Insight for Today
A Daily Devotional by Pastor Chuck Swindoll

How am I to enter into the experience of worship? How am I to let it shine? I think I have found something of the answer, thanks to God’s Book and God’s family.

Tucked away in the hymnbook of our Bible, the Psalms, is a grand statement of invitation. I’d like us to think about that ancient hymn, Psalm 95, for just a few moments—to relive in our minds the truth that has been preserved for centuries.

If we struggle with the concept of worship as “too elusive,” we must be equally concerned about making it too mechanical. I deliberately resist suggesting something like “Five Steps to Worship” or “Worship Made Easy—Here’s How!” I have no plans to package it so that you are able to read this, then pass along several “transferable concepts” of worship. But perhaps you will grasp what I’m driving at as you digest these thoughts. Like the Scottish people say, “Some things are better felt that telt.”

I want you to “feel” what this is all about, according to Psalm 95. I want you to experience the emotions flowing from the psalmist’s pen as you read this passage. By the way, if there are precision-minded engineers reading, please, please, don’t take this psalm so literally. It’s to be understood symbolically. And if you don’t have the ability to do that, talk it over with your wife! I’ve met more wives who are poets than husbands. Let’s see if this psalm will help us get a handle on the mystery called worship. 

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 NASB 1995)

But why? Why should we come before our God with thanksgiving and joyful shouts? Why take the psalmist up on his invitation? Because our God is great. He deserves our highest praise.

For the LORD is a great God,
And a great King above all gods;
In whose hand are the depths of the earth,
The peaks of the mountains are His also. (95:3–4 NASB)