Episode
Ep 141: Be careful of wondering minds and careless tongues in worship... (Ecc 5:1-7).
- Podcast
- Old things New Podcast
- Published
- Mar 12, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 653
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Summary
Pray Read: Ecc 5:1-7. Meditation When we come to worship God, we come to listen, therefore our words must be few. That’s what we learned in our last meditation. But part of worship is about bringing our own offering as well. We must come and speak. Or, to be more accurate, Solomon instructs us to come and speak a little. He makes this very clear: the words of our mouths, even if they aren’t many, are not to be treated lightly. Reading again in verse 1, “To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil.” Solomon’s main thrust in this passage is to call us to guard our own tongues in worship. Fast forward to a modern day worship service. When you think about these words in that context, right away you may be thinking: How is this relevant to me? Maybe you think of worship services as largely passive. You sit back and receive. That is faulty thinking for two reasons. First, even listening is a proactive activity. We must come prepared to listen. If we come tired, lazy, distracted, or preoccupied, we will not be able to obey that instruction. We must come prepared to listen. But second, worship also requires engagement. As we meet to worship, this is a conversation. We pray. We amen the corporate prayers. We sing. We speak. We profess our faith, we affirm and receive new baptisms. Even the meditations of our hearts are visible before God in worship. Worship includes speaking on our part, even if you don’t think of it like that very much. Solomon’s warning here is sobering. He speaks of offering the sacrifice of fools, and then says they do not even realise that what they are doing is evil. That is a strong warning. It is possible to turn up to a worship service and do evil. More than that, it is possible n…