The Joy Of Communal Worship

The reason for the Psalmist‘s joy in this passage was the invitation to go to Jerusalem, obviously for one of the feasts. Worship is the central activity of the Christian and worship in its prop er sense is a communal activity. We gather as Christians to worship God in the community of faith. Therefore the Psalmist says, our feet have been standing within your gates 0 Jerusalem. They were full of expectation; there is a leap of joy within the heart because the people of God have gathered to worship.

^{Psalm 122 :1-9
1.I WAS glad when they said to me, Let us go to the house of the Lord!
2.Our feet are standing within your gates, O Jerusalem!--
3.Jerusalem, which is built as a city that is compacted together--
4.To which the tribes go up, even the tribes of the Lord, as was decreed and as a testimony for Israel, to give thanks to the name of the Lord.
5.For there the thrones of judgment were set, the thrones of the house of David.
6.Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! May they prosper who love you [the Holy City]!
7.May peace be within your walls and prosperity within your palaces!
8.For my brethren and companions' sake, I will now say, Peace be within you!
9.For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek, inquire for, and require your good.}

In these days of selfishness and rugged individualism, the temptation is always for us to go it alone. But the Psalmist would have none of that. He says, 'come, come to Jerusalem, the city of God and let's worship the great king'. The book of Hebrews warns us, “not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near” (Heb.10:25) .

Worship helps us to focus on God not on self, to intercede for and seek the welfare of fellow Christians and that of the church of God. Please do not abstain from fellowship or church. We need one another, like the song says, 'I need you to survive, stand with me, agree with me, we are all a part of God's body'. Come let's go worship!

^{__Prayer__Lord , I see the importance of worshipping together as a community, may I never take it for granted.}