Elohei Tehillati (God Of My Praise)
Sheree Morris
Do not keep silent, O God of my praise!
(Psalm 109: 1)
When we worship we praise God for who He is. It’s an act of recognition of the God who created all of heaven and earth, and an acceptance of His authority over every part of our lives.
Why do I worship?
I worship because it is my outward expression of my love for my God. It’s my act of adoration, devotion and thankfulness for all God has done for me - acknowledging that He is worthy of my praise. When I enter His gates with thanksgiving and praise, then my spirit makes a connection with God’s spirit. It takes my eyes off myself and fixes my thoughts on Him. It’s a joyful thing to do and I can almost physically reach out and touch the intimacy of God.
John the Baptist, as an unborn baby, jumped inside his mother Elizabeth’s womb when Mary visited her (Luke 1: 43-44). It was a reaction of joy to the presence of Jesus in Mary’s womb. This evidence of a spiritual recognition is also what I feel happens when I worship. There is that connection, that spiritual joy which makes me want to leap too!
When I worship, I am coming into God’s presence in a way which cannot be described in any other situation. I enter into His sanctuary, to His holy place, to His safety, to His open arms, closer than any other act of adoration creates.
Is it always easy to worship? For me no, but I am learning to worship in the good times and the bad. If I’m honest, it’s still a journey and sometimes so much harder when I don’t have the energy, or feel overcome with sadness or discouragement.
But experience tells me this is when I need to press into worship even more. To make a real, hard decision to ‘do it anyway’. During these times of struggle, I try to hold onto who I am worshipping. My circumstances, or what I’m feeling, don’t alter who or why we worship.
Some of my closest moments with God have followed my hardest struggles to worship. God knows this, He knows where I am weak and He invites me to gently draw near to Him, even when I can’t seem to manage to barely lift His name, He knows and He is still with me. I often feel like He is holding my arms up, much like Aaron & Hur did with Moses:
When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up – one on one side, one on the other – so that his hands remained steady till sunset.
(Exodus 17:12)
My goodness! that’s when things change. That’s why worship for me is more powerful and intimate following difficulties, because I have known that all of me is gone. That only He has held me, that only He is the one who has sustained me, that only He is the one who held my arms up when I couldn’t - the one who never lets me down.
Is it any wonder that I can’t help but praise and worship Him for who He is and all He has done?
My circumstances haven’t necessarily changed but, just that knowledge and confirmation that God has got me, leads me to a place of irrefutable gratitude and thankfulness - I cannot help but give Him all the glory, and worship Him with all my soul and heart.
With my mouth I will greatly extol the Lord; in the great throng of worshipers I will praise him.
(Psalm 109: 30)
