Bless the LORD!

Quote from John Piper I found during my sermon prep this week:

But there is always a sense of shortfall between our spiritual perception of the greatness of God and our spiritual affection in worshiping God. The intensity of the heart never seems up to what his glory deserves.

That's why one of the most common impulses of genuine worship is to plead with your own soul: "Bless the Lord, O my soul!" Come on, soul, where are you? Why do you sleep before this God? Why are you dull and sluggish? Wake up! Look at what God has done! Look at what he is like!

We feel like part of us sees and begins to feel and respond to the greatness of God's holiness. But part of us doesn't. So we preach to ourselves, "Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless his holy name." All that is within me. Not just part of me. Genuine worship is almost always conscious that our response to God is only partial. "All that is within us"—every fiber of our being—is not blessing God.

But the very recognition of this shortcoming is worship—our sense of discontent that our soul isn't fully kicking-in signals how great the worth of God really is. Otherwise we wouldn't be pressing for a deeper response. And crying out against the shortcoming of our soul, like David does, is even more worship. "Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me—not just some of me, not just half my heart, not just half my energy, not just half my mind, but all that is within me—bless his holy name."