Worship #1

The following series of posts are my notes as part of studying the Christian Worship module of the Moore correspondence course.

Why is worship so important in biblical thought?

Fundamentally, as Grudem points out, God is worthy of worship and we are not. He created us to glorify Him and it is right that God should seek His own honour, for He is worthy of it.

'My glory I will not give to another' Isa 48.11

'You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power, for You created all things, and by Your will they existed and were created' Rev 4:11

In both Testaments worship is repeatedly enjoined on the covenant people of God (Carson).

'Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; for He is our God and we are the people of His pasture, the flock under His care' Ps 95:6-7

We become like whatever or whomever we worship (Leithart), therefore to become more godly and to be the people God wants us to be, we need to focus not on ourselves but on God.

What are the most important lessons that the Old Testament teaches us about the worship that is acceptable to God?

1. The Old Testament makes it clear that worship is only acceptable when it is from the heart. 'Stop bringing meaningless offerings!' God tells His people in Isa 1:13. They may have followed the rituals correctly but they were not seeking justice and living God's way. Carson points out that 'it has always been necessary to love God wholly'.

2. Worship is only acceptable as a response to God's grace, not as an attempt to earn it. The only reason the Israelites could approach God with the sacrifices for sin was because He had first of all redeemed them from slavery in Egypt and in that great act of salvation set them apart to be His people. It was by grace that God gave them the sacrifical system, as a temporal measure for them to maintain covenant relationship with Him before Christ came to die for sins once for all.

3. Worship focuses on who God is- the lengthy rituals of Atonement were there to remind the people and the priests of God's perfect holiness and unapproachable nature. Part of their worship was to retell God's great acts to their children (Deut 6, 8).

4. Worship was Word-centred as well as sacrificial- the Law was placed by the ark of the covenant (Deut 32), and Ps 119 emphasises the sufficiency of God's word as covering everything from A-Z (it is an acrostic poem covering all the letters in the Hebrew alphabet).

5. Worship is both a response to a covenant relationship and the means of ensuring its continuance (Davies)- God does not want us to pray a prayer asking for His forgiveness and then to go off and live our own life for the next 40-50 years. God wants us to walk with Him in obedience and therefore Christian worship is about continually submitting to God, continuing in faith. This is established in the Old Testament by the repeated words of God in the Law for His people to walk in love and obedience to Him all the days of their life.
'Love the LORD your God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws and his commands always.' Deut 11:1