A Prayer About A Bigger Heart for God's Praise
Praise the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens. Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness. Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre, praise him with tambourine and dancing, praise him with the strings and flute, praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals. Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD. Psalm 150
I love reading prayers from some of the great men and women of God. My collection is growing, but most of the prayers I have collected have been from the Puritans. I recently found a collection of prayers that are being written by an amazing "gospel-filled" preacher, Pastor Scotty Smith, Senior Pastor of Christ Community Church in Nashville, Tennessee. Scotty has been Pastor and mentor to many of our contemporary Christian music artists. I trust that this prayer this morning will help to prepare your heart for worship of our great God and Savior:
Most gracious Father, it occurs to me as I meditate this Psalm that I need a much bigger heart for the purposes of your praise. I need the gospel to expand my palate… multiply my aesthetic taste buds… and increase my capacity to enjoy the rich diversity of worship which is offered by your pan-cultural beloved people.
My tendency is to treat this Psalm, like many parts of your Word, as though it was a buffet line from which I pick and choose the items that I personally enjoy. What’s worse, I find ways to marginalize or eliminate expressions that don’t fit within my bandwidth of beauty. I love harps-n-lyres and stings-n-flutes, but trumpets make me cringe, waiting for a sour note… tambourines remind me of bad theology… clashing and resounding cymbals are simply too loud and non melodic for me… and there’s no way I’m going to dance. Father… all of this I confess as sin. My heart is just too small… too turned in on me.
O how I long for the Day when the work of Jesus will be complete in my heart … when I will no longer be the measure of anything and I will no longer offer a measured response to your glory and grace… when I will find great joy in celebrating your surpassing greatness with the whole family of God… with all of restored creation… with every single breath, instrument, sound, molecule and nano-particle.
Your greatest praise-worthy act of power was in sending, offering and raising Jesus from the dead… for us… for me. May the limits of my worship and praise only be determined by the unsearchable immeasurable riches of the gospel. ‘Nuff said. So very Amen, I pray, in Jesus’ magnificent and merciful name. -- from the blog, HEAVENWARD by Scotty Smith
Dig This Quote: Moses became radically addicted to the Cross, God’s vehicle of death where I must make sure I AM REALLY DEAD to self and to any desire to worship myself or create vehicles I worship by which I can feel good myself. -- Manny Mill
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