I bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your name and your word.
– Psalm 138:2
Oh, there’s so much in this verse. And I want to draw your attention to two things in particular.
Psalm 138:2 encourages us to kneel in the presence of God.
One, this picture of David saying, “I bow down towards your holy temple.” And I don’t know how regular a practice this is in your life… Both individually in your time alone with the Lord as well as corporately when you gather together with God’s people. But I just want to encourage you. This is one of many, many, many places in the Bible where we see a physical posture of bowing down toward God and his holy presence. That needs to be a part of our personal and corporate worship.
So when was the last time you bowed down on your knees? Or on your face before God? I want to encourage you. Obviously what we do on the outside should be a reflection of our hearts on the inside. And I guess that’s kind of the point. Our hearts on the inside should be in awe of God, in reverence and fear of God and his holiness. And in worship, we should find ourselves bowing down often before him, not just occasionally or maybe even never.
So I just want to encourage you… Cultivate postures of awe, reverence, fear, and worship in your life. Again on your own when nobody else is looking. And then together. When you gather together with God’s people to bow down before God and his holiness. Then, the last part of this verse says, “For you have exalted above all things your name and your Word.” What a phrase.
Psalm 138:2 reminds us God’s Word is exalted above all.
So we know God’s name is exalted above all things. We think about Philippians 2. “The name of Jesus exalted above every name in heaven, on earth and under the earth.” But the way that God inspires David to write about his Word here. How his Word is exalted above all things. His Word is on the same plane as his name.
So what does it look like in your life to exalt God’s word above all things? Certainly, that means we meditate on God’s Word over and above all messages in this world. That we listen to it, that we study it, that we digest it. We memorize it, and we align our lives around it. We submit our lives to it to obey it. Are you exalting God’s Word above all things in your life in the same way that you are exalting God’s name above all things in your life?
So we pray. Oh God, help us to worship you truly and fully and wholeheartedly in our hearts and in our actions. God, we pray that as we bow down before you today, tomorrow in our own lives, and together with your people that you would cultivate in us a holy fear of you and reverence for you and humility before you, contrition of spirit that’s evident in our actions in worship.
God, we don’t want to manipulate or manufacture worship by just going through outward motions, but God, we do want our outward posture to reflect the inner attitude of a heart that is humble before you and in awe of your holiness. We pray for that in our lives. And God, we pray that you’d help us to exalt your Word along with your name above all things. God, we pray for a reverence for your Word, a submission to your Word that is evident in our lives and the way we read it, meditate on it, memorize it, obey it, and share it.
God, we pray that amidst all the things we might say today, we pray that your Word would be on our lips as exalted above all things in our lives. Help us to encourage other followers of Jesus with your Word.
Prayer for the Qazilbash people
Help us to share your Word with people around us today who don’t know you. And God, we pray for the spread of your Word to all the peoples of the world. We pray specifically today for the Qazilbash people of Afghanistan, 338,000 Shiite Muslims in Afghanistan, no known followers of Jesus among them. Most of them probably have never even heard your Word, the truth of your love in your Word.
God, we pray that the Qazilbash people of Afghanistan would be reached with your Word. And we pray you’d help us to exalt your Word above all things in the world and work to get the gospel to them, your Word to them. God, please bless all who are working on Bible translation, us as your church to get your Word to people who don’t have it. We pray all of this in light of your Word, which we love. In Jesus’ name according to Psalm 138:2. Amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder and Chairman of Radical, an organization that helps people follow Jesus and make him known in their neighborhood and all nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, and Don’t Hold Back.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
