Main Text
Psalms 96:1-13
Watchword
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
(Colossians 3:16) NKJV
This text describes the essence of church gathering, where we are to teach and admonish one another by thankfully praising God, through the Word and singing. True worship rests on knowing God truly as revealed in His Word. Thankful worship engages the mind and emotions in joyful singing to Christ. Without God’s revealed truth, all the emotion in the world is misdirected and futile. While the word of Christ enables us to worship God in truth, singing allows us to worship Him in the spirit. Singing is one way to express our love for God and gratitude for what He has done for us in Christ. The word of Christ should be centered in our worship. (John 4:21-24)
Yes worship is more than just singing, all – with thanks giving to who Christ is. We are thankful because of what scripture tells us about who Christ is, what He has done and we are encouraged by what He is yet to do. We sing then, filled with the word of Christ and the Holy Spirit. This is New Covenant worship! We have the word, (knowledge) of Christ, taught and brought to our memory by the Holy Spirit. Singing in Christ while filled with the Holy Spirit is a special privilege we have as Christ’s body, the “new man”. This is a special worship that glorifies the head while teaching and admonishing the body (the church).(Psalms 95:6)
Singing is to be done “with thankfulness in your hearts to God”. With “thankfulness” is literally, “in the grace”. So it means that the songs we sing should make us mindful of God’s grace to us in Christ. Of course, when we think of God’s abundant grace, it causes us to be thankful. Also, singing is to be done “in your hearts”. God always looks on our hearts, not on our outward conduct. Clearly, our hearts are not right before God if we half-heartedly mumble through a song while we think about other things. When we sing, we should put aside distractions, think about the words, and offer up our songs exuberantly in praise to our God. (Psalms 100:5)
Confession
Glorious Father, thank you for loving me and helping me to become the true worshipers that You seek.
Prayer
Oh Lord, give me the grace to always appreciate every of your mercies that comes my way. Amen.
Additional Reading
Deuteronomy 6:6-9
Ephesians 5:19-20.