Worship: where and how?

The New Testament reminds readers that God gave commandments for worship and a location where worship should take place:

“Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness.” (Hebrews 9:1)

In the Old Testament, the place of worship was Zion, the mountain of God:

“Exalt the Lord our God, and worship at his holy mountain; for the Lord our God is holy!” (Psalm 99:9)

From this and perhaps from the human tendency to want rules and ritual, we have buildings and call them our place of worship. The problem is that it the ease of sliding into a Sunday-only routine in which worship happens on the first day of the week and in the local church. For many, this place and time are precious, yet even the OT defined worship in ways that go beyond a place and a day.

“Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; bring an offering and come before him! Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness.” (1 Chronicles 16:29)

Worship is about giving God the glory due Him. Certainly He demonstrates His goodness and power every day of the week and in all places. It seems that worship should be the same.

Worship is also about bringing an offering. In the OT God defined a sacrificial system yet it pointed to the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Christ. When we worship, our offering is not a lamb or grain or anything we can produce; it is the offering God made to us. His Son shed His blood for our redemption. When I worship God, the salvation of Jesus Christ for my sin is a large part of why I bow before Him.

“Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness.” (Psalm 29:2)

Having tried to list all the wonders of God and the glory due His name, I run out of paper and ink. The world and all that is in it; the way things work; the amazing creation including the heavenly bodies and human bodies; beauty and color; the weather; and most of all the wonder of His visit to this planet to bring redemption to sinners. The glory due His name has no end and for these I worship.

“Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness; tremble before him, all the earth!” (Psalm 96:9)

Worship is also about attitude, about my standing before Him. He is holy but because of Jesus and the power of the Word of God, I am also set apart for Him, made holy by His blood. It is not about ritual but a way of being and in that way of being I can worship Him. And because I know what I am without Jesus, I worship with awe and trembling. I know that I cannot deserve this privilege, this awesome opportunity and experience of worshiping Almighty God.

^^^^^^^^^^^^

Lord Jesus, what more can I say? You are entirely worthy of every good thought, every praise, every thankful expression I can muster. Fill me today with worship — and I know it is Tuesday and I know I am in a condo basement and not at Your holy mountain, but I also know that I can worship You all the time and wherever I am.

Worship and rabbit trails

My Uncle Edward was a storyteller who at the same time built patience in those who listened. His stories were worth hearing to the end, but he had a habit of going down rabbit trails. That is, parts of his story would remind him of events or people somewhat related to the story, but he had to put them in. A yarn that could be told in five minutes might require an hour.

This morning’s devotional verse seemed at first to take me down a rabbit trail. It is the same verse as yesterday and the reading is about worship. My Bible has “cross references” which means there are numbers on words and phrases with corresponding links to other verses with the same or similar words and ideas. God seemed to prod the reading of them, and one thing led to another. This is the path that I followed…

Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness; tremble before him, all the earth! (Psalm 96:9)

Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness. (Psalm 29:2)

Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob. (Psalm 114:7)

All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the Lord. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word. (Isaiah 66:2)

The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. (Psalm 34:18)

After reading these together, I’m wondering about the connections in my head. How did I get from the first verse to the last? What does God want me to understand from these verses?

The reading asks, “What is worship?” Its answer is “prostration, bowing down” with the attitude that recognizes His throne and superiority, and that takes the low place of reverence in the presence of God. It is also speaking from that attitude in words that ascribe to God what is due Him. He is splendid in holiness (and so I am to be as I worship). That is the bridge from the first verse to the second.

Both were in mind when I read verse three. Worship is about trembling in the presence of God, and the Bible calls the whole earth to this act of reverence. Why tremble? There is something about the majesty of God that is so awesome, so beyond all else, that my trembling can be related to sheer amazement and delight.

But there is another reason to tremble in worship. As I realize my sinfulness and total lack of anything in me that I should even be able to worship this Holy God, I know that it is by mercy that I am in this place. I stand before God because of Jesus Christ, with no other reason or claim. He died that I can be brought into a saving relationship with my Creator, and for this I tremble.

Again, the whole earth is called to tremble at the presence of God. All these things His hand has made, yet all can see that not all people in the earth are in that saving relationship with their Creator. This relationship is enjoyed by those to whom God has revealed Himself. He has shown us our sinfulness and we have responded with “Yes, God” to truth about ourselves and our need of grace. The rest of the world shakes its fist at God. Only the contrite who are brokenhearted over sin and crushed in spirit will feel the eyes of the Lord upon them and sense His presence near them.

This runs full circle back to the first verse. Holiness is about being set apart for God. This happens when God opens our eyes to His great love for us and when we respond to that love by giving ourselves back to Him in humility and with a contrite spirit. The reading describes how I feel as the Spirit mixes these thoughts into my mind.

I worship in the presence of God as I recognize that in him I find everything that my life demands, that in myself I am incomplete. A sense of my need and his resource, a sense that my life finds its heights and its best and fulfills itself in relation to him produces the act and the attitude of worship. The attitude of worship is the attitude of a subject bent before a monarch; the attitude of a child yielding all its love to a parent; the attitude of the sheep that follows the shepherd and is content in all the pasturage that the shepherd appoints. It is the attitude of saying yes to everything that God says.