Image: Psalm 46:1-4, 2020, Severna Park, Md
Psalm 47:1 Oh, clap your hands, all you peoples! Shout to God with the voice of triumph!
Psalm 46:10 Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!
Psalm 46:1-4 in the graphic image above.
Psalm 42:1–2 As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You, O God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?
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There is such a "freeing" quality to sincere worship, most especially corporate worship. When the people of God come together, when they fill their souls with the sense of victory and express their joy by clapping their hands and "shout(ing) to God with the voice of triumph," then they truly sense the shackles binding their souls being loosed. They know "freedom." This is not a "mind game" of artificially worked up emotion. It is that special quality of true worship wherein the celebrant senses the very Presence of his God. He or she knows that God is there... and that He is the Object of their devotion... and also, they know that He is pleased to receive it.
Such worship not only imparts a sense of "release" from bondage, it adds the renewal and reinvigoration of hope. Whatever dark clouds may hover about us, yet "we will not fear... even though the earth be removed... and all its waters roar and be troubled." (46:2,3) This "hope" is not just something we intellectually apprehend... no... far from it. Biblical "hope" is something that fills us and in which we "abound." (Romans 15:13) "Hope" imparts its own unique flavor or quality to our lives. It "lifts our head" and transforms our "down cast" visage. If two people are encountered, the one who has hope will be readily distinguished from the one without it. "Hope" is fundamental to a flourishing life. It's what leads us to say "life is good and it's going to get better." A person with hope will say this even on their death bed. "Hope" is something we rejoice in. (Romans 12:10-13)
So, from just that brief survey, we can see how true worship is so important to a transformed life, a life which becomes so precious to us. When we are apart from congregational worship, as many of us are at the moment, then there is a special poignancy to David's words: As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You, O God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? (Psalm 42:1,2) We know what he means. Life is more empty, there is a missing vibrancy, when solid corporate worship with fellow believers is not possible.
No we are not prevented from worship entirely. We know that worship is open to us in our individual prayer times, with our families, even perhaps through artificial "togetherness" over the internet or phones. We also know the truth that seeking to "be still and know that I am God" (Psalm 46:10) becomes a lifeline and His promise that He will be exalted in the earth does work some hope in us. We, in the midst of tears, can hear His voice telling us the He is indeed our "refuge and strength, a VERY present hope in trouble" and we find the strength and the will to go on... to face what has to be faced with confidence.
However all those things which are so open to us in private or family worship are so much more abundantly present in corporate worship. The synergy of the Holy Spirit's presence uniting our corporate hearts into one rhythmic cadence cannot be duplicated apart from fellowship. The psalmist longs for that "river whose streams shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacle of the Most HIgh." (46:4) It is this longing which lies deep in all our redeemed hearts. It is a longing for that which we know is present in our corporate worship here in this life, but more than that, it is the longing for that which our corporate worship on earth is only a fore taste.
Worship in heaven will be the joyous fulfillment of all that we can and should hope for. It is that for which our heart pants. It is the ultimate bonding that will come when "faith become sight" and hope for that which is promised becomes rejoicing in what is here.
Then we shall indeed "clap our hands" in triumph (47:1) and shout "Hallelujah" for His victory. On that day we will sing, "Our God Reigns" with absolute clarity for it will be then the visible truth even though now it is hidden.
Come, let us exalt His name together. (Psalm 34:3)
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