wor·ship
by Renée Harms
Recently a friend recounted to me a worship experience she had just had where she hadn't felt like being worshipful. It took place after a church gathering during which some heavy things had been expressed. She said, "At the end of the meeting, a woman got up to lead us in worship, but I didn't feel like worshiping at all!"
I have to admit I resonated with those feelings. There has certainly been more than one occasion when, for one reason or another, I have not felt like participating in spiritual worship, when it has almost felt like I'm forcing it. Maybe I've had a disagreement with someone, or life situations are overwhelming me, or I don't think God is being fair. I can think of times when, standing amidst a throng of worshipers, I feel suddenly out of place, uncomfortable, resistant-and I don't feel like worshiping.
Perhaps that means I have lost the true meaning of worship.
In Webster's Dictionary you'll find worship defined this way:
1. To respect; to honor; to treat with civil reverence.
2. To pay divine honors to; to reverence with supreme respect and veneration; to perform religious exercises in honor of; to adore; to venerate.
3. To honor with extravagant love and extreme submission, as a lover; to adore; to idolize.
Put in those terms, worship is about much more than feelings. And it has nothing to do with me. The Psalmists knew quite well what worship was all about. Read any of the songs of praise, and you get the idea:
Psalm 92
1 It is good to praise the LORD
and make music to your name, O Most High,
2 to proclaim your love in the morning
and your faithfulness at night,
3 to the music of the ten-stringed lyre
and the melody of the harp.
4 For you make me glad by your deeds, O LORD;
I sing for joy at the works of your hands.
5 How great are your works, O LORD,
how profound your thoughts!
Worship puts things into perspective when we focus on the characteristics of God: just, righteous, faithful, good, creator, merciful, kind, mighty, wise, powerful, constant, loving, eternal. When we focus on these aspects of God, we are reminded that God is God, we are His, and everything else is just, well, everything else.
Psalm 100
1 Sing to the LORD, all the world!
2 Worship the LORD with joy;
come before him with happy songs!
3 Acknowledge that the LORD is God.
He made us, and we belong to him;
we are his people, we are his flock.
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