Wednesday 15th June 2016 - Daily Reading:
Psalm 66 - A Response
On this, our final day in Psalm 66, we look at the third feature common to many praise psalms: our response.
Many Christians are uncomfortable with worship songs that seem to focus on ‘me, me, me,’ and not on God and, in some cases, those concerns are justified. However, here in Psalm 66 we see an example of how ‘me’ can be a genuine part of our worship.
After the psalmist has listed specific reasons to praise God in verses 5-12, we see a change of tone from verse 13: “I will come to your temple with burnt offerings and fulfil my vows to you ... I will sacrifice fat animals to you and an offering of rams”.
If praise and worship is our natural response to the goodness of God, then it seems appropriate to include that response as part of our worship. Here, the psalmist declares what he will do in response to God’s mighty deeds. This personal response hints at a worship that is not just about Sundays, and not just about singing songs, but about our whole lives.
Today we might say, “I will offer up my life in spirit and truth”, or “Come live in me, all my life, take over”, or “This is my desire – to honour you”.
As our worship shifts from songs about God to songs about our response to God, it is more important than ever that we remember that it is God who is the focus of our worship. We don’t want the words of these songs to be empty words, sung without thought or intent. If, in response to God’s love, we sing that we will praise him or honour him or live for him, then we need to be sure that we can carry that intention with us as we leave church and go about our lives.
If we can do that, then we are beginning to live out our worship as well as sing it out.