Coffee With The Lord

When people have been ill we look for indicators that reveal they are improving and headed back to health. Those indicators can include renewed appetite, the desire to get up and move around, a countenance that is improved, and an attitude that is hopeful and positive. There are other key indicators as well, and my son in law who is a physician, uses those key indicators to determine a return to health…

Leading indicators… I came across a key indicator of a transformed life this morning during my Bible reading. I would have to say that in my years of pastoral ministry it is truly a key indicator that someone has experienced “salvation,” “new birth,” and “regeneration” (life-transformation) through the power of “the gospel!”

I love great music! Few things thrill me as much as an awesome concert – one that features a great orchestral score, a concert choir made up of gifted voices, and blended together and led by a skilled conductor/arranger! I mean the kind of musical presentation that makes your mouth drop open and your skin crawl with what your ears are experiencing! Wow!!! (I’ve had the privilege of attending a few like that – absolutely unforgettable!!!)

But what if you added to all of those sounds the sounds of nature? What if they were all blended skillfully into the overall musical experience… I’d love to hear it! I’d pay big bucks to experience it!!!

Skilled arrangers – gifted artists – imagine this kind of stuff and create it! Psalm 98 describes such a worship experience in song… One that involves voices lifted in worship along with orchestra… and even the blended sounds of nature! It’s described in Psalm 98, and believe me, I would have loved to hear what the writer of Psalm 98 imagined!!!

Here’s what he envisioned…

“Oh sing to the Lord A NEW SONG, for He has done marvelous things! His right hand and His holy arm have worked salvation for Him! … He has remembered His steadfast love and faithfulness! All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God!

“Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! Break forth into joyous song and sing praises! Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre…with trumpets and the sound of the horn! … Let the sea roar and all that fills it… Let the rivers clap their hands, let the hills sing for joy together before the Lord!” (From Psalm 98)

Wow!!! Wouldn’t you like to hear what the writer of that great Psalm had in mind. Hey listen, every time we get together for worship we can do our part to help create it! Voices lifted in praise! Instruments played worshipfully! Even the sounds of nature itself envisioned as joining in as exalted worship harmony!

I’ll tell you what I like when I go to a house of worship on “the Lord’s Day” (Sunday, or any other time for that matter) … I like to walk in on a glad song of worship and praise!

If I were pastoring a church today, that would be my directive to the worship team and musicians… Start early, and let people walk into upbeat worship, vertical in orientation (directed upward to God) – a glad song of praise to “the Living God!” Then a member of the pastoral team or chosen layperson would step forward and urge the congregation to engage in a season of heartfelt, verbal expressions of praise to their Savior and Lord! It sets a tone for the entire gathering!

And I just might use Psalm 95:1-7 as “a call to worship” in the service! (It’s the passage I read during “coffee with the Lord” this morning that provoked this pastoral reflection!)

“Oh come, let us sing to the LORD! Let us make a joyful noise to the Rock of our Salvation! Let us come into His presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to Him with songs of praise! For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods! In His hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are His also! The sea is His, for He made it, and His hands formed the dry land! Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker! For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand!”

Did you notice all the exclamation marks I added to the Biblical text? (And I meant every one of them! I exerted a bit of “literary license” – please forgive me; I got carried away!)

You know what? I think if we did what I’m suggesting for our houses of worship, “church” would not be boring – it would be uplifting – and we’d leave the Lord’s house challenged and ready to face another week of serving “the Living God” with faith, victory, and enthusiasm! We might even see a miracle or two and more lives transformed by God’s power!