THE FIRST LESSON Ephesians 5:17-20
THE SECOND LESSON John 1: 1-18
SERMON "Encountering the Word: What We Worship?"
Worship Notes
Today we continue our series exploring various aspects of corporate worship, which is the most important activity we do together as the body of Christ gathered as Westminster Presbyterian Church. This series is an outgrowth of the recent worship survey of the congregation. Over the past two weeks, we have reflected on "why" we worship and "how" we worship. This morning, we consider "what" we worship as we examine the Word of God as the foundation for corporate worship.
Scripture drives every decision we make about the shape and content of worship at Westminster. In today's service, we also identify the connection between the scriptures and the music through which we worship. Music in worship performs three general functions: praise, proclamation, and prayer.
Our first hymn, "Blessed Jesus, At Your Word" is a hymn of praise offered to illumine the role of scripture in our lives. The songs of the early church were exclusively derived from settings of the Psalms, which are collectively referred to as "the Psalter." Hymns 158 to 258 represent the Psalter settings in our hymnal. In worship today, we hear God's word proclaimed through music as we sing together Hymn 226, which is a Psalter setting of Psalm 113 and is one of the oldest Psalter settings. This setting was included by John Calvin in the Genevan Psalter published in1539. Calvin wrote:
"...it is a thing most expedient for the edification of the church to sing some psalms in the form of public prayers by which one prays to God or sings His praises so that the hearts of all may be roused and stimulated to make similar prayers and to render similar praises and thanks to God with a common love."
As we sing, we do so with the understanding that our voices join with the cloud of witnesses that have proclaimed God's Word in this way for over 400 years.
Music also functions as a vehicle for prayer in worship. Both the choral prayer for illumination and the congregational prayer response use texts that call us to pray that God's Word might be made clear to us as we worship together. Our worship concludes with another hymn of praise "How Firm a Foundation," which identifies and thanks God for the foundation of our faith established in his "excellent word."
