Psalm 50 - This Is Worship

    Worship

The mighty God, even the Lord, hath spoken, and called th earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof.  - Psalm 50:10 

The call to worship that resounds throughout history is the call of an evangel, a bearer of good news. It is a summons to recognize that God is Sovereign over all things and is worthy of our worship.

 But that message also recognizes and publishes the truth that fallen man can bring no offering that God can need or accept except as he or she has been cleansed by the loving, gracious, and merciful redemptive act of God in reconciliation.

 God's love compels the worshipper to propagate the message of grace.  God's passion for people to come into a loving and worshipping whole-life relationship is the driving force of the mission of Christ and of the early church.  

God will not be contained in temples made with hands but has chosen to make sanctuaries of the human heart and declare that reasonable worship extends beyond recitations and prostration to the presentation of our bodies as living sacrifices. 

Then, when we come to sing, kneel, bow, shout, and lift our hands, it is a continuation of whole-life worship, which includes discipleship, evangelism, and ministry to hurting humanity. 

When the benediction is pronounced, there is no cessation of worship - only continuance at an even deeper level because we have been equipped, inspired, and sent forth.

 The evangel declares:   

"Come, let us worship the Lord who alone is worthy.

Come before him all you people of his making, whose souls are restless until they rest in him.

He has loved you with an everlasting love and calls you into a relationship,.

Hear the truth and receive the Spirit.

Come freely and without reservation for the table has been set.

Jesus himself, God's Son, is your host.

He has blotted out all your sins by his own sacrificial death.

Come, all you who are poor and feeble, who have no offering to bring to the altar; the price has been paid, the offering made.

Bring only your sins and yourselves.

Come and receive mercy and grace.

Come with thanksgiving.

Come with tears.

Come with laughter.

Come, consecrate your lives to His praise and glory.

Come; find reconciliation with God and with one another.

Come, come, come.” 

And so, the worshipping community invites to the world, constantly, fervently, and passionately to the assembly of praise for God's own sake and for the sake of them whom he loves so profoundly. 

The Son of Man came, not to be honored, but to seek and to save that which was lost. 

And so, he is worthy of all honor. Having emptied himself for the mission, he has a name that is above every name. All will bow; all will declare his Lordship - but God has expressed a decided preference that all come by grace rather than by ultimate coercion. 

He would far rather invite than demand. He will employ every persuasive means that might somehow touch the hearts of men and women. 

This is God’s desire, to properly align us with eternity and with the Source of our life to whom our lives are designed to return. This is the heart of God. This is the love of God. This is worship.