We turn to the Word of God through Revelation chapter 4, and we stand and we read together. As we hear the Word, please stand. John's vision of the throne of God, beginning in Revelation 4 and verse 6. Before the throne there was a sea of glass like crystal in the midst of the throne. And around the throne there were four living creatures full of eyes in front and in back. The first living creature was like a lion, the second living creature like a calf, the third living creature had a face like a man, and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle. The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within. They did not rest day or night saying, holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the 24 elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, You are worthy, O Lord, to receive honor, glory, and honor and power, for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created. We turn to Psalm 104, and we will read, Verse 1 and 2, then verse 24, and then verse 31 to the end of the chapter. 1 and 2, 24, and then 31, tracing the theme of worship. Bless the Lord, O my soul, O Lord my God. You are very great. You are clothed with honor and majesty, who cover yourself with light as with a garment, who stretch out the heavens like a curtain. Verse 24, O Lord, how manifold are your works, in wisdom you have made them all. And then verse 31, may the glory of the Lord endure forever. May the Lord rejoice in His works. He looks on the earth and it trembles. He touches the hills and they smoke. I will sing to the Lord as long as I live. I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. May my meditation be sweet to Him. I will be glad in the Lord. May sinners be consumed from the earth and the wicked be no more. Bless the Lord, O my soul, praise the Lord. The grass withers, the flower fades, the Word of God endures forever. If you're visiting with us this morning, you are joining us, what is the Lord willing, at least in our limited plans, the last sermon in a five-sermon series on Psalm 104. five sermon series on Psalm 104. This last one, in a sense, will be looking at the whole of the psalm, or really the central purpose of the psalm, which is to impel, to compel, to instruct us in worship. There could be a lot of reasons you gathered here this morning. I don't know what they all are. But really the reason we are here is to ascribe glory to God, to worship Him. The God who made you, the God who redeems sinners, who is our Redeemer through the Lord Jesus Christ, the Triumph God. We are here to speak to Him, even as He first speaks, has spoken, and even in this service spoke to us, We are here to commune with Him, to give Him glory, the glory that is, do His name. And this is actually what God made humanity for. We're made in God's image to reflect His glory. And not simply to be reflectors like a mirror in the desert some couple years ago, I was driving south of Las Vegas and we came upon a huge array of mirrors in the desert that were focused on a single tower. You could see, as it were, it looked like a laser beam as all the mirrors in this great giant open field of mirrors were focused on this tower. The idea was to heat some sort of process fluid and that would drive generators, steam generators, and that would produce electricity. But this entire field of mirrors was to reflect the glory of the Son to that one single point. But that's not exactly what worship is, just to reflect God's glory. But it's to enjoy God's glory. And even more than that, it's to enjoy God Himself. It's an act of mutual communion that we engage in by faith. especially in the gathered worship of the church, but really through the Lord Jesus Christ and by His power of His Spirit in us, in all that we do. We are those who are worshipers. We give our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to Christ, which is a reasonable service of worship, Paul says. Psalm 104 is fundamentally about that. It's about worship. It's about the worship of God. And it is in the Scriptures to compel you to, to motivate you, to teach you to be a worshiper. And so we're going to study that main theme, which is really the backbone of the psalm. A little bit of review. The psalm not only simply commands worship, or as it were, compels us to worship, it gives us matter and material worship. reasons why we should be worshipers. And that's what we've looked at in the past weeks. And let's review some of those reasons why we should be worshipers before we get to the activity commanded itself. If you remember from this psalm, the thesis statement is this, in verse 1, Oh Lord my God, you are very great. You are clothed with honor and majesty. Well, that's the central statement, as it were, maybe not the thesis statement, we'll get to that in a moment, is the central statement, which encapsulates this vision of the glory of God that is going to be unfolded in the poetry of Psalm 104. And we've looked at it in the past weeks. The elements of the Psalm that follow prove this statement to be true, that the Lord our God is very great and that He is clothed with honor and majesty. And let's think about the things we've looked at. The psalmist begins at the highest level with the throne of God. And as it were, he's going to go even to the depths of the seas. He's going to survey the entirety of the created universe. And as he does so, he's going to give us a vision of the glory of God. And that's what he's done. We've seen in the past weeks, beginning with the king's throne. Much like Daniel chapter 7 or Isaiah 66, heaven is my throne, the earth is my footstool. The Lord is reigning over the created order, which is the central theme of the psalm, creation and providence, like this. He is clothed with honor and majesty. He covers himself with light as with a garment. He stretches out the heavens like a curtain. He lights the beams of his chambers in the waters. He makes the clouds his chariot. walks on the wings of the wind, his minister spirits, his angel spirits, his ministers of flame and fire. And here's the regal king, who both in his throne room, which is depicted by the vast expanse of the heavens, not to confuse the actual universe, as it were, the stars to be, as it were, a literal picture of his heavenly throne, rather that the vast universe is a fitting illustration But it's only an illustration of the vastness of His essential glory. He's infinite, beyond what we can see or comprehend. As a matter of fact, we say that God is incomprehensible. That doesn't mean that we can't truly know Him, but it means that the infinity of His glory and His majesty, His power, are beyond what we have the capacity, as it were, to get our minds around. The psalm also maintains the Creator-creature distinction, that God is distinct from His creation. He is the Creator who rules over the creation. And what's interesting is the psalm teaches us to read both the book of nature and with the Scriptures in hand. It uses Calvin's language, the spectacles through which we interpret creation. The Word by the Spirit helps us understand the works of God. And when we pull this all together, I think about, as we learn more, for example, about the universe, and I think in this psalm series, I mentioned the James Webb Space Telescope, the deeper we look, the grander our sense of the dimensions, the glory of the created universe. As it were, our minds are expanding to say, but God is greater. than even the natural universe which our minds can hardly comprehend. That's the picture. His throne is in heaven. The earth is His footstool. The second thing was His realm. He created the realm and the work of creation. And we saw that the writer of this psalm had Genesis 1 open, it seems, in his heart while he was writing. The days of creation and the acts of God on the six days of creation are narrated in the psalm and the whole principle of God who by the word of His power in the space of six days and out of nothing made all things and made them very good. It's all taught in this psalm, and we looked at that in the past weeks. The details. Look at verse 5, He made the earth. Verses 6 through 9, He divided the waters and the dry land. In verse 19, He made the moon, etc. And this psalm taught us that we are, as Christians, think of Psalm 8, think of Psalm 19, think of Romans chapter 1, we are to be readers of the book of nature, of general revelation. We are to be students of all God's works. As a matter of fact, that's what it allows us to say, what is in Psalm 24. Oh Lord, how manifold are your works and wisdom you have made them all. Third thing, we saw the king's table or his work of providing his providential care. We learned that we're not deists. God did not just make something like a cosmic watchmaker and wind it up and let it go and turn away. But that God by the same omnipotent divine power by which He made the creation, He upholds the creation. So the reason you have conscious thought right now, the reason why your heart is beating, The reason you had food this morning is because to use verse 29, verse 28, God opened his hand this morning and you were filled with good. The reason that you have a life is because God is sovereign over life. He can take it away. You hide your face. They are troubled. You take away their breath. They die and return to the dust. Verse 30, you send forth your spirit. They are created. You renew the face of the earth. We talked about the agency of Jesus Christ in creation and providence. He is the agent of creation. He's the living Word. He's also the agent of providence, Colossians 1. In Him all things hold together. He rules, reigns, governs, maintains, provides as King of glory over the entire realm that He has made, actively ruling and governing all His creatures and all their actions. And He's the Judge. We looked last at that statement that brought us to a halt. The statement of His holiness in verse 35, "...may sinners be consumed from the earth and the wicked be no more." That this realm that God has made, He made for holiness. That as He is holy, He would have us be holy. And that corresponding to Revelation 19 and 21 and 22, that in the new creation, there will be no sin or sinners in this realm. That all that is rebellious will be eradicated. And instead, there will be peace and plenty and goodness and life and glory forever in the presence of God. He will make all things new. Jesus Christ will judge the wicked and gather His church. The fundamental issue with the world, the psalmist sees, even after he sees all the glory in verse 35, is that sin has polluted it. That apart from God's supernatural, divine intervention in saving grace through Jesus Christ or in holy judgment, that pollution would corrupt it all, but God will one day make it new. What's the result of all this when we put it together? I'd put it this way, it's a revelation of unsurpassed divine glory. When you pull the central matter of the psalm together, the matter for meditation, we have a revelation of unsurpassed divine glory. He is indeed, look at verse 1 and 2 again, clothed with honor and majesty. We exclaim, O Lord, how manifold are Your works, in wisdom You have made them all. The variegated beauty of creation, the astonishing wonder of providence, the reality of the holiness of the one who sits on the throne come together. And they make this psalmist explain, Lord, You are clothed with honor and majesty. You have wisdom which is unsearchable. I see your glory. There's a direct, there's hints at that unsurpassed divine glory. Then there is the direct statement of glory. Now we're moving into the worship section of the psalm. Verse 31, may the glory of the Lord endure forever. What is glory? Asked this question before. Hebrew word kibbutz, it means the weight of God's majesty. The fullness of the revelation of His glory. A sense of seeing God for who He is, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 3 in 1 and 1 in 3. And the psalmist is saying, I have seen that glory and may that glory endure forever. His glory is closely linked with His holiness, His infinite being and power and wisdom and purity and eternity. It's fitting that He covers Himself with light as with a garment. Holy, holy, holy. The evidence of His unsurpassed glory is in verse 32. May the Lord rejoice in His works. He looks on the earth and it trembles. He touches the hills and it smokes. With this unsurpassed glory and power, He can simply look and touch and alter the entirety of the future of history. So much so, this is interesting, verse 31 again, that this glory, so great, and here's a mystery of the nature of God, it causes God Himself to rejoice. An infinite God, verse 31, rejoices in His own glorious works. As it were, The works of God on display in the psalm bring joy to God who himself is infinite. There's a sense in which we're getting to the edges of our ability to understand the glory of God here and the glory of his works. Here we're echoing Genesis 1.31. God looked at his works. He looked at his own works. The unbounded One, and He said, this is very good. He delights in them. He rested on the Sabbath day, delighting in His own works. Supremely and wondrously delighting in man, the crown of creation. The cumulative effect, I hope you're feeling it, you're sensing it, you're understanding it, you're learning it. The cumulative effect of the Psalms has to be similar to Isaiah 6. When Isaiah sees the Lord of Hosts in all His glory, he says, woe is me. I'm a man of unclean lips. I dwell amongst a people of unclean lips. Revelation 4 and 5, when the four living creatures and the 24 elders and the 10,000 upon 10,000 angels and all the hosts of the spirits of just men made perfect, they crowd the throne I cry to God that glory and honor and majesty and power and dominion belong to Him forever for You created all things and by Your will they exist, providence, and were created. The cumulative effect is that the Holy God who has made all things rules over all things. And again we get to verse 35. The patience of God is in view at the same time. Sinners have invaded this glory. and yet he shows mercy. Here is the glory of God. Now, purpose of the psalm. I said a moment ago the thesis statement might be verse 1, but maybe it's not. Why is this in the Bible? Why is it here? It is not simply a display of glory from a distance that we wonder at. But in its deepest sense, the psalm is a human response to that glory. It's fundamental structure. It's not just a display of glory, but there's a display of the human response that that glory calls for. It's about worship. You need to get this. In the fundamental, grammatical, and logical structure of what is written here on the page, it is not simply a display of glory, but it is a response to glory. How do we know that? Verse 1. Bless the Lord, O my soul. The thing, Psalm 104, is the testimony of somebody who has been captivated by that glory. It's not simply a display to wander at from afar. It is the testimony of somebody who cannot stop talking about that glory. It is the echo of a human heart in Holy Spirit-inspired language to that glory. Bless the Lord, O my soul." What does that word mean? We looked at it weeks ago. It means praise. It means use words to declare the honor and the goodness of another. Bless the Lord. Who's the object of that blessing or the ascription of glory? The Lord. Yahweh. Jehovah. I am who I am. And who is to be doing this praising? Bless the Lord, O my soul. If you're in the Men's Fellowship right now, actually, the ladies are reading the same book right now. This is the word nefesh for heart. This is the psalmist saying, my innermost being, I am calling to my soul, after what I have seen, to ascribe glory to God, to bless his holy name. I am calling on my intellect and affections and will. I am calling on the essence of what it means to be a human, the very depths of my soul, and I'm saying, look what you've seen. Bless the Lord. He's speaking to Himself. He's saying the only right response to glory is to praise God. And that set the genre. This is a praise psalm. But there's a second place where that praise bursts forth. Look at verse 33. We're tracing the theme of worship. It's like bookends around the psalm. After seeing what He has seen, I will sing to the Lord as long as I live. It's personal praise. He's not only reminding Himself, He's actually doing something more profound. He's making a public pledge that he will use the rest of his existence to praise God. I will sing to the Lord as long as I live. He is publicly pledging never to stop praising God. I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. It's not a promise here of perpetual poverty or chastity, but it is a promise of perpetual worship. Unending focused intentional praise of the Lord Yahweh I am who I am and it's repeated with the two names for God in the Old Testament Yahweh the two most common names Yahweh and then Elohim The key action noticed is to sing I want you all to It was good to have your Bibles open, but there's one word. I'm gonna want burned in your mind and heart And on your lips is sing. I will sing praise to the Lord as long as I live. I will sing, what does singing mean? I will use my voice, here's the pledge, as a mutual instrument, as with tone and word together. I will receive that glory and then echo it back to the God who made me and takes care of me, who redeemed me from sin and judgment. I hereby publicly declare, the psalmist is saying, that the entirety of my existence will be, and especially my voice in song, not a small thing, will be used to magnify and worship the Lord God who made the heavens and the earth to bless the Lord. Verse 34 is a follow-up pledge. May my meditation be sweet to Him and I'll be glad in the Lord. What is meditation? The follow-up pledge is related to verse 33. It is a pledge regarding the kind of worship that I will offer to God, that I intend to bring to God as I bless His name and sing to Him. What's meditation? The act of giving considerable, sustained thought about a person or an object. It's to slow down and to consider God. His works, His ways, His precepts, His commands, His glory. And He's pledging that He will not only outwardly express, but that He will inwardly delight in the God who He's come to know. He says that this will be sweet or pleasing to God. It will be acceptable worship. It will aim for His glory. It's rooted in joy. It's interesting that the Lord rejoices in His works. Verse 31. And now there's an echo in the psalmist who meditates on God and His works and there's joy in his heart back to God. together with God in an act of communion, meditation, and worship. If you pull it together, verse 33 and 34, a pledge to engage in a lifetime of deep reflection, joy in the glory of God. Reflection on joy in the glory of God. And to bring to my God, my God he says, my Lord and my God. in song and praise as long as he has conscious existence, which for a believer is forever. Glory. Third indication of worship. The first one is the bookends around the psalm, Bless the Lord, O my soul. The second is the testimony of the psalmist who pledges publicly to be a worshiper forever. And the third is a command. Last words of the psalm. Praise the Lord. It's an imperative. The psalmist isn't talking to other people. He's not talking to his own soul now. He's not bearing witness to his public pledge, his vow before the Lord. He's looking out. at humanity. And first, surely Israel. And He's saying, come join with Me in praise. More than that, He's commanding praise. Praise the Lord. What's the verb here? Some of you might know that this is the word hallelujah here. That's the last phrase in the psalm. Sometimes spelled alleluia in English. It can mean to shine forth, to flash, to radiate, to reflect glory. But the idea is not as a passive reflector like a mirror in the desert, but as one who is engaged in communion with God and praising His holy name. The word here is in the PL form, one of the forms a Hebrew verb can be in, and it means to praise, to cheer, to boast in. Literally, the lexicon says to brag on, to extol, to extol the greatness of, the excellence of a person or an object or an event to declare, to speak forth. The idea of this Hebrew word is also to do this with confidence. It's not a half-hearted. Confidence. I can probably find stories from your life. There's probably stories you could tell around the lunchtime table today that no one would have to tell you to be confident or exuberant to declare this good thing or memory. Maybe it was a steak you ate, maybe it was a sunset you saw, a vacation, or you're just describing a very good friend. Maybe you're talking about your husband or your wife. No one has to tell you to be confident or persuasive. You can just speak of the excellencies of this thing. You can do it in a way that you are confident in it. And you can do it in a way that the words just flow from you because you are convinced of the thing. That's the idea of praise. You praise. It's a command. The object is, praise the Lord Yahweh. Hallelujah. Yah, I am. The command is confidently, publicly, describe His glory, rehearse it, sing it, declare it. He is worthy. And that's really the force of the whole psalm. Praise the Lord. That's the point on which the argument rests, its concluding phrase. Now this word, hallelujah, picks up steam in the Psalter. It's in Psalm 105. That's the last phrase. Praise the Lord. It's the beginning of Psalm 106. It'll run all the way to the end of the Psalter. As a matter of fact, you know the words of Psalm 150. Actually, Psalm 146 through 150 are called the Hallel Psalms. You get Psalm 148. It begins and ends with praise the Lord. Psalm 147, Psalm 146 on all the way to Psalm 150. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. The last word is praise the Lord. Hallelujah. It's the central worship imperative in the Scriptures. It's interesting, the New Testament usage, you know where this word is used in the New Testament? Revelation chapter 19. If you turn there, how is that word used? It is used, very interestingly, in an exact conceptual parallel to the following. May sinners be consumed from the earth and the wicked be no more. Hallelujah! Here, after Babylon is judged, Revelation 19, in heaven, John, I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven saying, Alleluia! Salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God. All the saints, they say, Alleluia. Then the 24 elders, Amen and Alleluia. Then a voice came from the throne saying, Praise our God, all you His servants, those who fear Him, both small and great. And then I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, the sound of many waters and mighty thunderings saying, Alleluia. Praise YAH. I am who I am. for the Lord God, omnipotent of unbounded power and glory, reigns." That's the command. The weight of glory, as it were, rests on, impels, gives urgency to the matter of worship. So the central duty of the Christian life is the worship of the Triune God. This is what you were made for. Study that central duty of worship now. It's what you were made for. You were made to be a worshiper. As an image bearer to reflect back to God His glory. You were made to see, to comprehend by the power of the Holy Spirit, the glory of God, and then in an act of communion, love, and fellowship with God, rehearse to Him. what you have seen of Him. To tell Him what you think of His glory, what He's made, and what He's done for you in Christ. Psalm 104 says that glory is etched into creation. The invisible attributes of God are clearly seen, even His eternal power and Godhead. And we know from the rest of the scriptures that Psalm 104 tells us something of His glory. If you put it together with Psalm 103, the rest of the scriptures, we have even greater and better things. We have the light of the glory of God shining in the face of Jesus Christ, which has said to us, though you are unworthy to be in my presence, I will pardon and cleanse you. I will give you my Spirit. I will give you a voice to sing." What did Jesus come for? What was His mission? The agent of creation, who is also the agent of providence, entered this creation. Why? Because His Father sent Him on a mission. The Father is seeking worshipers. Reconciliation with God is for the end of worship. Church exists for worship. Missions exist for worship. The whole creation exists to glorify God, to render to Him the praise, the worship due His holy name. Christ, in whom the image of God, mysterious, glorious figure who is both the incarnate One entering His creation and the Creator, was the perfect worshipper of the Father even as He is worthy of worship. He's the one who leads us in triumphal procession. He's the one who inhabits the praises of God's people. He's the one who is our worship leader. He only forgives and pardons and cleanses, but he says, you've come to me, you've come to the Father. Gaze upon the one of whom I could say it is my food and drink to do his will. The one who gives us his spirit. How are you to worship? That's what you're made for. That's what you're redeemed for. How? By devoting yourself to this activity. Look at the psalm. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Praise the Lord. I will sing to the Lord. I will meditate on Him. Take these words. Sing, meditate, bless, and praise. Devote your life to this. The worship of God. Most broadly, every moment of every day, whether you eat or drink, whatever you do, Paul says, do all to the glory of God. He who boasts. You don't boast in yourself, you boast in God and His glory and what God has done for you. All of life is the life of a worshiper. But narrower, this is the act of the covenanted community in the public worship of God. When we have a command that goes out from the psalm, praise the Lord, It's actually a gospel call. That's what the gospel is. Come be reconciled to God and join in the worship of the Triune God. Communion with Him. All are commanded to. And the way that command is obeyed in history is in the assemblies of worshiping people across the ages who bless the Lord, who sing to God, who meditate on His name, and who praise Him. I want to focus on one verb in the psalm. Sing. I will sing to the Lord. It would be strange to me to be a Christian if you don't sing. Heaven is full of singing. I don't have time to get into it. Revelation 5 and 14 and 15. If you were just to look at one prophet, Isaiah, and do a study of how many times he describes our right response to God to be singing. The redeemed of the Lord on that highway of holiness are singing the songs of Zion. Isaiah talks about singing and singing and singing. Jeremiah does too. The Psalms are songs to sing. Moses and Israel sang on the banks of the Red Sea. Jesus sang a hymn at the Lord's Supper. Paul and Silas sang in prison. Everywhere you look, Christians sing. Do you sing? You young men, you boys in the congregation, every now and then I look around. It always surprises me that people think that, maybe people don't think this, but we can all see each other. We're not here with our eyes closed. And sometimes I look around and I think, well, maybe you're sick, maybe you haven't sung this song before, maybe you're just learning, that's fine. But what about never singing? What would that say about your soul? What about not wanting to sing? Are you singing? What are you singing about? Daniel Ford, Belshazzar and his company were singing praise to the gods of idols of wood and stone and gold and silver. We're not to sing those things like the world. We're to be the church, the people of God, who with verbal, musical praise, ascribe glory to God as long as we have our being. That's what the psalm says. We praise the Lord. This is a central act of the worshiping church, which is commended in this psalm in a way to obey the command. What happens when you sing? Psalm 96. You declare among the nations the Lord reigns. What happens when you sing in 2 Chronicles 20, Jehoshaphat's army? By singing, by singing, and I would direct you to the little phrase they use in 2 Chronicles. Praise the Lord for His mercy endures forever. Conquered enemies. You know, you see our world falling apart? Do you know that the worshiping church, the activity of what we're engaged in right now, stands as a testimony and bulwark to the kingdom and glory of Jesus Christ, is an act of spiritual warfare against the kingdom of darkness when we sing. It's part of the triumph of the church. It's suitable in all circumstances. I already mentioned Paul in class. It encourages one another. Ephesians 5 and Colossians 3. It is the outlet of spirit-work joy. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms, Paul says. I mean, James writes in James 5. When are you to do this? Personally and privately. Look at verse 1 and verse 35. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Here's a question for you about singing and praise and worship. Have you ever done it on your own? When you're in your car driving, what's on the radio? Just some, could be useless, could be evil. How many of you say, I've got 30 minutes, I want to hear the praises of God, I want to sing. I see a lot of people singing in their cars. You probably do. You could be singing praise to God. I will sing praise to my God while I have my being, my whole life devoted to praise. In the Christian home, parents, lead your children in singing. Teach them how to sing. Grab the hymnal. If your family's never done this, it's kind of awkward, especially if you can't really hold a tune. But we have encouragements in the Scriptures. Make a joyful noise, joyful shout to the Lord. He's pleased even when we are maybe unskilled. Gather around the dinner table, take some hymnals, sing. Shut off the TV or Spotify. Sing, reverse the direction. Let it be praise to God. And then the public worship of God. The Sabbath day, Old Testament, New Testament, praise. And we sing mornings and evenings at 6 p.m. And if you're trying to devote your whole existence to worship, a great way to do it is come twice. It's the day of assembly for singing for praise. Ultimately, what is happening when we engage in praise? That's just one element of our worship I'm focusing on from the psalm. But as God rejoices in His works, we rejoice in God. And there's an act of fellowship and communion between the triune God who inhabits eternity and you here. And one of the ways that happens is when you sing. There's a, to use Spurgeon's language on Psalm 104, when we do this, there is a mutual and reciprocal pleasure and delight between God who is praised and the soul that is praising him. My beloved is mine and I am his. The covenant of grace. A communion of life worked by the spirit of God who gives life. And these are all the gauges of the heart. Worship is the dividing line. Spurgeon again writing on Psalm 104 says, they who do not praise the Lord, verse 35, are not fit to be on the earth. Let the sinners be consumed of failure to worship, to give thanks, to praise. He goes on to say, he says again, those who do not praise God are not fit to be on the earth. Let the sinners be consumed. Much less are they fit to be in heaven. But those who praise God are fit for heaven and earth. Last week, you know, I was in Canada. I'm so glad to be back with you all. I spoke at a conference on sexuality. God created the male and female. And I talked to a young man afterwards who was not a believer. I asked him a question. It's not directly analogous to singing, but the spiritual principle is the same. I said, well, do you pray? And he said, well, I have inner dialogue. I said, well, that doesn't... You talk to yourself. That's not prayer. He goes, you mean... Would I talk to an imaginary being in heaven about my problems? I said, that's not prayer either. Have you ever humbled yourself to speak to God? He couldn't do it, actually. He reminded me of Naaman the Syrian. The believing heart says, I've seen His glory. I've known His love. I humbly bow. I give Him my life. I speak to Him as my Father. I praise Him as the Lord of Glory. I love to commune with my God. To use Paul's words to the Thessalonians, I've turned from idols to serve the living and true God. To wait for His Son from Heaven, Jesus Christ. Make this the heartbeat of your life. You survey His works. You see His glory. You receive His forgiveness. You offer yourself in worship to Him now and forever. Let us pray. Lord God, we thank You for the joy of worship, that we can be glad in You, that thoughts of You are most pleasing. That presently, by Your grace and power in Your Spirit, You have ushered us into the worshiping body that delights to ascribe to You glory and honor and power and dominion and might, both now and forever. For You're the Creator, the Ruler of all things. And for us, Your people, You are the Redeemer of sinners. And we pray that you would help us to follow the psalmist in pledging our very existence to you, our devoted hearts, our sanctified lips, our singing voices, our private meditations. Lord, our endless praise. For you are worthy. And you alone. And we pray in the name of our great worship leader, Redeemer and King Jesus Christ, Amen. Go now with the blessing of the Triune God. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you His peace. Amen.