“Give honor to the Lord, you angels; give honor to the Lord for his glory and strength. Give honor to the Lord for the glory of his name. Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness.” (Psalm 29:1-2 NLT).
What a privilege it is for us to worship the Lord and give to Him the honor He so richly deserves!
Notice if you will that the Psalmist’s concept of why we should worship, why we should ascribe worth to God, is totally different than most people’s reasons today. Ask someone why they worship God and they may say, “Because of what He has done for me.” That is a valid reason of course, but it is not a sufficient reason. What do I mean by that? Experience tells me that most people whose concept of worship is nothing more than a response to their blessings, when they hit difficult times (and we all do), they switch from praising God to cursing Him. Like the people of Jesus’ day it is nothing for them to honor Him when they think He is going to give them what they want and then call for His crucifixion when He refuses what they want. Praising God for blessings is good and proper, but if it stops there, it is insufficient.
Ask the average person today what God is like, and the overwhelming majority answer “God is love.” That is certainly true (See 1 John 4:16). Unfortunately most who view God as love do so from the weak view of love of the world and not the true view of love. Those who say, “God is love,” generally hold that view to promote a lascivious life-style–they want a God who will overlook anything they happen to like doing.
David didn’t view God this way. First, he viewed God from the proper perspective, “Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness.” The primary attribute of God given in Scripture is not love, mercy, or grace, it is holiness! The Bible says, “Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.” (Hebrews 12:14 NIV).
When the Bible speaks of human holiness, it is not talking about imputed righteousness but our visible response to Christ’s imputed righteousness. The holy person is the one who is set aside for God’s use. Holiness in this sense is the practical outworking of the inner reality. We live different because we are different.
Second, notice that because David views God in the proper perspective, his praise is based upon who God is more-so then what God does. We honor God because He deserves it by virtue of His own character. From there we can thank Him for what He has done, but never let us do the foolish thing and begin to define God in terms of what we consider His blessings.
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