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Commentary on "Worship in the Psalms"
Day 2: Sunday, August 7, 2011 - Worship the Lord, Our Maker
Overview
This quote taken from today’s quarterly lesson reveals the intended theme of worship as we study the selected Psalms:
“The New Testament writers see Jesus Christ as the Creator and the Giver of the Law, as well as the Word made flesh, who lived among His creatures in order to reveal the Father to them and to die as their Substitute. Thus, He alone is worthy of adoration and worship.”
The lesson then culminates by connecting this theme with the ‘First Angel’s Message’ mentioned in Revelation.
Then I saw another angel flying high overhead, having the eternal gospel to announce to the inhabitants of the earth—to every nation, tribe, language, and people. He spoke with a loud voice: “Fear God and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come. Worship the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.” (Rev 14:6-7 HCSB)
Observations
The lesson does a very good job of making the important point that God is worthy, the only one worthy, of our praise and worship because God is our Creator. Several excellent Psalms are quoted to support this truth but then moves on to introduce a secondary topic. The real theme of this quarterly lesson is the allegation that the ‘Written Law’ is binding upon all mankind and is a prerequisite for all those who would truly worship God as Creator and Redeemer.
It is imperative that the foundation for this fallacy be exposed by backtracking and examining the covenants God made with Abraham and later to the Hebrew people when Moses delivered the Written Law to them. Then we will turn our attention to Jesus’ ministry here on earth and examine some of the foundational doctrinal passages given by inspiration to the apostles before focusing on the ‘first angel’s message’ quoted here in Revelation.
The covenant God made with Abraham was an everlasting covenant. Abraham believed God and his faith was credited to him as righteousness. Notice carefully that there are no conditions given to Abraham. Read the full account and you will learn that God made this unconditional everlasting covenant at a time when both Abraham and Sarah laughed at God. They could offer no work or perfection of their own to support what God promised to do.
I will keep My covenant between Me and you, and your future offspring throughout their generations, as an everlasting covenant to be your God and the ⌊God⌋ of your offspring after you. (Gen 17:7 HCSB)
What then can we say that Abraham, our physical ancestor, has found? If Abraham was justified by works, he has something to brag about—but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness. (Romans 4:1-3 HCSB)
An everlasting unconditional covenant cannot be annulled or altered by another covenant that came over 400 years later. The Covenant that God made to Israel through the leadership of Moses was built upon the Abrahamic Covenant without altering it. One was unconditional and everlasting and one was not.
Brothers, I’m using a human illustration. No one sets aside or makes additions to even a human covenant that has been ratified. Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say “and to seeds,” as though referring to many, but referring to one, and to your seed, who is Christ. And I say this: The law, which came 430 years later, does not revoke a covenant that was previously ratified by God and cancel the promise. For if the inheritance is from the law, it is no longer from the promise; but God granted it to Abraham through the promise. (Gal 3:15-18 HCSB)
In Exodus chapter 34, God renews the covenant he had already made with Israel. Notice very carefully that this covenant was made with Moses and the Hebrew people only and that it was centered or summarized as the ‘Ten Commandments’ rewritten by Moses on stone. At no point in scripture does this covenant or the Written Laws embodied in this covenant apply to anyone other than the Hebrew people.
The Lord also said to Moses, “Write down these words, for I have made a covenant with you and with Israel based on these words.” Moses was there with the Lord 40 days and 40 nights; he did not eat bread or drink water. He wrote the Ten Commandments, the words of the covenant, on the tablets. (Ex 34:27-28 HCSB)
This is what Jesus had to say about worship while talking with the Samaritan woman:
“Sir,” the woman replied, “I see that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, yet you ⌊Jews⌋ say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.” Jesus told her, “Believe Me, woman, an hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. Yes, the Father wants such people to worship Him. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:19-24 HCSB)
True worshipers must be born-again by acceptance of the atoning blood of Jesus Christ which gives life to their spirit by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, who will lead each Christian personally into God’s truth which is to be found only in the bible. This brings us to the very first mention of the New Covenant:
In the same way He also took the cup after supper and said, “This cup is the new covenant ⌊established by⌋ My blood; it is shed for you. But look, the hand of the one betraying Me is at the table with Me! For the Son of Man will go away as it has been determined, but woe to that man by whom He is betrayed!” (Luke 22:20-22 HCSB)
Later, through the word of God delivered by inspiration to the apostles, we learn the deep meaning of these words spoken by Jesus in such passages as this:
…that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures… (1 Cor. 15:3b-4 HCSB)
You must recognize that none of us sinners have ever kept even a small part of the law. Even those who are redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ still sin as described in Rom. 7:13-25.
What then? Are we any better? Not at all! For we have previously charged that both Jews and Gentiles are all under sin, as it is written: There is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away; all alike have become useless. There is no one who does what is good, not even one. (Romans 3:9-12 HCSB)
Moving on down this chapter in Romans we come to where we learn the purpose of the law:
Now we know that whatever the law says speaks to those who are subject to the law, so that every mouth may be shut and the whole world may become subject to God’s judgment. For no one will be justified in His sight by the works of the law, because the knowledge of sin ⌊comes⌋ through the law. (Romans 3:19-20 HCSB)
Knowledge of the law shows a sinner what sin is but can never produce the righteousness required of the law. Later in chapter seven of Romans Paul delves deeper into both the function and failure of the Written Law.
When you study scripture, you will learn that the ‘Written Law’ was made up of all the laws contained in the first five books of the bible. The bible does not separate these laws into categories nor does it say that only the so called ‘ceremonial’ laws have been done away with by the death of Jesus on the cross. Either the Old Covenant along with all the laws it encompassed are still in effect or they are not.
Tell me, those of you who want to be under the law, don’t you hear the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave and the other by a free woman. But the one by the slave was born according to ⌊the impulse of⌋ the flesh, while the one by the free woman was born as the result of a promise. These things are illustrations, for the women represent the two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai and bears children into slavery—this is Hagar. Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. (Gal. 4:21-25 HCSB)
Paul goes to great lengths to show that we are either under the one covenant or the other. It is not a mix of both or where the New Covenant is built upon fragments of the Old. Therefore, we are either under the whole Written Law contained in the Old Covenant or none of it. When it comes to the commandments of Jesus Christ, Paul goes to extreme effort to show it is not about the Written Law of the Old Covenant. For a full understanding of relationship of the covenants represented by Sarah and Hagar, a serious student seeking an understanding of the will of God in this matter should read and study the whole book of Hebrews with this passage setting the theme for your study:
By saying, a new ⌊covenant⌋, He has declared that the first is old. And what is old and aging is about to disappear. Now the first ⌊covenant⌋ also had regulations for ministry and an earthly sanctuary. For a tabernacle was set up, and in the first room, which is called the holy place, were the lampstand, the table, and the presentation loaves. Behind the second curtain, the tabernacle was called the most holy place. It contained the gold altar of incense and the ark of the covenant, covered with gold on all sides, in which there was a gold jar containing the manna, Aaron’s staff that budded, and the tablets of the covenant. The cherubim of glory were above it overshadowing the mercy seat. It is not possible to speak about these things in detail right now. (Heb. 8:13-9:1-5 HCSB)
This passage declares and makes clear several important points. The two covenants are separate. When the Old Covenant disappears (and it has) the New Covenant replaces it. This means the Old, including all the laws contained in it, cannot be even a portion of the foundation that the New has been built upon. Notice that the quoted passage declares that what is gone included “the tablets of the covenant” that represented the Old Covenant and were placed inside the Ark of the Covenant. This is the Written Law chiseled on stone, Therefore the Ten Commandments that Adventist theology teaches is the ‘eternal moral law’ of God is really obsolete and gone.
There is one important prerequisite before anyone of us can truly understand the word of God. You must have the promised indwelling of the Holy Spirit, Eph. 1:13-14. For this to occur in your life you must first accept the gospel message of Jesus Christ, repent of your sins and join the kingdom of God, John 3:5-8. When that has happened in your life, the Holy Spirit brings your spirit to life. It is then that the Holy Spirit will lead you into all God’s truth, John 16:13. While we live, grow and support each other as a community of believers in the Body of Christ, it is the Holy Spirit who does the leading, 1 Cor. 12:1-30.
Summary
- The quarterly lesson begins well enough by quoting several Psalms that magnify God as our Creator but does not make use of the prophetic Messianic Psalms to draw our attention to Jesus Christ the author and finisher of our salvation.
- Then, the statement is made in the lesson; ‘Notice how the psalmist suddenly shifts from discussing God’s glory revealed in the heavens to His revealed word.’ The real and sudden shift is within the lesson itself, not the biblical text. The lesson author leaves the Psalms and focuses on “His revealed word” which is code language for ‘Written Law’, a subject not introduced in the Psalms passages just quoted.
- It is certainly right to call Jesus Christ our Creator and Redeemer. However, to call our Savior ‘the Giver of the Law’ without biblical support is a poor way to build theology and is beside the point anyway. The real issue is who was the Written Law as summarized by the Ten Commandments given to? The inescapable fact is that entire Mosaic Law was contained within a covenant made solely with Israel.
- Jesus is the only one who could and did fulfill the righteous demands of the Covenant made with Israel. His death, burial and resurrection which is the heart of the gospel message points our attention to the faith of Abraham and the unconditional everlasting covenant God made with him. In doing so, Jesus made the Old Covenant, along with the Written Law it contained obsolete by replacing it with a different law written in our hearts, Rom. 8:1-2.
- With the biblical passages referenced in today’s commentary as support, it is clear that the Rev. 14:6-7 passage pictures the worship of God by all the nations and peoples of the earth without the keeping of Written Law of the Old Covenant. Certainly we worship and obey God. With Jesus Christ as our Creator and our Redeemer who rescued us from the bondage of sin why wouldn’t we want to? However, it is not because he may or may not have been the ‘Giver of the Law’, meaning the written Mosaic Law, as assumed in the quarterly lesson.
- The choice is yours. Do you wish to be under the old covenant of slavery or the new covenant of freedom as outlined in Galatians chapter four?
- In Him you also, after listening to the message of the truth, the good news of your salvation, have as believers in Him been sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance, for a redemption through which you become God’s property, and all to the praise of His glory. (Eph 1:13-14 MLB)
Copyright 2011 BibleStudiesForAdventists.com. All rights reserved. Revised August 7, 2011. This website is published by Life Assurance Ministries, Glendale, Arizona, USA, the publisher of Proclamation! Magazine. Contact email: BibleStudiesForAdventists@gmail.com.
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