When Worship Doesn’t Come Naturally

Psalm 19 has always captured my attention with it’s brilliant parallelism and descriptive beauty. This morning, though, something new jumped out at me as I read through it–something beyond its mere poetic and artistic beauty.

Verses 1-3 talk about how the heavens are declaring the glory of God. Not a day goes by when creation doesn’t proclaim the glory and majesty of its Maker. Then, when you come to the last verse, the psalmist says,

“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.” (v.14)

The act of worship for man is starkly different from the act of worship for nature. Nature does it automatically. Yet, man is in a constant battle to keep his affections on Christ. David said, “Let the words of my mouth … be acceptable.” Not, “Thank You that my words and my thoughts are acceptable.” No, David felt the very real pull of a world full of competing affections that never satisfy. So, he prayed, “Let me be acceptable to You, my Rock and my Redeemer.” Let me be this way!  May it be so!

What comes naturally for creation, is not so natural for us humans. Yes, we all naturally worship. But we don’t naturally worship our Creator. The nature of our hearts is geared toward worship, they’re just geared to worship the wrong things. We are bent. Fallen. Broken. But we serve a God who is ever-patient, ever-faithful to steer the affections of our hearts back toward Himself. I suppose that if we were bent the other way (in such a way that we always automatically gave praise to God), our affections would simply be a robotic response of allegiance–a simple reaction to our wiring.  But that’s not what He desires. He desires our praise, our affection, our worship, but He desires it willfully.  He doesn’t demand it. He wants the sincere prayer of our heart to be the same as that of David: “Let the words of my mouth (my confession) and the meditation of my heart (my affection) be acceptable to you, my Rock and my Redeemer.”

Ask Your Rock and Your Redeemer to let your heart’s affections be captivated by Him in a fresh way today.