Worship because it pleases God

Now, when you look at worship this way, you can tell the measure of your love for God if you have this attitude of giving God pleasure. A lady by the name of Ann Auckland wrote a book on worship. One of her statements to God that she put in there, as if she were worshiping herself, beginning the service of worship, was, This service is for You; I am here to give you pleasure. Now, that is the attitude we ought to seek to have. But having that attitude will be a kind of an index, a measure of your love for your God: that is, that you want above all in your worship to give him pleasure and delight. This has come to me in recent weeks in a wholly unexpected way. We have different philosophies at our house about the matter of taking showers. My position is that when you take a shower, a shower ought to be able to take care of itself afterwards. You should not have to wipe down the tiles and the three walls of the shower. You know, if you take a shower, you just do it. And there ought to be some things in life that you do not have to pamper. I mean, they just handle themselves, and you do not have to wipe them down. Now, it came to me some time ago that I realized I really do love my wife. That revelation came to me after taking a shower! I thought, Why am I doing this? I do not necessarily agree with the philosophy behind it. I have objections to it. So I thought, Now the only reason I am doing this is because it pleases her. She wants it done this way. And I thought, Well, that is a far better sign that I love my wife than going down and giving her a big hug and planting a big smacker on her. Any 20th century American husband can do that, that's not hard. But not everybody can wipe down the shower merely for the reason that it pleases one's wife, and that seems to me that indicates a measure of love, you see.

That is what the Lord seems to be saying in principle to Judah and Zerubbabel: set your heart upon my pleasure. In your worship, make first and foremost the desire to give God pleasure. My needs may be met by a strange chemistry in public worship and I will go out of here going from strength to strength because the throne of grace has been open and God's grace has flowed into me and sustained me and given me fresh hope, and that is wonderful. But that may not happen that day. But have I given God pleasure? Have I sought to adore him? Have I made those hymns my own statements and that confessional faith my conviction? Have I sought to give myself to the discipline of hearing the Word of God which is an act of faith and places me under the discipline of God's Word to transform and change me? Am I seeking to give God pleasure the measure of real love? Not flashy, but real love for this God.¹

Dale Ralph Davis