The Purpose and Power of Worship: Introduction to Psalms

Hi, I’m KJ Scriven and welcome to Strengthen Your Walk™. We’re continuing our conversation around worship and particularly, we’ve been talking about, over the last few days, the power of worship specifically through song and the gift of song. Why the Lord gave us the gift of worship through song. It’s not just that God needs worship. God is worthy of worship, but the Lord has given worship to us as a gift. It actually benefits us. And over the next few days, I want to do a journey through the Psalms.

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You know, sometimes I don’t think we give Psalms the credit. Like Psalms, I don’t know if you know this, but the book of Psalms is by far the largest book in the Bible. Like guys, it’s not even close. It is the largest book of the Bible by 100 chapters. There’s 150 chapters in the book of Psalms. That’s a lot of psalms. The word Psalms simply just means songs that were written to string instruments. But guys, it’s not just songs. There’s all types of categories of Psalms. In fact, do you remember there used to be an Apple commercial when they were talking about the applications, the apps, and they would say no matter what scenario you’re in, in life, there’s an app for that, right? And you could almost say that in the same way, in every scenario of life, there’s a psalm for that.

The Psalms are not all just psalms of praise, but there are psalms of all different types. There’s psalms like psalms of praise, psalms of thanksgiving, psalms of prophecy, psalms of joy, but also psalms of lament, psalms of anger, psalms of where the psalmist wants revenge, psalms where the psalmist is repenting, psalms where the psalmist is navigating through thoughts of anxiety or even depression or confusion. There’s all types of psalms.

And what does that tell us? That tells us that God is open and God wants us, no matter what phase of life that we’re in, to bring every emotion, every feeling to Him. Listen guys, God is not fragile. So, even if you are confused, even if you have disappointment with God, He’s saying, “Bring that to Me.” And that’s actually how we build deeper intimacy with the Lord when we’re real with Him, when we’re honest with Him. “God, I’m confused about this. I trust You, but I’m confused about this phase of life.” But also, we bring to Him songs of Thanksgiving.

Many of us have been trained to think that the only time that we can approach God is when we’re giving praise and thanksgiving, but God wants us and He invites us to be real with Him no matter what phase of life you’re in. If you’re in a phase of confusion, if you’re in a phase of life where you need direction and instruction, if you’re in a phase of life where you’re like, “God, I’m sad, I’m depressed.”

God is saying we see this through- the Psalms, God is saying “Bring every one of your emotions,” all the range of feelings because guess what guys? God gave you all of those emotions and God is not surprised by the season of life that you’re in. He is saying, we see this demonstrated in the psalms, “bring all of your feelings, bring all of your emotions, bring them to me, bring them to my feet, and trust me with them.” Thank you for joining us for Strengthen Your Walk™.

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