Soul-Shaping Worship | A Three-Part Miniseries

Redeemer Family,

While I typically take a break from preaching over the summer, I am stepping back into the pulpit for the next three Sundays to guide our parish through a three-part miniseries on Psalm 103, 104, and 105. I’m calling this little trilogy "Soul-Shaping Worship".

Worship happens whenever a human being gives devotion, honor, praise, and glory to someone or something. Worship can be expressed outwardly in speaking, singing, kneeling, cheering, shouting, but it is also an inward posture of the heart. The World Cup, the 250th Anniversary of the USA, a hike up Old Rag Mountain, or even your favorite summer concert are all places where you can observe humans worshipping - giving glory and honor to someone or something they love. Humans are worshippers, homo adorans.

The fascinating reality of worship is that it is not only expressive, but also formative. Humans become like whomever or whatever they worship. The act and posture of worship changes us - it molds and shapes us. For this reason, all humans should take worship deeply serious and it should be practiced with great intentionality. Show me who or what you worship and I’ll show you the kind of person you are becoming.

Though he was God-in-the-flesh, Jesus was (and is) a full human being and, as a human, is a worshipper. The Son glorifies the Father. How did Jesus worship? We know that he prayed and sang the Psalms. If we who share in the risen humanity of Jesus want to be formed to be more like Jesus, then it would only follow that we learn to pray and sing the Psalms as well.

This is the underlying logic beneath our parish’s habit of returning to the Psalms every summer. We want our worship to make us more like Jesus, and so our worship must include the Psalms.

Over the next three weeks, I’d like us to explore this dynamic more deeply in the following ways:

• July 5 — Psalm 103
  Worshipping God for his compassion, which shapes us into a more compassionate people.

• July 12 — Psalm 104
  Worshipping God as creator, which cultivates wonder and awe in us as his creatures.

• July 19 — Psalm 105
  Worshipping God for his covenant faithfulness towards Israel, which gives us deep roots in the story of redemptive history.

Compassion, wonder, roots… I know I need more of these in my life and I suspect you do as well.

Redeemer family, over the next three weeks, let’s grow to become more like Christ as we learn to worship with these psalms.

In the Father’s love,