Pray the Word with David Platt is a resource from radical.net.

Nehemiah chapter 8, verses 5 and 6.

And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people,

where he was above all the people, and as he opened it, all the people stood. And Ez it all the people stood and Ezra blessed the lord the great god

and all the people answered amen amen lifting up their hands and they bowed their heads and worshipped the

lord with their faces to the ground i love love this picture in Nehemiah chapter 8.

So this is after the rebuilding of the walls,

now really focused on the rebuilding of the people,

and they bring out the book of the law, the word of God.

All the people are assembled together. And Ezra stands up on this platform

and he opens the book. And all he does is open it. And all of a sudden, everybody, all the people

stand up. Ezra starts blessing God and all the people start shouting out, amen, amen. They're

lifting up their hands and they bow their heads. They worship the Lord with their faces to the

ground. This is an amazing scene. And all that evoked this scene was the opening of the book.

Like they just open up the Word of God.

Ezra opened up the book and all of this happened.

I just see in this picture a reverence for God's word, an awe of God's word.

I just, I think about these kind of movements, standing, lifting hands, shouting out,

bowing down with our faces of the ground. I think, when does that happen in our worship gatherings

in many churches today? And I think the answer is, it's usually when it comes to music,

which is good, like, well, see in Nehemiah chapter 12 how musical worship is so important and leads to

great glory being given to God.

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