Psalm 148:7, 11-13 Praise the Lord from the earth … kings of the earth, and all people; princes, and all judges of the earth: both young men, and maidens; old men, and children: let them praise the name of the Lord : for his name alone is excellent; his glory is above the earth and heaven.

We just finished the Worship Ministry Weekend and so my mind is full of worship at present. There’s a song we’re learning at present that contains a glorious phrase “Filling up the skies with endless praise” … It made me think, this morning, of what the world would look like to God if each hymn of praise that we sang rose like a rocket into the skies. Most of the time, sad to say, the sky would be black and featureless …
Of course the “praise show” varies by day of the week, season and geography. Christmas Eve over North America might, I hope, be spectacular — but it might be a rare point of light in the featureless night.
“Praise” of course is only one aspect of worship. Worship, in all it’s aspects is mysterious. The Bible does not really define it, and the words most often translated from both Hebrew and Greek carry the sense of “bow down before”. The English word “worship” Comes from a Middle English word meaning “worthiness, respect, reverence paid to a divine being” which in turn comes from an Old English word that combines “worth” and “ship” — worshipping God really amounts to giving Him His due! That sounds simple, until you start to ask yourself what that is. What is it that God deserves from us?
Perhaps the key is in what Jesus says to the Samaritan woman at the well:

John 4:23-24 — But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

The worship due to God is “in spirit” — and so not limited to a specific location in time or space as God is a “Spirit” in every place, pure and holy.
The worship due to God is “in truth” — not symbolic, not through sacrifices symbolizing Jesus, nor by priests as intermediaries but directly from the heart of the worshipper to the heart of God.
How I long for praise to leap from heart to heart and be launched into the heavens in a never ending spectacular across all the world. How I wish that that praise would light a fire of worship and turn every “king of the earth, prince, judge, young man, and maidens, old man, and child” into a true worship, so that our God could receive His due!