Silence and Worship

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Silence and Worship

Psalm 46:10 Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!

Habakkuk 2:20 But the LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.

I was reading Paul Miller’s book this morning, A Praying Life, and read these words, “If we try to be quiet, we are assaulted by what C.S. Lewis called, ‘the Kingdom of Noise.’  Everywhere we go we hear background noise.  If the noise isn’t provided for us, we can bring out our own via iPod.  Even our church services can have that same restless energy.  There is little space to be still before God.  We want our money’s worth, so something should always be happening.  We are uncomfortable with silence” (15-16, italics added).

It made me think about our worship services and how hard it is to create that atmosphere of prayerful silence, just for a few minutes before we begin our corporate worship.  There is real value in talking, especially to brothers and sisters in Christ.  There is real value in ordinary conversation and spiritual conversation.  But there is immense value in being still before the Lord, meditating in silence, praying and seeking Him.  Being silent before the service gets us ready to enter into God’s presence with reverence and joy.

We live very busy lives, but those little windows of quiet before worship can realign us and set our minds and hearts on the importance of what we are about to do.  As the people of God let us learn that we don’t need restless energy and the kingdom of noise, but rather let us delight in those brief moments of silence as we come to the King of kings.

Pastor Brian