Active Worship

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TODAY’S SPECIAL: Psalm 145:1-21

TO CHEW ON: “Every day I will bless You
And I will praise Your name forever and ever.” Psalm 145:2

“We can act ourselves into a new way of feeling much quicker than we can feel ourselves into a new way of acting. Worship is an act that develops feelings for God not a feeling for God that is expressed in an act of worship” - Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, 54.

I was reminded of the  above Peterson quote when I read David-authored Psalm 145 this morning. During an earlier reading I had circled the verbs, so they are what jumped out at me. What an illustration of the act / actions of worship!

According to David, actions of worship include:
Extol (“You, my God, O King”).
Bless ("Every day”)
Praise (“Your name forever and ever”).
Declare (“Your mighty acts”).
Meditate (“on the glorious splendor of Your majesty”).
Speak (“of the Your mighty awesome acts… of the glory of Your kingdom”).
Utter (“the memory of Your great goodness”).
Sing (“of Your righteousness”).
Talk (“of Your power”).
Make known (“His mighty acts”).
Call ("upon Him”).
Cry
Love (“Him”).


(Of course, these are the verbs as listed in the NKVJ Bible. If you consult another version, the list will be a little different. Doing that might be an interesting exercise.)

This is active worship. Let’s engage our thoughts and mouths in such worship today—and even if our emotions are unresponsive at first, they will warm up to the activity.

PRAYER: Dear Father, thank You for this beautiful example of active worship. Help me to pattern my worship on David’s especially when I don’t feel like worshiping. Amen.

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.