Praise the LORD, all you servants of the LORD who minister by night in the house of the LORD. 2 Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and praise the LORD. 3 May the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth, bless you from Zion.

The beauty of this Psalm is seen best in the simplicity and the singleness of its theme. God is God. We are his people and we are to serve him night and day. When we begin to recognize his greatness as the creator of all things in heaven and earth, only then can we find our place in his universe. As we see his power and his majesty we begin to realize what a genuine privilege it is for us to be able to serve him. We do not serve him because he made a law that requires it. We do not serve him because we fear punishment if we fail to do so. We do not serve him to somehow win points of favor with him. Our ser vice to him is not because of long standing traditions that have been handed down to us. Our submission is not even because we feel better for doing so – after all it does soothe our conscience when we go to church. Real service to God is because we come to the realization that God is creator and all powerful.

We are totally helpless in his presence and thus absolutely at his mercy. We cannot fool him with pretension or feign worship; he knows our thoughts before we think them. When we see his greatness coupled with his love for us and demonstrated by his mercy toward us and then given to us in his grace we begin to realize how awesome is our God. When we see how very small we are in his presence and how indescribably great he is, how can we but fall on our face and worship him? We will not need to wait on a group to gather to worship this great God; we will worship him night and day. We will not only worship him in an assembly but will dedicate our lives to him. In fact, what greater homage can be given than to live our very lives for him, for his cause and his purpose? It was this kind of realization that prompted the apostle Paul to write that he no longer lived but Christ Jesus lived in him. This same humility caused Isaiah the prophet to declare “woe is me – I am ruined” when he had been brought into the presence of God. What a wonderful blessing to have a God that we can serve with thanksgiving because he is forgiving and kind toward us.

O God, I ask for your blessing on me today. I confess that I fall short of your standard, of your purity and am pitifully small in your presence. I praise you for your love toward me in giving your Son to die in my place so that I might live for you now and with you forever. In His name I pray.

May God richly bless each of us as we live for him and worship him today.