What’s your favorite place to worship? It’s important that Christians worship when they gather together in fellowship, but we can also worship wherever we are because our worship is not bound to a particular place (John 4:20-23). A lot of the time, when we use the term “worship,” we mean praise in song. But we worship God whenever and wherever we give praise and adoration to Him for who He is and what He has done. My personal favorite place to worship is outdoors immersed in nature.
Worship feels most natural to me (pun slightly intended) when I’m alone enjoying the beauty of the outdoors. The coming of summer is lovely to behold. Pine forests, waves lapping on a lakeshore, sunsets and sunrises, summer rain showers, the embers of campfires, wildflowers on the side of the road (what some people choose to call weeds)—these marvels remind me that the God who made them is good.
We don’t worship nature, but nature has always inspired reverence and adoration for God. For instance, have you ever looked out a window and watched a thunderstorm in awe? David did too. A footnote for the Amplified Bible says David’s Psalm 29 is called “The Song of the Thunderstorm”:
“Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness.
The voice of the Lord is over the waters;
the God of glory thunders,
the Lord thunders over the mighty waters.” (Psalm 29: 2-3).
As David experiences the storm, he’s driven to “ascribe glory” to the Lord because of what he’s seeing.
This summer, when you spend time outside, take some time to notice the beauty of the world and ascribe glory to the One who made it. This noticing and giving credit can be a personal act of worship. Like David, we can look at nature and be reminded of God’s power and goodness and love, and let that reassurance restore us and move us to praise.
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