Praise and Worship

Then Ezra praised the Lord, the great God, and all the people chanted, “Amen! Amen!” as they lifted their hands. Then they bowed down and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. (Nehemiah 8:6)

I had thought about the difference in these two things we do in the presence of God, and then I saw the above verse this morning that substantiated my thoughts. My original vision was of someone coming into the Throne Room and God who was sitting there on His throne. The person was so affected by the Presence of God that they just came to Him and bowed down in quiet and true worship. God knows their heart and smiles as He pats them on their shoulder and says, “Come up here My child and let Me give you a big hug.” Sometimes this is how we should approach God as we want to worship Him for who He is.

Then there is praise. The actions we display in praise, to me as a former coach, is like when someone makes the winning shot in basketball, scores the winning touchdown in football or hits the game-ending homerun in baseball. The team and fans don’t bow down and quietly worship; they jump, clap their hands and shout for joy! Jesus won the ultimate game for us and we should jump, clap our hands and shout for joy in praise to Him.

“Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth; Break forth and sing for joy and sing praises. (Psalm 98:4)

“Come, let us sing to the Lord! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.” (Psalm 95:1)

“When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.” (Luke 1:40). If an unborn baby can jump for joy, we can too!

And then there was King David: “He danced before the Lord with all his might” (2 Samuel 6:14). He took off his kingly robe and danced as a child of God.

I got a vision once of a father coming home from a long trip. His little child came running up to him not asking, “Daddy, what did you bring me?”, but jumping in his arms and saying, “Daddy, I love you and missed you!” That is an example of how we are to come to God.