Psalm 138:2a I will worship toward thy holy temple,

I have this image stuck in my head at this moment. It is of prayer rugs all over the nation of Islam being aligned to point towards Mecca. It is the birthplace of Muhammad and site of his first revelation of the Quran.

I will not disrespect the name or place with this post. I would however ask isn’t this man worship? I suppose you could say the same of Psalm 138 if you didn’t have a proper understanding of just where God’s Holy Temple is located.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.

How do we worship toward God if He is in us?

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.

I am intrigued by the use of the word must in verse 24. It is not part of a phrase and stands alone in its meaning. Rarely do we talk about the things that we must do. We are always espousing our liberty in Christ and yet here is a must do. What happens if we do not? What’s the prescribed penalty for failing to worship in spirit and in truth? None, at least I don’t see one, so what difference does it make?

There you are and there is the Spirit and there is Truth. We know who those two are, the Comforter and Christ. Does that sound a little bit like three part harmony? Lending your voice to this worship completes that harmony, which cannot be achieved without you.

Psalm 18:29-31 Easy-to-Read Version (ERV)

²⁹ With your help I can defeat an army.
    If my God is with me, I can climb over enemy walls.

³⁰ God’s way is perfect.
    The Lord’s promise always proves to be true.
    He protects those who trust in him.
³¹ There is no God except the Lord.
    There is no Rock except our God.

Easy-to-Read Version (ERV)

Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International

When I began my morning bible study I opened The BibleGateway as always and found the quote of the day. My preferred version is the KJV because it is free of any copyrights and I can use it as much as I like. Secondly it is an archaic English language used intentionally by those writers. That makes me seek for meaning and that is a good thing.

So this morning I settled on the ERV because of two things. One was its simplicity and the second because it quoted the verse in context. Not all versions give translations in context. They leave context to the reader.

There is a tense change. The KJV uses a past perfect tense while the ERV uses a future tense. That seems like such a little thing but King David had history of victory with the Lord. He has a right to declare what God has done with him. Many of us have no right to claim such a victory, at least not on that scale. The fact that we have not does not diminish the power of God to be “that strong buckler” as the KJV puts it.

The ERV focuses on God’s promises because those are true even if our personal history has not experienced it. It is relatable to a wider group of readers. It serves new believers better to focus on God’s promises rather than seeking for personal victories which may not be as obvious to new believers.