Wednesday, June 17, 2020

Worship the Lord with gladness; come into his presence with singing – Psalm 100:2

I really enjoy going to see bands play live and I especially enjoy it when it’s a band I really like. There is a direct correlation between the amount I like a band and the percentage of lyrics I have memorized and I am able to sing along with. So depending on who I’m going to see, there could be anywhere between a few hundred to few thousand other people singing along at the same time. It’s just a really joyful experience to hear a bunch of people connecting over the same words, same tune, same thing.

So, when I was looking at today’s verse I just locked on to the word “singing.” Because for me, I think that one of the more disappointing things about not being able to worship in the same room on Sunday morning is not singing together. Being around all of you is an encouragement to me. Getting to add my voice to a larger group of much better voices during worship, is a highlight in my week.

As I did some reading about this verse, I found the way the word “worship” is used to be interesting. The Hebrew word that we define in English as “worship” would be best understood as some blurred combination of “worship” and “service.”

You could think about it this way…

Because God is GOD (and I’m not), my worship is an act of service to God. But also, the service I do for God (think Jesus in Matthew 25 saying “whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers or sisters of mine, you did for me”) is an act of worship.

While this doesn’t replace the joy or gladness I experience when singing with all of you, it does remind me that there is a whole other component of worship that I can still be engaging with even when we are not together. That to “worship with gladness” is to wake up each day turning from the failings of yesterday and taking steps to bring my actions into alignment with my words (whether they are spoken or sung).

May each one of us embrace today as an opportunity to worship with gladness as we patiently await the day we can again hear one another’s voices as we come into God’s presence with singing.