Rebekah Hawk joins us this week to share devotional thoughts! Feel free to stop by the contributors page to learn a bit more about her.
Sunday, I had a frank discussion with my son over his behavior during the singing portion of our Sunday morning worship service. I was annoyed because while his sister had been (from my perspective in the choir loft) trying to sing her heart out, he was making insane, goofy faces at her. When I asked him why, he said, “I just got distracted.”
I told him I was very disappointed in him because he had chosen to take his attention from worshipping God in song and turned it to worshipping himself. “You wanted to be distracted and to be a distraction more than you wanted to sing worship to God,” I explained.
From my view, I have the unique perspective of observing an entire congregation of worshippers on Sundays. Congregations are incredibly diverse singers: there are those who throw themselves into songs enthusiastically—singing loudly with abandon; there are those who sing softly—with shining eyes; still others who clap, some lift their hands; some read the words on the screen like a lifeline—mumbling the lyrics as best they can, and some stand silently.
But they are all worshippers.
In Psalm 138:1, David declares he will praise God with his whole heart. Whole-hearted praise requires that every fiber of our being is focused on the worship of God. I do not see how we can be giving God whole-hearted praise if we are not showing some kind of emotion on our faces. Do we look at our spouses or children with zero expression when we tell them we love them? Of course not!
Should we then paste shiny smiles on our faces as we sing? Again, no! We are not singing so that we can show others in the congregation that we are worshipping. We are singing to show God that we are worshipping Him and Him alone.
The second part of Psalm 138:1 is so interesting. Both the ESV and the KJV record David’s declaration that he will sing praise “before the gods,” unto God. The English word gods is translated from the plural elohim—the Hebrew word for God. So, essentially, David could be saying, “I will praise God with my whole heart: before the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, I will sing praise to You, God.”
Why is it so easy to divorce our emotions from our singing in the congregation? Perhaps we are distracted by the worries and cares of our lives. Perhaps we do not care for that particular song or song style. Perhaps the music we listen to during the week does not have enough theological substance, so we are unaccustomed to being emotionally affected by gospel-centered truths. Perhaps we are hesitant to show how our God has emotionally affected us.
Two things we can remember, though, as we fight against our flesh to give our God true worship: we are singing before the Elohim, and He will help us worship Him in spirit and in truth if we will ask Him.
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