讚美與敬拜這個觀念在今天聽來好像很新潮，仿佛是現代年輕基督徒的一種新時尚，以對比三四十年前的崇拜方式。傳道者說，「在日光之下並無新事」，在敬拜與讚美的形式上也是這樣。
我們隨便翻開詩篇，便馬上發現以前以色列人的敬拜是很新潮的，不比我們今天的讚美敬拜「古老」！
在敬拜中讚美是人向神表達的情感和愛慕，是真正敬拜的必然表現和行為。敬拜不是純智的活動，要聽好的演講；或單為鼓勵行善的聚會，學做個好人。敬拜其實最重要還是真誠地讚美神，向祂表示敬畏、感恩、順服和愛慕，因為神就是我們的主。
今天我們要再次強調讚美的敬拜是對的和應該的，因為我們的心靈已枯乾了很久很久了，對神已沒有感覺了，使敬拜成為只是人的活動，與神好像沒有關係。我們如果發覺自己不能投入在敬拜中讚美神，盡情歌唱，那麼就要好好反省和禱告，看自己的靈命出了什麼毛病，我們與神的關係為什麼那麼無情無感。
請你在敬拜前默默禱告，預備歡喜快樂地歌唱讚美神。
The worship style of Praise and worship seems to be very new, and is used to divide the old from the contemporary, that our younger generation Christians embrace as their style of worshipping God to reject the old folks’ style that was used for more than hundred years. But interestingly enough that the old sage in the book of Ecclesiastes said, “There is nothing new under the sun!” And it is so true even to our ways of praise and worship.
Surprisingly if we turn to Psalms, we will find it full of praise and worship and they look very contemporary. The old style of Israelites’ praise and worship is very new to us!
The function of singing praises in worship is to express our love and affection to God, and it is the act of a genuine worship. Our worship service is not just an intellectual activity to listen to a good speech, or a moral teaching and learning gathering to learn to do good. What is the most important thing for us to do in a worship service? It is the sincere praise that we love to sing unto our Lord. In singing praises, we express our fear, thanksgiving, submission, and love to God, because He is our Lord.
Today we should once again emphasize that our worship service must be fully filled with praises and singing, for our heart is dried for so long that we feel nothing in our worship service. Worship service becomes totally human activity, and has nothing to do with God. If for some reason that we cannot enjoy singing in worship service, we need to reflect on our spiritual life to see what is going wrong in our relationship with God.
I want to encourage you to pray for yourself and be prepared to enjoy singing praises in our worship service.
