Psalm 84
So I just finished reading Psalm 84…not the first time I’ve read this Psalm, but one verse in particular stood out to me this time around: verse 2, which says “I long, yes, I faint with longing to enter the courts of the Lord. With my whole being, body and soul, I will shout joyfully to the living God.” Verse 4 goes on to say “How happy are those who can live in your house, always singing your praises.”
I’ve been wrestling with what our praise and worship time together should look like as a church – not necessarily wrestling in a negative sense, but just always trying to seek the heart of God in this matter…
I read an interesting chapter in Tom Kraeuter’s book Times of Refreshing. The chapter was called “Worship and the Visitor”. What really hit me was the statement “The biggest hindrance to visitors is not that they encounter something they don’t immediately understand. It’s encountering something that is not genuine.”
Read it again.
I feel that sometimes in church we are worried that we’ll drive someone away or look weird if we close our eyes when we sing a worship song; if we raise our hands; if we get visibly excited when we’re singing a great upbeat praise song; if we’re so moved by the lyrics of a song that we can’t even sing it…we just stand silently or break down and cry.
“The biggest hindrance to visitors is not that they encounter something they don’t immediately understand. It’s encountering something that is not genuine.”
Genuine…..
If we believe that our God is awesome and He loves us and died for us and that He is strong when we are weak and that He’s got the whole world in His hands, but our time of praise and worship does not reflect that, what does it say about our belief?
“With my whole being, body and soul, I will shout joyfully to the living God”
I wonder what that looks like – to shout joyfully to God with my whole being, body and soul….
January 25, 2009 at 4:03 am
This is thought provoking, Alan Porter. You are definitely in the position you have been called to serve in. I could not be more proud of you. I’m going to miss the GENUINE worship time that you help lead at this amazing church that God has build up through people such as yourself.
January 27, 2009 at 3:27 am
My feelings exactly. I think we need to be a lot more genuine..and worry more about our actions before God than worrying about the misunderstanding of others…yet also being sensitive to peoples feelings.
March 3, 2009 at 12:04 pm
awesome al…even more awesome is your sister’s comment above
love it when families support each other!!!
September 15, 2009 at 1:33 pm
The desire to enter into the presence of the Lord and to worship him with all our being is rooted so deeply within each one of us. To be hindered by our fears of how people will respond around us is to deny our Lord the genuine gift of worship he deserves. While always considering and loving our neighbor, what could be more loving than helping lead the way into our Kings chambers?