One of my most profound worship experiences was in a small church in India with a Western style praise and worship band. The passion with which the people around me sang and prayed overwhelmed me to the extent that I could barely sing along.

In a far more traditional, large church setting, I was so moved to worship that I sang the hymns very loudly. Kat claims people three pews back remarked about it after the service. I wasn’t trying to show off; I was simply caught up in the moment.

God has also used music to enable me to pour out my heart in worship privately. I’ve had many moments leading worship through music where I was so overwhelmed with the glory of God, it seemed we would be caught up to heaven in that very moment. I’m sold on the role of music in worship and long to see God pursued by his people through music, both faithfully and passionately, as well as personally and privately.

However, music has not been the only driver of worship for me. My day in and day out experience of worship comes through slowly reading a passage of scripture until my time in those words turns into worship. My experience reflects what is recorded here in Ezra 8. This chapter records Ezra the priest leading a remarkable worship gathering.

8 And all the people gathered as one man into the square before the Water Gate. And they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses that the Lord had commanded Israel. 2 So Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could understand what they heard, on the first day of the seventh month. 3 And he read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand. And the ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law

This passage is normally referenced for the importance of both the public reading of scripture and for the role of teachers to help give the sense of the text. Look at verses 7-8.

7 Also Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, the Levites, helped the people to understand the Law, while the people remained in their places. 8 They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.

However, I skipped over a couple verses there in the middle. I want to highlight the experience of worship that particular reading, from early morning until midday, generated. Look at the response of worship that came out of all this:

5 And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people, and as he opened it all the people stood. 6 And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, “Amen, Amen,” lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. (italics mine)

The principle is this. Worship flows from serious attention to the Word of God. Thirty years of daily experience has born this out, as I take passages of scripture each morning, specifically chosen to help me to worship. I don’t just read them; I pray through them or journal through them. Most days, my stone-cold heart awakens to the greatness and the character of God and fresh worship flows. I’ve also used longer periods of reading and the same sort of worship generated. I wrote about that here.  I wrote more practically about how to use scripture to provoke private worship here.

I don’t know any other way to teach people to worship. It is for this reason that I am seeking to increase the amount of scripture we read out loud in worship at Bethany Place. May the corporate reading of God’s word provoke us to also answer, “Amen, Amen,” lifting up our hands, and bowing our heads in worship of the Lord with our faces to the ground.

— Gene Cornett