Article
5 Words to Fuel Passionate Worship
A few weeks ago, we walked into Harvest Mahoko, Rwanda to worship. Right away I was overcome with joy. Here we were in an entirely different culture, worshipping in a different language, and yet there was a deep familiarity to it all. It was so contextually different and yet so theologically and philosophically the same.
What we were experiencing was what we know as one of the defining attributes of our Collective: PASSIONATE WORSHIP
We define it like this:
Passionate worship is worship that engages our deepest affections for God and expresses the truth of his faithfulness, glory, and the redemptive work of Christ.
When we say the word “worship” as a collective, this is what we mean.
Recently I have been spending time in Psalm 63. The longer I’ve sat with this passage, the more five words have jumped off the page. I want to lay these five words before us to fuel passionate worship in our hearts and in our churches.
- Seek:
“O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you…” (v. 1)
Worship is driven by a longing for God. David begins this Psalm with a declaration of his earnest seeking. He knows his God personally and seeks his God earnestly. The imagery which follows is powerful, “…my soul thirsts for you…my flesh faints for you...” There is a desperation to his seeking. What would it look like to let a Psalm 63 kind of seeking shape our mornings each day? What would this kind of desperate seeking look like as we gathered each Sunday?
- Behold:
“So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory.” (v. 2)
You know when you are beholding. Not just looking at something but truly beholding something. There is a captivating nature to beholding. The beauty of what we are beholding grabs us and keeps us in the moment. David knew what it was to behold the power and glory of God in the sanctuary. There is no passionate worship without beholding. We must behold our God. We must slow down enough to do so. As we worship corporately, let us dwell long enough on the truths we are singing to behold the power and glory of God! Passionate worship is the overflow of beholding.
- Praise:
“Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.” (v. 3)
Lips that praise. Nothing too surprising there in a blog on passionate worship. Look, though, at what David says drives the praising of his lips. The hesed of God. God’s steadfast love leads to our praising lips. When we dwell on the depth of the Father’s love for us--the sending of his Son…the sacrifice on the cross…the resurrection victory-- when we tune our hearts to hesed love like that, passionate worship begins to leap from our lips.
- Meditate:
“My soul will be satisfied…and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips, when I remember you upon my bed and meditate on you in the watches of the night…” (vs. 5-6)
Look back at how we define this attribute.It begins like this, “Passionate worship is worship that engages our deepest affections and expresses the truth…” We sing about what is true. We sing truths about God. We sing sound doctrine. Passionate worship is not just a frenzy of unthinking emotionalism; we are worshippers in Spirit and truth.
Passionate worship is worship that engages our deepest affections and expresses the truth…
Meditating on the words we are expressing in worship deepens the passion of our worship. We are worshippers who remember, think, and meditate on the depths of the Lord and all that is true of who He is.
- Cling:
“My soul clings to you…”
Have you ever tried to drop a toddler off somewhere they weren’t wanting to go? It is amazing the strength of a two-year-old to cling to you with every fiber of their being. They want to stay with mom or dad, and they will cling as their way to accomplish it.
We are churches of passionate worship, and passionate worship flows from our hearts.
Passionate worship is stoked when our souls cling to the Lord. We aren’t satisfied to just fellowship from a distance with him. We want him. We want to cling to him. Lord, move our souls to cling to you, and from our clinging may our worship arise to you.
We are churches of passionate worship, and passionate worship flows from our hearts. May our hearts and our churches seek, behold, praise, meditate, and cling to the Lord in passionate worship.