Insights from Psalm 95

Best-selling author, speaker, and advocate for Christian apologetics, Dr. Alex McFarland.

Best-selling author and apologist, Dylan Burrows. Together bringing you truth. For a new generation, this is TNG Radio. Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord. Let us shout aloud to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song.

For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods. With that scripture from Psalm 95, I welcome you to today's edition of TNG Radio. Truth for a new generation, Alex McFarland here. Glad to be with you. And as always, my brother, colleague, and friend, Dylan Burrows. Hello, my friend.

Hello, great to be with you, and what a wonderful topic to be talking about. Praising God. What scripture says about it and how it should affect our lives even now. Three thousand years after some of these psalms have been written, taking time to give praise to our Lord. Well, you know, this is a show about apologetics and defending the faith and the evidence for Christianity.

But, you know, Dylan, you and I have talked about it before. I actually think the demeanor of the Christian and the way that we act and the way we react is a witness for Christ. I mean, you know, we can do apologetics, but we ourselves are to be an apologetic. 1 Peter 3.15 is a very famous verse.

Be ready always to give an answer. I also love 1 Peter 2.15 that says, This is the will of God that by doing well you will put to silence the arguments of foolish men. In other words, the way we live should also point to the authenticity of Christianity.

And I think being grateful is a way to show the reality of God in our lives, to have a grateful, a thankful spirit. Many people have heard of Matthew Henry. Matthew Henry's commentary has been around for a long, long time. Dylan, how old is Matthew Henry's commentary? I mean, it's probably a hundred and fifty years old, maybe, or more.

It's even more. It goes back to the 1600s during the time of the Puritans and was a commentary used by many of the early American pastors and leaders and continues to even be one of the more popular commentaries today. Well, Matthew Henry was renowned for being a thankful Christian, and he was always seeing the bright side. And one day in Boston, he was mugged.

He was beaten up and robbed, and he was recuperating from this. And one of his friends came and said, well, you know, you're always praising God. You're always being thankful.

Are you thankful for this? And Matthew Henry said, oh yes, absolutely. And he said, look, while they knocked me down, they didn't really hurt me. And they took my wallet, but it wasn't much. And it was an opportunity to witness to those two young men that mugged me. I was lying on the ground, and I was telling them about Jesus. So indeed, I am thankful.

And their friend said, okay, okay, we get it. You can give thanks in all things. And I think about that, though, that we do have reasons to praise God. And from Psalm 95, in the spirit of the Christian life and looking at our days from a scripturally informed vantage point, we're going to talk about reasons to praise God. And the first of these, I would say, Dylan, that we praise God for who He is, the true and living God. Psalm 95 says, let us shout to the Lord joy, praise Him for the rock of our salvation. I mean, isn't it worth getting excited about and thanking God for who He is?

And it's so true. Oftentimes we take for granted the fact that God has created us, that He sustains us for those of us who believe that He has changed us and changed our lives and lives of those around us. But when we stop and we pause and we think about who God is, what He has done in our lives, it should cause us to praise. Even in the hardest of times, I was looking recently at the book of Job and his story of all the hardship that happened to him, losing family members, losing sons and daughters, and all of his income in the same day. And I said, well, how did he respond that made him such a legacy for years to follow? And you look at his response and it says that he grieved, but he also worshiped the Lord. His response, even in the worst of times, was to worship God, something that's an example still for us today. Amen.

Amen. Psalm 95 two and three says, let us come before God with thanksgiving, extol Him with music and song, for the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods. You know, growing up, rock and roll and bands were very much a part of my interests growing up as a teenager, and I remember that a lot of rock musicians were often called gods.

They were the guitar gods, and there were all sorts of musical icons, and we've even had a popular show in recent years, American Idol. I-d-o-l. And you know, we're not supposed to be idolaters. But yet there are in this world people and things that become God-like. But the Bible says that the Lord, the true living God, the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, the triune God of the Bible, is the eternal King above all kings, the name above all names. Acts four verse twelve, speaking of Jesus, says there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.

God is the true and living God. Dylan, did you ever see the movie The Ten Commandments, the very famous Cecil B. DeMille with Joel Brenner and Charlton Heston? Do you watch that movie sometimes? Yes, I remember that even as a child, that's standing out in my memory of Moses coming down at the Ten Commandments, and just one of those vivid films that you see growing up that stays with you forever. Well, the Egyptian pharaoh has fought the God of Israel, doesn't want to let the people go, and the plagues of Egypt happen, and finally, in one moment, is very intense, the pharaoh admits defeat, the gods of Egypt can't stand against the true God of Israel, and Pharaoh says, it's Joel Brenner in great acting, he says, Moses' God is God.

And that's true. We praise God for who He is. In a world of imitation, the God of the Bible is reality. In a world of imposters and deceivers, God is the true and living Savior, and you can depend on Him and His Word. And so we begin this look at Psalm 95, giving reasons to praise God, and ultimately, to let it shape our life, our walk and our witness. For one thing, praise God for who He is. He really is the Savior, and He really is the King of all eternity, and this God that we may personally know. And Psalm 95 breaks into four parts, and we're going to talk about the second part when we come back about praising God because of His power and work as owner of all creation. So stick with us.

We'll be right back at Truth For A New Generation Radio. Explore is the evidence of the Bible's inspiration and authority through some of the world's most respected biblical scholars. We have essentially a dual authorship, so it's true to say that Paul wrote Romans. It's equally true to say that God wrote Romans. He says, we saw this, and that sets the Bible apart from almost everything else in the ancient world and its religious pantheon of gods and goddesses. The God Who Speaks is a feature-length documentary from the American Family Association.

Available now at thegodwhospeeks.org. First Peter 3.15 tells us to be ready always to give an answer for the hope we have. We're instructed to be prepared to defend our faith. This is Alex McFarland for the Life Answers Team, students we train at North Greenville University, a leading Christian college in South Carolina. The Life Answers Teams are made up of students who will inspire and equip your congregation. These apologetics teams we train speak in churches to youth groups and train Christians of all ages to address key issues of our times from a biblical perspective. Like, is there a God?

Is the Bible true? What about gender and moral issues? Call me at 864-977-2008 and we will arrange for the Life Answers Team to come to your church and give a presentation that will benefit your people for years to come. 864-977-2008 and always be ready. Welcome back to the program.

Alex McFarland here with Dylan Burrows. So glad you're listening to TNG Radio. We just want to say a big thanks to all the people who were at the most recent Truth for New Generation Conference. We do have a couple of other conferences in 2018, one in Tennessee, one in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and you can find out the tour schedule for the Save America Tour. That's our theme, save a nation. And we know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is what America needs.

Equipping the church to present, explain, defend the faith is what God has called us to do. And I want to encourage you to go to the Truth for a New Generation website, truthforanewgeneration.com, and you can find out where we're going with this tour. I do want to encourage you, your prayers and support are enabling us to go to cities. And Dylan, it's great to do events in churches where people enthusiastically hear speakers like Josh McDowell and Lee Strobel and the great people that God allows us to work with. But I want to say this, we've got a vision to go to places like Berkeley, Dearborn, Michigan, Newark, New Jersey, Hammond, Indiana. God has put on my heart that we need to return to the Upper Northeast. We did an event in New Haven, Connecticut at Yale University a few years ago, and it was very well received. In fact, I'm told it was the largest Christian gathering in New Haven, Connecticut in a hundred years. Well, we want to go back there.

We want to go to the Upper Northwest, Seattle, Portland, Idaho, places that don't get citywide multi-church, multi-denominational Christian outreach events. So follow us. And what God is doing in this ministry, your prayers, your support will enable us to do what we've been doing, are doing, and we believe that God has called us to do, which is to equip the saved and persuade the lost.

Amen. And I was so excited at a recent conference for Truth For A New Generation to see people like Kamal Saleem, to share his testimony of coming out of Islamic extremism, coming to faith in Jesus. And now he's an evangelist to not only people of Muslim background, but to people all over the United States sharing his story, how God radically changed him, and how God can change others. There are a couple of ways you can see revival happen in our country. One is to go into churches and to get people fired up about Jesus again, to restore that passion and get people going out and sharing their faith in our communities.

And we've been doing that. But we also want to do what you've talked about, which is going directly to the mission field, going to where people are who oppose the Christian message or who are not aware of the true Christian message, and sharing with them our faith in Jesus Christ in a compelling and compassionate and convicting way that brings people to faith in Jesus, that gets people to recognize the impact that their sin has on their lives both now and for eternity, and to see a new generation do what you're talking about, to save a nation and to see revival happen here in the United States. And that's what inspires me. As we look back at Psalm 95, we praise God for who He is, but also what He's done. And that continues in looking at creation. Verse 4 of Psalm 95 says, In His hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to Him. Now, I've had the opportunity to go to Pikes Peak in Colorado, and you see the majesty of the mountains, and you say, God, this is beautiful. What an amazing act of creation. And when we see things like this, it should inspire our hearts to see God as great, as mighty and powerful, and to give Him praise, shouldn't it?

Absolutely. You know, in my home state of western North Carolina, there are a lot of mountains, and oftentimes a lot of these mountains are owned by families. You know, one of the great attractions on the east coast is Grandfather Mountain, with its famous mile-high swinging bridge. And I'm told that a certain family has owned that for well over a century. But in reality, all of creation is owned by God. It says in Psalm 95 that the mountain peaks belong to Him. You know, we get a deed to our property, or if we buy a house or something like that, we think that on the plat, or on the blueprint, our name might be, but really all of the world belongs to God, and we praise Him for His ownership of creation. You know, Dylan, in the book of Revelation, there's a scroll, and John weeps because no man is worthy to open the scroll. People have wondered, what is the scroll? And some have said that it's the title deed to planet Earth. And who was worthy to open the scroll? Who really had the authority to claim ownership of the scroll?

It was Jesus. Because really, He is, according to the Bible, that He is the heir of all things. In other words, the world belongs to Him. The Bible says, in His hand are the depths of the earth, the mountain peaks belong to Him, the sea is His, for He made it, and His hands formed the dry land. Now friend, we praise God because the Creator really owns the creation.

Now let me personalize this just a little bit. In 1 Corinthians 6, 19 and 20, this is a verse that, Dylan, the longer I've been a Christian, the more it really means to me, is that we are not our own. We are bought with a price. God owns us.

In a two-fold sense, doesn't He? God owns us by virtue of creation. God owns us by virtue of salvation.

You know, we are not owners, we're stewards. And even our body, Dylan, sometimes when I speak at university, students will say, you know, why can't I do this or that? Or what's wrong with drugs? I mean, my body is my own. Nobody can tell me what I can or can't do with my body. But really, I think we're supposed to take care of ourselves because, in a very real sense, we're not our own. If you're a Christian, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, and we need to maybe shore up the care and feeding of the temple. We need to take care of our bodies because, in a very real sense, our lives, all that we are and all that we have, they don't belong to us. They belong to God.

And that's a very convicting thought. Many of us do not see that biblical view of our body as part of our witness, but when we do, we realize the way we treat ourselves, the way we take care of our bodies or don't take care of our bodies influences our view of God. It influences how others perceive God. So if they looked at you and saw how you treated your body, how you lived your life, what you did in your time, what would they see? And again, for many of us, that would be convicting, the way we eat sometimes, what we drink or don't drink, our purity issues.

These are all things that God cares about and we must have in line with what He teaches and reveals for our lives. So when we come back, we're going to talk more about this on Truth For A New Generation. Stick with us.

We'll be right back. Truth For A New Generation is here to equip Christians with a biblical worldview through conferences and camps. And speaking about camps, registration is now underway for the TNG Summer Youth Apologetics Camp, happening July 22nd through 26th at North Greenville University in South Carolina.

Alex McFarland will be there along with Tony Beam. He's the Vice President for Student Services and Christian Worldview at NGU. They'll engage your youth on topics like, If God is so good, why is the world so bad? Understanding and applying what God's Word says about gender and a whole lot more, 15 apologetic and worldview training sessions in all, along with a field trip to the Billy Graham Center. And of course, outdoor fun and games.

And don't forget about the food, great food, enough to fill them up and keep them going. Find out more about the 2018 TNG Summer Youth Apologetics Camp when you visit truthforanewgeneration.com. If you're a Christian parent, you of course want to instill a biblical view of life in the hearts of your children. If you're a pastor, you want to offer ministry that draws young families to your church. This is Alex McFarland encouraging you to check out my new book and video curriculum, The 21 Toughest Questions Your Kids Will Ask About Christianity. Why do bad things happen? I interviewed hundreds of children, ages 5 to 12, and we address actual questions from actual children, the spiritual issues that are on the minds of your kids.

Did Jesus ever sin? The book and video lessons are great for groups of any size and was produced with the goal of equipping kids to stand strong for Christ in any situation. The 21 Toughest Questions Your Kids Will Ask, the book, study guide and video series. You'll find it at afastore.net.

That's afastore.net. Welcome back to TNG Radio. Alex McFarland, Dylan Burrows, we're so glad that you're listening and we're talking about the reasons to praise God. You know, there's a famous old song. It says, count your blessings, name them one by one and it will surprise you what the Lord has done. And you know, I really do, I'm not trying to be like a Pollyanna or, you know, see the world through rose-colored glasses, but there really is so much to be thankful for. My goodness, if you have gone to any developing nations and, you know, third-world countries, so many things that will be taken for granted here in America, the people in the third-world countries, I mean, they would be amazed at what we have. And you know, I'm not saying we have to beat ourselves up.

I mean, we've been blessed. But Dylan, I was on the road traveling on a mission trip a couple of years ago, and for 21 days we were in a very destitute part of the world. And oh man, I was craving a diet soda. You know, sometimes I'll drink a diet soda to get that jolt of caffeine, but where we were, you know, we just couldn't have one. I mean, there were no stores or anything like that. We were in a part of South Africa, in Zambia actually.

And I began to think, wow, any day of the week I can, you know, grab a diet soda, but when you're in Zambia, you just, you can go forever without a diet soda, and it makes you grateful. We live in a land of such abundance. And we praise God for the blessings of life. We're talking about praising Him for creation. But in the final moments here, let's praise Him for our relationship with Him and the way He deals with us. Psalm 95 says, Come, let us bow down in worship. Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. Verse 7, For He is our God, and we are the people of His pastures, and the flock under His care. Praise God for all the blessings of life, most foundationally for the fact that we have a relationship with Him. Yes, and I want to encourage people who are listening, maybe you go to church every Sunday and you listen to the songs and you think, maybe that song really touched me, or that song wasn't quite like I wanted, or we didn't play my favorite song, or I don't like that person's guitar, or that person's drums, or whatever your issues might be.

These are not the main things. The main things are clearly laid out for us in Scripture, and it focuses not on technique or style, but on reverence. Verse 6, as you mentioned, says, Let us bow down in worship. Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. I have a feeling that if we took this more seriously and more of us spent time bowing down in worship and kneeling before the Lord and we gathered on a Sunday morning in our worship services, we would have a better attitude of praise to our God. We tend to focus on the superficial in our churches versus the most essential things in our churches, and I think this passage is a good one that calls us to what really matters. It says, He is our God. We are the people of His pasture.

That is the relationship we have. We are the flock under His care. So I appreciate you bringing that out, but this last point that Psalm 95 gives us is to praise God for His patience in dealing with us. Now, I will be the first to admit I am so thankful for God's patience because I have needed it time and time and time again, just as the people of Israel drilled there long ago. Well, amen.

Amen. You know, it goes on, it says, Today if you would hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah. And it talks about a couple of times in the wilderness where the people in the book of Exodus, they were quarreling with Moses, they were murmuring, and God had to reprimand them. And it says, Your ancestors tested me, they tried me, though they had seen what I did. I mean, the Israelites that had been delivered from slavery in Egypt, and they were on their way to a beautiful promised land God was giving them. Along the way, God protected them, God preserved them, God provided for them, and yet they were angry.

And there was a price to pay. God says, Hey, be grateful. Praise Him because He deals with us patiently. God is very merciful.

And it goes on in Psalm 95, it says, Don t let your heart go astray. And the people experienced wandering, and they were, because, let me say this, God always acts redemptively. God doesn t punish just to be cruel. In fact, oftentimes God s reprimands are great evidence of His mercy, because God is always trying through words, through circumstances, through the Holy Spirit speaking to our heart and calling out to us. God is always trying to act redemptively to draw us to Himself, who is life. And, Dylan, I think that we ve got a lot of reason to praise God, not the least of which is for His patience.

And let me throw a thought out here, and then you comment if you would, Dylan. I was at a university to speak not too long ago when somebody said, Why does God cause us to worship Him? I mean, is God up in heaven on some ego trip? He s like some cosmic egoist. He says to all of the human race, Hey, worship me.

What s up with that? And I said, Listen, even in calling us to worship Him, God is showing us love. Because think about it, if every human in the world worshipped God, would that make God bigger, or would that somehow aggrandize Him?

No. I mean, He s God. He doesn t need anything.

He doesn t lack anything. If nobody worshipped God, or if everybody came to the Lord, that would not change God, because Malachi 3 says, I the Lord change not. Hebrews 13 says that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So us worshipping God doesn t change God, but it does change us. In fact, as the eternal God who is the foundation of life, God is, as the philosophers would say, God is the ground of moral reality.

In fact, God is the foundation of reality itself. In patiently calling us to Himself, as John 10 says, it s giving us life, eternal life, abundant life. Even in calling us to worship, God is showing us love, because the most alive we will ever be is the time that we re closest to God our Savior and Maker.

And that s a great closing thought, Alex. I think of the saying that a moment in God s presence changes everything, and I ve experienced that myself. You probably have as well, that when everything is falling apart and you pause and you focus on the Lord and you worship Him at the depths of your darkest days, He changes you, and He does something special in your life that can keep you moving forward and living and serving Him. If you ve been listening today and perhaps you ve been falling away, maybe you ve been discouraged, maybe you ve gone your own way and you think, I don t know if I can come back to God at this point.

That is not true. God wants you to turn to Him now. He wants you to focus on Him, to worship Him, and He wants to restore that passion in your life so that you can be part of what we are doing here at Truth For A New Generation to make a difference in this world and a difference for eternity.

He has made you on purpose and for purpose. We appreciate you being with us and encourage you to join us at truthforanewgeneration.com. Thanks for joining us.

We ll talk to you next time. Truth For A New Generation, in association with Alex McFarland Evangelistic Ministries, exists to equip Christians with a biblical world view through conferences and camps. For information about upcoming events, visit truthforanewgeneration.com or give us a call at 877-YesGod1. That s 877-YesGod and the number 1. TNG radio is made possible by the friends of Alex McFarland Evangelistic Ministries, P.O. Box 485, Pleasant Garden, North Carolina, 27313. That s P.O. Box 485, Pleasant Garden, North Carolina, 27313. Or give online at alexmcfarland.com or truthforanewgeneration.com. Thanks for listening and join us again next time as we bring you more truth for a new generation on TNG radio.