Worship: Astonished Reverence

O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth, Who have set Your glory above the heavens!—Psalm 8:1

Then there is admiration, that is, appreciation of the excellency of God. Man is better qualified to appreciate God than any other creature because he was made in His image and is the only creature who was. This admiration for God grows and grows until it fills the heart with wonder and delight. "In our astonished reverence we confess Thine uncreated loveliness," said the hymn writer. "In our astonished reverence." The God of the modern evangelical rarely astonishes anybody. He manages to stay pretty much within the constitution. Never breaks over our bylaws. He's a very well- behaved God and very denominational and very much one of us, and we ask Him to help us when we're in trouble and look to Him to watch over us when we're asleep. The God of the modern evangelical isn't a God I could have much respect for. But when the Holy Ghost shows us God as He is we admire Him to the point of wonder and delight. Worship: The Missing Jewel of the Evangelical Church, 26-27.

"Lord, give me just a taste of 'astonished reverence.' Let me see You today as You really are and experience that 'wonder and delight' of which Tozer speaks. Amen."