Psalm 95
The Rev. Dr. Robert S. Langworthy, preaching
March 8, 2026
Though life often hits us hard with trouble and pain, the God who means to make us merry often gives us cause for joy and delight: a dog leaning out a car window and flapping its tongue like a flag of happiness, a dolphin backflipping into a sparkling sea for the sheer fun of it, a gold medal hockey team spraying everyone with shaken beer, a young man dancing a jig of jubilation after his sweetheart tells him she loves him too, parents beaming with ecstasy as they cuddle their new-born baby, a music-lover tearing up in unspoken and unspeakable awe over the piercing, exhilarating beauty of a concerto, a grandmother sighing with quiet contentment as she sits back taking in the buzzing exuberance of her family gathered at Easter.
A.W. Tozer called God “a God of perpetual enthusiasm”. Even while He hates evil, He relishes with elation all that is good and ignites festive gaiety in those who also appreciate the good.
Should not worship then spark joy?
Certainly today’s Psalm thinks so. It begins by exhorting us to “make a joyful noise” to the Lord as we “come into his presence with thanksgiving”.
This Psalm is realistic, however, and wise in its perspective. It isn’t asking us to adopt a positivity that pretends everything is hunky-dory. For, while its initial verses call us to cheerful exultation, its middle verses call us to a serious and sober commitment to obedience, and its last verses warn us of consequences if we don’t. While it values good feelings as a blessing from God, it recognizes they’re not the whole of a life pleasing to God. Thus, it urges us three different ways to submit to God’s Lordship, telling us to “worship” (literally, “prostrate ourselves”) before God, “bow down” before God and “kneel” before God. It also reminds us how God “loathes” those who disdain the pursuit of righteousness and swears with “anger” they “shall not enter my rest”.
Yet, as Augustine once put it, if a ship is listing to the port side, those in it should not stay in the middle but throw their weight over to the starboard side.
We Presbyterians have long stressed doing our duty, but that emphasis has come at the expense of our failing to radiate the joy of our salvation. One wag joked the Presbyterian motto should be “grimly dutiful since 1536”.
We do well then to remember that, in Paul’s list of the nine elements of the fruit of the Spirit, “joy” comes in second only to “love”. We encourage joy in us by coming to worship regularly and letting it stir up in us a grateful reveling in God that hints at heaven’s euphoria. If God is as infinitely magnificent and merciful as the Bible says, how could He not excite us to joyful wonder, sweet awe and exuberant delight? Well, to be honest, God can’t if we don’t open our eyes to His greatness and goodness. While the story of God’s self-sacrificially descending to save us is, as Dorothy Sayers put it, “the most exciting drama that ever staggered the imagination,” many find the celebration of God in worship dull and uninspiring. Why? Some don’t relate to the way we rejoice; some have never taken the time to grasp why anyone would find joy in God; and some have just become preoccupied with other concerns and don’t find God relevant to what matters most to them.
Let’s think about that for a moment. If, for example, we don’t care about being loved more than we already are, we’ll not be moved by the story of God’s leaving paradise to dwell in this harsh world to bless us; or if we feel no guilt or shame over the wrong we’ve done, we’ll not be stirred by God’s suffering for our sake to bring us forgiveness and redemption; or if we’re satisfied with how good a person we are at present, we’ll not be roused by God’s offering us supernatural strength to become better versions of ourselves. But, if we are discontent enough with our status quo to have no interest in hugging the shore of our life as it is, we’ll welcome the idea of sailing into wider seas and discovering new lands. Or if we’re disturbed by dreams of higher possibilities and open to stretching out our horizons of hope, and we yearn for more than the bare minimum in living (so that we seek, not just to care, but to make a real difference; not just to be fair, but to be gracious and generous; not just to survive, but to grow and grow), we’ll find the chance of there being a God like the Bible’s intriguing and even captivating. We might not believe that chance to be a true one; but we might wish it were, and that would motivate us to check out where a lot of folks say they’ve found it to be true: in worship, in a place claiming to be a dwelling place of God.
An open-minded exploration there makes sense then. For, as C.S. Lewis observed, the Christian faith, if false, is of no importance; but, if true, it’s of infinite importance. But the one thing it can never be is of moderate importance. That’s why agnostics must seek the truth with determined effort; and believers must seek to honor it with determined exuberance and expectancy.
How might those of us who are agnostic make a fair search for the truth in worship without compromising our integrity? By preparing, praying and participating! We prepare by owning up to our dissatisfaction with our status quo and entertaining the wild possibility there might be something or Someone bigger and better for us than we thought. We pray by asking the God we’re not sure is there to show up and saturate our soul with His Spirit’s oil to make us flammable on contact with Him. We participate by attending church a fair number of times, paying attention in it and engaging with what’s going on at it. That means that, while honestly maintaining our skepticism as we expose it to possible falsification, we verbalize the faith with the congregation, because saying or singing words opens our minds; and we bow our heads and stand with the congregation, because what we do with our bodies opens our hearts. We are just making an honest effort to give God a shot at us, in case there is a God.
If it seems to us that God does show up and we like what He brings about, we have reason to join worship every Sunday – and, when we do, to go all out, hold nothing back, and raise the roof in noisy joy and grateful love!
After all, if God is in fact infinitely great and good, there’s nothing in life terrible enough to outweigh the overwhelming blessing of His glory and mercy; and there’s nothing in life more wonderful than walking with Him!
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