Thursday, January 6

Thursday

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.  In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him.  The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.  Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker; for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care.     – Psalm 95:1-7

The heart of this Psalm is an invitation to worship.  The Psalmist makes several different appeals for God’s people to come and worship Him.  Each appeal (there are at least 3 that I see in this Psalm) is to a different aspect of the individual and taken all together, these three appeals tell us something very important about the nature of Christian worship.   

The first appeal is right there in the very first verse.  Notice the phrases; “sing for joy”, and “shout aloud”.  This is an emotional appeal.  The Psalmist is telling us to worship God through feeling and emotion.  Of course, we should feel something when we come to worship our God.  If you can sing of God’s incredible power, creativity love, grace, justice, mercy, compassion, righteousness, kindness and forgiveness without feeling any sense of joy or awe, then you might be able to carry a tune, but you are not worshiping!

The second appeal comes in the very next verse.  Notice how the Psalmist says, “For the LORD is…” and then goes on to list just who God is and what He has done.  This is a rational appeal, it is an appeal to our reason.  In effect, the Psalmist says, look around you, see what God has done, reflect on the beauty of creation and the wonder of life, think about these things, and see if you are not moved to worship the one who is responsible for it all.  This means that thinking, as well as feeling, are a part of what it means to worship.  You may go to a worship service and be deeply moved by the power of the music.  You can feel inspired and uplifted, but if your mind is not engaged and directed toward the Almighty God, then you are not really worshipping, you are just having an emotional experience.

The third appeal is found in the final sentence of this passage. The Psalmist calls us to come and bow down, to kneel before God.  Kneeling and bowing the head were signs of humility and reverence.  It requires an intentional decision to kneel, you must choose to bow before God.  The appeal here is not just to feel and think, but to do something in response.  This is an appeal to our will.  True worship must impact more that our heads and our hearts, it must change our lives – it must impact the way that we live.  You can have an emotional experience, you can even think heavenly thoughts, but if your life is not impacted at all by what you think or feel, then you are not worshipping God!

Do you see how all-encompassing worship is for the Christian?  God wants all of us; heart, head and body.  This is a challenging call!  Many churches and individuals overemphasize one aspect of worship to exclusion of the others.  There are some that are all feeling and emotion when it comes to worship, but they are not grounded in the truth and there is no engagement of the mind for God.  There are others who have relegated worship to merely good theology or sound doctrine, but it is devoid of life and the Spirit.  There are even those who think the only way to truly worship God is to be an activist, to get out and do something for Him.  But too often these activists lose sight of why they are doing what they are doing and who they are doing it for.

I think we all have a kind of natural worship temperament.  We kind of have a natural bent toward one of these three appeals.  This is a good thing, I believe it is even a God-given thing.  My natural bent is the rational approach.  I love to read and study and think about God.  However, this does not mean that I get a pass on the other aspects of who I am.  My worship is incomplete and unhealthy, and displeasing to God if I never engage my heart and if it does not translate into my everyday life. 

What about you?  What is your worship temperament?  Are you more of a thinker, feeler, or doer when it comes to worshiping God?  Which of the three appeals is most difficult for you?  In which area do you struggle to engage with God?  Take a few moments to thank God for the temperament He has given you and ask Him to help you learn to worship you with all of who you are.