WE MUST WORSHIP GOD ON HIS OWN TERMS!

THOSE WHO TRULY WORSHIP GOD BOTH PRAISE AND OBEY

READ PSALM 40

Psalm 40:6-8

6 In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted,

but you have given me an open ear.

Burnt offering and sin offering

you have not required.

7 Then I said, “Behold, I have come;

in the scroll of the book it is written of me:

8 I delight to do your will, O my God;

your law is within my heart.” 

After reminding us of God’s loving care and His wonderful works on man’s behalf, David turns our attention to an appropriate response. God is not interested in mere rituals, but in the heart behind our worship.

From David’s day to ours, however, man has been prone to worship God externally, without the motivation of a devoted heart.

1 Samuel 15:22

…“Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,

as in obeying the voice of the Lord?

Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,

and to listen than the fat of rams.” 

King Saul had not obeyed the word of the Lord. And his excuse was that the choicest of the spoil was taken for sacrificing to the Lord. God rejected both his actions and Saul, himself, as king of Israel.

This was an ongoing problem for Israel.

Jeremiah 7:21-26

“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh.  For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. But this command I gave them: ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. And walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’ But they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and the stubbornness of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward. From the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day.  Yet they did not listen to me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck. They did worse than their fathers.”

Man has always fooled himself, in thinking that he can worship God on his own terms, but actions that are not the result of obedience and submission are worthless to God.

Through God’s Spirit, Biblical doctrine should inform us, producing godly actions and behavior. Apart from God’s revealed truth, we cannot know the mind of God and therefore cannot obey and practice His ways. Most of the epistles in the New Testament begin with a section devoted to doctrine, followed by practical application of that teaching.

God is very interested in our hearts. As professing believers, we should always check ourselves and evaluate where we are. We don’t want to become unbalanced, being driven by behavior without true devotion or by mere emotion without follow-through behavior. Today there seems to be a trend toward giving more importance to our own devotional feelings. But feelings should not drive our worship.

The kings of Israel were commanded to read and meditate on God’s law.

Deuteronomy 17:18-20

“And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law, approved by the Levitical priests. And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them, that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left, so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children, in Israel.

Both behavior and heart are mentioned in these verses, and careful reading would produce fear of the Lord, obedience and a godly heart, as the king immersed his mind in scripture. The Word of God must produce the same results in our lives today. God through His Word, will transform our hearts.

We must check our walk, as well as our hearts. Actions that do not proceed from a devoted heart are only religious legalism or activism, and they do not please God at all. A superficial, professed faith that does not produce godly behavior is equally displeasing to God. How easily we distort the clear teaching of the Word of God! Even in this psalm, God is walking us through the careful path of true worship that is acceptable to Him.

Those who truly worship God both praise and obey. Obedience is the response of a truly trusting, devoted heart. We should be alarmed when one or both are missing: when we do not love God’s Word, or when we do not find pleasure in obeying it.

May we be committed to learning and knowing God’s Word, to obeying God’s teachings and may all this be done from a heart that is dedicated to our Savior.