Walking On Our Knees (Or...Dorf on Worship!)

Oh come, let us worship and bow down;

Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. 

For He is our God,

And we are the people of His pasture,

And the sheep of His hand.

Psalm 95: 6-7 (knjv)

I heard a great message from our associate pastor yesterday that has been 'stewing' in my heart all night.  In my last post, I shared how the key verse, Philippians 3: 13b-14, encouraged me to forget the past and look forward to the prize of heaven and walking here on earth to the glory of God.  And so, I shared how in 2010 I made a resolution to to go from dissonance (conflict of the past ~ whether it be guilt and shame of confessed sin or just feeling of defeat about things I wish I had done better) to consonance (living in harmony with the will of God). (if you missed this one, click here to catch up and then come back to see how this all works together!)

God built on that word for me about my 2010 resolution with a word from the pulpit on Sunday.  This is a portion of my take on that message ...

In the Psalm above, we are called to COME...come and worship.  First, I love that we are called to come.  It implies that we need to GET UP AND DO SOMETHING!  It's like ringing the dinner bell... "Ya'll Come" (pardon the southern vernacular *wink*)  When you are hungry and you hear that bell, you are on your feet and running to the table.

How perfectly that fits with our comparison to how God calls us to His table daily to share a meal with Him!  So are you hungry?  Then get up and come to the table.

Are you here with me?  Great!  What next?  Well, the verse goes on to say "come, let us WORSHIP and BOW DOWN".

Here is where Bro. Ben shared a great lesson that I have been so excited about.  It started with his explanation of  the original Hebrew word for worship (if you are a regular visitor to this blog...you know I sat up straight in my seat and leaned forward when we started digging into the deep meaning of words!)  The Hebrew word used here is saha.  It's meaning is 'to bow down' or more specifically, 'cause to bow'. 

This is another call to action word.  The literal translation for the word 'worship' says we are called to 'cause ourselves to bow down' to God.  So the verse could be written like this:

Oh come, let us cause ourselves to bow down and bow down (boy...would my 11th grade English teacher be all over me if I had written that in her class!)

Personally, I LOVE that it is so repetative.  There is emphasis in repetitive words.  (all you mom's out there know exactly what I mean...you have to say it more than once before it gets done [and for all the husbands reading ~ NO..this is not called nagging *grin*])

If God is repeating himself here...then I think we need to listen and obey!

In fact, the message from Bro. Ben pointed out that we are called to worship God (cause ourselves to bow down) at all times.  As I pondered this with my husband yesterday, we talked about living a life on our knees, visualizing ourselves walking on our knees at all times.  (but then I got this image of Dorf on Golf stuck in my head and it ruined it for me!  I grew up with my Dad loving Dorf, but if you are not familiar and curious...google it.  But fair warning...the image of walking in your knees will lose the feeling of 'reverance' *wink*)

Dorf aside...can you see yourself living a life walking on your knees.  It would be really hard to have self serving motives or self righteous thoughts if we always saw ourselves walking on your knees.  However... it is CRUCIAL that we keep in mind that this image of walking on our knees is done in submission to the will of God.  We are now bowing a knee to things of the world or priorities of people...we are bowing a knee to the things of God and His priorities.  This means we must KNOW THE THINGS OF GOD AND HIS PRIORITIES!

When we know these things and His priorities and walk on our knees in submission to them, then the blessings of God flow out on our life.  Now please, don't interpret this sentence to mean that if we walk on our knees in submission to the will of God that our blessings will be worldly blessings.  Ugh.... that is a whole other series of scripture studies ~ so let's just remember for todays time in the word, God's blessings come in many ways and are often not what we expect from the wordly point of view. 

Therefore, we must know the will of God and His priorities in order to submit to them.  And how do we know these things?  All together now.... 'by reading His word'! 

So now my visual image of bowing down is one of me walking on my knees with AN OPENED BIBLE IN MY HANDS.  Like a road map if you will. 

Years ago, before digital cameras (or I'd have this in my docs and could share) there was a picture taken of my husband and me dressed as tourists for a costume party (we took first place by the way!) In this picture, in addition to the ridiculous outfits, we were holding a map and looking lost.  Typical tourists was what we called ourselves when asked "what are you".  Typical tourists are those who are in a land that is not their home and trying to find their way. 

This is us!  As Christians, we are no longer citizens of this earth, but aliens here for a while, waiting for God to bring us home.  While are here, God takes us on a journey that will bring Him glory.  And God's word is our 'map' for the journey.  

So there you have it... we are typical tourists, walking on our knees, with the map of God in our hands (ridiculous outfits optional...but it makes the Dorf image work!)

There is more!  So come back tomorrow and we'll explore more of what God says to us about worship...at least the part that I learned from Ben yesterday.  It's good stuff!  Remember to come back...DON'T FORGET!  (that was a clue...but you won't get it until tomorrow *wink*)

Our recipe today is to Come and Worship

The ingredients are from Psalm 95: 6-7.

The directions are to cause yourself to bow down and worship Him.  To walk on your knees in submission to His will and His priorities. 

CLICK HERE for a printable version of today's recipe for the soul. Make notes on it of how God is speaking, and carry it with you to feed your soul as needed.

Now it's your turn.  Please share what you are thinking.  What is God saying to you about causing yourself to bow down?  As a community of believers, we are called to encourage one another.  Some of the greatest encouragement comes when we share with each other what God is doing in our lives.  Who will your comment encourage today? 

P.S. Forgot to share with you how God used this message from the pulpit on Sunday to speak to me on the posting about my resolution.  It's all about walking on my knees.  There can be no dissonance if I walk on my knees.  And if I change my stature from the past (forget the past) and MOVE FORWARD ON MY KNEES... my resolution is achieved.  This year is all about paying attention to the times I try to get up.