The Trajectory of Worship

Thursday, March 2, 2017

As Webster tells us that worship involves “paying divine honors to the Supreme Being,” and as we attempt to justly reverence God whom A. W. Pink described as being “solitary in His excellency,” we find that the world, the flesh and the Devil are formidable impediments to said worship.  Satan and his minions are busy seeing to this, while our own flesh is incapable of resisting the steady appeal the world system makes against it.  The normal trajectory of our soul is given to failure.  This is what led the hymn writer to say, “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.”

We are too often ruffled by the frenetic nature of our lives when we should “Be still and know…” that God is God (Ps. 46:10).  We struggle to maintain a happy spirit in a very frustrating world, when Psalm 149:5 says, “Let the saints be joyful in glory: let them sing aloud upon their beds.”  We run about with a frantic fearfulness at times, when we ought to “Wait on the Lord: be of good courage…” (Ps. 27:14).  Because of God’s statutes, our hearts should be sound and unashamed instead of shaken, downcast and desperate (Ps. 119:80).

At the root of this problem with the Christian’s struggle to maintain a life of genuine worship and enjoy the benefits therein, is what I refer to as “soul trajectory.”  The path that we take in our mind and heart on a daily basis will determine the quality of our daily journey.  Psalm 25:1 says, “Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.”  This idea is also stated in great detail in Psalm 86:4-7:

4 Rejoice the soul of thy servant: for unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.

5 For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee.

6 Give ear, O Lord, unto my prayer; and attend to the voice of my supplications.

7 In the day of my trouble I will call upon thee: for thou wilt answer me.

David said in Psalm 5:3, “…in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.”  This is intentional.  You have to turn your thoughts toward God on purpose.  If you wait for inspiration to drive you to worship, you will seldom experience the full blessing of God’s goodness.  This is a challenge for us all.  May we determine to tune our hearts, lift up our souls, set our affections on the Lord of Glory and the many wonders of His word and works.  

A final thought: the kind of prayer that makes this happen involves two things.  David said, “Give ear to my words, O LORD, consider my meditation” (Ps. 5:1).  When we approach God in prayer, there should be words - these are the pieces that make up the mosaic of prayer.  There should also be meditation.  Thoughtfulness should characterize every prayer, as John Gill said, “Meditation is requisite to prayer and should go before it.”  Thinking carefully and crying out to God as a result is the right trajectory for establishing a spirit of worship in our everyday lives.