Worship That Costs - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in 1 Chronicles 21:22-26,

"David said to him [Arauanah, a Jebusite], 'Let me have the site of your threshing floor so I can build an altar to the Lord, that the plague on the people may be stopped. Sell it to me at the full price.'
Araunah said to David, 'Take it! Let my lord the king do whatever pleases him. Look, I will give the oxen for the burnt offerings, the threshing sledges for the wood, and the wheat for the grain offering. I will give all this.'
But King David replied to Araunah, 'No, I insist on paying the full price. I will not take for the Lord what is yours, or sacrifice a burnt offering that costs me nothing.'
So David paid Araunah six hundred shekels of gold for the site. David built an altar to the Lord there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. He called on the Lord, and the Lord answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering."

The account of what takes place in 1 Chronicles 21 is simply amazing. It is also recounted for us in 2 Samuel 24. From that chapter we learn the Lord's anger "burned" against Israel and so he incited David to count the fighting men of Israel. This counting of the fighting men precipitated a judgment from the Lord due to David's reliance upon the number of his troops, rather than on the Lord, who was to bring the victories of warfare to Israel.

In the account in 1 Chronicles 21, we see that "Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel." This is an account of the Lord bringing his wrath against Israel through the agency of Satan.

In any event, as we see in our passage above, David refused Arauanah's offer to give his threshing floor, oxen, sledges and wheat to David to build an altar there and provide an offering to the Lord. David would not worship the Lord in a manner that cost him nothing. This being an appropriate outlook on David's part, illustrating the heart he had for the Lord. He was not going to worship the Lord on the dime of another. David was going to express his worship of the Lord from his own heart, in a manner that cost him something.

This expression of David in demanding his worship cost him something causes me to think of how we might become more effective, more authentic, more meaningful in our own worship today. After all, isn't liturgy recited that was written by someone else really second-hand worship? Yes, I know it can "become ours" in our endorsement and recitation of it... but what does it cost us personally? It is the observations of another of the person and work of the Lord. Hymns sung that have been written by others can move us... but how much is God moved by singing the praises of the Lord written by someone else? Did we experience the refuge and relief the Lord provided another? Did we experience the life-changing thrill of seeing something of the Lord, when it is the expression of someone else? Again, yes, I realize it can "become ours" in the singing of a hymn written by someone else, but the first hand exposure to the Lord appears to be lacking in the expression of it.

Might I suggest that we not rely solely on the expressions of worship of others. What if we showed up on Sunday morning with our own expressions of praise? Our own songs of worship? Our own observations of the magnificent and majestic splendor of our Lord and/or recounting things he has done, particularly in our own lives?

It might take some time out of our busy schedules to draft our own worship of the Lord. Indeed, were it to be authentic, it would cost us time, energy and effort to have our own experiences with the Lord to form the basis of our own worship of him. Might that not be more authentic worship - worship born of our own personal and corporate experiences and exchanges with the Lord? Worship that is born by personal cost?

Just a thought...

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

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