January 13, Private Worship in A Public Setting

Today’s Reading: Psalms 61-65

“I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands.” - Psalm 63:2-4.

David was reflecting on God’s love, but he was doing it inside the sanctuary, probably in the Tabernacle of David, a tent where he had placed the ark of the covenant to make it accessible to all the people, not just the priests (see 1 Chronicles 16 and Acts 15:15-18). In that setting, David glorified God with his lips, uttered words of praise, and lifted up his hands. David’s example indicates that worship is to be public and corporate — not just private — and that worshippers are to use their mouths, minds and bodies (in this case, hands) as they worship. Where does corporate worship occur in modern times? It takes place in local churches and the writer of Hebrews taught how important local church meetings are for the believer: “[you are] not [to be] giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but [rather] encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching” (Hebrews 10:26). Are you regularly attending church? When you do, do you involve your whole being, spirit, emotions and body?