“Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD.” (Psalm 150:6)

I’ve experienced, or at least witnessed, a fairly wide variety of worship expressed through music. It extends from the old time, four-part a Capella harmony of a small country church to the full rock band/worship team of a modern mega church and most of the increments in between. I have stood and bowed in reverent quiet, and I have felt the pulse of powerful bass guitar and drums. I have worshipped in singing to the leading of a solitary singer standing before the small group and rhythming the timing with a patterned beat of a farm-toughened hand. I have exulted in the loud expression of electric guitars and digital keyboards along with hundreds of other standing worshippers.

Some of my favorite moments were when riding with my dad in the summer darkness down the rolling, curving backroads of Muhlenberg, Logan, and Todd counties in West Kentucky. We’d take turns picking out some old hymn or gospel song. Once I’d reached adolescence, we’d take turns singing bass.

Other cherished moments include family singings on the farm (a Capella). Still others have been in the quiet of our own home, singing with my wife Randa, and flatpicking an old Gibson acoustic guitar. There have been times when I’ve sat alone in a dark room, pouring out my heart to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Sometimes I’ve worshipped in an heart-emptying, soul-scraping expression of intimate encounter and other times it’s been more like the unrestrained bashing of wooden spoons on kitchen pans of a completely uninhibited toddler.

It seems to me that there really is no end of means or reasons for worshipping God. If we have breath, we have both method and motivation to praise the Lord.