HEART WORSHIP

Contrary to what many believe, the heart, and not the voice, is the true worshipper’s greatest asset. It is from the altar of the heart that either profane or acceptable worship is lifted up to God. In its first mention in scripture, the word worship as used in Genesis 22:5 was used to signify obedience, surrender and sacrifice, all of which are heart matters. Scripture rightly puts it when it speaks of the heart as being the wellspring from which the issues of life flow (Proverbs 4:23).

Is this to discredit the place of skill and excellence in voice and musicality? Not at all. The Bible itself exhorts us to “play skillfully unto the Lord” (Psalm 33:3). Yet from God’s perspective, the heart is primary, while voice and musicality are ancillary. It is from this vantage that the Lord contended with the children of Israel, declaring: “These people draw near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me” (Isaiah 29:13). As long as their hearts were distant, their sacrifices and outward worship were unacceptable before Him.

An illustration of this truth can be seen in the stories of the two most notable musical and poetic kings of Israel: David and his son Solomon. Many rightly admire David for his singing and his musical skill. Yet when God was commending David, He did not highlight his musical prowess, but rather the state of his heart, saying that David was “a man after my own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14). 

Solomon too was richly endowed in wisdom and song. Scripture records that he composed a thousand and five songs (1 Kings 4:32), among them the famed Song of Songs. Yet despite his remarkable musical accomplishments, God’s contention with Solomon was not about his artistry but about his heart, for scripture records that in his old age his heart was turned from God towards other gods. His devotion was divided.(1 Kings 11:4).

So central is this matter to the heart of God that He would rather have you croak to Him like a frog but with a pure heart than you singing like a nightingale but with a distant heart. Yet to have both a pure heart and skillful worship is not only possible, but something the worshipper should earnestly pursue.

Knowing this truth, the enemy often directs his fiercest attacks at the heart, seeking to defile it. For if the heart is polluted, the streams that flow from it become corrupted. It is from such defilement that the devil first invalidates your worship before God, and then spreads corruption to those you are ministering to.

Dear worshipper, lean heavily upon the Lord and trust Him to sustain within you a clean and steadfast heart. Then your worship will rise before Him as sweet golden incense rather than the pungent charred smoke of corruption.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10).

Selah.