While we have been in lock-down we have been able to participate to some extent in worship, on-line. We are grateful for this service, it encourages our faith and reminds us that we are part of a local group of God’s people, part of his church. So why should we return to meeting in one place on a Sunday morning?
The book of Hebrews tells us not to give up meeting together, but to do this to
encourage one another. On our own it is easy to become cold in our love to the Lord, even discouraged. We need each other to help maintain our faith and our relationship with Jesus. We need to do something together. What? Sing! There is something about singing in a group that unites us. So, on a Sunday morning when we meet to worship the Lord we sing – together. What do we sing?
“God is enthroned upon the praises of Israel” (Psalm 22:3)
No doubt this is the basis for our song, “Jesus we enthrone you, we proclaim you are King”
Praise recognises that glory belongs to God, and we give him the place reserved for deity by raising our voices in his honour. So the purpose of our morning service is to give glory to God.
There is no “order of service” in the Bible but we have a few hints about what might have taken place. One example is in 2 Chronicles 19:25-31. Hezekiah was a good king who brought his people back to the worship of the Lord. This involved a rededication of the temple, so he arranged a service to do just that. It was a joyous yet orderly event with musicians and singers, and everyone bowed their heads to acknowledge the greatness of the Lord. At its conclusion, Hezekiah and the whole congregation knelt down as an act of homage to the Lord as their king.
1. Praise to God because of who he is
2. Praise to God for what he has done and is still doing
So, praise is a confession of what we believe. We sing our faith.
Who is God? We have read Psalm 95. He is the great King above all gods. We need to remind ourselves and others about this because we live in a culture that imagines the God it wants, endorses the pluralism that says “all gods have their rights” and there is even a degree of paganism that returns to the old gods. Others believe, or say they believe that there is no God. So we need to be confident in our praise.
The Apostle John had a glimpse of the heavenly realm. In Revelation 4 he describes the praise to God because he is the Creator, the God of the universe. We sometimes sing.
God and God alone is fit to take the universe’s throne
But we praise God for what he has done. The Israelites praised him for their redemption from Egypt and his care of them on their journey to the Promised Land. What about us? The Apostle Peter tells us that we are to “declare the praise of him who brought us out of darkness into his marvelous light”.
In John’s vision of heaven, the Lamb, Jesus is praised because he has redeemed us by his blood. We owe him our praise for this. It is not so much that we benefit, our thoughts and praises are centred on him. It is not primarily about me, it’s about Jesus.
You restored me to health and let me live
In your love you kept me from the pit of destruction
The grave cannot praise you, death cannot sing your praises
The Living, the Living, they praise you as I am doing today.
Hezekiah had no understanding of life beyond the grave, but as long as he lived he would sing praises to the Lord. Praise is the sound of life!
We sing “It’s your breath in our lungs and we pour out our praise to you only”. Each of us has something to praise God for. More than this, if we belong to Jesus, not only do we have physical life but we have eternal life, the life that fits us for heaven. So we have a special reason to praise the Lord. Singing praise to God is a witness to the world of our faith. Perhaps it will encourage others to join in.
But is praise from our lips enough? No, worship involves our whole life. We should take note of the words of the prophet Micah who told us that the Lord requires us to do what is right, to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God. This is total worship.
Tawa Baptist 