All the Greatness, Power and Glory Belong to God
Jesus, we enthrone You,
We proclaim You our King;
Standing here in the midst of us,
We raise You up with our praise.
And as we worship, build a throne,
And as we worship, build a throne,
And as we worship, build a throne:
Come Lord Jesus and take Your place.
(Paul Kyle, 1980)
Psalm 22:3 informs us that the LORD is enthroned upon the praises of His people. One implication of this is that, as we bring our praise and worship to God, we build a platform from which He can reign in our lives, circumstances and environment. We establish a throne on which the presence of God is manifest and His power becomes demonstrable.
Let us never underestimate the value of worship. Our chief service and ministry are to worship God. Worship, of course, goes beyond singing songs. It includes all the ways in which we show that we value God above all things. Whilst we can express this in our songs of worship, to be truly authentic it also needs to be expressed in how we live our lives to show that He takes first place in all we think, speak and do.
This might seem like a tall order, but that is why we need the Holy Spirit to help us. John 4:23-24 says that God is seeking people to worship Him in Spirit and in truth. We tend to be better at worshipping in truth rather than in Spirit. Most of our worship songs are based on scripture, and we truly worship God with our lives when our lives are aligned with God's precepts; but attempting to apply the Word of God without the Spirit results in a vacuous legalism. We need the Spirit to breathe through the Word, because scripture is inspired and empowered by the Spirit. We need to be people of the Word (which defines and embodies truth) and of the Spirit.
We can't live according to the Word unless we are living under the anointing of the Spirit. We are utterly incapable of keeping God's Word without the Holy Spirit's help. 1 Samuel 16:13 tells us that David started to move powerfully in the Spirit only after the prophet Samuel had anointed him as the future king of Israel. Similarly, we will only accomplish things for God when we are empowered by the anointing of the Spirit. Acts 10:38 reminds us that even Jesus was only able to perform exploits through the enabling of the Holy Spirit.
If you have ever visited the Royal Albert Hall in London, you may have seen the following scripture scrolling around the top of the building:
Thine, O Lord is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all.
This was David's prayer (1 Chronicles 29:11) when he was preparing for the building of the temple. He never got to build it, of course, because God gave that task to Solomon, but David prepared for it by gathering a lot of materials, and he invited the people to come with offerings of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood and precious stones, and the people gave generously. But David says (in 1 Chronicles 29:14) - But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly as this? For all things come from You, And of Your own we have given You.
And that's why he prays verse 11 - Thine, O LORD is the greatness… Whatever we achieve for the Lord - all of our service and ministry - is only ever by His grace and His power, and so all the honour and glory go to Him.
Prayer
Lord God, we want You alone to be the focus of our worship as we express, through our thoughts, words and deeds, how supremely we value and treasure You. You are our glorious King, seated in the highest place and worthy of the highest praise. May our service and ministry express our worship to You as we bring together Your Word of Truth and Your Holy Spirit to release Your power and presence to the world around us, and may all the honour and glory go to You. In Jesus' name. Amen!
