Worship in Every Season
Think about your favorite song. Think about the lyrics. Why have you memorized every word and every note? Why can you listen to it over and over and never get tired of it? Music connects with us in ways that an essay or a set of instructions just can't and that might be exactly why one of the largest and most enduring books in the Bible is a book of music and poetry.
Why the Psalms Still Matter Today
Psalms is a song book, a collection of poetry, like the hymnal of ancient Israel. The Psalms are beautiful, raw, honest, vulnerable conversations between people and God. The Psalms teach us to worship God in every season of life.
Three Ways We Worship
Before we look at the different seasons of life the Psalms address, it helps to understand what worship actually involves. Throughout the Psalms, three things show up again and again:
Respond to who God is
Remember what God has done
Rely on God for what's next
Worship starts with recognizing who God is — God's greatness, God's goodness, God's love, God's mercy, God's power — and allowing ourselves to stand in awe of who God really is. When we recognize and honor God for who God is, it helps us remember what God has already done. And when we remember what God has done, it helps us rely on God for what's next.
I Can Worship God When Life Is Good
It might sound obvious that we can and should worship God when life is good, but a lot of the time, when life is good, that's when we tend to forget about God. It's easy for us to think we've earned or deserve all the good things coming our way, and we can forget that every good and perfect gift in our lives comes not from us, but from God.
Psalm 23 is a reminder of all the good things God gives to us and does for us. Written by David, the shepherd-king of ancient Israel, it begins with recognizing who God is: "The Lord is my shepherd; I have all that I need" (Psalm 23:1, NLT). God provides everything we need. God leads us to peaceful places and gives us rest there. God renews our strength and guides us on the right path, not just to show goodness to us, but to bring honor to God's name.
And it ends with relying on God for what's next: "Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life" (Psalm 23:6, NLT). Even if we run away, God will always be chasing after us.
I Can Worship God When Life Is Hard
None of us wishes for a crisis in our lives, but the truth is, all of us have to face them. We live in an evil and broken world where things don't always go the way we, or God, want them to go. When Jesus teaches us in the Lord's Prayer to pray for God's will to be done "on earth as it is in heaven," it's because we live in a world where God's will is not always done.
Most of the Psalms reflect this truth. Many involve lament, this posture of grief over the way the world is. The Psalms show us that we don't have to just put on a happy face and carry on like nothing is wrong. We can bring our grief before God and plead for God to do something about it.
Psalm 22 opens with words you might recognize, the very words Jesus prayed while dying on the cross: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish?" (Psalm 22:1, NIV). Even Jesus felt abandoned by God in that moment, and he wasn't afraid to come before God with raw honesty.
But the Psalm doesn't stop there. It moves us to recognize who God is and remember what God has done, so that we can rely on God for what's next, even if we can't see a hopeful ending ahead of us. Even when we feel like we've been abandoned by God, the Psalms teach us to never abandon God ourselves.
I Can Worship God When I Need to Change
Sometimes in life, disaster strikes and we're left reeling. But sometimes, we bring disaster upon ourselves through the choices we make.
There was at least one time where David really messed up big time. While his soldiers were off fighting a war, David had an affair with the wife of one of his trusted commanding officers, got her pregnant, tried to cover it up, and when that didn't work, arranged for the officer to be killed in battle.
God sent a prophet named Nathan to confront David, and David was given a clear choice: keep running from God or turn back to God and pray for mercy and forgiveness. David, thankfully, recognized the error of his ways and turned back to God with worship. He wrote the words we now know as Psalm 51, pleading: "Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love. Because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins" (Psalm 51:1, NLT).
When we realize we need to change, we might want to run away and hide. We might want to try to earn our way back into God's good graces. But all of those roads are just dead ends that lead us further away from God. What God wants most from us, when we've messed up and want to change, is for us to simply turn back to God in worship and come home. That's where forgiveness begins. That's where healing begins. That's where new life begins.
I Can Worship God With Hope for the Future
Psalm 121 is part of a group of Psalms called the Songs of Ascent, songs the people of Israel would sing as they traveled to worship in Jerusalem, ascending Mount Zion to the Temple at the top. These Psalms give us a picture of worship itself as the journey of a lifetime, always traveling upward, closer to God, through good times and bad.
"I lift up my eyes to the mountains — where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth" (Psalm 121:1-2, NIV).
Do you hear the confident hope in those words? That's the hope God gives us when we learn to worship God in every season of our lives. We can make our whole lives one big expression of worship, praise, and gratitude to God for who God is, what God has done, and what God will do.
Worship Is a Way of Life
Running through the entire book of Psalms is a thread of ultimate hope, the promise that one day, God will send a new king, one even greater than David, who will restore the glory of God's people and establish God's kingdom on earth forever. That promised king has come. He came to be the shepherd of God's people, like in Psalm 23. He came to be the suffering servant, like in Psalm 22. His name is Jesus.
When we recognize him for who he is, remember all that he has done for us, and rely on him for whatever comes next, then our only possible response must be to worship him with everything we've got.
The "art of worship" is not a single act or habit. It's a way of life, and it's one that all of us can choose, every day. Here are a few ways to begin living a life of worship, no matter what season you find yourself in:
When life is good, pause and thank God specifically for the good things in your life. Read Psalm 23 as a reminder that every blessing comes from God.
When life is hard, don't put on a happy face. Bring your grief, fear, and even anger honestly before God. Read Psalm 22:1-5 and know that even Jesus prayed these words.
When you've made a mess, resist the urge to run or to try to fix it yourself. Turn back to God and pray the words of Psalm 51:1-4, 12, asking God for mercy and restoration.
When you need hope, read Psalm 121 and remind yourself: your help comes from the God who made the mountains who is watching over your coming and going, now and forevermore.
Every day, ask yourself: Am I recognizing who God is? Am I remembering what God has done? Am I relying on God for what's next?
Reflection
Take a few quiet moments to sit with these questions.
Which season of life are you currently in? Is life good, hard, or are you in a place where you know something needs to change? How have you been engaging or avoiding God in that season?
When life is good, that's often when we tend to forget about God. Can you think of a time when God's blessings caused you to drift rather than draw closer? What does that reveal about your heart?
The psalmist cries out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" and even Jesus prayed these words from the cross. Is there an area of your life where you've been afraid to bring your grief, anger, or doubt before God? What would it look like to bring that to Him today?
Psalm 121 pictures worship as a journey of a lifetime, always ascending closer to God. Looking back over your life, where do you see evidence of God watching over your coming and going? How does remembering that shape your hope for what lies ahead?
Application
This week, choose one intentional act of worship for each of the three movements:
RESPOND to who God is: Spend 5 minutes in silence simply acknowledging God's greatness. Don't make any requests. Just sit in awe of who God is. Try reading Psalm 145:1-7 out loud as your starting point.
REMEMBER what God has done: Write down three specific ways God has been faithful to you in the past year. Keep this list somewhere visible as a daily reminder that the God who came through before will come through again.
RELY on God for what's next: Identify one area of your life where you've been trying to carry the weight on your own. Surrender it to God in prayer today, trusting that the same God who "watches over your coming and going both now and forevermore" has not lost sight of you.
Prayer
Creator God, You are my shepherd, and I have everything I need in you. You are the Maker of heaven and earth, the Holy One enthroned in glory, the God who pursues me with goodness and unfailing love even when I run. You are worthy of every breath of praise I have. Help me to remember what you have done, not just in the pages of Scripture, but in my own life. I choose to rely on you for whatever comes next. I don't know what lies ahead, but you do. You never sleep. You never slip. You are watching over me right now. May everything I do today be an act of worship to You. In the name of Jesus, Amen
