WORSHIP
In this section we look at the way we worship and how the world can divert our attentions from the original meaning of ' worship' to God.
Have a look at the questions below and see if you can answer them:
1. What is worship?
2. When we stop worshipping God, what happens?
3. What is the difference (if any) between worshipping and worshipping in spirit and in truth?
4. How important is worship? Explain your answer.
In worship we focus on all that God has already done, and recognise that we are blessed because of His hand of grace and not our own achievements.
Israel's worship shows the same dynamic as Israel's ethics; namely, that it is based on God's prior action. God had already acted in blessing; therefore Israel was to celebrate that in worship and praise.
Dr C. Wright in O.T. Ethics For Community of God, p 45.
Worship in the Old Testament.
On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. He said to his servants, 'Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you. Genesis 22:4-5
Worship: 'Shachah.' To depress, bow down, prostrate oneself as before a monarch; one in superior position and/or power. When God is the object of worship there is the emphasis on praise, prayer and worship. So what does the word praise mean?
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding. To him belongs eternal praise. Psalm 111:10
- Praise: 'Tehillah' - genuine appreciation for God's nature and character revealed in His words and actions; a sincere and deep thankfulness for all that He is and does.
- Other Hebrew words translated into the English word 'praise' include, yada - to praise; ranan - to sing, and barak - to praise/bless.
- Most occurrences of the word praise, and its associates, are in the plural revealing that communal praise is emphasised. The true believer meets with others, no matter their background, in order to bring praise and glory to God.
- In praise and worship there is a strong intellectual content. We know who it is that we are worshipping.
Within your temple, O God, we meditate on your unfailing love. Like your name, O God, your praise reaches to the ends of the earth; your right hand is filled with righteousness. Psalm 48:9-10
We worship and praise the One who gives life through His Son Jesus Christ, and enables us to live out our calling by His Spirit.
To encounter Christ is to touch reality and experience transcendence. He gives us a sense of self-worth or personal significance, because he assures us of God's love for us. He sets us free from guilt because he died for us, from the prison of our own self-centredness by the power of his resurrection, and from paralysing fear because he reigns, all the principalities and powers of evil having been put under his feet.He promises us that history is neither meaningless nor endless, for one day he will return to terminate it, to destroy death and to usher in the new universe of righteousness and peace.
John Stott, Between Two Worlds, page 154
Worship in the New Testament
Jesus said to him, 'Away from me, Satan! For it is written: "Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only."' Matthew 4:10
- Worship: 'Proskuneo' - To prostrate oneself as an act of reverence.
- In Matthew 15:9 (they worship me in vain), the Greek word is 'Sebomai' - to revere, stressing love and devotion.
- In Philippians 3:3 (we who worship by the Spirit of God), the Greek word is 'Latreuo' meaning, to serve; to render service.
Through its corporate worship life, the community gathers to commemorate the foundational events of our spiritual existence, at the centre of which is the action of God in Christ delivering humankind from the bondage of sin.
Prof S. Grenz in, 'Theology For The Community Of God, p 640
Broadly speaking worship and praise speaks of direct acknowledgement of God: His nature and ways, no matter the circumstances.
Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Saviour. Hab 3:17-18
- Worship is at the heart of what it means to be the people of God along with prayer and the reading of scripture. Worship speaks of submitting to God, acknowledging His supremacy in all things, an awareness of our failure and recognition of all that God has blessed us with because of His grace and mercy.
- In many languages worship is expressed in idiomatic language. E.g. 'to bow down before', 'lower one's head', raise one's arms', and sing in honour of'
As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands , the Amalekites were winning. When Moses' hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up - one on one side, one on the other - so that his hands remained steady till sunset. So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword.
Exodus 17:11-13
Worship - rooted in what God has already done.
- Worship and praise are rooted in what God has already done. We are called to remember all God has done for us, and that we are a part of His plan. 'In worship we meet the power of God and stand in its strengthening' (Nels Ferre 1769-1821).
- God called His people to celebrate life through feasts and ceremonies because He had already blessed them. The feasts (e.g. Passover & Pentecost) helped Israel remember that they had a history, which was the history of God's dealings with man.
- In light of this we see that worship is a response to what God has done and not a negotiation. Please think about this. Worship is not to be about placating God or trying to get God on our side, as is the case in so many ancient religions (e.g. Prophets of Baal on Carmel)
- In worship there is recognition of the relationship given by God, and awareness that man is totally dependent on God for everything.
- It is because of God's blessing that life can be lived in new ways no matter the circumstances one finds oneself in.
Non-Israelite worship was conducted as a way of winning a deity's favour so that the deity would bless the worshippers. In Israel's case, worship does not instigate divine blessings; at most worship contributes to the preservation and perpetuation of blessings by fostering an ongoing recognition of dependence on Yahweh for those blessings.
T.M. Willis in, Worship p285
- God's people were able to come before Him because He enabled them to. For example, in the Passover Israel understood afresh that the God who released them from Egypt was the God who was with them now. This often required a complete change of thinking, requiring them to see that God is the only legitimate power in this universe and acknowledge Him as such.
Israel's memory had been rooted in a notion of governance that, in contrast to Pharaoh, was not exploitative. In the slave huts, the initial news of Yahweh's rule was, first of all negative in its function. It served to dethrone and delegitimate Pharaoh, to assert that Israel need no longer submit to the power of Pharaoh and his empire, In the dramatic moment of Ex 8:18 Israel learnt that Pharaoh 'could not' that Pharaohs claimed power was a fraud that did not need to be honoured.
Prof Brueggemann in, Israel's Praise, p 62
*But when the magicians tried to produce gnats by their secret arts, they could not. And the gnats were on men and animals. The magicians said to Pharaoh, 'This is the finger of God.' But Pharaoh's heart was hard and he would not listen, just as the Lord had said. Exodus 8:18-19
We can worship because God wants to be known
- Israel was a recipient of God's grace, mercy and love, as is the church. Israel knew that no matter the present circumstances they had received a foretaste of the real world - a world without sin and in the hands of a loving Father.
- Because of this Israel had hope - hope in what God was doing no matter the situation at hand. As a God of hope our heavenly Father often reaches in at times of man's inadequacy and vulnerability, enabling us to see that He is still in control
- For example, a desperate young man called Gideon could worship God because God instructed him to go to an enemy's camp and, through the mouth of the enemy, showed Gideon what was going to happen, and that He, the Lord God, was in control of all things.
When Gideon heard the dream and its interpretation, he worshiped God. He returned to the camp of Israel and called out, 'Get up! The Lord has given the Midianite camp into your hands. Judges 7:15
- In our worship we must recognise, that despite what is going on in the world around us, God is about His business. In a sense we refocus our minds and realign our thinking, as we reaffirm all that He has done and rededicate our lives as a gathering of believers.
- In praise and worship we recognise that our world is not a closed system. God has reached into our lives and we are an ongoing work of grace despite having previously been His enemies.
Basically, the gospel message can never mean anything without one's reawakening to the fact of one's own sin, and the fact of the wonderful love of God, as expressed in the life and the death of Jesus Christ. we need to rediscover the almost lost disciple of self-examination; and then a reawakened sense of sin will beget a reawakened sense of wonder.
Dr W. Barclay in, 'In The Hands Of God' p 88
In worshipping God we acknowledge that all other world-views are false. For example, we may have gone unnoticed and felt rather insignificant most of our life because society measured us by worldly success and others made wrong judgments about us. In worshipping God we acknowledge that this 'statement' about our lives is false and that the only legitimate authority in the Universe does not measure us in this way and extends His hand of grace to all.
The God of Israel was and is the God who took and takes the initiative, the God who actually revealed himself. He was not a hide-and-seek God who required to be discovered by human enquiry or ritual, but a loving and revealing God, uncovering himself in his deeds, relationships and word. Yet the Old Testament is not only about the uncovering of God. It is also concerned with the uncovering of the human ear to hear the things of God. In the Old Testament we see the mental tools being hammered out whereby humanity is enabled to think properly concerning the being and nature of the God who so reveals himself.
Bishop G. Leonard in 'Let God Be God,' page 17
Worship was to include everyone - all are called to acknowledge their need of grace regardless of how successful or unsuccessful they may have been in life.
And rejoice before the Lord your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name - you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, the Levites in your towns, and the aliens, the fatherless and the widows living among you. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and follow carefully these decrees. Deuteronomy 16:11-12
Israel recognised that God is the one who imparts the wisdom, knowledge and understanding that man is called to live by. They also recognised that they were expected to live according to God's decrees, and that this living was an integral part of worship.
The primary requirement is to 'do justice'.the covenant with YWHY does not maintain itself, nor can it be influenced, by any amount of prostrations; it can be maintained only by mispat. Mispat is not simple obedience but a quality of genuineness and authenticity in all human relationships.
A Light Unto My Path, p 81
A life of worship is more than singing a few songs
In Exodus we find God calling Israel out of Egypt to worship Him. The way in which God brought His people out of Egypt clearly reveals that it is God alone who enables man to carry out His commands.
(To Pharaoh) 'Then say to him, "The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to say to you: Let my people go, so that they may worship me in the desert. But until now you have not listened". Exodus 7:16-17
See also: Exodus 4:23; 8:1; 8:20; 9:13; 10:3.
- At the time of the Exodus, Israel was, called to define themselves as the community of God through proper worship in the place that God chose for them. This sound a little confusing if we assume that worship is simply playing a few songs to feel good; something that is a long way from true worship!
- Worship is a call to yield to God and remember all that He has done. It is a call to recognise that He is the provider of all goodness, no matter what the circumstances. Life is about His grace and not our achievements.
- In a call to worship Israel was receiving a call to understand whose history they were really part of (God's and not Pharaoh's), and were called to understand life accordingly.
When engaging in acts of justice on behalf of the enslaved and powerless, the faithful community images God by offering to others the gift of compassion that they themselves have experienced: 'Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you; for this reason I lay this commandment upon you today (Deut 5:15). Conversely, to refuse help and compassion to the poor and needy is to act like Pharaoh, not like God: acts of economic injustice enslave; they do not liberate.
Prof S. Balentine in The Torah's Vision of Worship - 197
- Today we may not have the slave or the poor with us (in the West) in the same way that Israel did. However we do have those who have struggled and find it difficult to break away from old thought patterns and ways of living. We are called to exercise grace and compassion towards these people, for we too were once helpless and hopeless before we came to Christ.
- In Israel (and so too the church) the inward act of remembering, evidenced in corporate praise, was also to be seen in community relationships with one another.
Vertical thanksgiving for God's goodness must be matched by horizontal action for the needy. My thanks to God for his goodness to me is only acceptable when matched by my determination do to for others what God has done for me.
Dr. C.Wright in Old Testament Ethics For the Community of God, p 43
- Despite all that God had done, Israel often drifted away from God into self-sufficiency or reliance upon other religious practices that had nothing to do with God. This is a warning to us all: a warning not to forget.
Rebellion against God does not begin with the clenched fist of atheism but with the self-satisfied heart of the one for whom 'thank you' is redundant. The bankruptcy of our position without God is forgotten, the sting of our former dilemma fades, a sense of God's conviction wears off, and our acknowledgement of God's grace becomes routine and matter of fact.
Prof Oz Guinness in God In The Dark page 35
- One of clearest ways in which God's community was seen, was in the Sabbath when a whole nation was called to cease from their own strivings and remind themselves afresh that all goodness came from the Lord. At times of rebellion the Sabbath was ignored as were the stipulations concerning the year of Jubilee.
An Old Russian proverb runs, 'Dwell in the past and you'll lose an eye. Forget the past and you'll lose both eyes.' When we lose this balance, each of us has a tendency to consider the present moment not only as unique but as autonomous. It therefore becomes a little universe of independent reality in revolt from God and the rest of time, and able to fence itself off from the lessons of the past and the demands of the future.
Prof Oz Guiness, God in The Dark p 41
- In a real sense the Sabbath was to be an act of creation keeping. Israel was called to recognise that the best way to care for others and the world they lived in was through an ongoing relationship with God. In ignoring the heart of the Sabbath the people of Israel were poisoning their own lives and the lives of their children, and all others, whether slave, free, rich, poor, animals or even the land.
Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day. Deuteronomy 5:15
See also Deut 4:9; Deut 6:11-12.
- Recognising all that God has done also involves recognising one's frailty and weakness. Yet despite this frailty and weakness we have a responsibility to live the life He has called us to.
- In light of this there is a constant need to recognise that acceptable worship to God involves the whole of one's life and is to have a strong ethical content.
- For example, in Psalm 15 we see that the acceptable worshiper is one who speaks the truth from the heart, and avoids hurtful words and/or actions.
Lord, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy hill? He whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from his heart and has no slander on his tongue, who does his neighbour no wrong and casts no slur on his fellowman, who despises a vile man but honours those who fear the Lord, who keeps his oath even when it hurts, who lends his money without usury and does not accept a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things will never be shaken. Psalm 15
- The ethical side of worship is forgotten when we simply seek an emotional release in coming together to sing songs in order to make ourselves feel good.
- The heart of praise (genuine appreciation) is forgotten when people try to promote 'their sound' or bring their view of orderliness (or otherwise) into worship to make them feel good.
- The most important thing in worship is that it issues forth from a heart that is yielded to God. This yielding to God is evidenced in the way we view and live with each other as a community of believers.
- Those who seek to bring their own agenda into worship often reveal how their desire to be in control of all things in and around their lives. In this there is no genuine abandonment to God.
The attitude of the faithful is to be one of perpetual compassion and liberality. Whenever and wherever the poor are encountered, the faithful are to respond with a warm heart and an open hand (15:7,11). This requirement has the force of law; it is not merely an appeal for optional charity. In short Deuteronomic polity requires the community to commit with an enduring passion both to God in heaven and to acts of justice on earth.
Prof S.E. Balentine in, Torah's Vision of Worship p194
One of the dangers in misunderstanding what worship is all about.
One of the major problems Israel faced (and indeed any worshipping community) was that all too often worship and praise in corporate gatherings was divorced from the call to an upright life. Because of this worship was often no more than empty ritual.
The multitude of your sacrifices - what are they to me?' says the Lord. 'I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats. When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts?
Isaiah 1:11-12
Contrast the words of Isaiah with the following:
He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8
The goal and purpose of worship: 'The singular devotion that humans offer to God has more than a vertical (or heavenly) dimension to it. Worship of God is for the sake of the whole creation, enabling just and honourable relationships among humans and between humans and the world of nature. In other words, Deuteronomic policy envisions worship as an offering to God and a ministry to the world.
Prof S.E. Balentine in 'The Torah's Vision Of Worship' p193
- In worship the demands of God's covenant confront us afresh. At the same time we are confronted by His love and the grace in which we are able to stand.
- In focusing our attention on the Lord we learn to see things more clearly from God's point of view - this includes the way we view others.
- Israel's love for God was to be seen in the way she cared for all people, yet especially for those who could give nothing in return - such as slaves, widows or orphans. In this we see that proper worship involves respect for all people; yet more than this.
- God expected His people to reach out with the compassion and love they had received, and were receiving from Him, and not simply because it was the discharging of a duty with no real thought to those involved.
Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it; let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy; they will sing before the Lord, for he comes, he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his truth. Psalm 96:11-13
- Israel was called to recognise God's past acts of faithfulness to His people and recognise the present reality of their own limitations and failings. They were also called to recognise that the future of this world rests with God and that this God calls them to faithfulness.
- Israel and the early church were called to organise their world around God's world and not their personal experiences. We are called to do likewise. We come to God empty handed yet expectant, and reach out to others in love in an act of both devotion and obedience.
We are not called to win or to lose, for this is for God to decide. Followers of Christ are called simply to be faithful in our moment of history. Nothing more,
nothing less.
'No God But God', p79. Editors: Prof Oz Guiness & J. Steel.
Concluding thoughts
- The whole of our life is to be a worshipful response to all that God has done and is doing. When Israel thought she could get away with a few simple rituals she was fooling nobody but herself. Thinking we, as called out ones, can get away with simply singing a few songs on a Sunday is to have a thinking that goes against the whole thrust of scripture.
- The way we treat people through the week can have a direct bearing on how we praise God in our corporate meetings. Yet sadly all around this country there are Christians who are more bothered about getting the right sort of sound than living the right sort of life.
- If we really believe that God is present in our corporate gatherings we will not have a 'take it or leave it attitude.' We may feel very different from those around us at times. Yet the distance (so to speak), between us, and those we struggle with is nothing compared to that between us and God, and yet still He reaches out to us.
- Our attitude to God is often seen in our attitude to others.
Now review the questions at the beginning of the session and your answers. What do you learn about God from this session?
Please take time to reflect on your times of worship with God. Are they a 'ritual' or a deep 'connection' with your Creator?