While reading the Psalms, I am often challenged by the way the Psalmists can turn their focus back on the Lord. When the Psalmist wrote that his soul was downcast, he urged himself to worship God (Psalm 42:11).
He began to focus on the greatness of God even as he struggled with difficult emotions. I know I need this reminder to reorient my perspective, especially when problems and worries loom over me.
Believers can learn from the examples of the Bible in which people praise the Lord amid challenging situations.
The beauty of worship is that we stop thinking about ourselves or our problems and instead glorify our great God. As a result, our perspective changes so that we turn our eyes to Christ, “the author and perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2, BSB).
So how can worship help us refocus? Let’s look at a few ways praising and exalting God can change our perspective.
1. Worship Takes Our Focus Off Ourselves
Humans naturally gravitate toward self-centeredness because all people have a sinful nature (Romans 3:23; Ephesians 2:3).
If we did not struggle with selfishness, there would not be so many verses in the Bible that encourage us to seek the good of others and consider the needs of those around us (1 Corinthians 10:24; Philippians 2:3-4).
Christians are just as vulnerable to self-centeredness, which is why we need reminders to love others and focus our eyes on Christ (Leviticus 19:18; Mark 12:31; Hebrews 12:2).
Worship is effective in forcing us to take the emphasis and focus off ourselves. Despite what some people may want to believe, life is not all about us and what we want.
God is the most important Person in all the universe and is the One who sustains all things (Colossians 1:17; Hebrews 1:3). He is the wonderful, eternally existing Lord who created us for His glory (Isaiah 43:7).
When we praise the Lord and glorify Him, we remind ourselves that God is the reason we are alive, saved from sin, and receive any good thing in life (Psalm 100:3; 1 Peter 1:9; James 1:17).
People do not receive salvation because of anything they do but because of what Jesus did through His death and resurrection. By His grace, we are saved, not because of our works (Ephesians 2:8-9).
Also, God, in His great mercy, gives provision to those in the world. We have no innate goodness or worthiness that forces God to send rain and sunshine (Matthew 5:45; Acts 14:17). The Lord has been kind to us because of His character.
Like the psalmists, we can offer praises about God’s mighty works, including what He has done in the past and in our lives now (Psalms 68 and 135). In addition to praising Him for what He does, we can also worship God because of who He is (Psalm 145:3, 8).
Our great God is loving, merciful, holy, and awesome. When we start noticing the character of the Lord, we stop focusing on ourselves and instead marvel at our Creator and Savior.
Is it any wonder then, that when we seek to love the Lord wholeheartedly that we find ourselves loving others as God calls us to?
The greatest command in Scripture flows from a proper perspective and heart focus, which comes when we seek to worship and love the Lord above all else (Mark 12:30-31).
The more we focus on the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in worship, the more we move away from a self-centered attitude.
2. Worship Takes Our Focus Off Problems
In addition to moving the focus away from ourselves, worship also helps us refocus when we encounter problems in life. So often, we focus on the difficulties surrounding us that we become consumed with worry and fear.
Scripture does not promise us that we will never experience these feelings, but it does tell us that we can find hope if we turn our eyes to the Lord.
David gives us an example of someone who honestly shared his feelings with God. The psalms he penned show us that we should express our feelings, even hard ones like grief, anger, and fear. However, we are also shown how David found strength and hope to endure difficult times by worshiping the Lord.
Psalm 57 was written from David’s experience of fleeing from Saul and hiding in the cave of Adullam (1 Samuel 22:1). In the Psalm, David expresses his fear and calls out to God to help Him (Psalm 57:1-2).
He declares that he will find refuge in God even though his enemies are like lions and wild animals surrounding him (Psalm 57:1,4). David is in a cave, fearing his life, yet he chooses to raise his voice in song to praise the Lord.
As he said, “I will praise you, Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples. For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies” (Psalm 57:9-10). Worshiping the Lord dramatically shifted David’s perspective.
When we worship the Lord amid struggles and suffering, we find that God helps us take the focus off our problems and set our eyes firmly on Him.
The Lord might not take us out of the difficulty, but He is there with us in the storm. Offering praise to Christ in our pain can give us hope since He is still good even if our circumstances are not.
3. Worship Reminds Us of the Most Important Thing in Life
In the chaos of life, it is easy to forget what truly matters. We can get so caught up in everyday responsibilities and tasks that our priorities get mixed up.
Instead of putting God first and seeking to glorify Him in daily life, we can become distracted, which leads us to neglect our relationship with Christ. However, deliberately choosing to worship the Lord reorients our perspective around His preeminence.
Jesus came and died on the cross to give us eternal life (John 3:16). This gift not only affects our future but also impacts us now. According to Scripture, eternal life is an everlasting relationship with the Lord (John 17:3).
A believer’s relationship with Christ is central in life and should impact how they speak, act, and think each day. Taking time to praise Him and meditate on His wonderful character, we can remember how significant Jesus is in our lives.
The more we worship the Lord and consider His love and beauty, the more we will want to know and spend time with Him. David described how he longed for God, which came about through his relationship with and worship of the Lord (Psalm 63).
Likewise, the Apostle Paul expressed his increasing desire to know Jesus more intimately (Philippians 3:10). As we magnify the Lord, offering Him the praises that He deserves, we will find that we want to know the Lord more closely as well.
Why Does This Matter?
Wholehearted worship of God is not about being in a building and going through external motions but about responding to the Lord’s awesome character and majesty, a response that reorients a person’s perspective.
Worship not only moves our focus away from ourselves and the problems we are facing but also reminds us that we have a relationship with the living Lord and Savior. By fixing our eyes on God, we can keep our priorities in line and remember that we were made to glorify and love the Lord.
For further reading:
What Is the Significance of Worship?
Why Do Christians Sing Praise and Worship Songs?
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