This article is an excerpt from day ten of The Psalms Aflame, a twenty-five day devotional on the Psalms. To download the entire devotional click here.
Read Psalm 100
“Shout for joy to the Lord all the earth.” Where can one climb mount jubilation any higher than here? And who do we find at the top? The Lord!--Who is good and whose loving faithfulness endures forever!
We often reserve our shout for the stadiums, or for athletes, or for anger, but the shout belongs to the Lord. As Balaam said; “the shout of the King is among them” (Numbers 23:21). Our bodies belong to the Lord as well, created for His purposes in worship. Let’s make a list of the commands loaded in Psalm 100. Shout. Worship. Come before him. Know. Enter with thanksgiving. Praise his name.
Worship is a verb. It is an outward expression of an inward adoration. The Torah teaches us to love God with our whole heart, breath, and strength (Deuteronomy 6:4), not just in quiet mental reflection. The Psalms depict that kind of full-bodied worship. As Lewis points out, these old poets are accustomed to a vigorous and hearty worship. None of the aloof and intellectual snobbery we are inclined to today. “I find an experience fully God-centered…joyous to the highest degree, and unmistakably real.”
There are several types of Psalms that especially call believers to express their worship. Thanksgiving Song. The Song of Praise. And the Entrance Liturgies. As we’ve seen in Psalm 100, some are constant in their barrage of verbs. Even the word worship means “to bow down”. As we study the Psalms to cultivate a closer walk with God, let us not forget the obvious, to implement the behavior modeled for us. Shout. Meditate. Leap. Clap. Sing. Dance. And make music. You will be surprised how the body can teach the heart how it should feel.
Tags: worship, praise, psalms, thanksgiving, shout
