In worship, we come to God. This is what worship is - a coming to the Lord. How accessible is he, how available? How difficult is it to get his attention, to get through to him, to get his ear?

"Because he has inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call upon him as long as I live." So wrote Israel's ancient singer in Psalm 116, verse 2. Here is the psalmist's picture of God: he is inclined, he has inclined his ear. To be inclined is to be sloped or slanted in some direction; and the psalmist is quite confident of God's inclination: "His ear is inclined toward me." Putting it another way, God is leaned forward listening.

Ordinarily, we should not think of God as having human or physical form. But if, for just a moment, we may picture him in this way, we can visualize the great, kind King on his throne, his body bent forward, an elbow on a knee, a hand cupped to an ear, intently looking in our direction.

This is the kind of God to whom we come when we worship, when we pray. It isn't difficult at all to get his attention; we have it already.