An Inviation To Worship Series

2. Worship is vocal. Too often we think of worship as not only private, but silent as well. We may worship God in our heart or even sing quietly, but God is longing for us to sing out to Him. If you were here on Friday night to hear the “Sounds of Liberty,” you experienced a group of young people singing their hearts out to God. It was fantastic.

3. Worship is vibrant and vigorous. We are to participate with joyful, grateful praise and to be exuberant in our worship. Someone has said that the characteristic note of Old Testament worship is exhilaration. The terms employed here describe activity which seems more appropriate at a Pontiac Indians football game than in a church sanctuary. The phrase, “sing for joy” in verse 1 could be translated, “shout for joy.”

When we are to told to “shout aloud” in the second half of verse 1, the Hebrew literally means to “raise a shout.” This was done when the Israelites were anticipating a battle or celebrating a triumph.

This expression was used in Joshua 6:20, when the Israelites were marching around the walls of Jericho: “When the trumpets sounded, the people shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the people gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed…” It’s also found in 1 Samuel 4:5, where we read about what happened when the Ark of the Covenant was brought into the camp, “…All Israel raised such a great shout that the ground shook.”

Friends, I don’t really know why our worship is not as vibrant and vigorous as what we see in the Old Testament or in other places around the world. I don’t know why mine is sometimes so somber. Maybe it’s a cultural thing. Or maybe we’ve just gotten into a rut. Maybe were just not very expressive in general. Or, maybe it’s because we don’t have much joy in our hearts. I’m not sure what all the reasons are but I’m personally challenged by this Psalm to become much more exuberant and expressive in my worship.

Why is it that we’re often critical of others whose worship is too animated and enthusiastic? While there are extremes that we should avoid, very few of us even come close to being too passionate. Our tendency is to react against such worship, much like Michal disdained David’s joyful enthusiasm in 2 Samuel 6. We see in verse 12 that when David brought the ark into Jerusalem, he did it with “rejoicing.” Verse 14 tells us that he danced before the Lord with all his “might” and verse 15 says that his worship was filled with “…shouts and the sound of trumpets.” When Michal, who was Saul’s daughter, saw David leaping and dancing before the Lord, verse 16 says, “She despised him in her heart.”

David responded by saying that he was focused only on the Lord when he was expressing himself in worship. In the last part of verse 21 he says, “I will celebrate before the Lord.” David didn’t care how he looked to others because He was intent on fully engaging Himself in wholehearted worship.

And so, we are to collectively express our worship vocally with vibrancy and exuberance. When we sing songs of praise we should shout at an incredible volume level out of joyful gratitude for the Rock of our salvation. As Oswald Chambers puts it: “A joyful spirit is the nature of God in my blood.” When God Himself so penetrates our life that we are consumed by a desire to worship Him, we can’t help but break out into joyful praise.