Worship is the greatest antidote to all the infirmities and negatives we are called to go through.
Having escaped the bondage of cruel slavery in Egypt, the children of Israel were not destined to immediately arrive in Canaan, the Promised Land. Before they could set their feet on the soil of the Promised Land they had to go through the fiery trials of the wilderness. Without the wilderness experience they would not learn how to trust and obey. They would not learn how to depend on God’s strength and wisdom rather than their own.
It wasn’t a coincidence or accident they went through the wilderness. God allowed it by His determinate design and will. God did not desire to have an unprepared and self-reliant people to fight the giants of Canaan. Nor could they bring down the high walls of their cities by the strength and power of their own arm. A thousand times, no.
They had to learn God’s strategy for every battle. Every battle would be a different plan of attack. The only principle that would remain the same for every new encounter with the enemy was the principle of seeking God afresh to find exactly His plan. What He wanted them to do. When He wanted them to go. Where He wanted them to go.
Seeking God was often accompanied with praise and worship. In a spiritual sense, this same principle applies to us today for we are fighting spiritual foes. In some situations, even in Canaan, singers and musicians sang and worshipped God as they went out a head of the armies of Israel. Trumpeters went before the army in the battle of Jericho. Also in Jehoshaphat’s time.
2 Chronicles 20:21, 22 states: “And when he (Jehoshaphat) had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the LORD, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, and to say, Praise the LORD; for his mercy endureth forever. And when they began to sing and to praise, the LORD set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and they were smitten.”
The first thing we should do when the enemy attacks us is to worship the Lord and invite Him to come in and fight our battles with us and for us. Worship and praise are great ways to invite the powerful presence of God to our defense. Worship and praise take away our fears and help us focus on the awesome power of God. This is the way we lift up the gates of our mouths, using our tongues and voices to praise the greatness of His strength power. As we worship and praise the Lord of hosts (the God of the armies of heaven) comes in! Yes He does.
If we do not praise and worship, we tend to talk more negatively about the battle. Our tongues will talk, no matter what. Therefore it is far more beneficial to use them to praise and worship the greatness and power of our awesome God.
Be encouraged.
Colin Campbell