Chapter One
Old Testament Principles If I took a microphone into the foyer of your church and asked
people why they had come, what do you think I would hear? I suspect I'd
hear reasons like these:
To obtain some new thought from the Word
To hear Pastor speak-he's an outstanding preacher
To be built up
To fellowship with other believers
To really feel and be moved by the music and worship
I think you'll agree that these are fairly typical responses. Maybe
you too would say you worship for one or another of these reasons. As
good as these reasons are, though, some critical reasons are missing from
the list.
Why do we worship? Why do you and your church worship? And
more important, what is the real purpose of worship? What does the Bible
have to say about it?
We will start out by looking at three Old Testament principles of
worship in this chapter.
PRINCIPLE 1: COME INTO HIS PRESENCE AND SING TO HIM
In worship we draw near to God, the One who has called us to
worship. That's what is missing from the response of these worshipers:
the expectation that they assemble to meet with God. When we lose sight
of that central purpose of worship, we begin to misdirect our efforts. We
start to think in terms of getting something out of worship-good
feelings or good teaching-or we make worship into a means to some
other end.
Feelings are valid and play an important role in worship. Children,
who cannot comprehend what is going on intellectually, learn about
worship from the feelings present in the worship environment. Warm
feelings benefit all, but the major emphasis should not be on generating
good feelings; we shouldn't think that we have not worshiped if on a
particular Sunday we "feel nothing." Instead, the experience of healthy
emotions will come from focusing on a God who, by His very character,
loves to bless His people. We come to Him; He graciously comes to us.
Many church leaders believe that worship is for teaching. Scripture
choruses, they point out, can help people memorize the Bible; hymns and
Bible readings can reinforce church doctrines. Alternatively, pastors may
view worship as a preparation for the sermon-when the real teaching
takes place. True worship will stimulate in us a desire to be changed, and
as we draw close to the Lord in worship and see His person more clearly
we will be changed. But even edification-certainly a worthy purpose-is
only a minor part of what worship is all about.
Other leaders want "good" worship because they think it promotes
church growth. In southern California many of the growing churches are
actively involved in worship as an experience that attracts nonmembers.
Others see a connection between worship and evangelism; they believe
that corporate worship can be used to prepare the unsaved for the gospel
"like nothing else." These and many other benefits derive from worship,
including a cleansed conscience, inner peace, and tranquillity.
Yet all these reasons for worship fall short of the real purpose. We
should worship God because He is deserving and worthy of our praise.
We should worship because we want God.
And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are
being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which
comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18).
Graham Kendrick calls this "transformation through adoration."
Change comes inevitably. When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, he
glowed because he had met with God. In that meeting, God's character
and presence visibly transformed him.
Change for us, as for Moses, will come by being in God's presence
and by directing our worship to Him. Ministering, serving, and
performing "to the Lord" is a core idea of Christian worship. The
preposition to here is everything. There is an enormous difference
between singing to the Lord and merely singing about him. There is an
enormous difference between praying to each other about God and
actually entering into His presence. In more than one hundred references
in the Psalms, worshipers sing to the Lord. More than twenty passages
speak of worshipers "ministering" to the Lord. Offerings ascend to make
a soothing aroma "to the Lord" (Lev. 1:9).
Similarly, when you consult a concordance, you discover an
overwhelming consistency in the Bible's language from Genesis to
Revelation. The people come before God-they come before His presence
to praise Him. Over one hundred passages describe the worshiper as
"approaching" or appearing before the Lord. As Bruce Leafblad has
observed, we have forgotten in our churches that we perform our
worship-our singing, our praying, and our offering-before the Lord.
God's real and visible presence in the tabernacle lay at the heart of
the covenant. The tabernacle stood in the center of the camp. It was
erected so that God's presence could become a permanent, living reality.
God told Moses:
"There I will meet you and speak to you; there also I will meet with
the Israelites I will dwell among the Israelites and be their God"
(Exod. 29:42-45).
The tabernacle, or "tent of meeting," literally means "tent of appointment"
or "rendezvous tent."
Yet, not only was God to be present in corporate worship, but the
whole of life was to be lived out in the presence of God. The thundering
refrain often repeated in the Old Testament-"I am the Lord your God"
(Lev. 18:2)-encompassed all of life. The Gospel of John, moreover,
alludes to the life of Christ in terms of the tabernacle image: "The Word
became flesh and made his dwelling ['tabernacled'] among us" (1:14).
PRINCIPLE 2: OFFER WORSHIP THAT COSTS
YOU SOMETHING
If I could, I would teach every congregation to offer up costly
worship. Cheap worship is a contradiction in terms. In the tabernacle,
worshipers always brought an offering. The most frequent offering, the
burnt offering, was also the most costly. Only unblemished animals were
to be presented, and they had to be burned whole; no meat remained for
the priest or offerer. Moreover, Pentateuchal ceremonies invariably
elevated the importance of the shedding of blood. Only the priests were
allowed to officiate during that part of the ceremony. Blood was daubed
on the altars, the veil, the mercy seat, and even the priests and their
vestments. During the ceremony in the desert when the Israelites publicly
assented to the Sinai covenant, Moses took the blood, threw it over the
people, and said, "This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has
made with you" (Exod. 24:8).
With even greater poignancy, Jesus at the Last Supper told His
disciples to drink (symbolically) His blood: "Drink from it, all of you.
This is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for the
forgiveness of sins" (Matt. 26:27-28). True worship costs everyone
concerned, both God and man. When Jesus and the disciples sat and
watched the crowds put their money into the temple treasury, it was the
widow putting in two small copper coins who attracted His attention:
"They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in
everything-all she had to live on" (Mark 12:44). Similarly, David, with
great perception in acquiring the site for the temple, refused to accept the
land as an outright gift. "I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God," he
insisted, things "that cost me nothing" (2 Sam. 24:24).
Throughout the Scriptures true worship costs. The primary word
for worship in the Old Testament is abodah, which is translated
"service." The Greek equivalent in the New Testament, latreia, has the
same meaning. Both words are used in the sense of rendering a "service"
of costly worship. Abodah is used in reference to Old Testament priests
who dedicated their lives to serve the Lord in the temple.
Latreia is also closely related to our word liturgy. Accordingly, when
students of worship talk about the liturgy of worship, they are speaking
about the "work" or "service" of worship directed to God by both leaders
and congregation. This "work" may involve any of the following in
liturgically oriented churches: liturgical movement, action, drama,
symbolism, dance, texts, lectionaries, creeds, furniture, and vestments.
When the word liturgical is used in this book, it will often be in reference
to one of the above.
Liturgical churches often have a fixed order to their worship with
fixed prayers, multiple Scripture readings, and extensive symbolism
(altar, cross, candles, incense). They also tend to offer Communion each
Sunday and adhere to the liturgical year. Nonliturgical churches may
have a less formal pattern to their worship, characterized by more
spontaneity or greater simplicity.
Whatever your church is like, the important question is this: what
can you do to make your worship more costly? The Book of Romans
urges worshipers to offer their bodies in an entire lifestyle of worship.
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your
bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-this is your
spiritual act of worship (Rom. 12:1).
The Book of Hebrews also suggests that praise and good works
should be natural expressions of worship.
(Continues.)
