Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Why Does God Want My Praise? | The Writings | Psalm 96

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. Does it bother you that God commands us to love and worship him? If I committed my kids to love and worship me, that would be weird, right? So why isn't it weird when God does it? Or maybe it's worse than weird. Maybe it's wrong.

Starting point is 00:00:26 Is God an egomaniac? If you're not sure what I mean by God commanding us to worship him, listen to Psalm 96. Here's verse 1. sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord all the earth, sing to the Lord, praise his name, proclaim his salvation day after day, declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples. Those are commands to praise and glorify God. When God commands us to praise him, what is it exactly that he wants? We know that he's not after our words while our hearts wander off somewhere else. Jesus rebukes the Pharisees because they worship him with their lips,

Starting point is 00:01:02 but their hearts are far from him. When God commands praise, he wants to engage our heart and our mind. He's commanding us to fix the eyes of our heart on him and see him as he truly is. And when we get a glimpse of even just part of God, maybe it's his love or his power or his mercy or his grace. Well, when we get a glimpse of even just a part of him, we can't help but express praise. The next section gives reasons why we should praise God. Verse four says, for great is the Lord and most worthy of praise, he is to be feared above all gods. So right here it says that God is worthy of praise. So when we praise him, we aren't wishcasting,

Starting point is 00:01:43 which is confusing what we want to be true with what is actually true. No, God truly is wise and loving and gracious, and he possesses all his attributes perfectly. So he's not just wise, but he's perfectly wise. He's not just loving. He's perfectly loving. He's perfectly gracious. One reason is right to praise God is that he is praiseworthy. And one reason it's wrong for us to command people to praise us is because we aren't worthy of people's devotion. The psalm goes on to give reasons to praise God. For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before him. Strength and glory are in his sanctuary. So, After giving us these reasons that we should praise God, the Psalm goes back to commanding us to worship

Starting point is 00:02:31 him. Ascribe to the Lord, all you families of nations, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength, ascribe to the Lord the glory do his name, bring an offering and come into his courts, worship the Lord and the splendor of His holiness, tremble before him all the earth. Let's get back to our question. Since the Bible is ultimately written by God, is God an egomaniate for commanding his creatures to worship, praise, and glorify him. You might think it's wrong to ask this question, but we're not the first people to ask it. C.S. Lewis wondered whether God was like a vain woman or a vain author seeking compliments. If I told my friends and family that I wanted them to worship me, wouldn't that make me self-centered?

Starting point is 00:03:12 Whenever someone wants to be at the center of attention, it seems kind of icky to us. So is God self-centered? Is God icky? Oprah Winfrey told the story in her TV program about when she was 27 or 28 years old and sitting in the church service. She was listening to the preacher, share how great God is. So the preacher was telling him, God is omnipotent, God is omniscient, he was going through all the attributes that we praise God for. And she was caught up into it until the preacher said that God was a jealous God, and that's when Oprah said something didn't feel right in her spirit. She didn't think God being jealous of her worship was worthy of God. She thought that to be jealous of her worship was

Starting point is 00:03:51 beneath God. But Exodus 3414 says, do not worship any other God for the Lord whose name is jealous is a jealous God. God is jealous of your worship. He doesn't want you to give your worship to other gods to false gods. I share about C.S. Lewis and Oprah Winfrey to show you that all kinds people have asked this question. People as different as Lewis and Oprah have struggled with it and come to very different conclusions. When I had questions about this topic, John Piper and Jonathan Edwards were very helpful, and everything I know I probably learned from them. At Piper's suggestion, I read Jonathan Edwards' book, The End for Which God Created the World. So Edwards is trying to answer the question, why did God create the world? But let's start with determining the end for human beings. In other words,

Starting point is 00:04:40 Why did God create us? The Westminster Catechism is a very well-known Christian document, highly respected. It was written in England in the 17th century. And the first question of the Westminster Catechism asks, What is the chief end of man? In other words, why did God create us? What's our purpose? And the answer the Catechism gives is that the chief end of man is to worship God and enjoy him forever.

Starting point is 00:05:08 But if you ever wondered, what is the chief end of God? What's the chief end of God's creation? Jonathan Edwards used scripture to convince me that God created the world for his own glory. Everything that exists exists to glorify God. You and I and every human being were made for God's glory. Isaiah 43 says, Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, everyone who is called by my name,

Starting point is 00:05:35 whom I created for my glory, who I formed and made. God chose Israel from among all the nations for his glory. Here's Jeremiah 13. For as a belt is bound or on the waist, so I bound all the people of Israel and all the people of Judah to me, declares the Lord, to be my people for my renown and praise and honor. God rescued Israel from slavery in Egypt for his glory. Here's Psalm 106.

Starting point is 00:06:02 When our ancestors were in Egypt, they gave no thought to your miracles. they did not remember your many kindnesses, and they rebelled by the sea, the Red Sea. Yet he saved them for his namesake to make his mighty power known. We could keep going, but I think you get the point. Everything was made for God's glory. Ephesians 1 tells us that even our salvation was for the praise of His glorious grace. So the Bible makes it clear that everything was created for God's glory. But that takes us back to our question.

Starting point is 00:06:32 Why does God command us to worship him? Why is that okay when it's not okay for us to call other people to worship us? Well, one thing we've seen is that we were created to glorify God. We were created to worship Him. We weren't created to worship creation or human beings or any false gods. So we find great satisfaction when we live out the purpose for which God made us. It's loving for God to call you and me to worship Him because that's what will make us the happiest. But if you tell people to worship you or anything other than God, you're leading them away from

Starting point is 00:07:08 that which will truly satisfy them. That's why calling people to worship anything other than God is unloving. So what's the takeaway for us? Well, I think it's this. God's glory and your happiness are never at odds. When we live for God's glory, when we live to praise him, we will experience the deepest happiness that any human can ever have. You are living. living in line with what you were created for. You are created to worship God, and that's where you'll find your true meaning and purpose in life. That's where you'll experience the most fulfillment.

Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Why Does God Want My Praise? | The Writings | Psalm 96

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