31 Days of Praise & Worship—Introduction

David W Palmer

Much of our modern Christian experience centres around music—praise, worship, and thanking God. Music can take up to half the program of our church meetings, youth rallies, and evangelistic events. Certainly, in our homes, cars, and leisure activities, our Christian music occupies at least as much of our attention as does preaching, teaching, or the word. Why is it so prevalent? Is it scriptural? If so, what is God’s objective for it?

Obviously the gospel writers didn't devote much of their writing to music or singing in Jesus’s life. However, we do have some passages in the New Testament that can help us grow in this area. For example:

(Acts 15:16–17 NKJV) “After this I will return And will rebuild the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down; I will rebuild its ruins, And I will set it up; {17} So that the rest of mankind may seek the LORD, Even all the Gentiles who are called by My name, Says the LORD who does all these things.”

In this passage, the elder James quotes from Amos, where God says that he wants to restore David’s fallen tabernacle in New Testament times. What is it? It was simply a tent that housed the ark of the covenant. God’s ark is symbolic of God’s manifested glorious presence. Wanting to restore David’s tabernacle speaks of the way God wants to “house” that manifested presence in our time; he wants to re-established the heart and atmosphere of David’s tabernacle.

God’s purpose in doing this is clarified in this passage: “So that the rest of mankind may seek the LORD, Even all the Gentiles who are called by My name.” The stated objective is about the Gentiles, the non-Jews. He wants them to “seek” the Lord. God wants the Gentiles who are called by his name to have access to him—to search him out and to worship him. That is, that Christians can have an unhindered way to encounter God and his glorious manifested presence—searching out and finding him in worship [in spirit and in truth].

Listen to what Jesus said to the woman at the well in Samaria:

(John 4:20–24 NKJV) “Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.” {21} Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. {22} You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. {23} But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. {24} God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Jesus expects us to be true worshippers of his father

He expects us to worship in spirit and in truth

What does this mean, and how do we apply it?

I wrote this book to help give a scriptural foundation for our contemporary use of music to enhance our praise and worship of God. However, its primary purpose is to help you get to the heart of what praise and worship is about; and to help you grow in your devotion, worship and relationship with God

David W. Palmer

1. God Seeks Worshippers Today

God Desires True Worshippers; They Will Serve Him Truly.

Jesus has achieved so much for us through his death, resurrection, teaching, and exemplary life. Moreover, through is ongoing ministries; he is guaranteeing the availability of all he achieved for those who put their entire trust in God.

However, Jesus has some expectations of us as well; he expects us to receive his new birth and the baptism of the Holy Spirit. He also expects us to pray, to love one another, and to look after the poor ,etc. In the following passage, we see another of his expectations that he hopes we will fulfil:

(John 4:20–24 NKJV) “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.”

God seeks worshippers, and Jesus wants us to fulfil that expectation. However, if we look at the first time Jesus mentions worship, we see that there is some warfare around this expectation:

(Matthew 4:9–10 NKJV) And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.” (10) Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.’”

Satan also wants worship. This is borne out in the book of Revelation where we see the end time war for worshippers played out—forcefully:

(Revelation 13:15 NKJV) “He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed.”

This obvious war for worshippers makes our choice clear. We either obey Jesus’s expectation that we worship the Father in Spirit and in truth, or we cower to the devil’s intimidating manipulation to worship him or be punished (sound familiar?).

On one hand, we have the choice of worshipping God—serving him only. This may endanger our temporal lives, but will ultimately lead to eternal worship of God in heaven. On the other hand, worshipping the devil and serving him and his worldly system will lead to eternity in hell. The choice is ours, and the choice is clear; we pray for God’s grace to be his eternal worshippers in spirit and in truth.

What about you? Will you willingly throw yourself wholeheartedly into Jesus’s expectation that we worship Father in spirit and truth? If so, not only are you fulfilling what Father seeks, you are also fulfilling, “and Him only you shall serve.” Yes, the one we worship—in spirit and truth—is also the one we will ultimately serve. If we invest time into actively coming to God, sitting on his lap, gazing into his face, and listening to him, we will see, perceive, hear, and know the works he has called us to walk in; and the grace we need to do them will be imparted to us at the same time. In other words, we will serve him—first with our spirits, then in the natural realm:

(Romans 1:9 NKJV) “For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son, …”