. So there was a problem. God provides for us in unexpected ways and be reminded of that. All God needs a rock for water. Think about it in your own life, how God has provided for you. Think about your immediate needs in crisis and circumstances now. Are they financial in nature? Are you wondering where the next dollars coming from for the next bill? Are they emotional? By nature, are you wondering how in the world can you get past the scars that continue to haunt you emotionally from your childhood? From a marriage gone bad? From friendships that are broken? Can God provide for you physically? Are you physically ailing? Are you struggling there? Are you wondering, you know, what's going on? Does God really know? Does God really care? Are you struggling spiritually? Where is God? Where can I find Him? Trust God's provision and realize that it may come from an unexpected place. But God's character and God's promises will always be true. They will always be true. If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, you are part of His flock and He cares for you. Well, there's a few times in my life that I can remember where singing has taken on a very powerful role in my worship experience, where I've sensed a singing heart, the kind of singing heart that knows God's presence, the kind of singing heart that trust God's provision in some big ways. I remember back in 1987 I was at a Urbana missions conference in Urbana, Illinois with 20,000 students from around the world gathered together and some of you maybe have been at that conference and everybody was worshiping and singing together and I thought this is God to be similar to what heaven is going to be like. People from different nationalities all around the world worshiping the one true God. I remember being with the boss family and friends, they're not here this morning. I don't think Dan Bosn and his family just a year ago almost to the date where we were crammed into the chapel of the Florida hospital as Dan was having his first surgery, finding out whether or not to end to what extent his cancerous brain tumor went. And in the hot chapel there because we had so many people in there we sang and we worship the God that we trust. I remember with the group of Christian friends back down in the chapel at Auburn University one night where we sang and we worship God into the wee hours of the morning. Now that's not weird for college students to be up in the wee hours of the morning but being up and worshiping God singing your hearts out. I remember the lights returned out and only the moonlight shining through the shutters of the Auburn Chapel came in and the place was packed over a hundred students there. I got goose bumps from the experience, the power of worshiping hearts. I remember when I had a chance to write a song that I had written the Lord asking her to marry me. Now there weren't a lot of people there then it was just me and her but the power there of God's presence of power was song with singing heart. I remember when I wrote the song softly whisper as worst-conner. There's Connor. We finally got him home from the hospital after he'd been through intensive care for a week after he had a crisis pregnancy and weren't sure if he was going to even make it or not. We were walking around the house because he wouldn't go to sleep he was crying but thinking I'm not sure they have a live crying baby. The one that wasn't crying and it should be. I wrote a song softly whisper there a worship song with God. I remember with my mom, with my brother and with my wife singing it as well with my soul as my father took his final breath here on earth seven years ago. You see singing hearts having been touched by the power of God are the only kind of hearts that can sing in certain circumstances aren't they. But you see we have a choice this Psalm says we have a choice to either harden your heart or to have a worshiping singing heart that knows his presence and trusts his provision. One final thought here this morning. Do you realize that you're not the first one to sing in this song of life that God has called you. It's not a solo it's a duet because Zephaniah 317 says this the Lord your God is with you he is mighty to save he will take great delight in you he will quiet you with his love he will rejoice over you with singing
songs already begun verse one at least has already been sung and the invitation is a duet Jesus invites you this morning to come sing along trust in his presence trust in his provision know that he is God let's pray follow we ask this morning you would remind us again God once again of your invitation to trust in your invitation to believe in your invitation to hope
by the word tells us that if we hear your voice to not harden our hearts and got my prayer my hope is that we have heard your voice this morning and we have heard your invitation and we've experienced you wooing our hearts to yourself and God by your grace and mercy would you not let our hearts be hardened but may they move towards you may they respond and singing in Psalms and in worship prays in you for the God that you are the great God the king of all gods worship me for what you've done created the the mountains and the seas worship you as the one who shepherds us like sheep who's invited us to be members of your flock God would you come give us singing hearts this morning we pray this in Christ's name amen