Worship: Adoration

Psalm 96.
1 Sing to the LORD a new song ; Sing to the LORD, all the earth. 2 Sing to the LORD, bless His name ; Proclaim good tidings of His salvation from day to day. 3 Tell of His glory among the nations, His wonderful deeds among all the peoples. 4 For great is the LORD and greatly to be praised ; He is to be feared above all gods. 5 For all the gods of the peoples are idols, But the LORD made the heavens. 6 Splendor and majesty are before Him, Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary. 7 Ascribe to the LORD, O families of the peoples, Ascribe to the LORD glory and strength. 8 Ascribe to the LORD the glory of His name ; Bring an offering and come into His courts. 9 Worship the LORD in holy attire ; Tremble before Him, all the earth. 10 Say among the nations, "The LORD reigns ; Indeed, the world is firmly established, it will not be moved ; He will judge the peoples with equity." 11 Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice ; Let the sea roar, and all it contains ; 12 Let the field exult, and all that is in it. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy 13 Before the LORD, for He is coming, For He is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness And the peoples in His faithfulness.

Worship is our appropriate response to God's revelation of himself to us. Worship begins with God. For the purpose of our study of worship over the next three messages, we are dividing worship into four traditional aspects of Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication.

Adoration is our response to seeing who God is. In Psalm 96 we see that often we learn about who God is by observing what he has done. Adoration is different from thanksgiving which is remembering what God has done and thanking him. Adoration is standing in awe of who God is.

The Psalmist tells us to ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name. That word ascribe means to assign authorship, or to give credit for a work. When we ascribe to Lord the glory due his name, we are giving him credit for his mighty works. We are recognizing his authorship.

A good friend told me that she stood under a tree recently with its leaves a collage of beautiful colors. She stood under the tree and looked up seeing the leaves with pieces of brilliant blue sky peeking through. She stood there gazing at the beauty and giving God glory for his creativity. This was an act of worship; an act of adoration.

We are worshiping in adoration when we have those moments of recognizing who God is in his creation, in his acts on our behalf, in the things he has done in history, and we stand in awe of what an awesome, powerful, majestic God we serve. Our worship is not limited to a set time on a certain day of the week. We can do this while taking a walk, driving down the highway, talking with someone at work or sharing a meal with a friend.

Adore God. Stand in awe of who he is whenever you get the chance. Share what you have learned and seen with others. In this way we bring glory and honor to his name. In this way we give him credit for what he has done. In this way we worship.