“Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps.” (Amos 5:23, NIV)
The U.S. Open tees off today with this one great concern: the softness of the golf course. Will it simply be too easy if the sun doesn’t do significant work in short order?
Any golf course superintendent can tell you that the secret to challenging tournament is what’s on the surface. Are the fairways and greens firm and fast? Is the rough a juicy tangle? Put that combination together and the best players in the world can be tested even by somewhat pedestrian golf courses (not to say that Merion is run-of-the-mill!).
When it comes to the worship of God, however, the surface can be deceiving. Songs may be beautiful, prayers emotive, sermons deeply insightful. And yet all may mask what truly flows in a worshiper’s spiritual veins.
Jesus told the woman at the well in John 4 that the Father seeks those who worship “in spirit and in truth.” That is, the soil below the surface must be healthy too.
God is not fooled when we offer something superficial. Through the prophet Amos, the Lord rejected even acts of praise and worship. Why? Because they were only acts. Put-ons. Falsehoods. The people were oppressive and unjust six days a week, making their expressions on the Sabbath a mockery of what God really wanted to see in them.
You and I can fall into the same trap. Our worship can be a cover, mere religion painted onto a gasping faith. It may show up well from the blimp flyover, but when it’s examined closely for the indwelling of spirit and truth, the pulse is faint.
The old Keith Green song, “My Eyes Are Dry,” bears witness to this kind of worship:
My eyes are dry, my faith is old
My heart is hard, my prayers are cold
But I know how I ought to be
Alive to you and dead to me
That second couplet should awaken us. Worship without spirit—that is, without aliveness toward Christ—is no worship at all. Worship without truth—that is, behavior locked into a moment and intended to cover the way we really live—is false worship, too.
Instead, we should begin again:
Oh, what can be done for an old heart like mine?
Soften it up with oil and wine
The oil is you, your Spirit of love
Please wash me anew in the wine of your blood
—
Jeff Hopper
June 13, 2013
Copyright 2013 Links Players International
“My Eyes Are Dry,” copyright Universal Music, 1978.
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.