Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy before the LORD, for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness, and the peoples in his faithfulness. (Psalm 96:12b–13, ESV)
God does not need your worship. If you do not worship the Lord, he will still be praised. When the crowds were praising Jesus as he triumphantly rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, the Pharisees asked him if he would silence the crowd. But Jesus says:
“I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.” (Luke 19:40, ESV)
In our verse of the week, it says the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord. If we don’t worship God, then creation will. God will be praised. He will receive glory regardless if we praise him or not.
He will receive praise because he is the Lord Almighty. He is the creator. He is the savior. He is the redeemer. He is the sustainer. He is the righteous judge. In the end, he will receive his due.
You may not worship him today, but at the time of judgment, every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord.
“for it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.” So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.” (Romans 14:11–12, ESV)
“Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:9–11, ESV)
Even those who do not worship him today will worship him at the judgment. But it will be too late at that time. God has the last word. He created the world and he will judge the world. That is why he is described as the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End (see Revelation 1:8, 21:6, 22:13).
So God may not need our worship today, but we need to worship him. We do not worship for our benefit. Worship is not about what we get but what we give. We offer ourselves unto him not to get anything in return. Nevertheless, there are benefits to worship. There are blessings to be discovered in worship. We are better for worshipping. Worship is a key to experiencing greater things. And we will explore some of those benefits this week at greaterthings.today.
Cesar Chavez says
I need no gods before me