Greatly to be Praised

Psalm 145:3

 

Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and His greatness is unsearchable.

 

A recent series of devotionals I have been tacking from the teachings of A. W. Tozer, perhaps best known for his books on the Holiness of God such as "Pursuit of God" and others, has touched off and on for the last week or so on worship. What worship should be, what once was, and what now has become were the basic topics.

 

Today in some many churches we seem to have gone to extremes. While some have made worship pedestrian, others have made it like a rock concert, and still others into an over-charismatic time of being outside of yourself or normal acceptable behavior "in the spirit". What I am struck by is what Tozer hit upon; it simply needs to be about praising God and His unsearchable greatness. Here's what Tozer had to say:

 

"The dictionary says that to admire is "to regard with wondering esteem accompanied by pleasure and delight; to look at or upon with an
elevated feeling of pleasure." According to this definition, God has few admirers among Christians today.

"Many are they who are grateful for His goodness in providing salvation. At Thanksgiving time the churches ring with songs of
gratitude that "all is safely gathered in." Testimony meetings are mostly devoted to recitations of incidents where someone got into
trouble and got out again in answer to prayer. To decry this would be uncharitable and unscriptural, for there is much of the same thing
in the Book of Psalms. It is good and right to render unto God thanksgiving for all His mercies to us. But God's admirers, where
are they?

"The simple truth is that worship is elementary until it begins to take on the quality of admiration. Just as long as the worshiper is
engrossed with himself and his good fortune, he is a babe. We begin to grow up when our worship passes from thanksgiving to admiration.
As our hearts rise to God in lofty esteem for that which He is ("I AM THAT I AM"), we begin to share a little of the selfless pleasure
which is the portion of the blessed in heaven."

 

All I can say is Amen!