Psalm 51 - "Going Through The Motions"

Last night in our Worship small group one of the songs that came up was Matthew West's "Going Through the Motions."  The chorus is exactly how I feel…

I don't wanna go through the motions
I don't wanna go one more day
Without Your all consuming passion inside of me

I don't wanna spend my whole life asking
What if I had given everything
Instead of going through the motions?

Take me all the way (Take me all the way)

I don't wanna go through the motions

Woo hoo!  "…all consuming passion inside of me…"  Yes!  The passion I feel is for the Lord. To go even another step into that, the passion I feel is to be the Lord's servant.  I am thankful for the day that I said "But I know that I've gotta make a change; I don't care if I break; At least I'll be feeling something; 'Cause just okay is not enough."  I didn't like being lukewarm!  I didn't like having one foot in and one foot out in the relationship I had with the Lord.  Being in total surrender is the best place to be!

Psalm 51
1 Generous in love - God, give grace! Huge in mercy - wipe out my bad record. 2 Scrub away my guilt, soak out my sins in your laundry. 3 I know how bad I've been; my sins are staring me down. 4 You're the One I've violated, and you've seen it all, seen the full extent of my evil. You have all the facts before you; whatever you decide about me is fair. 5 I've been out of step with you for a long time, in the wrong since before I was born. 6 What you're after is truth from the inside out. Enter me, then; conceive a new, true life. 7 Soak me in your laundry and I'll come out clean, scrub me and I'll have a snow-white life. 8 Tune me in to foot-tapping songs, set these once-broken bones to dancing. 9 Don't look too close for blemishes, give me a clean bill of health. 10God, make a fresh start in me, shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life. 11 Don't throw me out with the trash, or fail to breathe holiness in me. 12 Bring me back from gray exile, put a fresh wind in my sails! 13 Give me a job teaching rebels your ways so the lost can find their way home. 14 Commute my death sentence, God, my salvation God, and I'll sing anthems to your life-giving ways. 15 Unbutton my lips, dear God; I'll let loose with your praise. 16 Going through the motions doesn't please you, a flawless performance is nothing to you. 17 I learned God-worship when my pride was shattered. Heart-shattered lives ready for love don't for a moment escape God's notice. 18 Make Zion the place you delight in, repair Jerusalem's broken-down walls. 19Then you'll get real worship from us, acts of worship small and large, Including all the bulls they can heave onto your altar!

This Psalm is one that excites me and gives me so much joy!  The Lord does just what it says when we come to Him instead of just going through the motions.  I love the part where it says, "Tune me in to foot-tapping songs, set these once-broken bones to dancing."  Woo hoo!  That's exactly what happens when we surrender to Him.  It takes a shattering of our spirit as in verse seventeen before we will totally surrender.  God has to be the center of our focus.  It can't be ourselves or even others but must be God.

Verse nineteen is the icing on the cake….."Then you'll get real worship from us, acts of worship small and large, including all the bulls they can heave onto your altar!"  "…real worship…" is only possible when we totally surrender to Him.  I remember the days of "going through the motions" and I also remember the days where I thought I was worshiping.  But nothing compares to the worship I have now that I am totally surrendered to Him.  Woo hoo!

Dear Jesus,
Thank You for Your love, Your mercy and Your grace.  It is only through those things that I am where I am today.  Thank You for second chances.  I praise You Lord for bringing me to the point of totally surrender.  I love You so much Father!  Thank You for being The One I Worship!  Amen.