A Lot of Ways To Worship Our One and Only Lord
95 Oh come, let us sing to the Lord;
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
3 For the Lord is a great God,
and a great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are the depths of the earth;
the heights of the mountains are his also.
5 The sea is his, for he made it,
and his hands formed the dry land.
6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
7 For he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture,
and the sheep of his hand.
Today, if you hear his voice,
8 do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,
as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
You know what to do. Read it out LOUD.
Do you ever feel funny when we sing a worship song about lifting up our hands or dancing, and you aren’t lifting up your hands or dancing? What about in this Psalm where it talks about bowing down and kneeling? Because seriously, that is a physical move that doesn’t come naturally if you’re not used to it.
There really is some kind of connection with the posture of our body and the way we worship. That’s why yoga is so creepy.
People in the Bible worship according to their culture, but also according to their perception of God. Several people dropped to the ground at Jesus’ feet. Daniel and other prophets bowed down with their face to the ground. The Apostles lifted their hands and at other times bowed down.
As you practice worshipping God, try it in different ways. Try the 5 minute silent prayer time. Try kneeling. Try lying on your face. Of course, don’t make it artificial. If you’re reading a shout-worthy section of scripture like today, it might not be a time to bury your face into the floor. But there might be another day that fits!
Practice thanking God for 10 things every day. Then 20, then 30. The thing is, if the Levites were learning, generation after generation, how to worship God in the temple, maybe we can learn and grow in the way we worship God as His temple. You might be completely unable to kneel or bow, but you could try the old Quaker way of “Centering Down.” You sit and hold your palms down while you give God all of your requests, then you flip you hands palms up to receive from Him all that He has to offer you.
It’s easy to raise your hands when your team scores or Captain America picks up the hammer. Try raising your hands while you sing at church. Nobody cares. Nobody will even notice. But you might. Finding new ways to express ourselves to Jesus is a natural part of Christian growth. (But I do advise against snake handling. Take my word for it.)
He is the great King. As we worship Him and open up ourselves to what He may teach us, we’ll gain a greater understanding of who we really are, the scriptures that point to Him, and the whole Christian life.
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