Prepare to Worship?

October, 2007

by: Brock Bolde

Psalm 100 is a great Psalm of thanksgiving and praise. In it, people everywhere are called to:

1. …Shout joyfully to the LORD, all the earth.
2. Serve the LORD with gladness; Come before Him with joyful singing.
3. Know that the LORD Himself is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
4. Enter His gates with thanksgiving And His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name.
5. For the LORD is good; His lovingkindness is everlasting And His faithfulness to all generations.

Thankfulness to God is to be the force that drives a believer’s worship to God. As we stop to ponder on all that God has done to make a way for helpless sinners to be reconciled to Himself, we should be overcome with joy and gladness. As we dwell upon the grace and the mercy that God has showered upon each one of us who has trusted in the work and person of His Son Jesus Christ, our hearts should be filled with thanks and praise. This heartfelt appreciation should move us to worship God. “All believers must come properly before God’s throne in worship. Such a privileged audience before the sovereign King requires gladness of heart, joyful singing, expressions of thanksgiving, and songs of praise. May all God’s people approach him in this prescribed manner. He is the Sovereign, his people are his subjects. So enter His courts with praise.” (Steve Lawson, Psalms 76-150, Holman Old Testament Commentary, p. 135). This is how the believer is to approach God; whether it is individually or corporately.

With the remainder of this article, I want to examine how well we are doing as parents in helping our children to approach God in this manner; especially as it relates to their corporate worship of God. For I have a concern that too many of us are not giving much thought to our children’s condition as they “enter His gates.” For the Israelites, entering God’s gates would have certainly referred to the front gates that led to the temple court. For those of us living on this side of the cross, this might refer to our entering the church as a corporate body. This is to be something that is done purposefully; this is to be something that is done reverently; this is to be something that is done joyfully! Parents, how are you doing at preparing your child to come in an effort to worship God? How are you doing at helping your child to come, ready to learn about their awesome Creator? Do you approach Sunday morning (our corporate gathering time) as the most important day of the week? Do you take extra steps to make sure that you and your children get plenty of sleep so as to make sure that you are ready to worship God through singing, giving, and the preaching of His Word? I am amazed at the great lengths we go through in order to make sure that our children are well prepared for their weekly school schedule (making sure they get to bed at a decent hour; making sure they have a good breakfast; making sure that they have looked over their subject matter; etc.). How different might our children approach their pursuit of God if we took at least the same pains to prepare them for church? Too many of our children are coming to church with too little sleep; too many of our children are coming to church with too little nourishment (no, Krispy Kreme doughnuts do not count as good brain food); too many children are filling their minds with junk (video games or T.V.) rather than the things of God. Parents, this should not be. We are doing the children, that we say we love, a great injustice if we fail to make the corporate worship of God a big deal to them. Let us, as a body of parents, commit to properly preparing our children to come to church such that they are ready to worship the God whose “faithfulness (is) to all generations.”