When we read through the Psalms we have the both the hymnbook and the journal of the faithful. We read what they believed, prayed, and sang in the midst of their day-to-day lives. We also see what the church sang as they gathered to express their dependence upon God.
Today when we attempt to make application to our own lives we often take the freshly unpacked verses and neatly apply them into the drawers of our own personal lives. David trusted God therefore I need to trust God. The Lord is my shepherd, I need to remember this. This is both right and good. However, my concern is that we are too quickly conforming the verses to our lives rather than our lives to the verses.
For example, let’s take the practice of singing, praying, and Bible reading. When we read the Psalter we see all three on display in the lives of believers. However, are these three priorities a regular part of our lives today? Most would fire back, “Of course they are!” But when do you sing, pray, and read the Bible? How often? In what context?
Most Christians I talk to admit that their personal devotions are not what they should be. Bordering on the nonexistent, believers talk about how they want to do better but seem to struggle in personal devotions. Apart from when they attend a Sunday morning service time in the Word, focused prayer, and singing are sparse at best.
But when we read the Bible we see that time with the Bible, prayer, and singing are regular practices for the one who follows God not isolated. They are to be expressed in the corporate gatherings as well as in the private life of the believer.
“Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together!” (Psalm 34:3)
“Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!” (Psalm 95:1–2)
“Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing!” (Psalm 100:2)
“Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good; sing to his name, for it is pleasant!” (Psalm 135:3)
“Evening and morning and at noon I utter my complaint and moan, and he hears my voice.” (Psalm 55:17)
“Praise the Lord! For it is good to sing praises to our God; for it is pleasant, and a song of praise is fitting.” (Psalm 147:1)
This is a small sampling of verses that commend both corporate and private devotion to God. If our devotion to God consists primarily of a public assembly with little to no private devotion then we have reason to examine why this is the case.
Do you have a tendency to compartmentalize your devotion?
Perhaps this is the case. If so it is an unhealthy explanation. No one who only exercised on one day or only ate on one day would be considered fit or healthy. The very meaning of what it means to be a healthy person is that health is a characteristic of his or her life. So to the matter of healthy devotion to God. A compartmentalized, purely public devotional life is unhealthy at best and should be remedied quickly with self-examination and time in prayer with God.
Never be content to live in spiritual mediocrity.
Repeatedly the Psalms demonstrate a life that is clawing for every inch of spiritual progress. Each step is forged against his enemies; whether personal sin or persecution, he walked into a stiff headwind to pursue God. Today mediocrity seems to be embraced more than ever. To embrace mediocrity is to embrace apathy. An apathetic Christian is a sick Christian. If we are not moved by the character of God, the Word of God, or the kingdom of God then we are not in a good place. I remember a country friend saying one time, “If that does not get your fire burning then your wood is wet.” Exactly. If the sparks of the gospel don’t kindle a heart of flames then we ought to inspect our hearts.
Remember that devotion is a work of grace.
When God makes us to sing, marvel at his person, and commune with him in prayer then he is working in our hearts. He is fitting us for heaven where we will sing, marvel, and delight in him face to face. Isn’t this exactly what is happening here and now in our lives? As God continues to mold and make us he is fitting us for the age to come? We are able to enjoy something of that New City while still living as strangers and aliens here. Jonathan Edwards called this grace “the dawn of glory” whereby God fits us for the world to come by conforming us to it.
Isn’t that something? Our personal devotions and expression of praise to God conform us to the world to come while ensuring that we are not conformed to this world (Rom. 12:2).
Pursue a life of devotion.
Have you compartmentalized your devotion to God? Do you rarely spend time in prayer, the Word, and singing outside of Sunday mornings? The pattern of the Psalms and the faithful in church history provides us with a more robust, pervasive life of devotion. Christians pray, read and meditate on the Bible, and sing because it is a reflex. They are being tuned by grace and fitted for eternity. God is slowly unfastening our grip on this present world by molding us to the world to come.
Why not take time today or tomorrow morning to insert intentional prayer, meditation upon the Bible, and song into your devotional life? You will soon find that the discipline becomes a reflex and the duty a delight.
