When traveling, I consider it a great blessing and honor to worship God as part of many different congregations, whether they are in America or somewhere else in the world. One aspect which is always worth concentration is learning to worship in many different ways, forms, and styles. It dawned on me the other Sunday how blessed our God must be to receive not only such a great amount of worship from so many people, but also to receive such a great variety, and to really be able to fully enjoy it all. What must this be like to enjoy it all?!
This thought was prompted by a meditation on 1 Chronicles 15-29 that records King David's restructuring of the worship experience of the People of God and he had the blessing of the Lord Himself on the project. We see the beginnings of this when the Ark returned to Jerusalem, “Then on that day David first appointed that thanksgiving be sung to the LORD by Asaph and his brothers.” (1Chr. 16:7 ESV) David would reform worship so that it would be infused with a new joy. David was a great leader and great worshipper and was able to take the People of God into a future of better worship to be offered up to Yahweh.
Years ago I made a commitment, like many others have, to try to learn and enjoy worshipping the Lord regardless of the environment in which I find myself. I believe those who take this approach grow a lot because of this commitment. I know I have, especially throughout my years in pastoral ministry. I have learned to worship deeper and have a larger vision of God. Congregational worship has always been the highlight of each week.
At the same time, however, we can become frustrated over our own limited capacity for enjoyment during worship as a worshipper. This is because of our finitude and fallenness, even though we are redeemed; and this explains those times of discontentedness in worship we all must confess.
But, God has an infinite capacity to really enjoy the worship from all His people coming from so many cultures, in so many styles, with varying degrees of quality, all along a continuum of development, and even offered through varying degrees of purity! His delight at any given moment from His servants living in the world must be immense! And then, there is the worship of the redeemed in glory from the beginning of redemptive history as well as the worship of the angelic beings, and yes, even the forced worship of the accursed. He is and will be praised by all!
Our Triune God is the Most Blessed of Beings as the 18th century pastor-theologian Jonathan Edwards put it. He is most blessed in and of Himself, of course; and further, He is most blessed by the growing number of worshippers in the world and their seemingly endless variety of offerings of blessing made to Him. Our God, the one and only true God, is awesome in His capacity to receive worship!
May we see more of what an honor it is to worship Him, and to do so in Christ, by the Spirit, and with His People! Surely, this will grow with experience, time, and intentionality. And it will extend far beyond this life throughout all eternity as we comprehend more of who He is and serve Him forever.
This thought was prompted by a meditation on 1 Chronicles 15-29 that records King David's restructuring of the worship experience of the People of God and he had the blessing of the Lord Himself on the project. We see the beginnings of this when the Ark returned to Jerusalem, “Then on that day David first appointed that thanksgiving be sung to the LORD by Asaph and his brothers.” (1Chr. 16:7 ESV) David would reform worship so that it would be infused with a new joy. David was a great leader and great worshipper and was able to take the People of God into a future of better worship to be offered up to Yahweh.
Years ago I made a commitment, like many others have, to try to learn and enjoy worshipping the Lord regardless of the environment in which I find myself. I believe those who take this approach grow a lot because of this commitment. I know I have, especially throughout my years in pastoral ministry. I have learned to worship deeper and have a larger vision of God. Congregational worship has always been the highlight of each week.
At the same time, however, we can become frustrated over our own limited capacity for enjoyment during worship as a worshipper. This is because of our finitude and fallenness, even though we are redeemed; and this explains those times of discontentedness in worship we all must confess.
But, God has an infinite capacity to really enjoy the worship from all His people coming from so many cultures, in so many styles, with varying degrees of quality, all along a continuum of development, and even offered through varying degrees of purity! His delight at any given moment from His servants living in the world must be immense! And then, there is the worship of the redeemed in glory from the beginning of redemptive history as well as the worship of the angelic beings, and yes, even the forced worship of the accursed. He is and will be praised by all!
Our Triune God is the Most Blessed of Beings as the 18th century pastor-theologian Jonathan Edwards put it. He is most blessed in and of Himself, of course; and further, He is most blessed by the growing number of worshippers in the world and their seemingly endless variety of offerings of blessing made to Him. Our God, the one and only true God, is awesome in His capacity to receive worship!
May we see more of what an honor it is to worship Him, and to do so in Christ, by the Spirit, and with His People! Surely, this will grow with experience, time, and intentionality. And it will extend far beyond this life throughout all eternity as we comprehend more of who He is and serve Him forever.
From Paul Best:
ReplyDeleteAs usual Daniel you write with great articulation and got a JE quote. We learned lots about JE and his cohorts when you were in WSBC and Saturday Men's Bible study. We are now doing a study of Psalms (a selection of them) and when we finish that Psalms booklet we'll be ready to begin studying through the Bible again. We will have done EVERY book of the Bible which IVP has a study guide in print. It has been a joy and we always have a great time each Saturday. So glad you started that in 1996 a few more years and we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the group. You'll need to come and have coffee and some treat a join the happy band of study brothers.
That Bible study group has been one of the highlights of my time in ministry. We don't have to wait until 2016 for coffee though. Linda and I will be back in November for the centennial party at WSBC!
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