a drop of water

Eugene Peterson summarizes Psalm 122 in his book, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, as singling out three aspects of worship:

“…worship gives us a workable structure for life; worship nurtures our need to be in relationship with God; worship centers our attention on the decision of God.” p.51

The first aspect is that worship provides a framework that allows us to know where we stand before God and among men.  Worship gives us an opportunity to see and know God for who he is, our savior, our king, our father as well as giving us an opportunity to see and know our fellow man, united across race, culture, age and status.  It is beautiful to step back and realize that churches across the globe, in all kinds of circumstances, languages and times are worshiping God.

The second aspect of worship is that “when we obey the command to praise a worthy God in worship, our deep, essential need to be in relationship with God is nurtured.”  Peterson has some tough words for our generation who live in the “age of sensation.”  He says that we wrongly write off anything that is not felt, as being unauthentic and fake, and states that the biblical model is that

“…we can act ourselves into a new way of feeling much quicker than we can feel ourselves into a new way of acting.  Worship is an act that develops feelings for God, not a feeling for God that is expressed in an act of worship.” p.54

Admittedly, this second point of Peterson’s is a little hard for me to swallow.  I guess because there are so many examples of unauthentic fake feelings done purposefully, its hard to envision an unjaded view that true emotions need not come first, and can be the fruit of purposeful actions.

The third aspect is that worship brings our mind to focus on the decisions of God in the past lives of our faith-parents and in the present circumstances of our lives.  It creates a space for us to hear what God is saying to our community as a whole and to us as individuals apart of a community.