God has not just ordained that He should be worshipped but also how He should be worshipped. And because God is a self-revealing God, our worship of Him is dependent on how He has revealed Himself and what He requires from us. Novelty and innovations have their place, but worship is definitely not the place. Thus, Paul speaking to the Colossians admonishes them to worship God by singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with much gratitude in their hearts. Songs are an integral part of the Christian worship life and therefore the gathered church must sing God-honouring songs.

It is not by chance that the largest book in the Bible is a book of songs. The Psalms are a good place to go if we are to equip ourselves with Biblical vocabulary for our worship. They express the full array of human emotions and experiences – there are Psalms of praise, Psalms of penitence, Psalms of devotion, Psalms of petitions, Psalms of lament, etc. In whatever situation we find ourselves in, the Psalms give us a model of worship. When the Bible talks about hymns, it refers to songs of praise and not necessarily a certain tune as we have come to believe. Consequently, any thoughtful meditation on the grace and goodness of God causes us to burst out into hymns and spiritual songs (these are songs led by the Holy Spirit). There is plenty that the Scriptures provide for our worship and we must beware of worshipping God on our own terms lest we turn out to be like Nadab and Abihu (Leviticus 10). In summary then God, as revealed in the Scriptures, is both the subject and substance of our worship.

1. Have you ever, after a church service, thought, ‘I did not like the worship today’? What do you think is wrong with this kind of thought?

2. What is the danger of worshipping God on our own terms and how we think best?

3. In what ways does today’s devotion influence your worship life?