Psalm 84 gives us instructions regarding how to examine ourselves when it comes to our worship life. How do we need to prepare to meet with God? What do we need to bring with us to the worship services?
DESIRE
1. In order to worship God with a passionate and pure heart we need to bring a yearning for His presence.
He said in verse 2: “My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.” That is intense. That is emotional. The Hebrew word for “cry” has the picture of a child who cries out when he or she is hungry. Have you seen an infant cry lately? Infants don’t just have tears. They don’t just have sounds coming from their mouths. Their whole body engages. Their whole being engages. They cry with their hands and legs in motion. When they cry their entire face scrunches up. It is a whole-body, whole-being experience. This is the way the Psalmist cried out to the Lord—with his whole being. Is that the kind of passion we bring with us to worship?
EXPECTATION
2. In order to worship God with a passionate and pure heart we need to bring a spirit of anticipation and expectation.
Verse 5: BLESSED are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.
When you come to worship, you need to come with an expectation that God wants to bless you. God is a blesser. It is in His nature to bless. If we are open to all God wants to do, we cannot be in the presence of God and not leave without a blessing.
In verse 5, the Psalmist is referring to the Jewish people who will make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the prescribed festivals. They were always high times in the worship and corporate life of the Israelite people. They had a great anticipation about their times with God. We need to come with the expectation that something incredible is going to happen as we gather for worship. We need to anticipate that God wants to say something and God wants to do something that will result in blessing and strength for us! “Blessed are those whose strength is in you.”
DEVOTION
Psalm 84:5 says, Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their HEARTS on pilgrimage.
There will be times when we don’t feel like worshiping. If our hearts have been set on God fully, we will worship Him regardless of how we feel.
3. In order to worship God with a passionate and pure heart we need to commit our hearts fully to Him.
II Chronicles 16:9 says, “For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.”
There it is again. Those who set their hearts fully on the Lord will receive strength from God.
Isaiah 29:13 says it is possible to honor God with our lips, but not our hearts. There is no power in lip-service. There is no spiritual progress in lip-service. It has to be a heart-thing.
Our passion for God, our yearning to be with Him, and our expectation or faith that He will move in our midst is in direct correlation to the condition of our hearts. In order for our hearts to be pure in worship, they have to be devoted to God every day. It would be ridiculous to think we could live for ourselves Monday through Saturday and then be able to experience God in power on Sundays when we meet together.
Desire. Expectation. Devotion. Do we need to ramp ours up? Do we worship God with a pure and passionate heart?
