Biblical
Worship: Fact or Feeling; Rev. 5:11
There are criteria in Scripture, objective criteria in worship, that are
determined by content and focus, and not by how it makes us feel. Worship, as
we will see, is based on truth. That means there is worship that is right and
worship that is wrong. In between there are areas where we can use the words
appropriate or inappropriate. This is a very important concept because we have
to bring to worship something that is lost in our modern culture, and that is
this idea of coming to God and submission to His authority in reverence for
what He has done and in gratitude for who He is and what He has done. So
worship that the church brings is worship that is theocentric (God-centred) and
not anthropocentric.
Revelation
We need to have some objectivity to develop our own understanding of
worship. Furthermore, we have to understand what worship is today in light of
this because the term “worship” has unfortunately become restricted, and in
many contexts worship equals singing. Now we go to many churches and they have
a worship leader who is not the pastor, he is the song leader. Then they tack
fifteen minutes of the Bible on at the end to identify they are Christians, but
real “worship” takes place in that 45 minutes that precedes the teaching of the
Word when we all get to impress God with our singing and how this shapes our
feelings.
So we need to answer some key questions about worship like, is worship
synonymous with singing? What is the relationship of worship with praise? What
about concepts such as spontaneity or the idea of being extemporaneous in
prayer or singing or other aspects of worship? In some church cultures the
whole idea is that we need to be spontaneous and there seems to be this sense
of immediacy so that “If the God Holy Spirit leads me in a different direction
today I can go that way.” Pastors have talked about the fact that they don’t
want to plan what is going to happen in six months because they want to leave
room in case the Holy Spirit leads them in a different direction. Well, if the
Holy Spirit wants quality—and He does—then don’t we think that He would lead us
in time to do the study, the research and planning, and not come off with some
sort of halfway-prepared service because we think that the Holy Spirit operates
at the last minute. This is viewed in some circles as being more spiritual
because we are going to have everything very spontaneous and emphasise the
extemporaneous. Then we need to look at what the relationship is between
singing and praise and what content should be at hand in relationship to the
teaching of the Word, because the teaching of the Word is the primary focus in
all worship. This is because it is through the Word that we learn who God is
and what he has done and we learn how to think in terms of His revelation and
not in terms of our own notions and our own feelings.
The
doctrine of worship
1. We have our keys
words on both Hebrew and Greek. The first Hebrew word is abad and is translated “worship” is in Genesis 2:15, to tend or to
serve, and it has the idea of ultimately serving God. So even in the garden
there is an aspect of worship, of serving God, in terms of the abilities and
talents that God gives each and every one of us. We serve God by taking that
which He has given us and using it for His honour and glory, understand that as
His creatures in the image and likeness of God we are to reflect who He is and
what He has done in terms of everything that we do. This word is also used in
the Mosaic Law in passages like Deuteronomy 6:13 NASB “You shall
fear {only} the LORD your God; and you shall worship [abad]
Him and swear by His name.” In the context of the Mosaic Law that which
precedes service is a fear of the Lord. This is a fear that is not simply
respect, it goes beyond respect. The fear of the Lord is not only a recognition
that God is the creator God of the heavens and the earth to whom we owe
everything, but there is also a recognition that there is eventual
accountability and judgment. This adds this sense of seriousness to our living.
Ultimately there is accountability before God. The second word that is used is
a word that has generated some debate recently means to worship: shachah, to bow down, to do obeisance.
In both words we see the idea of a recognition of divine authority and that the
core idea in worship is the subordination of my will to God’s will. Therefore
that means that we are to know what God’s will is, and the only way we can know
God’s will is through the study of His Word. So the idea of worship is respect,
submission to authority, and honouring Him for who He is and what he has done.
The first time we run into the word shachah
is in Genesis 22:5 NASB “Abraham said to his young men, ‘Stay here
with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and
return to you.’” So worship relates to sacrifice in this case but it is
honouring and obeying God. We see that Abraham is not going to let his finite
human understanding or emotion shape what he does. He is going to be completely
subservient to God’s authority. That is what worship is: subordinating all of
our thinking in every area of life to the authority of God’s Word. We interpret
God’s creation first by understanding it in terms of how it has been revealed
in the Scripture, and then we go to the details of creation; not the other way
around. But unfortunately in the history of Christianity and even further back
in the Old Testament people want to determine their categories and their
framework from creation, from rationalism or empiricism, and then take those
categories and impose them on God’s revelation, which always leads to
misinterpretation. So we have to start with God’s Word and subordinate our
thinking to it. Another passage where we have this word is in Genesis 24:26 NASB
“Then the man bowed low and worshiped the LORD.” Here we see that he is
being thankful. Cf. 24:48. A second thing that we see about worship here is
that it is God-centric; it is not based on our feeling, our experiences, but on
who God is and His action in our lives. So it is also a response to God’s grace
in our lives. Of course, to understand God’s grace is to understand God’s Word.
As Martin Luther observed: “How can anyone who actively understood this means
not break forth in song and rejoicing over all that God has done for us.
Singing is not something that was just picked up traditionally but it is
something that was understood to be a part of worship from the Old Testament
times. Ephesians
2. Worship starts with
a mental attitude of subordination to God. We see this in the Greek word proskuneo [proskunew]. This is
equivalent to the Hebrew meaning to bow down, to prostrate, to worship. It
originally meant to kiss and eventually had the idea of kissing someone in a
formal setting to show respect to someone in authority, to worship or to
prostrate one’s self before a superior. It is used 24 times in Revelation. A
second word that is used in the New Testament, equivalent to the Hebrew word abad, is latrueo
[latruew] which has the idea of serving and worshipping God. Key verse for this
is Romans 12:1. What Paul is saying is that in worship we are to present
everything in our life to the authority of God. So it is not just abstract
thought, it is everything that we do in life that is to be subordinated to God
because we recognise as believers that our primary purpose as creatures is to
serve God. But to serve God we have to know who God is, what he has done, who we are as a
creature; and all these things come into play which means we have to be
students of the Word of God.
3. Definition: Worship
is subordinating my opinions, preferences, thoughts, philosophy of life,
finances, politics, emotions, relationships, attitudes, actions, time, and
priorities to the authority of God’s Word. Worship is a complex idea which
involves a number of aspects from private prayer to public expression of
thanks, the singing of hymns which reinforce and reflect on God, His person and
work. It also includes bringing sacrifices in gifts and to personal Christian
service. Worship can be both individual and corporate. We may sometimes be
emotionally stimulated but that is not to be confused with worship; it is
simply a response. Worship is something that is more objective.