The Joyful Call To Worship

"Blessed are the people who know the festal shout..." (Psalm 89:15, ESV)
"... You are ever on their lips, but far from their conscience" (Jer. 12:2, HCSB).  
"... Because these people approach Me with their mouths to honor Me with lip-service--yet their hearts are far from Me, and their worship consists of man-made rules learned by rote"  (Isaiah 29:13, HCSB).  
"I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the LORD" (Psalm 122:1, KJV).

God pours out blessings on those who hear the call to worship, who prepare their hearts, and tune in to meditate on His nature and work.  The essence of this is making a "connection" with God as we make "contact" as it were into His dimension and throne room.  Worship is "worth-ship," and we give God His dues respect (render to God what is God's and to Caesar what is Caesar's ).  Worship is an attitude we can take with us beyond the sanctuary to the workplace, doing all, whatever we do, to the glory of God as one theologian espoused (cf. 1 Cor. 10:31).  Work is a form of prayer which is a form of worship, when done to the glory of God, as Augustine of Hippo said, "To work is to pray."  All work can be done to the glory of God (i.e., worship). 

But we should especially rejoice corporately with the body of Christ:  "I was glad when they said unto me, 'Let us go into the house of the LORD.'" (Psalm 122:1, KJV). We can get into a celestial or worship fix by not letting it become perfunctory or routine, or just memorizing the Dance of the Pious, and going through the motions--any lackadaisical spirit can be avoided and changed by adequate preparation--you cannot just expect to walk into the house of the Lord and expect a miracle at the door!

The point is to spread the cheer: "Once you've experienced it, you want to pass it on!"  Church is a spiritual checkup when we take inventory of our soul's needs and condition, but we must learn that it's not about us!  We must learn to focus on God; getting our eyes off ourselves and our problems long enough to realize the divine. Some may need to get into the mood so to speak, realizing that worship is not passive nor vicarious--we don't admire someone else worshiping!

The call to worship involves both thanking God for what He's done and praising Him for who He is!  When we do this we realize the inherent power of praise, for God inhabits the praises of His people (cf. Psalm 22:3).  This will help us to cultivate a heart of praise and worship as we learn to have the right attitude that no one can take away.   The real key to worship is the measure of our surrender, not the amount of the Spirit we have, but how much of the us the Spirit has.  We rightly submit to God's ownership of our soul.  We don't want to be like those who are the nod to God crowd on Sunday and go about their regular routine on Monday--we want the experience to last and to grow in us.  Some merely offer lip service to God and don't have their hearts in the right place!  But we must realize that there is no "one-size-fits-all" manner or style of worship, we are all built differently and find fulfillment in different ways.

But one thing is sure:  we are hard-wired and designed for worshiping God and won't be fulfilled without doing it.  Dostoevsky said that if we don't worship God, we'll worship something or someone else.  Woe to him who strives with his Maker (cf. Isa. 45:9).  Worship should be seen as a privilege and honor and we can say, "I get to worship!" For this reason, worship ought not ever to become blase!   Church is more than a social event and worship more than an existential encounter (it must be put into action as we turn our convictions and creeds into deeds).   The whole purpose is to get our batteries recharged and to get right with God, back into His service, and to learn more to seek His face and make course corrections in our life.

Malachi was written to those in Israel whose worship had become a sham, mockery, and travesty--and they were not taking it seriously--but their worship had become an insult to the grace of God all because their hearts were not right with Him and they didn't give Him His rightful place, playing church and he exposed the formalism of the worshiping--they were in a worship rut and this is what the doctor ordered:  a spiritual workout!   God frowns upon mere lip service and the memorizing of the Dance of the Pious (cf. above:  Jer. 12:2; Isaiah 29:13).   Soli Deo Gloria!

God's Vindication In Our Adversities

"I cry out to God Most High, to God who will fulfill his purpose for me" (Psalm 57:2, NLT).
"The LORD will work out his plans for my life..." (Psalm 138:8, NLT).
"So he will do to me whatever he has planned. He controls my destiny" (Job 23:14, NLT).
"But he knows where I am going.  And when he tests me, I will come out as pure as gold" (Job 23:10, NLT) 
"This is not a reference to David, for after David had done the will of God in his own generation, he died as was buried" (Acts 13:36, NLT).

When David was in the cave of Adullam he sought the Lord Most High for his vindication because he knew he was the future king and that king Saul unlawfully sought him.  Saul didn't see him, even when David cut off his robe (what faith!), but David knew that God saw him and he couldn't hide from Him--who always knows where we are. But David may have had his doubts and confusion, and he knew where to go for aid and comfort! He also knew how big God was and that God could meet his every need.

He may even have thought of what Jacob said upon awakening from his dream;  "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it" (cf. Gen. 28:16, HCSB).   As David prayed in Psalm 32:7, "For you are my hiding place."  He never doubted the whereabouts of his God!  And what the Lord told Joshua:  "... Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go" (Josh. 1:9, HCSB).  He knew that God was on his side (cf. Ps. 118:6), that God believed in him and was with him in essence.

It was time to believe God for a miracle and God came through. As it is written in 1 Sam. 30:6, NLT, "... But David found strength in the LORD his God."   He also found out that he had a faith worth dying for, not just one he could live with. Then he left the cave!   And David kept the faith that God would fulfill His purpose for him (cf. Psalm 57:2, NLT) and that he was willing to wait on the Lord and His timing.  God will never let us down but is the great Promise Keeper and that we can always count on.  I'm sure he kept his mind on his mission and calling like Paul:  "But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus..." (Acts 20:24). David considered that God was offering a way through the crisis, not a way out!

God has no Plan B as it were and we can be assured His will is done, with or without cooperation.  "...[F]or he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to His plan" (Eph. 1:11, HCSB). To the seasoned believer, being part of God's plan and seeing God at work through him is a satisfaction.  We ought always to seek God's will on earth and realize we are just vessels of honor that have the privilege of being used for His glory:  "The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever" (The Westminster Shorter Catechism, cf. Isaiah 43:7).  We will all realize in the glory that we were only actors in a play directed by God who appears front and center as the theme.  When David was seeking vindication, he was really seeking the Lord's vindication and that God would make good on the anointing he had received from Samuel.

We all have a limited perspective on life, but when God opens our spiritual eyes we see the big picture and can live with a higher purpose. The scope of the unbeliever is merely mundane and God is not in the picture.   David had a sense of purpose because he knew God was in control--there was a reason for everything (cf. Prov. 16:4)--no flukes in history.  Once we've experienced God, nothing else satisfies.  Zeal for God involves a zeal for the Word and a desire to uphold its integrity. That's why God frowns upon ignorant zeal or not according to knowledge (cf. Rom. 10:2).  But when David had completed God's will he departed this life (cf. Acts 13:36).

David's faith withstood the loneliness, confusion, and doubt of the cave of Adullam, but faith must be tried as if by fire in the crucible of life's adversities to be proven genuine because it's more valuable than silver or gold and we all should know that nothing in life that's worth it is easy to come by; likewise, if faith weren't difficult and tried and true, even with a stiff upper lip at times, it wouldn't be worth much! ["... For he gets their attention through adversity" (cf. Job 36:15, NLT)].   David's faith wasn't a "do-it-yourself" proposition nor did he believe in just lifting himself up by his bootstraps or that God just helps those who help themselves, but he had faith in a BIG God that was able to come to his rescue for all his needs and fears. 

The point is that it doesn't matter how big your faith it, but how big your God is--big faith in a little God isn't adequate.  NOTHING EASY TO DO IS WORTH MUCH!    Soli Deo Gloria!