Worship is a word that has almost lost its meaning in this day and time. Especially in this Western culture where we take pride in the fact that ‘we bow to no one’. That often includes God as well as man. In this culture, though most would not admit it to it but what is worshiped is one’s self. While it is true we should worship no human being, God is worthy to be worshiped and praised. In this study, I hope to be able to explain what is meant by true Biblical worship. You may be surprised at the things I bring into focus. I hope it challenges us all to make worship a part of our lifestyle.
What is worship? I think the average person immediately gets a picture in their mind of physically bowing down before a king. Indeed, God is the king and worship to God can indeed take the form of bowing before Him but it is more than going through some physical posture. If it is not sincere and from your heart and out of true adoration any physical display of worship is in vain, “This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me” (Matthew 15:8).
The best definition I have ever heard of worship is from William Temple, better known as the Archbishop of Canterbury. He defined worship as follows: “For worship is the submission of all our nature to God. It is the quickening of conscience by His holiness; the nourishment of mind with His truth; the purifying of imagination by His beauty; the opening of the heart to His love; the surrender of the will to His purpose — and all of this gathered up in adoration, the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable and therefore the chief remedy for that self-centeredness which is our original sin and the source of all actual sin.”
Worship to me is a place. It is a state of being that when you experience it doesn’t matter what is around you, it doesn’t matter what your circumstances are…..you just become lost in another time and another place and it is as if you become one with God and He with you. It is the ultimate embrace. Sometimes it expresses itself in words, sometimes in tears, sometimes in words that only your heart and He understand. It is entering into His presence in a way that is so real. Then the things that Temple spoke of begin to happen in a rich and powerful way as our very nature no longer resists Him, our very conscience comes to life in the presence of pure holiness, our mind is flooded with His presence in such a way that it is nourished and revitalized, our imagination is turned toward Him and purified, our heart opens up to love beyond anything we ever thought possible, we surrender to Him and His purpose and every part of our being becomes consumed in adoration of Him.
It is written that God inhabits the praises of His people (Psalms 22:3) and even where only two or three are gathered in His name He is in the midst of them (Matthew 18:20). “…true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him” (John 4:23). So, praise brings about a visitation of the Holy Spirit in a special and corporate way and in His presence is healing, conviction of sin, burdens lifted, hope and peace. Even on an individual basis, you may not always feel like praising Him but it isn’t about feelings. You may not feel like showing your love to your children or spouse but you push beyond your feelings and instead express what you genuinely feel for them. Do the same when it comes to God. “By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name” (Hebrews 13:15).
Perhaps you are going through a difficult time in your life. Learn to praise Him even in the midst of it. In Acts 16, Paul and Silas were whipped and thrown in prison and chained together in a nasty dungeon probably with sewage running under them and they began to sing praises to God and look what happened: ”And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. And suddenly there was a great earthquake so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bands were loosed.” (Acts 16:25-26). Praising God brings results. Even if it doesn’t immediately lift what you are going through keep praising Him. It gets your mind into the state it should be. It causes your spirit to be over your flesh as it should be instead of giving in to the desires of the flesh to just give up. Even Job as rich as he was reduced to poverty and boils all over his body knew in whom his hope was as he cried out, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.” (Job 13:15) and “For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.” (Job 19:25). There is power in praise and worship. Read in 2 Chronicles 20 about Jehoshophat and the Israelites surrounded on all sides by their enemy, they cried out to God, and God assured him that He would take care of it, so did they get all down and out about it, no, they assembled a choir to praise God and to go before the army praising Him and their enemy attacked and slew each other. Do you want victory over your enemy or situation? Praise Him! Do you want your children under God’s blessing and protection? Send an army of praise before your children. Praise God on their behalf. The enemy cannot withstand you because you are giving the battle to the Lord.
Do you worship and praise God to manipulate him and receive from Him? No, you praise and worship Him because He is worthy of praise and because you love Him. Will He be moved in your behalf? Absolutely, but you don’t just do it to get something. Praise Him in all that you do. Let your very life honor Him by the way you live and the things that you do and say. But know “Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me: and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I show the salvation of God” (Psalms 50:23).
Psalm 150 says:
Praise ye the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power.
Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according to his excellent greatness.
Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the psaltery and harp.
Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs.
Praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon the high-sounding cymbals.
Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord.
What are some of the ways to praise Him?
–Declaring of thanks (Hebrews 13:15)
–Clapping hands and shouting (Psalms 47:1)
–Musical instruments and dancing (Psalms 150:4)
–By being still (Psalms 4:3-5, 46:10)
–By being loud (Psalms 33:3, 95:1-6)
–Singing praise songs (Psalms 9:11)
–Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs (Ephesians 5:19-20)
–Making a joyful noise (Psalms 98:4)
–By lifting our hands (Psalms 134:2)
Let me close with some thoughts from some of the most well-respected theologians of our time and the past on the subject of worship:
“I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed. If it were possible for a created soul fully to ‘appreciate,’ that is, to love and delight in, the worthiest object of all, and simultaneously at every moment to give this delight perfect expression, then that soul would be in supreme blessedness. To praise God fully we must suppose ourselves to be in perfect love with God, drowned in, dissolved by that delight which, far from remaining pent up within ourselves as incommunicable bliss, flows out from us incessantly again in effortless and perfect expression. Our joy is no more separable from the praise in which it liberates and utters itself than the brightness a mirror receives is separable from the brightness it sheds.” —C.S. Lewis
“God seeks and values the gifts we bring Him–gifts of praise, thanksgiving, service, and material offerings. In all such giving at the altar, we enter into the highest experiences of fellowship. But the gift is acceptable to God in the measure to which the one who offers it is in fellowship with Him in character and conduct, and the test of this is in our relationships with our fellow men. We are thus charged to postpone giving to God until right relationships are established with others. Could the neglect of this be the explanation of the barrenness of our worship?” —G.C. Morgan
“Worship is our response, both personal and corporate, to God for who He is, and what He has done; expressed in and by the things we say and the way we live.” — Louie Giglio
“Worship is everything we think, everything we say, and everything we do, revealing that which we treasure and value most in life.” —Josh Riley
“Worship is what we were created for. This is the final end of all existence and worship of God. God created the universe so that it would display the worth of His glory. And He created us so that we would see this glory and reflect it by knowing and loving it with all our heart and soul and mind and strength. The church needs to build a common vision of what worship is and what she is gathering to do on Sunday morning and scattering to do on Monday morning.” —John Piper
“Worship is living our life individually and corporately as continuous living sacrifices to the glory of a person or thing.” — Mark Driscoll
“Worship is the sign that in giving myself completely to someone or something, I want to be mastered by it.” —Harold Best
“Worship is the believer’s response to all they are – mind, emotions, will, body – to what God is and says and does.” —Warren Weirsbe
“Worship of the living and true God is essentially an engagement with him on the terms that he proposes and in the way that he alone makes possible.” — David Peterson
“Reverential human acts of submission and homage before the divine Sovereign, in response to his gracious revelation of himself, and in accordance with his will.” —Dan Block
“To great sections of the church the art of worship has been lost entirely, and in its place has come that strange and foreign thing called the ‘program.’ This word has been borrowed from the stage and applied with sad wisdom to the type of public service which now passes for worship among us.” —A.W. Tozer
“The true, the genuine worship is when man, through his spirit, attains to friendship and intimacy with God. True and genuine worship is not to come to a certain place; it is not to go through a certain ritual or liturgy; it is not even to bring certain gifts. True worship is when the spirit, the immortal and invisible part of man, speaks to and meets with God, who is immortal and invisible.” —William Barclay
“To worship God ‘in spirit and in truth’ is first and foremost a way of saying that we must worship God by means of Christ. In him the reality has dawned and the shadows are being swept away (Hebrews 8:13). Christian worship is new covenant worship; it is gospel-inspired worship; it is Christ-centered worship; it is cross-focused worship.” —D. A. Carson
“Redemption is the means; worship is the goal. In one sense, worship is the whole point of everything. It is the purpose of history, the goal of the whole Christian story. Worship is not one segment of the Christian life among others. Worship is the entire Christian life, seen as a priestly offering to God. And when we meet together as a church, our time of worship is not merely a preliminary to something else; rather, it is the whole point of our existence as the body of Christ.” —John Frame
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