Worship is Warfare

Last night my wife and I read Psalm 119.  Psalm 119 is the longest chapter of the entire Bible and it's all about King David's love of the law.  It's hard to read Psalm 119 and not be convicted.  It's difficult to read Psalm 119 and think that King David had possibly just read Leviticus before he wrote this song that reads like a love affair with the law.  I read Psalm 119 and often wonder why I rarely have ever felt like David did about the law.

Instead of singing about the glories of God's law I find myself sinning.  I may not sing about my love for those sins, but with my actions I show that I love those sins more than I love the laws of God.  In fact, I have some pet sins that I could write a glowing song about.

How do I fight my passion for sinning?  How do I get to where David was when he wrote Psalm 119?

Well, there are many answers but I will argue that worship is perhaps the best way.

Worship, as I have defined it in the past, is anything that demonstrates what you value or desire.  But perhaps that definition is insufficient because there are many times when my worship fuels my desires more than it stems from my desires.

So, sin fighting worship is necessary because it pours gasoline on my desires for God and His ways.  In worship, and by worship I don't just mean singing, we declare the worthiness of God.  Sin fighting worship can involve prayers that declare the excellence of God.  Sin fighting worship can include reciting the wonderful, redeeming works of Jesus.  Sin battling worship may be singing words written by others and listening to ourselves sing them as a sermon to ourselves.

See, we always do what we prefer.  When we sin we do so because in either the moment or in the long run we had preference for what we did versus the alternative.  So, to fight this we must do things that help us see the surpassing greatness of the LORD.

Worship, gazing at the beauty of God, helps us prefer the best by reminding us what is the best.

"Taste and see that the LORD is good;" Psalm 34:8a

"One thing I ask of the LORD,
this is what I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD
and to seek Him in His temple."  Psalm 27:4

Whether you do it in a sanctuary (and I hope you do as often as you can) or in your car or in your bedroom or boardroom, whether you do it out loud or in your head you need to worship to battle sin.

When we get to Heaven we will never sin again and we will never want to.  Is this because God will turn us into robots?  Most certainly not.  No, we won't sin because we will see God as He is and when we see Him rightly we will never be tempted to prefer anything else ever again.

"Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known.  But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.  Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as He is pure." 1 John 3:2-3

Friends, we won't see God perfectly as He is on this earth, but good worship is about seeing Him more rightly here and now.  So, worship with that Christ exalting hymn, read that mind expanding book on the attributes of God, sing that song that makes your heart burn with passion, walk in the woods and think about the Creator... do worship that helps you prefer God and His ways and by doing so deal a blow to the sin that wants to take your life today.