Call to worship

Below is my devotional for today, I thought it was worth sharing.

Come, let’s shout praises to God, raise the roof for the Rock who saved us! Let’s march into his presence singing praises, lifting the rafters with our hymns! And why? Because God is the best, High King over all the gods. In one hand he holds deep caves and caverns, in the other hand grasps the high mountains. He made Ocean—he owns it! His hands sculpted Earth! So come, let us worship: bow before him, on your knees before God, who made us! Oh yes, he’s our God, and we’re the people he pastures, the flock he feeds. Drop everything and listen, listen as he speaks: “Don’t turn a deaf ear as in the Bitter Uprising, As on the day of the Wilderness Test, when your ancestors turned and put me to the test. For forty years they watched me at work among them, as over and over they tried my patience. And I was provoked—oh, was I provoked! ‘Can’t they keep their minds on God for five minutes? Do they simply refuse to walk down my road?’ Exasperated, I exploded, ‘They’ll never get where they’re headed, never be able to sit down and rest.’” (Psalm 95:1-11 MSG)

Twice the psalmist invites us to come before God in praise and worship (95:1, 6). Worship requires relocation. We must leave where we are and enter a place where God can be exalted and glorified. This is not primarily a physical location as much as it is a spiritual and emotional one. It has less to do with our surroundings as with our attention, where and on whom it is focused.

For ancient Israel the call to worship the Lord, “the great King above all gods,” meant that they could no longer dally with idols. To truly worship they must focus on the true God whose awesome grandeur can be perceived in His creation. Israel had to come out of their tendency to bitterly complain against God whenever they felt their needs and comfort were not being sufficiently met. They needed a new vision of themselves as “the people of his pasture, the flock under his care.” A proud posture will not do, “Come, let us bow down.

Focus your attention on Him and not the false idols this world extols.

Author: Duane C. Brush