S182P6 – Characters in the Psalms: the worship leader
Psa. 95:1-7a
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. 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. 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.
When I started studying the Bible as a young adult, just about all of my friends came from the young adult service I attended regularly. Most of us were still pretty young and without children or spouses, so our time was available for us to use as we pleased. I spent way too many evenings staying up late playing games or eating junk food when I should have been getting sleep. Sometimes, these times of fellowship were not so much about entertainment as they were about worship. There were some who were very good at redirecting the group to our primary focus. They did not want to watch movies or go out to eat but wanted to motivate us to spend our time together praising our Lord.
Life is about balance, and we all have many responsibilities which take up the hours of our days. Time that we might choose to spend praising the Lord is spent working or doing chores or taking care of any of a dozen other necessary tasks of life. We do not have the luxury of spending every waking moment in worship, but that does not mean that we praise God enough. I read the words in this passage, and I see a picture of a man who was prepared to praise the Lord now. His call was for those listening to join in worship with him. Perhaps he understood the importance and power of glorifying God corporately with our praises, or perhaps he just wanted the people to give God more of what He deserves.
We cannot spend every waking moment praising and worshipping God with our lips, but we can be prepared to do that at all times. Regardless of the season we are in, regardless of the company we are in, our hearts should be motivated and ready to praise the Lord always. Within the Church, we should not have just some who are ready to lead the rest like the Psalmist here. The hope is that all of us would have this kind of heart of worship, that we would want to praise God now and always invite the saints to join us simply because He is worthy. Father, help us come to a place where we are ready and willing to praise You in every season, inviting the saints to join us in worshipping You.