Psalm 65:1 (ESV)
Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion,
and to you shall vows be performed.
God deserves to be praised.
I have thought, in times past, about why it is that God demands to be praised, worshipped, given credit for everything. The temptation was, and I believe that I was not the only one to have it, and that there are still many who do, to think of God as some kind of megalomaniac who is so taken up with Himself that He makes creatures just for the purpose of making them bow. This is Satan’s lie. It is Satan’s opinion, reflected in his temptation to Jesus to fall down and worship him in exchange for a few cities. It is the attitude of many reflected in Milton’s famous quote of Satan in hell, “Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven”.
The problem with this thinking is that it neglects to bring God into the picture properly. God is not demanding worship from us because He is on some colossal ego trip and since He has all the power is able to enforce it. He is not some invention of man who must be appeased in order to prevent destruction from falling on us. He is to be worshipped because He is the perfect goal of all our desires.
Every desire and hope and wish that takes us away from Him is lying to us. All that is truly beautiful takes us back to God. All that is right is a small picture of His inestimable righteousness. All that deserves to be applauded is a glimpse of the One who deserves to be bowed down to for eternity. God does not demand worship because He is greedy. He demands worship because that is what we are created for. Worship is our default position and we will worship something. Sin has so infected us that we will worship things rather than the One who made them. The things God made which He made to draw us to Him become objects of worship themselves and we cheat ourselves of real worship and the joy that such worship brings to the heart.
When Psalm 65:1 says that praise is due God, we need to think and meditate on that very hard. Worship is a privilege. God allows it more than demands it. True worship is satisfying. The reason we find it so labourious and difficult is because of our sinfulness. God deserves to be praised. The closer we get to Him the more we will recognize the reality of that truth. Today, search your heart, your motives, your relationship to Him. Praise Him as the God who truly and only deserves the praise. Then live out that praise in the part of the world that He has given you to influence for Him, for the praise of His glory.
Be used of God today to bring someone to want what you have because what you have is the Triune God, who deserves to be praised.
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