Welcome fellow co-laborers in the Lord's work. This months' feature is a missive on "What is Worship" brought to us by Chaplain Emile Moured. As Chaplain's we often take for granted that we know all about these things, but this article reminds all of us that not only head knowledge is important, but heart knowledge too. May all be blessed as they read this for the glory of our Savior.
“I will sing to the LORD as long as I live;
I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.” Psalm 104:33
Believers overwhelmed by God’s goodness and mercy love to worship Him. We were created to worship Him. Yet I would agree with A.W. Tozer who said, “Worship is the missing jewel” of the church. If that’s true, how can we rediscover worship or rediscover an appreciation of our understanding of worship?
How do we use the term or hear it used?
Biblical concepts of “worship”
But “worship” is humble adoration and service that flows from something internal. Can that happen on Sunday morning? Sure. But I’m not sure that’s the best way to gauge whether I am or we are truly worshiping or not. Based on a Biblical definition of worship, how do I know I’ve worshiped God? If it’s proskuneo, shachah, and latreia, then I know I have worshiped God when I am humbly serving Him
We are all familiar with Samuel’s words to Saul that it “is better to obey than to sacrifice” (1 Sam 15:22; cp. Isaiah 1:18-20). Obedience and heart response to God is more important than following a prescribed form of worship. So, when I walk out of church on Sunday and say “wow! that was a great service” and then forget my Lord the rest of the week, then I did not worship. How do I know I’ve worshiped God? When I humbly serve Him – when I am actually doing the service.
So worship is service. According to Rom.
True worship …and worshipers
In the New Testament, perhaps no passage speaks to this issue better than John 4:4-42. Focusing on vv. 19-24, we read:
The Samaritan woman asks a question about the “where” of worship – that is, the “form” of worship. Jesus replied with what worship is. She asked a question about the experience, Jesus responded with the issue of “heart.” Especially in military chapels, you will find that even genuine, fundamental believers have different preferences as to the where and how of corporate worship. It would be easy to see these things as problems and trials, largely because we tend to focus on externals. But God doesn’t care about that; He is seeking true worshipers. We’re not talking about differences of doctrine, which are incredibly important; we’re talking about externals and form.
Look at the model given to us in Is. 6:1-11:
And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. So I said:
Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. 7 And he touched my mouth with it, and said:
First, Isaiah has an encounter with God. He then has an epiphany – a glaring realization of who he is in relation to who God is (“Woe is me, for I am undone…”). Then, and only then, God comes in and works on him. And it is then that Isaiah is motivated to respond in worship . . . to respond with a willingness to serve.
The true worshiper is the person who meditates on God’s majesty so that corporate worship has real and personal meaning. I need to practice His presence daily in private and public (Prov. 3:5-6).– whether in prayer, meditation, rest, or in service.
Rediscovering Worship
I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.” Psalm 104:33
Worship Defined
What is worship? We often think of “worship” in the following terms:
- praising God
- coming together to sing and pray
- giving God His due
I have heard contemporary music called “praise and worship”, from which one might erroneously infer that hymns or other sacred music were something other than praise or worship. The music leader is often referred to as the “worship leader”, as if the Sunday School teacher, the usher, the pray-ers or the preacher aren’t in a sense leader worship as well. We have all used phrases like “worship service” to be synonymous with our Sunday gathering at church. Is that what it is?
The words we translate “worship” in the Hebrew and Greek communicate two concepts: “humility” and “service. ”
The first is found in John 4:23: “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.” The words for worship here (from proskuneo) mean “to kiss towards.” Not “to not kiss up” as used in our colloquial language of the day, but as a tender act of love and respect. In the Old Testament, the equivalent was shachah, which alluded to the posture of the worshiper who often bowed in reverence or adoration. So, first, worship is humble adoration.
The second concept – worship as “service” – is probably best illustrated for us in Romans 12:1: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.” Some translations rightly translate the word for “service” (latreia) as “worship”. Romans 12:1-2 tells us that based on what we learn of God’s mercies in chapters 1-11 of Romans, our response is to serve God – to worship Him – in return. So worship is service. The act of worship is actually an internal condition generating and outward response.
So, in a sense, calling our Sunday morning gathering a “worship service” is somewhat repetitively redundant. In addition, have you ever asked yourself, “why do we call it a ‘service’? And what kind of ‘serving’ is going on during the time we gather?” While it is not false to call it a “worship service”, it has greatly delimited our definition of “worship” to “an hour on Sunday morning or Wednesday evening where we all gather, sing, and hear preaching.” In delimiting worship, I agree with Tozer that we have lost much of its meaning.
- True worship isn’t characterized by thoughtless prayers with meaningless clichés. It’s a genuine conversation with God. If you come from a tradition wherein you recite the Lord’s prayer, take time to meditate on what you’re saying.
- True worship for the preacher or teacher mean not preparing a fragmented, last-minute lesson. It should be one prepared with the care and thoughtfulness due to our King.
- Worship isn’t narrowly defined as a Sunday morning meeting at a church; but it is a daily, hour-by-hour choice we make wherein we thoughtfully serve God with our whole lives…our whole being. Worship is not a performance that we periodically observe, it’s a service that we constantly do.True worship …and worshipers
Unfortunately, we often view worship in terms of our experience. For example, we focus on the fact that the music was too upbeat; or, conversely, it sounded too much like a funeral dirge. Or the order of service was different than what I prefer. Or how many times have you heard folks say, “It’s not like my home church”? However, God is less concerned with the cultural trappings; God is seeking true worshipers. While we usually focus on the form of our worship, God is seeking those whose heart generates worship.
Let’s look at a couple examples. In Gen. 4:4-5, we read that YWHW “had respect for Abel and his offering.” That word translated “had respect” or “had regard” (sha`ah) means “to gaze, look at, care for.” From the very beginning, God was seeking true worshipers, whose hearts generated a sincere expression of worship, whatever that expression was.
The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.”
Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
So, how do we become true worshipers, or true-ER worshipers? I would suggest that if worship is a heart issue, then true worship must begin with me individually before God. Dr. Gordon Borror, a professor of music at Western Seminary, once said “Who is that person who comes to the community to worship God? It is that man or woman who practices the presence of God in private moments.”
I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said:
“ Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts;
The whole earth is full of His glory!”
Because I am a man of unclean lips,
And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips;
For my eyes have seen the King,
The LORD of hosts.”
“ Behold, this has touched your lips;
Your iniquity is taken away,
And your sin purged.”
Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying:
“ Whom shall I send,
And who will go for Us?”
Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”
So it’s just my personal, individual life that’s important when it comes to worship, right? No. We, as pastors, are very aware of the exhortation found in Hebrews 10:24, 25. We need each other as we worship God. God intended it to be this way. Now, there are lots of practical applications here to our times of corporate worship. I just want to talk about one aspect of corporate worship. It’s an issue that has existed since the days of the very first churches – the uncomfortability of corporate worship.
The early believers had been either Jews or Gentiles. They lived under very different rules, possessed very different tastes, and came to know the Lord through different experiences. But Paul effectively says, “what a marvelous and beautiful mystery that God has brought His message of salvation to people we never thought would be part of the family!” [Eph. 3:1-6] We know that the differences in their forms of fellowship and worship sparked divisions and arguments (see Romans 14:1-9). I sometimes wonder what the “love feast” might have looked like when you had Jews with strict dietary laws negotiating a meal with Gentiles who normally ate all sorts of “garbage” (pork and lobster?).
Music is one of those traditionally hot topics in fundamental churches. Some of us have come to know God through traditional hymns, perhaps associating “the Old Rugged Cross” with a time we made a meaningful recommitment. Or “Amazing Grace” has stirred our souls so many times that we cannot sing it without a well of emotion. Others of us may have come to have those very same experiences through more contemporary music.
As with many of our predecessors and contemporaries, perhaps we wrongly place too much focus on the externals. I know you’ve heard the arguments from both sides as well as I have: “That music comes from the drum beats of Africa” or “it sounds like the world” ; or, conversely, “The organ was banned from church for being too worldly at one time” or “Some of that music came from worldly singers and nationalistic composers of their day.” While there is certainly some value to having those discussions, I find most of us who get wrapped up in that have drifted well from the heart of worship. It has become largely about the form and the “how.” And that is a second reason why I agree with Tozer: that worship has largely become a missing jewel.
The point being that although my preference might be toward one particular form of worship, I need to understand that my brother or sister sitting next to me might have come to know God through a very different form of worship. Again, we’re not talking about doctrine; we’re talking about form. I have planted/pastored a couple churches which had a diverse Body. Guys in suits worshiping next to guys in jeans and tee shirts. Folks who love singing “Your Love O Lord” and “You Reign” learning how to appreciate those who love hymns like “Take My Life” and “How Marvelous” – and vice-versa. Uncomfortable? Yea! If you’re worshiping with a Body as diverse as ours, you are going to be uncomfortable.
But a heart of worship will not need an environment that makes it feel comfortable. Personally, I don’t buy into much of the contemporary church-planting philosophy that says you have to focus on a particular demographic or style. When you’re with God’s people, the form of worship will quickly give place to a heart whose only desire is to praise Him for bringing us into the family of God. Some day we’ll all be worshiping together whether we like it or not and whether it sounds good or not. I’m sure it will look nothing like the trappings of this world – whether that be 17th century trappings or 21st century trappings. I figure we might as well start doing it now.
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