Devotion 22 – The Lord Desires True Worshippers
Ps.150:6 - “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!”
Ps.145:10 - “All your works shall praise You, O Lord.”
We are all the work of God, for we are all His creation. It has been designed from the beginning that we shall be made to give glory to God. However, God only desires worship from people whose lives are a consistent reflection of their love and fear towards Him. He only desires worship that is given in spirit and in truth. He thoroughly hates meaningless and worthless worship.
Amos 5:21-26 - “I hate, I despise your feast days, and I do not savour your sacred assemblies. Though you offer Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them, nor will I regard your fattened peace offerings. Take away from Me the noise of your songs, for I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments. But let justice run down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream…”
This verse shows how little significance external rites of religion are, unless they are being accompanied with our sincere love to God and a heart of obedience to His will.
Eugene Peterson give us a vivid self-explanatory version in The Message:
“I can’t stand your religious meetings. I’m fed up with your conferences and conventions. I want nothing to do with your religion projects, your pretentious slogans and goals. I’m sick of your fund-raising schemes, your public relations and image making. I’ve had all I can take of your noisy ego-music. When was the last time you sang to me? Do you know what I want? I want justice—oceans of it. I want fairness—rivers of it.
That’s what I want. That’s all I want.
- God
One of the reasons that judgment is coming upon Israel and Judah is their abandonment of true worship. Isaiah puts his finger on the source of their problem. They were going through the right religious motions, but their hearts were far from their God. A lot of times when we talk about worship, we focus on what we do and if we’re doing it the ‘right way’. But when we look at the Bible, that was often the problem: the Israelites focused so much on the things they did, and how they did it that they didn’t think about what was on the inside their hearts.
Isa.29:13 - “The Lord says: "These people come near to me with their mouth and honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.
Mal.1:7-14 – “You offer defiled food on My altar, but say, ‘In what way have we defiled You?’ By saying, ‘The table of the Lord is contemptible.’ And when you offer the blind as a sacrifice, is it not evil? And when you offer the lame and sick, is it not evil?…I have no pleasure in you,” Says the Lord of hosts, “Nor will I accept an offering from your hands…“And you bring the stolen, the lame, and the sick; Thus you bring an offering!
Should I accept this from your hand?” For I am a great King,” Says the Lord of hosts,
“And My name is to be feared among the nations.”
Worship has become a burden and the people complied with God’s commands to worship Him grudgingly, not because they want to. God tells us repeatedly what He does not want in worship so that we can understand what He wants. For God to take delight in our worship, there must be truth and genuineness of heart – a heart that truly loves and fears Him.
True and False Worship
Isa.66:1-2 – “Thus says the Lord: “Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool. Where is the house that you will build Me? And where is the place of My rest? For all those things My hand has made, and all those things exist,” Says the Lord. “But on this one will I look: On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word.”
We may want to serve God and desire to ‘build’ something for Him. But what can we build that is worthy of God? God sees everything and there is only One type of person He looks on - one who has a poor and contrite spirit and a heart that fears Him.
Would we describe ourselves as humble and contrite in spirit? When we think about God’s Word, when we read Scripture, are we still wowed? Awed? Do we find ourselves trembling at His Word? Or have we, somewhere along the way, stopped trembling at His Word?
Isa.66:3-4 - “He who kills a bull is as if he slays a man; He who sacrifices a lamb, as if he breaks a dog’s neck; He who offers a grain offering, as if he offers swine’s blood; He who burns incense, as if he blesses an idol. Just as they have chosen their own ways, And their soul delights in their abominations… So, will I choose their delusions, and bring their fears on them; Because, when I called, no one answered, When I spoke, they did not hear; But they did evil before My eyes, and chose that in which I do not delight.”
Remember that God had commanded the sacrificing of oxen and lambs, grain offerings and memorial offerings. However, if one does all these without having the fear of God in his heart, he is like a cold-blooded murderer, drinking pig’s blood and doing all sorts of abominations in God’s eyes. The most sacred sacrifice and worship are like the worst of sins when they are divorced from humility of spirit and the fear of the Lord.