WG08 – Session #6, Bob Kauflin, “Living Life With the Psalmist”

More awesome and inspiring worship as we gathered Saturday morning. The exuberance and passion demonstrated by Sovereign Grace's worship teams has been a mighty blessing. This morning's worship was led by Jon Payne.

In the sessions leading up to this ending session we have heard:

• Our attitude and posture for our worship is determined by God, not by us
  
• The Psalms demonstrate a full range of God-centered emotions in our worship
  
• Christ is in all the Psalms as He is in all Scripture
  
• The Psalms help us to connect our lives with God and what He says He will do
  
• The Psalms impact how we gather corporately
  

Kauflin used used Psalm 24 as his text for this last teaching. After the weight and impact of the teaching that had gone before, we were all eager to hear this final address before we went home.

"Psalm 24 is divided into a number of sections." Bob began with. Each section, he maintained, gives us an insight as to how we can live our lives the way the Psalmists lived theirs.

Psalm 24:1-2 tells us that we must acknowledge and understand God's complete sovereignty, Kauflin pointed out. "He created the earth and everything in it. So, He owns it.", he taught. He went on to show us that God rules over and sustains everything so everything is accountable to Him (Psalm 33:8-9). Bob cautioned that we should not limit our view of God (Psalm 104:27-30), He is King over everything…..forever. Kauflin challenged us by pointing out that this teaching itself is a challenge to our our own limited view of God.

In vs 3, Bob taught, we learn that we relate to Him by pursuing His holiness. In Psalm 24: 4, he continued teaching that only people with clean hands, a pure heart, etc can accomplish this. "If our hands are clean, then we do the right thing. If our hearts are pure, they are free from envy, anger, pride, etc.", he said.

Bob postulated that if we want to live like a Psalmist, then our conduct will be determined by 'whose we are' and 'who we worship'. As such, worship is not about songs and meetings….but how we live our lives. Bob's conclusion for this verse was that the Psalmist belonged wholly to God and worshipped Him exclusively, setting aside all other objects of worship including his job, his family, his hobbies and anything else that would supplant God in the Psalmist's life.

Bob questioned who might be able to live like that, finding the answer in Psalm 24:5. In this verse we find that God Himself will provide a righteous way for us to live like that. We don't enter into His presence on our merit, we enter by His grace. The clean hands and pure heart we need in order to be with Him are given to us in His grace and by His mercy.

Bob pointed out that Psalm 24:6 shows us that His people are normal folks just like us.

In Psalm 24:7, he asked what those 'Gates' were. He taught that the 'gates' were the gates that welcomed the conquering kings, coming home from the battle. In this case, he continued, they are the gates of Jerusalem, opening up to greet Jesus as he enters the holy city, signifying the end of the battle and victory over our own flesh with His clean hands and pure heart our reward.

Bob's final query was this, "If we are owned by and in the presence of the conquering King, then why is life, at times, so hard?" He summarized that the victory is over death, not our temporal circumstances. As a matter of fact, God promises that our circumstances will result in His glory being revealed in us and through us. This glory, His victory, is demonstrated in our eternal home with Him in heaven and His presence, love and peace in our lives here on earth. He is the King of Glory. Our worship should always reflect that with its' revelation being our goal, not our desires nor our earthly state taking precedence over Him or His glory.

We celebrate His victory and that we are reconciled to God so that we can worship Him. We are unable to ascend 'the hill' ourselves but we have, in Christ, One who can. We receive the benefits of His victory.