He is your praise and He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome wonders that your eyes have seen.

— Deuteronomy 10:21

Then the Levites … said, “Stand up and bless the LORD your God from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be Your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise.

— Nehemiah 9:5

Ascribe to the LORD the glory due His name; worship the LORD in the splendor of His holiness.

— Psalm 29:2

O come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.

— Psalm 95:6

Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe,

— Hebrews 12:28

“Worthy are You, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things; by Your will they exist and were created.”

— Revelation 4:11

Thoughts on Today’s Reading

Grace, mercy and love from Christ to you.

Worship is the appropriate posture of all people before their Creator. A proper view of self and of God makes humility, surrender, and gratitude the only acceptable response to Him. Since humanity’s fall into sin,’ people have naturally opposed God, foolishly elevating themselves. Satan, full of fury against God, fuels rebellion and opposes everything that honors Him. Full of grace for the wayward, God makes a way for sinners to seek Him. Only then do the people God created find their purpose and flourish.

God called exiled individuals and families in Babylon to return to the wrecked temple in Jerusalem, where they would rebuild what their enemies had destroyed. They sought to restore not only a physical structure but to reinstitute the rightful worship God deserved, desired, and commanded. Their efforts to worship God met fierce opposition. Worship of the one true God threatens earthly strongholds. In the same way, our submission to God and worship of God will always meet pushback. We worship God because He alone is worthy.