"It is in the process of being worshiped that God communicates his presence to men."

--C.S. Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms

I ran across this quote the other day, and it rings true to me. If you lead worship or serve on a worship team, you know what this means. Consider Psalm 73--this psalm of Asaph begins with a frank admission of feelings:

For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
They have no struggles; their bodies are healthy and strong...
Therefore pride is their necklace; they clothe themselves with violence...

Asaph goes on like this for several verses, and then:

When I tried to understand all this, it was oppressive to me
till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny.

Being in the sanctuary of God brought clarity about things to Asaph the psalmist--worshiping God gave him perspective on the way things really were, the true condition of his own heart, and perhaps even more importantly, it gave him a sense of the presence of God:

When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered,
I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you.
Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand.

In the Temple, most likely in worship, Asaph became aware of the constant presence of God. In some translations of Psalm 22:3, the psalmist says that God is enthroned on the praises of Israel--in other words, he inhabits, or dwells in the worship of his people. God is everywhere present, or omnipresent, as the theologians would say, but there seems to be a special way in which God shows up in places where people are worshiping him.

That's what we're aiming for, for ourselves and for our congregations--that our worship services would be events where anyone who enters and worships God can find that same clarity and perspective, and experience his presence. And it deserves our very best.