For those that don’t know, I’m one of the worship leaders at Monterey Church, a non-denominational church located at the corner of Vint Hill/29 here in Warrenton. Prior to beginning our rehearsal this week, our worship director/pastor led us into prayer. The words he prayed that evening stood out to me. It was in the spirit that we would play and sing and offer worship that was pleasing to Him; that we would also feel His pleasure for a genuine heart of worship. The next morning, I opened my bible and my eyes landed directly on Psalm 141:1-2, where David writes:
O Lord, I call to you; come quickly to me. Hear my voice when I call to you.
May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice.”
The words came to life for me. I could visualize David praying and lifting his hands to God in worship. And after years growing up in a Buddhist household that used incense daily, I could also smell from memory, the sweet and intoxicating fragrance of burning incense that David compared his prayer to. I could read the intimacy of his words, how he called out to God, so personal was their relationship that he could approach God in confidence, asking him to have ear to his voice.
Through reading some biblical commentary and digging further into the Word, I learned that in that Old Testament (OT), God’s people worshiped and praised Him through sacred rituals that included physical offerings such as lighting incense and morning and evening sacrifices. But these statements from David in the OT in Psalm 141: 1-2, were about spiritual worship, the kind written about in the New Testament. The kind we can offer to God today.
When I worship, I want to approach God with the confidence that David did, knowing how much my Father loves me and that He is there whenever I call out…
When I worship, I want to lift my hands, lift my voice, in complete humility and surrender, laying down all my insecurities as a sacrifice to honor who He is and who He is to me…
When we worship, may the genuine words of our prayers and our heart’s cry to him be like the thick smoke from a burning incense rising up to Him with an intoxicating fragrance that is pleasing to Him.
This is what He taught me this week on pleasing worship.
Joe Smith, our worship director/pastor, will be giving this week’s message on Sunday at 9 & 11am at Monterey Church. I invite you to join us. As we go into this Sunday, may our hearts be positioned to approach our Heavenly Father in complete confidence that He will meet us wherever we are.
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