It is better to listen than to offer the sacrifice of fools

Often when we come to worship either privately or publicly we rush to "do" our part.

Now understand, I believe that worship is first and foremost a life lived not a song sung (See Romans 12:1-2 where worship is defined as being a living sacrifice and the following parts of Romans defines what that living sacrifice looks like in the context of church life).

So, when I say worship, I mean the life lived and not the song sung.

Now Ecclesiastes 5:1 was written in the context of going up to the Temple to worship. We don't have to go up to any temple to worship anymore because we are the temple of the Holy Spirit, and we can worship in Spirit and truth right where we are. We have constant and uninterrupted access to Father by the Son.

So the application is like this. Rather than seeing what kind of worthless babble we can manage to work up from our pathetic filthy rags, why not listen to and gaze upon the magnificence of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, one God, three distinct persons, who has brought us into that fellowship that we can know and love and be loved because of the work of Christ Jesus at the cross to justify sinners who come by faith because of the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit in the Gospel preached among the nations.

Perhaps if we listen to and see glory and splendor beyond what we can even imagine because we are too busy babbling, our worship might pay off in the salvation of the nations and our joy in seeing that happen.

Listening and watching...