By Peggy Engeler

Bless the Lord, Oh My Soul

Bless the Lord oh my soul, oh my soul, Worship His Holy name.

Sing like never before, oh my soul, I’ll worship Your Holy name.

We sing that song in Church sometimes and it is a beautiful song, and

 it expresses a wonderful sentiment.

“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!”

 (Psalm 103:1)

“Bless the Lord, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, obeying the

voice of his word! Bless the Lord, all his hosts, his ministers, who do his will! Bless

the Lord, all his works, in all places of his dominion. Bless the Lord, O my soul!”

( Psalm 103:20-22)

In this Palm David is overwhelmingly focused on blessing the Lord. It means to speak

of His greatness and goodness from the heart. I ran across something in a book of devotions recently that said, “Blessing God with the mouth without the soul is sheer hypocrisy.”     

That caused me to pause and reflect. When I sing those words do I sing them with my  heart and soul? Do you?

In Matthew 15:8 Jesus says, “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, and their worship is a farce.”

What is the true goal of worship? Do we worship because that’s just what we do, what we have always done on Sunday Mornings? Do we worship out of habit or even a sense of duty? What if we worship for no other reason that simply to worship? What if the purpose of worship was just to worship? It’s not a door to something else or a step toward reaching our goal. Worship is the goal.

In John 4:23-24, Jesus said, “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Paul shed even more light on true worship in Romans 12:1, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”

Apparently, Worship is more than saying words and singing songs.

Currently available in paperback, kindle and audible soon to be available in hardback

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