A Habit of Bowing Down – Psalm 95

A text – Psalm 95:1-7a

95:1 O come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
95:2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
95:3 For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
95:4 In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also.
95:5 The sea is his, for he made it, and the dry land, which his hands have formed.
95:6 O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!
95:7a For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.

A reflection:

This coming Sunday in the church year is often called Christ the King Sunday. The readings are all about kingship in various forms. The gospel text lifts up the Son of Man as judge. The epistle describes the unbelievable power that God showed when raising Jesus from the dead. This psalm highlights the idea that the Lord rules over all because the Lord MADE it all and, therefore, owns it all. God made the earth in its depths and heights, and God made the seas. If we value and honor the earth and the seas, we should bow down and worship their maker and ours, the Lord.

To whom would you bow down? Who is miles above you in stature because of what he or she has done for you or given to you? We don’t think very often of kingship, of a lord over our lives (in the way a feudal lord actually owned the labor of every person on his lands). We might consider our boss as something like a lord: she or he hired us, and we promise to do the work we have been hired for; we owe her/him that work. We might consider our spouse our lord; our spouse may be the true source of happiness for us and we owe that person a lot.

But the psalmist is considering that if God hadn’t created the world, from the depths to the heights, we as creatures would not be here either. We owe our Creator thanksgiving and praise for the gift of our lives. What kind of a relationship would that place us into with God? Wouldn’t daily praise and thanksgiving be a natural response to our Creator? Why, then, are we not already in that kind of habit of praise and thanksgiving? Either because we just aren’t grateful for life, or because we don’t think of ourselves as creatures of the great Creator God. It would involve every day noticing how amazing the world and life are, appreciating our existence here, and thanking our Creator for it. This little seven verse passage would be a good way to start the habit. I’m going to try it for a week.

A prayer:

Lord God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for placing us amidst the creations of your hands, and thank you for caring about our life and our future. Help us never to forget our place in that world and that life, and never to fail to thank you for it.  Amen.