Our worship begins and ends with God. We have an audience of One. We glorify Him! We praise Him! We magnify Him! We exalt the Lord Jesus! And beautifully, we are empowered by the Holy Spirit to do so. Jesus said that the greatest of the commandments was . . . "to love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind and strength" and the second . . . "love your neighbor as yourself". Sadly for some in the church, worship has just become a perfunctory habit. Too many times we just go through the motions. There should be joy and lament. There should be enthusiasm and reverence. We gather to glorify Him and to seek and experience His presence among us. We should do it with passion realizing we don't "perform" music for music's sake and that our own preferences have little to do with our glorifying Him! If it is not that way when the body gathers, it will never be that way outside the walls of the church.
In Psalm 40 we find that King David has spent much time in prayer waiting before the Lord and crying out to Him in repentance. God hears His cry, lifts him up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay and sets his feet on a rock as a firm foundation. David's life has now been cleaned up and his footsteps and faith reestablished. So, then look what happens as a result in verse 3: "He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord." I have mentioned this passage many times and the interesting choice of words, "many will see and fear". They didn't notice the beauty of David's music. They didn't notice his technical accuracy and that he knew how music was to be performed. God's Word says many will see and fear because of the outward expression of David's life, and love for the one of Whom he was singing.
We all have been given the new song. Are people seeing Him in our song? That is the only way they too will experience His power and presence in their lives. mjm
A Melody from Michael J. . . . a Personal and Worship Blog
