Know that the LORD, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his . . . Psalms 100:3
I’m not like everyone else. I don’t fit in. I’m not good enough, funny enough, smart enough, or attractive enough. I just don’t know who I am.
Most of us know what it’s like to be lost in who we are. We long for identity but we look around and we feel out of place. We desire acceptance but we have some hidden secret or addiction, and we recoil in horror at the thought of others seeing who we truly are. What if everyone knew the worst things about me?
So, we compensate. We hide our garbage and we find our identity in something we like about ourselves. We find affirmation in careers, the gym, humor, sexuality, sarcasm, money, physical appearance, popularity or even family.
The problem, is that we look for our joy, purpose and meaning in places where we were never meant to find them. God made us to find our true identify only in a right relationship with him, but we insist on looking for it in unstable, inadequate sources.
The Psalmist, in today’s passage, described our true place in this world. Know that the LORD, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his people.
God wants me to worship him. I used to find this concept a little annoying, as if God was so insecure that he required my affirmation. I now see worship as assuming my proper place and identity in this world. God made me, and he longs for me to live in right relation to him. Christ died on the cross exactly for this purpose. God derives pleasure, not affirmation, when I choose to assume my proper position before him. He is the creator and I am the created.
Worship is about me understanding my place in this world. It is only when I assume my right position before God that I understand my ultimate identity. In worship, I am home.