“Delight Thyself Also In The Lord” (Ready to Worship S10E6)

September 27, 2019

Ready to Worship Season 10, Episode 6 for Friday, September 27, 2019

This season on Ready to Worship, we are studying the attitude that we are to have in worship. In this study, we are going to discuss an attitude or a spirit of delight. I fear that some come to worship out of a sense of duty, instead of a spirit of delight. Please understand that I am not casting disparity upon duty. Duty is a key part of worship. We have to do our duty (Lk. 17:10). However, there should be more to worship than duty. There should be delight. In the Thirty-Second Psalm David wrote, “Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart” (Psa. 37:4). Delight means to be happy about something. In another psalm, David spoke of God as his “exceeding joy” (Psa. 43:4). David was coming to the altar or to worship with overflowing delight in his heart. In Psalm 37, the psalm we began with, David spoke of three things that we are to do in the Lord. We are told to trust, to delight, and to rest in the Lord. None of us would question the need to trust in God. Furthermore, we would never give up resting in God. However, we may have a tendency to brush aside the need to delight in God. We may think that it is enough to trust or to rest in God. We may think that it is enough to come to worship out of duty. However, worshipping out of duty instead of delight, is like obeying out of fear instead of love. It does what must be done, but it robs both the giver and the receiver of joy. Imagine your children obeying you out of duty or fear. While obedience is certainly better than disobedience, even if it is done out of duty or fear, it would rob both them and you of the joy that should fill that relationship. Imagine your husband or wife only meeting your needs out of duty. The needs would be met, and that would be a good thing, but without delight something would be missing on both sides. The same is true of worship. Without delight, we rob God and ourselves of the joy that should be in worship. As we get ready to worship this week, let’s determine to do it with delight. Worship will be more pleasing to God and to us, if we will.