...

Prayer: A Conversation with God - Week 2 - 1/12/25(copy)

November 4, 2024

Psalm 95:1-11
“1 Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! 2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! 3 For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. 4 In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. 5 The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. 6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! 7 For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, 9 when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. 10 For forty years I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.” 11 Therefore I swore in my wrath, “They shall not enter my rest.”” 

Psalm 95 gives us a wonderful example of adoration/worship to God, our resulting posture, and a warning not to become hard-hearted. 

Awareness of Who He Is

Psalm 95:1–5 “1 Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! 2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! 3 For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. 4 In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. 5 The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.” 

The psalmist highlights God’s relationship to us and his power. Adoration is exclusively toward God. From the outset it is only God who is to be praised, and not man. We will see the right position of man in verses 6-7. 

Exodus 20:1–6 “1 And God spoke all these words, saying, 2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 3 “You shall have no other gods before me. 4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.”  

Rock of our Salvation

At the very beginning there is a call to recognize God as savior. This was a reminder to Israel that God had indeed been their salvation over and over again. 

Psalm 18:2 “2 The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.”

Psalm 18:46 “46 The Lord lives, and blessed be my rock, and exalted be the God of my salvation—”

Psalm 20:5 “5 May we shout for joy over your salvation, and in the name of our God set up our banners! May the Lord fulfill all your petitions!”

Psalm 62:2 “2 He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.”

Psalm 62:6 “6 He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken.”

Psalm 62:7 “7 On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God.”

Psalm 65:5 “5 By awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness, O God of our salvation, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas;” 

A prayer of adoration begins with the recognition that he is indeed our savior. We were and are unable to save and redeem ourselves. He alone is able to save. 

King Above All Gods

The psalmist proclaims that God is above all others. Every other god is a creation of man, and is by definition less. They are idols. 

1 Timothy 6:11–16 “11 But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. 12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 13 I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, 14 to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 which he will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.”

Revelation 19:11–16 “11 Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. 12 His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. 13 He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. 14 And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. 15 From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. 16 On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.” 

Adoration acknowledges God as the only God with no equal. 

God of All Creation 

Psalm 95:4–5 “4 In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. 5 The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.” 

Everything we experience on earth has been made by his hand. He is creator of all things, including us. We are his creation.  Adoration brings us to a place where we remember and acknowledge who God is and what he is capable of. 

I need a savior - he is the savior.  I need a deliverer - he is our deliverer.  I need a healer - he is our healer.  I need a miracle over creation - he is the creator.  Every word we pray depends on our view and estimation of who God is. 

143 What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. A. W. Tozer Knowledge of The Holy (1961) A. W. Tozer 

Posture of Adoration 

Psalm 95:6–7 “6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! 7 For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice,”

Bowing down in prayer and worship is a posture of reverence. When see see God for who he is, our response should appropriately be to humble ourselves. This is in stark contrast to the behavior of the Israelites who hardened their hearts toward the one who saved them. 

2 Chronicles 7:1–3 “1 As soon as Solomon finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. 2 And the priests could not enter the house of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord filled the Lord’s house. 3 When all the people of Israel saw the fire come down and the glory of the Lord on the temple, they bowed down with their faces to the ground on the pavement and worshiped and gave thanks to the Lord, saying, “For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.”” 

The prayer of adoration includes posture. When do we intentionally humble ourselves before God? A prayer of adoration given through a humble posture.

Warning Against Hardness  

Psalm 95:7–11 “7 For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, 9 when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. 10 For forty years I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.” 11 Therefore I swore in my wrath, “They shall not enter my rest.””

Adoration is the antidote to a hard heart. I cannot ignore the one I give praise.

Exodus 32:1 “1 When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.””

When your view of God is obscured by circumstances or jaded by experience, the temptation is to withhold or transfer credit to someone or something else. The Israelites chose a golden calf; we choose money, relationships, or ourselves.

Giving God his due praise and position keeps our hearts bent towards him. It is hard to be contrary toward God while we are bowing in reverence to him.

Hope Community Church Logo
Phone
304.754.8020

Mail
P.O. BOX 75
Hedgesville, WV 25427


Hedgesville
Campus

6867 Hedgesville Road
Hedgesville, WV 25427
Sundays 9:00AM + 10:45AM


Berkeley Springs
Campus

31 Buzzard Acres Ln,
Berkeley Springs, WV 25411
Sundays 10:00AM


Concord
Campus

37 Regional Dr.
Concord, NH 03301
Sundays 10:00AM