May 14 • Bible Reading from Psalm 95:1-7 Worship.
Behaviour: "What is the chief end of man and woman? To worship God and
enjoy Him forever."
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Text:
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.
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Take a minute:
What are the overarching reasons to worship God?
Offer God your devotion in prayer and an action that represents
‘kneeling before the LORD your Maker.'
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Daily readings for "Followers of the Way" - at Menai Baptist Church. Life words from God's word, the bible, helping you focus on a new aspect of God's way for living. Space available for you to comment, or join in discussion with others who are travelling the way.
2 comments:
Although one can surely worship without singing, we can't ignore the emphasis in Scripture....
Take Colossians 3:16 for example
"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, [by means of]singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, [singing] with thanksfulness in your hearts to God"
Sam Storms in his book "The Singing God" answers the question...
"But why singing? Why not just speak your praise to God?"
"Singing enables the soul to express deeply felt emotions that mere speaking cannot.
Singing channels our spiritual energy in a way that nothing else can.
Singing evokes an intensity of mind and spirit.
It opens the door to ideas, feelings, and affections that otherwise might have remained foreever imprisoned in the depths of one's heart.
Singing gives focus and clarity to what words alone often make fuzzy.
It lifts our hearts to new heights of contemplation.
It stirs our hope to unprecedented levels of expectancy and delight.
Singing sensitizes.
It softens the soul to hear God's voice and quickens the will to obey.
I can only speak for myself, but when I'm happy I sing.
When my joy increases it cries for an outlet. So I sing.
When I'm touched with a renewed sense of forgiveness, I sing.
When God's grace shines yet again on my darkened path, I sing.
When I'm lonely and long for the intamacy of God's presence, I sing.
When I need respite from the chaos of a world run amok, I sing.
Nothing else can do for me what music does. It bathes otherwise arid ideas in refreshing waters. It empowers my wandering mind to concentrate with energetic intensity. It stirs my heart to tell the Lord just how much I love Him, again and again and again, without the slightest tinge of repetitive boredom."
Remember also the words of Jesus in Matthew 15:7-9
"...this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me"...
you can worship God by singing and shouting and dancing and loud declarations of loyalty and love and have it all be vanity!
If the heart is not engaged, worship is a sham.
Whatever else our worship may entail, regardless of the style we prefer, no matter the form or freedom in which it is expressed, let us labor by the grace of the Holy Spirit to "sing", to "God", with "thanksgiving", in our "hearts".
Shalom
"if our heart is not engaged, then worship is a sham."
Nicely put Greggers. I felt that theme impressed on me when reading this reading yesterday: that with enormous goodness which God has and is - it pulls in our heart (i.e. will) & feelings and mind too...
So, let us SING! I reckon singing is just one of a whole set of ways we have available, to "kneel before the LORD our maker."
But it IS such an enjoyable one. Who could remain down on jublilant singing to God, without becoming a spiritual sourpuss?! Noone I know
AH
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