Praise AND Worship

I read Psalms today, which was extremely appropriate. Here's why:

I had the loveliest dream last night. I was lying on the green grass by the swing in our previous backyard (?) and the sky was blue and there were no gnats, and everything was just beautimous. And I was singing a song. Or it was just playing in my head. Or maybe both, I don't properly remember. I don't even remember the song - I don't think it really WAS one. I think it was one of those times where I mix up a whole lot of songs I like, but it was very smooth and pretty music. And I was singing and praising God like nobody's business. They say praising is a decision, and I can perfectly agree and I do it that way often - but it feels better and more real when it's a feeling. So that was it. That was the whole dream. Just the music and God in my head. When I woke up - or, for about 30 seconds where you're not really awake ya know? The song was still going. At that moment it was Eloquent by Sanctus Real. The chorus part. All that to say, that's why Psalms was appropriate today.

So here are the two good verses on praise I found in these chapters:

18:46 - The LORD lives! Praise be to my Rock! Exalted be God my Savior!

18:49 - Therefore I will praise you among the nation, O LORD; I will sing praises to your name.

Cool. And all with the word "praise". And that last one is a common type of little verse - as in, there's a lot of those that say the same thing. Let's think about the word "Praise". Dictionary.com defines it as: "to express approval or admiration of; commend; extol". Pretty accurate. And we use that word for people. Praising somebody would be to tell them dinner was great, or tell them that was an awesome kick, or commending their taste on where to hang pictures. We use that word. We do it to people. And in the Bible, when they use the word "praise" it's usually: "I WILL praise the LORD." It's a choice - just like praising a person. And that's good - God is worthy of praise. I WILL do it. I CHOOSE to do it, because you deserve it.

Now let's talk about the word, "Worship". Dictionary.com says it is: "adoring reverence or regard" and this one's interesting: "to feel an adoring reverence or regard for (any person or thing)". In this case, God. To feel an adoring reverence or regard. To feel. We don't usually use the word "worship" for anything except God, I mean, We don't worship Lane for making good pizza. We can praise her for making good pizza. When angels appeared before people in the Bible, it generally says that they "Fell down and worshipped". Never once that I remember does it use the word "praise". When you look at these things as words, and understand the meaning of the words, and not just associate them with what we do before the pastor preaches, they are totally different. In fact, I looked at the whole list for "worship" on Dictionary.com and never once did the word "praise" come up the the descriptions - or even the synonyms. Notice we call the bands at church the "Praise AND Worship Team"?

I see worship (and I may be wrong) in these simple steps:

1 - You choose to praise God

2 - God gets a hold of your heart and you forget everything else.

3 - You seem to feel him closer than ever and are reminded of the fantastical attributes and being of God.

4 - You are wrapped in emotion and have absolutely no choice in the world but to... WORSHIP.

I think worshipping is what I was doing in my dream. I couldn't have just snapped out of it. It's God, or a sudden realization of God that totally brings you low and you know. Worship is a God-induced term.

Praise is what we do on Sunday morning, when we feel like it. Lots of times we're thinking about something else, but when we do sing and mean it, we're praising God. You're thinking about the words to the song, and telling God, "this is what you are, this is what you've done, you are awesome and amazing". You can really mean it with your heart too, but it doesn't feel the same as worship.

I'm not saying either praise or worship are bad - I'm just saying they're different. We need to DO both of them. We need to choose to praise God, and after that, when he enters in and shows you his glory in your heart - well, it's all up to him what you do from there!

So why is there whining about the music in church? Well, true Christians should love to worship. Those moments where there seems to be nothing between you and God should be precious and remembered. We do want to feel that feeling. For a lot of people, FEELING is all there is. And in order to feel it, we must choose to praise. And there are different WAYS that people like to CHOOSE to praise.

For instance, I like a well-performed song, or a piece of magnificence like the ocean or mountains. I choose to praise God when I get these things. These things vary with different people. When it's anything less and doesn't meet my terms - forget it. I just think, "Oh, I can't get into this, I can't worship to this" and I forget that the first step to worship is the choice. There shouldn't be these "preferences". Sure, it can help make the choice to praise God a little easier by happening the way we like it, but we should praise God in ALL circumstances. Whether it's a hymn or a rock song. A ocean or a drizzly rainfall. And we don't. If it's not the way we like it, we shut out. Refuse to sing, or fall asleep while singing. This is a huge heart issue. Worship will come - if we're open to it.