To worship God is to pay homage to Him. God certainly deserves our respect and adoration through worship, and He desires that we do so because He created us. Jesus said, “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him” (John 4:23). We should all feel honored to have the privilege to worship God. With that in mind, I thought we would look at the different avenues of worship this week. Let us begin by considering the worship of God in song.

Praising God in song is the most mentioned form of praise in scripture. Instead of using outward material with which to praise God, we use the fruit of our lips, and we make melody with our hearts. Consider these passages.

Hebrews 13:15 (ESV)
¹⁵ Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.

Ephesians 5:19 (ESV)
¹⁹ addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart,

What a joy it is to be able to lift up our voices in praise to God. Two things are accomplished every time we do so. First, God is honored. This is the primary purpose of worship. However, this only occurs when we follow the instructions of the Spirit and make melody with our hearts, rather than a musical instrument, and, when we sing spiritual songs. It is common for churches to sing songs about this country rather than songs about God. Songs like “My Country Tis of Thee,” and “America the Beautiful” are sung in their worship services. Just because a song says something about God does not make it a spiritual song. God is not glorified by songs that emphasize how wonderful this country is. Remember, Paul specifically instructed us to sing spiritual songs, and that is what we should do. We should sing songs that express our thanksgiving to God, not for this country, but for the sacrifice of His Son and the redemption of our souls. That is the kind of singing that gives honor to God.

Second, Paul reminds us that when we sing, we are not only praising God, we are addressing one another. In Colossians 3:16, Paul wrote, “… teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” So, when we sing praise to God, we teach each other too. This is why the words that we sing are so important. It has been said that we can, “sing a lie, as well as tell a lie.” That is a true statement. Sometimes songs are sung that are unscriptural. We must be careful about that because God can only be honored and glorified by the truth.

We should relish the opportunities we are given to worship God in song, and enjoy every moment of it, knowing that we are giving honor to the King of Kings every time we do so. Let us be sure that every song we sing is sung with passion and zeal, and is from our hearts.

As you wind down for the night, think on these things.