Be Prepared for Worship

Psalm 15

The psalm reflects the observation made throughout Scripture that unethical behaviour with other people is inconsistent with worshiping the Lord. How can we profess to love the Lord while we slander our neighbour or harbour ill thoughts about that person? We can’t.

The question the psalm raises for me concerns the order of things. The psalm would suggest we have to have everything ethically peachy first. The psalm seems to be talking about priests or others who live and work in the temple (verse 1). But we would make no distinction now, if ever, between standards of behaviour on the part of Christians and their leaders in the church, would we? Leaders are under special scrutiny, and are held to account to a greater degree than others, but is the actual behaviour of committed Christians to be any less responsible? I hardly think so. So my question is, do any of us – speaking of the order of things – ever come together in our faith community worship and activities with our walk “blameless” (verse 2)? No.

Where does that leave us? I think it leaves us looking honestly at the direction of our hearts. When I come to God in prayer, either on my own or physically together with other believers (we should never think of prayer being entirely private – we always pray as part of a community), we include prayer for that person who bugs us – and not just that they will shape up! We ask God to examine our hearts (Psalm 139), we ask in his presence if we are growing in him. If all believers then approached their worship together having made that kind of preparation, I submit that it would make a noticeable difference in the spirit of our coming together and in our observable worship, assuming also that everyone who has responsibility for what happens strives for excellence in their part and their leadership: preaching, music, drama, earnestness of prayer, whatever. That would increase our honouring of the Lord, help to tend to our need for growth in him, and provide a more compelling witness to those who come into our presence seeking the Lord without even maybe knowing what or whom they are seeking. They will get a sense of him because of the love and honour directed toward him, and shared amongst those who so honour him.

Prayer:
Lord, I do lots of preparation for preaching and leading worship. What kind of preparation do I model for just worshipping? Surely those of us who presume to lead can do so only out of our own worshipping. Help us all to consider how we can better prepare for worship together. In Christ. Amen.