The Heart of Worship

ME: ORIENTATION: FIND COMMON GROUND WITH THE AUDIENCE

YadaTo revere or worship with extended hands. To hold out hands. To throw a stone or arrow.Is there any more natural expression of excitment, wonder, or awe then the raising of hands.

yādâ

adaPsalm 67:3 May the people Yada you  (yādâ). vb. to give thanks, praise. Describes the act of giving thanks and praise to God.This verb primarily refers to giving thanks; the majority instances of yādâ in the ot are in Psalms. Like other terms with similar meanings, yādâ is often accompanied by an explanation of the reason for the thanks or praise. R

‎ (hālal). vb. to praise. Describes the act of praising God through prayer, instruments, and singing both corporately and individually.

This verb usually refers to the act of praising but can also mean “to shine” or “to boast”

Zâmar, zaw-mar´: To make music. To celebrate in song and music. To touch the strings or parts of a musical instrument.”

Zâmar is used throughout the psalms to connote the making of music, celebrating in song and music, and plucking the strings of a musical instrument. It’s a word that appears in the scriptures forty-one times, both in narrative form and in the poetry of the psalms.

In (nkjv), the psalmist wrote:

I will sing a new song to You, O God;

On a harp of ten strings I will sing praises (zâmar) to You.”

WE: IDENTIFICATION (MAKE IT CLEAR THAT YOU STRUGGLE)

We struggle in worship for many reasons

Heart issue

Worship is moving from entertainment to participation

Worship is not a spectator sport

We must be active in participation

To sing in worship is an expression of heart and life not a talent contest.

Are we as ready to meet God as we are?

Worship is action and behavior and not always just words

a. We need to ask God to move us from stagnant (of a body of water or the atmosphere of a confined space) having no current or flow and often having an unpleasant smell as a consequence.

Praise and worship is a love expression to God and divine response toward humanity.

GOD: ILLUMINATION (THE GOAL IS TO RESOLVE THE TENSION

I. Raising our hands and a sacrifice of praise

“Tôwdâh Toe daaa is a Hebrew word that means an extension of the hand in thanksgiving for what God has done. But it also means a sacrifice of praise for things not yet received. It is praising God with expectation.”

12 My promises to you are binding on me, God;

I will fulfill my thank-offerings to you.

The suppliant declares (lit.), “Your promises are upon me.” These *promises might imply “the promises you expect” and not simply “the promises made to you” (the genitive might be subjective not objective); that is, someone bringing a plea of this kind might be expected to make a commitment to return with a sacrifice when Yhwh has answered their prayer. But the parallel second colon (a verbal clause accompanies the noun clause) puts the emphasis on the suppliant’s commitment.1

56:12–13. Like , the prayer closes with a declaration of confidence and commitment, and like , it also looks forward to bringing an offering to mark what Yhwh has done and speaks as if that act is already a reality, which in a sense is so,

He put a song in my heart today

I witnessed this first hand two years ago. Barb Mundis had pancreatic cancer.

Her mother had died from this disease.

A song of praise hallelujah

She came into church believing God would heal her

She went down early on and two spots were going.

She went out visiting those with cancer praying and believing God would heal her.

God healed spots and the surgery was cancer free.

In tôwdâh, we lift our hands in the presence of God, not only for what he has done, but also for what we believe he will do. He will bring an end to all violence, so we lift our hands in praise. He will release us from bondage, so we lift our hands in praise. He will provide what we need, so we lift our hands in praise. He will heal us, both now and in eternity, so we lift our hands in praise.

The notion of lifting hands in praise to God as a sign of faith for promises to come is most biblical. And when we engage in this expression, when we raise our hands heavenward, we’re pointing to the very place of our ultimate hope. As David said in ,

Some trust in chariots and some in horses,

but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.

Have you raised your hands in praise, believing in faith that God will fulfill his promises to you? Have you raised your hands for your wounded marriage, your troubled career, your wayward son or daughter? Have you raised your hands believing God will give you the guidance and the direction you so desperately need? Have you raised tôwdâh to God for healing?”

 Hymn: He brought me out

I think we have to be reminded that we live in a relationship where worship is an expression to God who hears and does respond. This word seems to be offered as an expression and trust of what God will do.

Refrain: He brought me out of the miry clay, He set my feet on the Rock to stay; He puts a song in my soul today, A song of praise, hallelujah!

Refrain:

He brought me out of the miry clay,

He set my feet on the Rock to stay;

He puts a song in my soul today,

A song of praise, hallelujah!

II. Song, new, spontaneous song

“I m a writer’s personal experience? As you’ve read this book, as you’ve read the stories behind Chris’s music, you’ve seen that his songs are nothing if not storied praise. And in this way, Chris’s music stands in the great traditions of the psalms. The Old Testament psalmists were masters incorporating their stories into songs of praise. This storied praise is captured by the word tehillâh.

Tehillâh ( tAAA Heee LAAA) is a Hebrew word meaning hymn, a song of praise, or a new, spontaneous song”

what Yhwh did—listening, rescuing, establishing, and thus putting a new song in the mouth; the fifth line draws an inference.1

1 I looked keenly for Yhwh;

he bent down to me

and listened to my cry for help.

2 He lifted me up from the roaring pit, (Rescued)

from the overflowing mud,

And set my feet on a cliff— (established)

he steadied my legs.1

3 He put in my mouth a new song,

a praise song to our God.

Many will see and revere

and trust in Yhwh.1

verse 1

(lit., “[in] looking I looked”). The repetition hints, “It is not in the power of Israel to do anything but wait for the Holy One, blessed be He, to redeem them in reward for saying I waited patiently for the Lord.”1

verse 2

The repetition hints, “It is not in the power of Israel to do anything but wait for the Holy One, blessed be He, to redeem them in reward for saying I waited patiently for the Lord.”

The testimony then begins to relate how Yhwh responded to that waiting. First Yhwh bent down to pay attention and listened to my *cry for help. “What cry for help?” we might ask. Like , the psalm testimony begins in the middle of things. As in that psalm, it will not be till later that we discover why the cry for help was necessary and why the suppliant was in the pit

Yhwh’s action was to rescue the suppliant from the pit of roaring, the mud of flood

The two noun phrases mix two images; more straightforwardly the psalm might have spoken of the clay pit and the roaring flood. A mud pit would refer literally to the kind of place in which Jeremiah was confined (), a pit that could be used as a cistern and was thus open to the sky and sometimes full of water, but that at other times would just have a layer of mud at the bottom.1

Metaphorically, the pit then refers to the grave and to Sheol

The cliff (selaʿ) is not a rock in the midst of the river, on which a person might find refuge from the flood, but a mountain fastness where a person might find refuge from foes

Baker Commentary on the Old Testament: Psalms 1–41, Volume 1 Interpretation

The testimony then begins to relate how Yhwh responded to that waiting

David KeFauver

Became discouraged felt like it would never come.

Didn’t think that he should be praying for himself.

How many time 4-5

Refrain:

He brought me out of the miry clay,

He set my feet on the Rock to stay;

He puts a song in my soul today,

A song of praise, hallelujah!

III. We need to be reminded

I think we have to be reminded that we live in a relationship where worship is an expression to God who hears and does respond.

3 He put in my mouth a new song,

a praise song to our God.

Many will see and revere

and trust in Yhwh.1

to fear, reverence to regard with feelings of respect and reverence; consider hallowed or exalted or to be in awa

Baker Commentary on the Old Testament: Psalms 1–41, Volume 1 Interpretation

The song may be a renewed song, because the worshipper may well not have been singing when overwhelmed by the flood, and also a fresh song, because the experience of Yhwh’s deliverance gives the worshipper a fresh story to sing. A testimony is by definition a new song, not a repetition of an old one.

Refrain:

He brought me out of the miry clay,

He set my feet on the Rock to stay;

He puts a song in my soul today,

A song of praise, hallelujah!

YOU: APPLICATION (TELL PEOPLE WHAT TO DO AND WHAT THEY HAVE HEARD)

Conclusion:

I want you to worship or practice and worship at home...

Let us privately confess our sins

Worship thanking God for forgiveness.