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Songs of Greatness is a sermon series on the greatness of God from the Psalms. The Earth is Full of His Unfailing Love — Why should we worship the Lord? Why should we go through all the work of getting ready, gathering together, and singing songs of praise? Because God is good! And when we needed salvation, the earth was full of his unfailing love. Recorded on Aug 1, 2021, on Psalm 33, by Pastor David Parks. Sermon Transcript For the next year, in our preaching ministry, we’re focusing on The Greatness of God. And I’ve said, after all the turmoil of the last year and a half, it was obvious to me that way too many Christians have way too small of a view of who God is. So we’ve started this annual theme with a sermon series from the Psalms in the Bible called, Songs of Greatness. Now, the Psalms are a collection of songs/poems that the people of God have used in the worship of God for 1000’s of years. And the psalms cover the whole range of human experience, but some of the psalms are all about the greatness of God. Today, we’ll consider Psalm 33, which is a massive call to worship. And why should we worship the Lord? Because when we needed salvation, the earth was full of his unfailing love. I love the message of this psalm. If you have a Bible/app, please open it to Ps 33. Because it’s a little longer, we’re going to unpack this psalm in three parts: 1. The Call to Worship, 2. The Reasons for Worship, 3. The Life of Worship. So first, The Call to Worship. v. 1. Psalm 33:1-3, “Sing joyfully to the Lord, you righteous; it is fitting for the upright to praise him. 2 Praise the Lord with the harp; make music to him on the ten-stringed lyre. 3 Sing to him a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy.” This is the call to worship. I envision a leader calling out to the people of God, gathered to worship the Lord, who is calling them, “Sing joyfully, call loudly, rejoice, shout for joy!!” This is a call to stand up and make some noise to the Lord. This isn’t some sleepy call to contemplative prayer alone where no one can see you. This isn’t a time to be bashful about what to do with your hands or to worry about what others might think of you. This is a call to make a joy-infused, sweat-producing ruckus. And it’s not just a good thing or an optional thing. The psalmist says it’s the right thing to do. It is fitting for the upright to praise him like this. Like how? v. 2. says with instruments. With your voice and with any instrument at your disposal. In their day it was with the harp and the ten-stringed lyre, which was a little like a guitar. Other psalms refer to drums and cymbals and flutes. Today we would say with guitars and keys and drums and bass. Sing to him, what? a new song. Traditions are powerful. Traditions can be a really good thing, provided they reinforce and pass down from one generation to the next, things/ideas which are good/right/true. But having traditions for the sake of being traditional is not at all a Biblical idea. Sing to the Lord a new song. A new song requires a break with tradition. A new song requires hard work from both a songwriter/composer to creatively compose a new song, and work from the musicians/congregation to learn to play/sing a new song. You can’t be on autopilot and sing a new song. But in this call to worship, this call to sing a new song, we are called to play skillfully AND shout for joy, and I love this. Good worship will include both the handwork and dedication, the hundreds of hours of practice required, to hone the skills of playing and singing. But also good/Biblical worship will connect to the heart in an emotional expression, a shout for joy. Worship is not just a professional performance, but it’s also not only an emotional experience. Now, some churches emphasize skill more than emotion. All the people up front are professionals and there’s no room for imperfection. Other churches emphasize emotion over skill.