Saturday 14th December 2024
‘I will celebrate before the Lord.’ 2 Samuel 6:21 NIV
True worship calls for being less self-conscious and self-absorbed and more God-conscious and God-absorbed. After watching him dance before the Lord, David’s wife said: ‘How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, going around half-naked in full view of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would’ (2 Samuel 6:20 NIV)! To which David replied, ‘It was before the Lord, who chose me… I will celebrate before the Lord. I will become…undignified…humiliated in my own eyes’ (2 Samuel 6:21-22 NIV). It’s a picture of pure worship.
Worship is ‘undressing’. It’s taking off the things in which we find our identity and security apart from Jesus. It’s a reminder that our own righteousness is like filthy rags in the sight of God. Worship is not about what we can do for God but what God has done for us. He has loved us, saved us and clothed us in the righteousness of Jesus. It’s the truth that inspired hymnist Charles Wesley to write, ‘O for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer’s praise.’
The Bible says we can praise God in nine different ways: speaking, shouting, singing, clapping our hands, playing musical instruments, raising our hands before the Lord, kneeling, lying prostrate in his presence and dancing before him. David said, ‘I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth’ (Psalm 34:1 NKJV). And he tells us why. ‘I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears’ (Psalm 34:4 NKJV). So, worship with abandon.
Good morning and Happy Weekend