Psalm 95:6

Verse of the Day Devotion: Psalm 95:6

“Come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.” – Psalm 95:6

This psalm was written by David as an invitation to praise and worship the Lord our God.  David is encouraging God’s people to come before the Lord and give Him what is due Him.

Praise and worship are not necessarily the same thing.  They are both focusing on God; who He is and what He has done.  However, praise is a joyful thankfulness of all God has done for us, where worship is an acknowledgement of who God is in relation to who we are.  Another way of expressing this is, “where praise is focused on thankfulness, worship is focused on surrender.” Chapter 95 of Psalms is a call to both; therefore, we shall examine both in the context of David’s call in this chapter.

First, we are called to sing for joy to the Lord.  “O come, let us sing for joy to the LORD, let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving, let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.” Psalm 95:1-2.  This is a wonderful portrayal of praise.  Coming before Him, singing and shouting out our thankfulness to the one who provides everything.  We see this idea throughout the bible.  “Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good, For His lovingkindness is everlasting.” Psalm 107:1. “Praise the LORD in song, for He has done excellent things; Let this be known throughout the earth. Cry aloud and shout for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.” Isaiah 12:5-6.  “Now therefore, our God, we thank You, and praise Your glorious name.” 1 Chronicles 29:13. And finally, “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” Colossians 3:16. How can we not thank Him; how can we not shout out for joy for His many gifts and benefits; how can we not rejoice for all He has done for us, including the sacrifice of His Son on the cross?  Praise and thanksgiving should always be given to Him for all things.

Then we are called to worship Him.  We see this in our focus verse, “Come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.”  Psalm 95:6. We are told to bow down to Him in humility, surrendering ourselves to Him in homage and reverence.  He created everything that is.  “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 1:1 and “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.” John 1:1-3.  He created everything that is, and that lives and moves upon the earth.  And He is infinitely greater and higher than we are.  “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9.  There is no comparison because the distance between finite and infinite is insurmountable.

Because of the above, we are to humble ourselves before our God, Lord and Maker in worship.  We are to bow down before Him in surrender to Him, acknowledging our love, reverence and devotion to Him.  The idea of bowing down in this verse in the time of David was by prostrating before Him, meaning lying flat on the ground face down.  Whichever way we go before Him, be it lying face down on the ground, bowing or kneeling before Him, the idea is adoration, reverence and surrender.  Our mind should be focused entirely on Him, emptying our thoughts of everything but Him and our deep love and adoration for our glorious Lord and Savior.  We should forget about ourselves and our situations.  This should be a very intimate time with Him, where we can realign our priorities with His and spend time in not only speaking to and uplifting Him but hearing what He has to say and making a commitment to obeying and following His words.  It should be a time where we acknowledge and declare again that He is our Lord and no-one else, including ourselves.

Praise and worship come from our hearts, expressing our devotion to Him.  The outward motions are not what He is looking at, but the deep feelings in the innermost depths of our being.  God sees our hearts and recognizes our sincerity or our hypocrisy.  How do we develop a sincere relationship with God?  “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” James 4:8. We must focus on drawing near to Him, cleansing our hearts and minds of those things that are not glorifying to Him and replacing them with those things that please and honor Him.  And when we do this, He will draw near to us and we can have a relationship that will go beyond anything we could ever imagine.

I encourage everyone here to spend concerted time praising and worshipping are great and loving God.  He is worthy of all we can give Him and more.  I believe if we can spend more quality time with Him, thanking and glorifying Him as he deserves, it will cause us to grow in our walk with Him and we will find ourselves more content in every part of our life.  That is my desire for sure.

William Funkhouser MDiv, ThD, Founder and President of True Devotion Ministries, Inc.