Monday

Prayer: Blessed be God forever and ever. By God’s great mercy, we have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and to an inheritance which nothing can destroy or wither. Our inheritance is kept for us in heaven, and will be revealed at the end of time. We rejoice with a joy too great for words. Loving God, keep us faithful and active in Christ’s Church. send us out into the world to share Your love and justice. May we continue to be Yours forever, daily growing in Your grace and ever increasing in the knowledge and love of Your Holy Spirit until we come to Your Glorious kingdom. This we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.   (Presbyterian Book of Common Worship).

Read Psalm 47

Think of a time when you went “Wow, that was an amazing worship!” Where were you worshipping? What made it an amazing worship? Was it the number of people joining together praising God? Was it the magnificent music? Was it the meaningful sermon?

The writer of Psalm 47 is expressing this same amazing worship.

Many years ago at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, we would go to Piper’s Lagoon Park for Easter Morning Worship. In the early hours of Easter, as the sun was rising over the ocean, we would Worship together. Frequently as we would be singing praises to God, an Orca would break out of the waters. What a glorious sight. It made all of us realize that God is our Creator and together we would continue to worship in awe at the whales, the orcas, the seal lions, the eagles that would surround us during this time.

Out of our love for God, we worship. God does not require us to worship Him at all. We worship God because of our great love for God.

And worship always leads to joy and hope.

Yet, does God require us to worship in a golden building with marble floors? Nope. Does God say we must worship in a 500 seat building? Nope. We worship God and come together as a community of believers. But God does not say how our worship building is to be constructed. These days, we need to seriously look at our worship buildings. Do we need these buildings that are costing us more money in upkeep than proving mission projects in the community? Are our Churches only used one or two days a week and on Sunday? If so, three days a week to keep up a building is a lot of wasted funds that could be taken into the community to be the Worship/work in our community. If our worship is not joyful nor a time of hope, we need to seriously look at whether our buildings are becoming a stumbling block to the worship of God.

Throughout today, reflect upon Psalm 47 and how this Psalm describes our worship and love of God.

Prayer: Great God, we shout to You with cries of joy. For You are the King of all the earth, and we sing to You our psalms of praise. You reign over all the nations and are seated on Your Holy throne. For we belong to You and we come before You today to worship You with awe and majesty. Amen.

Many blessings!