Psalm 95:1-2 NIV
Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord;
let us shout
aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come before him with thanksgiving
and extol
him with music and song.
Let Us Sing!
I love to sing songs of
worship and praise to my Lord. I love so many of the old hymns which give glory
to God and which express the richness of Biblical truth. I like many of the
contemporary Christian worship songs, too. And, I am blessed that the Lord has
given me so many spiritual and scriptural songs to write, too, in worship of
him and in giving glory to his name.
Music is a big part of my
life. It always has been. Scripture put to music touches my heart. My Lord
speaks to me through spiritual songs and hymns throughout the day. Sometimes,
when something is on my heart, and even before I even express a prayer to the
Lord, the Lord will place a song in my head, and as I listen to the words, I
realize he is already counseling me in the way that I should go, or he is
comforting my heart.
When I am sad, or feeling
depressed, or when I am going through a trial or a difficulty, or when Satan is
attacking me fiercely, if I lift my heart and my voice to my Lord in song it
lifts me out of that emotional down, and it encourages my heart. It is part of
my spiritual armor which I put on, too, to fight off Satan’s evil schemes
against me.
Psalm 95:3-5 NIV
For the Lord is the great God,
the great
King above all gods.
In his hand are the depths of the earth,
and the
mountain peaks belong to him.
The sea is his, for he made it,
and his
hands formed the dry land.
God, Our Creator
I love to be out in nature
and to enjoy the beauty of all that God created. Last night I was admiring the
formations of the clouds in the sky, and I was in awe of God who created all of
this. It brought tears to my eyes, in fact.
My husband and I are making
it our practice to walk outdoors at least one time a day, and we usually go out
at sunrise, so that is a beautiful time of day, when we see the sun come up. We
live near the mountains, so we get to see some mountains in the distance, too. I
love to take pictures of God’s creation. And, I get great enjoyment out of
looking at all that God has made.
But, it is not the creation
which I worship, but the God who created all of this. The trees, the sky, the
clouds, the sun and moon, the flowers, the birds, bunnies and squirrels, etc.,
were all made by him. All of this is in his hands, and all belongs to him, and
he is King over all that he has made, too. So, when I admire his creation, I am
giving thanks to him, and my praise goes to him, too, for I see his greatness
through his created works.
Psalm 95:6-7 NIV
Come, let us bow down in worship,
let us kneel
before the Lord our Maker;
for he is our God
and we are
the people of his pasture,
the flock
under his care.
Bow Down
To bow down and worship our
God is not a formality, though. It is not a ritual, or a thing that we do on a
specific day in the week, at a particular time of day, in a specified place. It
is not a religious practice. It is a lifestyle.
For, to bow down in worship
of our God means to humble ourselves before him in confession of sin, in
recognition of our weaknesses, and in acknowledgment that through him, and through
him alone can we have life to the full. It is to say to God, “I need you! I can’t
make it without you! You are the air that I breathe, the sustenance of my life,
the bread of my life. My dependency is in you, and in you alone.”
And, to worship God is to
give our lives to him as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, for this
is our acceptable worship of him (Rom. 12:1-2).
It is to lay our lives down
on his altar and to die with Christ to sin so that we might live with Christ to
righteousness. It is to be separate (unlike, different) from the world of sin,
because we are being made into the likeness of Christ. And, it is to forsake
our former way of living for sin and self, and the ways of this sinful world,
so that we can walk in holiness unto our Lord.
Psalm 95:8-11 NIV
Today, if only you would hear his voice,
“Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah,
as you did
that day at Massah in the wilderness,
where your ancestors tested me;
they tried
me, though they had seen what I did.
For forty years I was angry with that generation;
I said,
‘They are a people whose hearts go astray,
and they
have not known my ways.’
So I declared on oath in my anger,
‘They shall
never enter my rest.’”
A Warning to Heed
Even though we may now walk
in holiness before our God, and take pleasure in Him and in worship of Him, and
even though now we may have forsaken our sinful ways to walk in obedience to
our Lord, it does not mean we can never fail. For, we still have the propensity
to sin against God, and scripture warns us to take heed if we think we stand,
lest we fall.
We must daily die to sin and
self. Daily we must put on the armor of God with which to fight off Satan’s
evil schemes against us. Daily we must, by the Spirit, be putting to death the
fruitless deeds of darkness and exposing them for what they are. Daily we must
throw off any hindrances to our walks of faith and anything which may weigh us
down that might keep us from running our race of faith God has laid out for us,
so that we can run with perseverance. And, daily we must guard our hearts
against the evil one.
For, any one of us can slip
and fall if we do not have on our spiritual armor and if we are giving way to the
world of sin in our lives. We can’t play with fire, or we are likely to get
burned. We can’t test fate, either. Especially if we have once battled in any
particular sinful area, we must be so careful that we do not permit anything
back into our lives that could lead us down that path again. We have to be
smart, or stupid will be our downfall!
Too many people get careless
and then they fall, and then they act surprised when they do. God has given us
the way out – the escape – from temptation to sin. We just have to take the way
out he provided for us, and we have to not get prideful and think we can handle
situations which we have a history of not handling, but frequently giving into
and failing. God gave us brains. We just have to use them! And, we must always
put into practice that our Lord is our source of strength to help us in our
battles. So, yield to HIM!
Total Praise
/ Richard Smallwood
…You are the source of my strength
You are the strength of my life
I lift my hands in total praise to You…
Friday, August 31, 2018 –
Thank You, Jesus! Help us, Lord, to be wise, to be discerning, to not stray
from you, and to make you our strength and song.
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