July 16, 2023; Sunday Evening Worship

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — Isaiah 40:9-11
• Hymn — Behold Our God
• Prayer of Invocation
• Psalm Reading — Psalm 8 (Responsive)
• Hymn — All Creatures of Our God and King (#122)
• Pastoral Prayer
• Sermon
• Hymn — As the Hart Longs for Flowing Streams (#662)
• Benediction — Jude 24-25

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Sermon Title: The Desire of the Heart for True Worship

Scripture: Psalm 42:1-5

I. Introduction to Psalm 42

A. Context: A psalm of the sons of Korah, Temple keepers and singers B. The psalmist's situation: separated from corporate worship and surrounded by mocking enemies who question God's covenant faithfulness C. Structure of the psalm

1. Verses 1–5: A longing for God while in exile from corporate worship
2. Verses 6–11: The cry of a troubled heart pleading for God's help

II. The Psalmist's Longing for the Face of God

A. The core desire: to appear before the Living God — Psalm 42:2

1. Corporate worship is the ordained means through which believers encounter the Living God
2. The psalmist misses not merely the spectacle of temple worship but God himself B. The means of grace are means to God, not ends in themselves
3. They bring believers into fellowship with God and shower them with the experience of his promises, person, and glory
4. Inability to participate in those means is spiritual torture to the one who knows their blessing

III. Love for God's House as the Essence of True Piety

A. Love for corporate worship is the essence of holiness for both Old and New Covenant believers B. God's house under the New Covenant is the gathered people of God, who can worship in spirit and truth wherever they assemble — John 4:23-24 C. Christ promises a unique presence among his gathered people — Matthew 18:20 D. William Plumer's warning: those who voluntarily absent themselves from God's worship ought to suspect that not all is right with them

1. To absent oneself voluntarily is to do willingly what grieved the psalmist to be compelled to do
2. True godliness consists more in the desires of the heart for more grace and more fellowship than in satisfaction with what has already been attained

IV. Christ as the Great Worshiper

A. This psalm ultimately reveals Christ — the supreme worshiper whose food was to do the will of his heavenly Father B. Christ himself knew separation from the house of God and endured mockery that questioned God's covenant faithfulness

1. His enemies taunted him on the cross just as the psalmist's enemies taunted him
2. Jesus cried out the opening of Psalm 22:1 — My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
3. Yet his heart held Psalm 22:22 — I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you C. Christ is the chief worshiper, longing to lead his people in covenant worship of the Living God

V. Application and Conclusion

A. The psalmist's inscripturated grief is a call to examine our own hearts toward corporate worship B. True godliness longs for God above all things — not for isolated individual experiences, but for the communal experience of God through Word, prayer, song, and sacrament C. Where longing for God and his house is absent, we must ask: what is amiss?