Skin Deep or Whole Body?

In life today plenty of people and activities are competing for our time, and it is often hard to be fully invested in any of them. We often run from thing to thing and do not have time or energy to be fully engaged in any of them. Because we are stretched so thin, we sometimes do what is minimally required to get by rather than really pouring ourselves into whatever it is we are doing. Or put like this, we are only “skin deep” involved rather than it being a “whole body” involved.   

Our relationship with God is often only “skin deep.” We do all the right things, we say all the right things, but it is nothing more than checking the right boxes. You know the drill – went to church✔️, tithed✔️, small group✔️, morning devotions✔️, served at the local soup kitchen✔️, didn’t cuss out the guy who cut me off in traffic✔️. None of those things is bad, in fact, they are all really good things, but a life-changing relationship with God is not about checking the boxes, it is about allowing ourselves to be transformed by Him through a personal relationship with Jesus. And that transformation only happens if we worship God with every ounce of our being, a “whole body” kind of worship. Real worship, real praise, is a visceral thing, a gut thing, not simply a superficial “skin deep” thing.

King David, in Psalm 63, gives us a beautiful picture of this “whole body” worship of God. David wrote this psalm while in the Desert of Judah. It was in that barren land that David cries out his devotion to God.    

(Purple bold font added by me for emphasis.)

Verse 1– You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water.

2 – I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory.

3 – Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you.

4- I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands.

5- I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you.

6 – On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night.

7 – Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings.

8 – I cling to you; your right hand upholds me.

9 – Those who want to kill me will be destroyed; they will go down to the depths of the earth.

10 – They will be given over to the sword and become food for jackals.

11 – But the king will rejoice in God; all who swear by God will glory in him, while the mouths of liars will be silenced.

Notice what David’s worship is so real and so personal and so deep that it allows him to be in the presence of God (see verse 2). If you look closely, you will see David’s craving for God (1-2), his high regard of God (3-4), his contentment in (5) and togetherness with (6) God, his dependence upon God (7-8), and finally, David’s assurance of his own safety (9-11).

So, today, I ask you this – are you earnestly seeking after God or simply checking the boxes?

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