Part of our responsibility as believers is to obey God’s command to honor, praise, and worship him. God is not egotistical but he knows his worth. God knows he is worthy of our worship and he expects it as part of our reasonable service for what God has done for us. Worshipping God is the least we can do for the God who made us. Praising God is the least we can do for the God who has given us eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Honoring God is the least we can do for the God who has adopted us as his children and will show us many wonderful things in heaven and shower us with riches. God has done a wonderful thing for us which we don’t deserve. God has done a great thing out of his love for us. How can you not return that love to someone who loved you first? How can you not return that love to your father? We owe God everything we can give him for the love, mercy and grace he has shown toward us.
Psalm 34:1-2 – I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make its boast in the Lord; the humble shall hear of it and be glad.
Hebrews 13:15 – Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips.
Psalm 89:1 – I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever; with my mouth I will make known Your faithfulness to all generations.
Revelation 19:15 – Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations.
The problem is not one person in ten actually knows how to go about worshipping God properly. First we need to use a dictionary to define the “worship” terms used in the Bible:
Worship – showing deep respect and admiration
Praise – expression of respect and gratitude, especially toward God
Honor – showing great respect
Reverence – showing deep respect or admiration
Fear (biblical meaning) – showing awe, deep respect and reverence for God
Glorify – praise and worship of God
The word respect is included in the definition of every single word surrounding the worship of God. It’s impossible to worship someone you don’t respect and especially God. The word admiration is mentioned twice in the definitions and it’s alluded to in the other four definitions listed. Worshipping God simply means to show respect and admiration for God and the terms worship, praise, honor and revere are used interchangeably for the most part. These are all secular terms. We want to make sure these terms are understood when used in the biblical sense when referring to God so in the Bible we use the terms “fear” and “glorify” to make sure we understand these adjectives refer to Jehovah, the Most High God.
Genesis 1:3 – Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.
Psalms 63:5 – My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips.
Psalm 109:30 – I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth; yes, I will praise Him among the multitude.
Proverbs 18:7 – A fool’s mouth is his destruction, and his lips are the snare of his soul.
Notice the definitions of the worship terms contain action verbs meaning the person can’t just think this to themselves and call that worshipping God. They will have to take some outward action to show or prove they have these feelings toward God. If you keep these thoughts in your head God may give you some credit for it. I expect he will. But I do know if you verbalize you feelings for God by singing or speaking the words of worship to the world you’ll receive so much more credit from God because he is glorified even more when other people hear your praise of him and when other observers across the spiritual veil hear you worship God (i.e. angels and demons). I can find no Bible verses that confirm the effective worship of God can be achieved just by thinking good thoughts about God. On the other hand, there are numerous verses that say we are to praise and worship God with our lips.
Notice in all the examples I’ve provided that praise and worship of God proceeds from our lips; out of our mouth. God wants us to worship him with spoken words that we speak out of our mouth and that’s good enough for me. God gave us our voice for this reason. If you study the Bible you realize just how important the spoken word is to God. The host of heaven are singing the praises of God continually and we’ll be doing the same once we get there. God spoke his covenants into being and they will stand; God spoke the universe into existence and God’s word maintains it; we confess our sins with our words spoken to God and he forgives us; Jesus will defeat the evil forces at Armageddon with the spoken word.
Psalm 146:1-2 – Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, O my soul! While I live I will praise the Lord; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.
Psalm 145:21 – My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord, and all flesh shall bless His holy name forever and ever.
Matthew 15:11 – (Jesus speaking) – Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.
Romans 10:9 – That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
One thing I’ve learned during my study of the Bible is that we don’t always pray to God and worship him as effectively as we should. The Holy Spirit indwells all believers and he helps us by taking our ineffectual prayers to God the Father on our behalf. I’ve discovered that if you recite the parts of the Bible that praise God in your own worship of God you simply can’t go wrong because you’re including God’s own words as part of your prayers. How could God have a problem with that? I’ve found Psalm 71 to be the perfect way to praise, honor and worship God. I just verbally recite Psalm 71 as part of my worship prayers to God on a regular basis and I know I’m worshipping God as I should. You can also praise God in smaller bites by reciting just selected verses of Psalm 71 that you then supplement with your own comments.
Matthew 21:22 – (Jesus speaking) – And whatever things you ask for in prayer, believing, you will receive.
Psalm 55:16-17 – As for me, I will call upon God, and the Lord shall save me. Evening and morning and at noon I will pray, and cry aloud, and He shall hear my voice.
Psalm 32:5 – I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and You forgave the iniquity of my sin.
Psalm 5:2 – Give ear to my words, O Lord, consider my meditation. Give heed to the voice of my cry, my King and my God, for to You I will pray.
You can have the best of both worlds. You can praise and worship God using his own words while at the same time adding spontaneity and originality with your own prayers from the heart about your particular circumstances. That way each time you worship God it’s fresh new material that incorporates your life experiences and glorifies God. As you deepen your relationship with God he will reciprocate. You can have true fellowship with God but it must start with you. When you recite Psalm 71 regularly it helps you to identify exactly what it is you should be thankful for as you honor God with your lips. Reciting Psalm 71 also reminds you what areas you’re deficient in. When you repeat something over and over your mind starts to believe what you’re saying and then acts on that belief. A regular reading of Psalm 71 is just another way to keep your faith strong, your eyes on God and Satan at arms length. There is also nothing wrong with worshipping God with words totally from your heart.
Psalm 71:1-3 – In You, O Lord, I put my trust; let me never be put to shame. Deliver me in your righteousness, and cause me to escape; incline your ear to me and save me. be my strong refuge, to which I may resort continually; You have given the commandment to save me, for You are my rock and my fortress.
You worship God when you pray to him using your lips. When you trust the Lord for your salvation that is the ultimate praise to God. Believers who accept God’s grace escape the fires of hell and the shame of nonbelievers who have to stand before Jesus at the Great White Throne judgment and have their sins revealed for all to hear. It is God who calls you and saves you unto eternal life by his grace. Once God saves you are eternally his and under his protection.
Psalm 71:4-6 – Deliver me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked, out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man. For You are my hope, O Lord God; You are my trust from my youth. By You I have been upheld from birth; You are He who took me out of my mother’s womb. My praise shall be continually of You.
In these verses we acknowledge not only that God made us and knows every cell of our bodies, but also that God sustains us in our being during our lifetime. We are to praise God for our salvation (hope) and protection from all that is evil in the world.
Psalm 71:7-9 – I have become as a wonder to many, but You are my strong refuge. Let my mouth be filled with Your praise and with Your glory all the day. Do not cast me off in the time of old age; do not forsake me when my strength fails.
Let your works so shine before men that God is glorified and nonbelievers are attracted to the word of God. Continually praise God and he will never forsake you once you are his possession.
Psalm 71:10-13 – For my enemies speak against me; and those who lie in wait for my life take counsel together, saying, “God has forsaken him; pursue and take him, for there is none to deliver him.” O God, do not be far from me; O my God, make haste to help me! Let them be confounded and consumed who are adversaries of my life; let them be covered with reproach and dishonor who seek my hurt.
God is glorified when we pray for his protection and guidance in our lives.
Psalm 71:14-16 – But I will hope continually, and will praise You yet more and more. My mouth shall tell of Your righteousness and Your salvation all the day, for I do not know their limits. I will go in the strength of the Lord God; I will make mention of Your righteousness, of Yours only.
We are to witness for Christ by telling others about our salvation experience. We are to tell others of God’s love, mercy, and grace unto eternal life.
Psalm 71:17-20 – O God, You have taught me from my youth; and to this day I declare Your wondrous works. Now also when I am old and grayheaded, O God, do not forsake me, until I declare Your strength to this generation, Your power to everyone who is to come. Also Your righteousness , O God, is very high, You who have done great things; O God, who is like You? You, who have shown me great and severe troubles. shall revive me again, and bring me up again from the depths of the earth.
As soon as we receive God’s salvation it’s our responsibility to turn around and witness for Christ to all who will listen. God confirms we will have tribulation in this life all the way to the grave but the promise of God is that he will resurrect us on the last day just as he did for Jesus after he was three days in the earth.
Psalm 71:21-24 – You shall increase my greatness, and comfort me on every side. Also with the lute I will praise You-and Your faithfulness, O my God! To You I will sing with the harp, O Holy One of Israel. My lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing to You, and my soul, which You have redeemed. My tongue also shall talk of Your righteousness all the day long; for they are confounded, for they are brought to shame who seek my hurt.
We are to praise and worship God by speaking about and singing about what wonderful things God has done for us. God has saved us unto eternal life in heaven in the presence of God and we are to give our witness for Christ to all peoples and all nations while we live.