Singing Psalm 134 to motivate you to a serving mindset in action
What is a serving mindset?
You are at the Lord’s disposal. You avail yourself to him. All the gifts, resources, and time are available for him to use as he thinks best. A serving mindset is quite opposed to the “me first” mindset. In his grace, you are more joyful and free as servant of the Lord Jesus, your king, than you are as king of your own kingdom.
“So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.” ~ Philippians 2:1-4
Singing Psalm 134 moves you to to adopt a serving mindset as you consider your way of life.
Collaborate. Cooperate. Compete.
Which of the three is not like the others?
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. ~ 1 Peter 2:9
What does it look like for you to be renewed to a serving mindset called out of darkness into his wonderful light?
In a competition-based society, you are either stressed by being a part of it where you are expected to feel bad when someone else succeeds or you experience a different kind of stress if you would rather cooperate than compete, swimming upstream resisting what most of society is doing.
How can you serve with one accord when you think you are somehow supposed to measure yourself up to the next guy and come out on top?
Somehow, you are supposed to be good and at the same time, competitive. Is it any wonder you are stressed?
In a very real sense, the first sin involved competition. God, who is good, created beings who could ally themselves with him in cooperation and care or to go against him in competition. Choosing what is against God, who is good, is choosing evil.
Our sinful nature is all about competition and seems natural but causes us a great amount of undue stress. How much better do you feel when you are cooperating with others and using your gifts to help them?
If you want to impress someone, seek to please the Father as his child. Imitate Christ who gave all for your benefit that you could know him and have life. With this serving mindset, ask the Lord to help you find ways to give to those who would benefit from what you have been given. “Freely you have received; freely give.”
His servant, Paul, appeals to you in the 12th chapter of Romans to offer your body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. He equips you with the prerequisite thinking upon which to build a serving mindset along with the Corinthians by breaking it to you that “you are not your own. You were bought with a price. Therefore, honor God with your body.”
The author of Hebrews in chapter 10 of that book tells us that the Lord neither desired nor took pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings, offerings that were offered according to the law. Jesus said, “Behold, I have come to do his will.“ The triune God “does away with the first [sacrifices] in order to establish the second [doing his will]. And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” When Jesus said to the Father, “Not my will but thine be done,” he was teaching how to order life with a serving mindset. His servant, Augustine, prayed, “Lord, command what you will, and give what you command.” If he wants you to do something that is hard for you to do, he will give you the strength you need to do it. If he wants you not to do something that is hard for you to resist, he will supply the strength you need to resist it.
Singing Psalm 134 moves you to consider some practical things about the body you were given and about the many decisions you make concerning it every day.
Your body is the temple of the Lord. Lifting your hands with a serving mindset from a heart that desires active obedience to God’s word is pleasing to the Father. Taking a cue from his greatly loved servant, Daniel, you might ask, does what I eat or drink or take into my body help or hinder my ability to serve the Lord with his people, to do his will?
Because we are weak and needy, it is easy to inadvertently train your brain to move your body to a set point accustomed to making unhealthy choices as a matter of course. You are bombarded everywhere you turn with overly processed foods and stressors on your mind and body causing sleep deprivation. With technology advances, there is less need for physical exercise, and food is central to many social activities. You will have to be intentional as Daniel, whom the Lord commended, when he chose to eat vegetables and water. You might choose to limit richer foods that your body doesn’t know it doesn’t need.
Would it make a difference, if you changed some things you do, in how well you can think, how stable your emotions are, or how well you are able to control what you say?
If you are not sure, you can ask those that you know who have a serving mindset and live wisely to help you discern.
You can take note if what you eat:
causes you to sleep poorly
have physical pain
clouds your thinking
makes you oppositional, unwilling to cooperate, collaborate, and work well with others,
bloats you so that you have less energy to move and serve
lowers your physical immunity and increases inflammation making you more susceptible to illnesses, emotional lability, and dementia.
It is hard to acquire and maintain a serving mindset if you are dragged down most of the time by what you eat. If changing what you eat would alleviate some of this and make you a better steward of the gifts you have been given to use to glorify God, including the hormones he provided your body to help you regulate what you eat, when, and how much, then your choice to make some simple changes in order to have a serving mindset is a means of grace from the Lord. It is not will-power-based or behavior-based. You can ask the Lord for his grace any time you want to teach you to depend on him to deny yourself and to empower and equip you with a serving mindset.
Singing Psalm 134 moves you to consider Jesus, who came down to earth from heaven to serve and had the greatest serving mindset of all.
Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. ~ 1 Peter 1:13
Jesus revealed to you the value of seeking to do the will of the Father rather than your own. He asked the Father that all those who believe in him through the word of his apostles “may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I and you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me… that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me…“You loved me before the foundation of the world…I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” ~ John 17:21-26
LORD, God’s covenant name, appears five times in this short psalm. Three times you sing to bless the LORD, one time you sing that you are to be in the dwelling place of the LORD, and one time it states, “May the LORD bless you, the one who made the earth and sky.”
Singing Psalm 134, you get the sense that your life is to be LORD-centric, revolving around how you can please and serve him. He not only made you, but he made what you stand on and all you see when you look up, down, and out. Self, others, food, clothing, money, possessions are poor substitutes as objects of your worship though the Lord gives you all you need so that you can help others any time you want.
His servant, Joshua, said, “And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve…As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” You might ask, would Joshua recognize me as being of like mind, one with a serving mindset in his house?
The Holy Spirit is the Helper Jesus sent to open your mind and heart to understand the gift he is to you. He liberates you to have a serving mindset to be and do all you can be and do. He helps you on the inside to lift your hands and soar as the eagles, not weary, burdened, faint, or weak.
As he calls you out of darkness, you no longer see him as an obligation to fulfill but as your very heart’s desire in relationship. When you find yourself watching and praying in the night, you can bless the LORD for his presence as he calls you into his wonderful light. You watch and pray for all God’s people to do his will as God allocates to each one his tasks.
Singing Psalm 134 to motivate you to a serving mindset in prayer
If the Lord has given you health issues that would not be alleviated by a change in what you eat or drink and that keep you from physically serving him, you can serve just as well or even better in prayer.
He will give you a serving mindset and the words you need to bring your requests before him. He makes you a partner with him in accomplishing what he always intended to accomplish but not without making you a part of it.
What does it matter if he uses your body, someone else’s, or supernatural means to accomplish his will?
If mental health issues keep you from serving, you do whatever you can to honor the Lord taking whatever limitations you have into account.
He knows what limits he gave you so you can be at peace with them as you lift the hands of your heart in thanks to him. Since the Lord is alright with them you can be too.
It is the Lord who gives the victory, and so his servant, David, gave the same to those who stayed with the baggage as to those who fought in the battle.
The triune God knows well how you would serve him if you could, and he credits you for your heart’s desire to serve him as if you actually did the things you wish you could do.
Those who serve in prayer serve in one accord with those who bathe their service in prayer using whatever gifts the Lord has given them. Each part of the body is indispensable as each part does its work.
It is him from first to last. You are relieved that it is not about you. Though he doesn’t need to accomplish his will through you, this is what he has chosen to do. Amazingly, the means through which he chooses to accomplish his will includes you – your grateful, petitioning, serving mindset, serving heart, and serving hands.
Singing Psalm 134, you perceive that the Lord no longer calls those he gives a serving mindset to servants but friends.
As one called to a serving mindset, the Lord makes you privy to his will and what he is accomplishing on the earth. You take heart that he dwells with you in whatever state he has you. Whatever anxieties you cast on him, he doesn’t reject you but cares for you. There is nothing better than getting to live with one who is gracious and merciful as is the Lord, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He makes you thankful in the midst of trouble as he brings you out of darkness and into his wonderful light.
The Lord has set up the city of Zion from which to bless you. His servant, Ezekiel, pronounced that one day the name of that city will be, “The LORD Is There.”
“Bless the LORD, all you his servants,As you serve with one accord;Bless the LORD in your night watches In the dwelling of the LORD.
“Lift your hands within His temple;Bless the LORD and raise them high.May the LORD bless you from Zion,He who made both earth and sky.” ~ Psalm 134
November 12-18, 2022
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