TUESDAY 30th
Psalm 96
NIV – (vv8-9) ‘Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; bring an offering and come into his courts. Worship the LORD in the splendour of his holiness; tremble before him, all the earth.’
ESV – (vv8-9) ‘Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; bring an offering, and come into his courts! Worship the LORD in the splendour of holiness; tremble before him, all the earth!’
In yesterday’s devotion I reminded ourselves that when we come to worship, we are coming to a holy place and before a holy God, in today’s psalm the psalmist says, ‘Worship the LORD in the splendour of holiness’ an earlier psalm says the same thing, ‘Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; worship the LORD in the splendour of holiness.’ (Psalm 29:2) God is a holy God, and everything about him and around him is holy – there is nothing that is impure about him nor in his presence and if we read the text from the KJV it would read ‘in the beauty of his holiness’. This tells us that there is something beautiful and to use another word, wonderful, about holiness, it is difficult perhaps for us as fallen mankind to picture an absolute perfect state and yet God is, he is sinless, faultless, perfect in everything and in every way, and the wonder is that through the death and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, God is willing to impute to us the holiness or the righteousness of his Son, and as a result although we do not reach a state of sinless perfection here in this world, we can become holy and we can come into the presence of the Holy God, not because of anything that we have done but based on what Christ has done for us. And it is a joy, a pleasure to be able to come together to worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.
This whole psalm is about coming into the presence of God to worship him, it is a psalm that encourages us to sing, to bless, to tell, to declare, ‘for great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised’ It continues, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength, ascribe the glory due unto his name, bring an offering and come into his courts.
Some of us are old enough to remember the days when to get a car started in the cold that we had to pull the choke out, a little device that controlled the carburettor and made it easier for the car to start, and once the car engine was running, we would slowly push the choke back in and away we would go. Perhaps far too often when we come to worship, we are a little like the car on a cold day, we need the choke to get us going, whereas when we consider all that God is and all that God has done, we shouldn’t need the boost, we should be ready, willing, and raring to go, we should be off the starting blocks before the signal to worship has been given! God is good, and this psalm encourages us in such a way that when we come into the presence of God, no choke needed, we will be ready to worship with all our hearts.
I want to worship the Lord with all of my heart
Give him my all and not just a part
Lift up my hands to the King of Kings Praise him in everything