Why does praise precede confession?

Psalm 95:1–7 (NKJV)

1 Oh come, let us sing to the LORD! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation. 2 Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms. 3 For the LORD is the great God, And the great King above all gods. 4 In His hand are the deep places of the earth; The heights of the hills 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.

In the Reformed tradition of which we are a part, the service of worship has begun with a psalm or hymn of adoration and praise. We are summoned to worship by the minister and then we begin with worship. Why?

The answer, quite simply, is that God is worthy of all the praise we can give Him. And it is this that the psalmist reminds us:

Oh come, let us sing to the LORD! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.

Why should we do this? Why worship and praise Him and enter into His presence with thanksgiving?

For the LORD is the great God, And the great King above all gods. In His hand are the deep places of the earth; The heights of the hills are His also. The sea is His, for He made it; And His hands formed the dry land.

Beloved, we enter here today not just into any place; rather today we enter through the blood of Jesus into the very presence of God Himself, into the Holy of Holies; not into the copy and shadow of the heavenly realities but into heaven itself now to appear before our Great God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. Ought we not to worship Him? Is He not worthy of our praise, worthy of our love and adoration?

And so this is why the Ten Commandments begin with worship, with loyalty to the Creator of all. “You shall have no other gods before me.” God is the One whom we have come here to meet.

So is he the One whom you came here to meet? Were you thinking this morning: Oh that I may enter into the courts of the Lord and proclaim his praise? That I may worship my Creator and Redeemer, that I may hear Him speak to me, that I may feast with Him at his table? Or did you awake just going through the motions?

Beware, brothers and sisters, we are here to worship the Lord, to acknowledge that He is the Lord of glory. Let us not enter into his presence lightly – and as we enter, let us confess our sins. Oh come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker. For He is our God, And we are the people of His pasture, And the sheep of His hand.