Prayer & Worship
Praising God while my life is falling apart feels dishonest, like I am putting on a performance. Is worship worth anything when I do not feel it?
“Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped, And said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.”
Job has just been told, in four consecutive messages, that his livestock, his servants and all ten of his children are dead. The first thing he does is tear his robe and shave his head, the full public signs of grief in that world. Then he worships. The book puts mourning and worship in the same sentence on purpose. He is not being stoic and he is not pretending the loss is acceptable.
“By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.”
This letter was written to Jewish Christians under pressure to go back to a temple system they understood, with altars and animals and a visible priesthood. The writer takes that whole vocabulary of sacrifice and applies it to praise, calling it the fruit of the lips. Sacrifice is the operative word. Praise that costs nothing because you happen to feel wonderful is not what this verse is describing.
A path forward
Say the true thing and the thanks in one breath: this is unbearable, and you are still God. Both halves are worship and neither one cancels the other.
Pray a lament psalm this week rather than a cheerful one. Psalm 13, Psalm 42 and Psalm 88 give you a vocabulary for praising while grieving, and Psalm 88 never resolves at all.
Name one specific thing that is still true and still good, however small, and say it out loud to God each morning. Not everything. One thing.
Closing verse
“To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.”
- Isaiah 61:3
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