Worship: Looking up to God, Pt. 1

In the last post, I discussed the role that spiritual disciplines play in opening our souls to God. By practicing the spiritual disciplines, we draw closer to God and depend on him every moment of our lives so that he can use his power to transform us into the likeness of Jesus.

The foundational and primary spiritual discipline is worship. Throughout the Bible, we find that more than anything else, God desires our worship. God created us to love him, and worship is the means by which we express our love for God. Ephesians 1:12 says that we are created to "live for the praise of his glory." Therefore, the top priority of the church is not pastoral care or counseling, helping the needy, changing unjust social structures, or evangelizing the lost. Worship is job one of the church (Miller, 1994, p. 34). These other important activities flow out of the church's worship to God. Apart from worship, they lack power and meaning.

Most believers recognize that worship is the most crucial spiritual discipline. The church growth expert Herb Miller once carried out a survey in hundreds of churches to determine the activities that made people feel close to God. He asked people to mark on the survey all the activities that helped them experience intimacy with God. It is no surprise that worship was checked more frequently than any other item (Miller, 1994, p. 33).

In spite of the priority of worship, many Americans neglect worship. Since the 1950s, the Gallup Poll has reported that about 45% of Protestants and 50% of Roman Catholics attended church in any given week. Their 2010 poll showed that 43.1% of all Americans reported weekly or almost weekly church attendance.

The statistics may actually be more dismal than that. Dave Olsen's American Research Project, using actual head counts rather than self-reporting, found that only 17% of the American population attended a Christian church on any given weekend in 2007, down from 20.4% in 1990. His research showed that 51 million Americans worshipped on a given weekend in 1990, and the same number held true for 2006. But during that time, the American population increased by 51 million people! Although worship helps connect people with God, many Americans apparently do not see the need for it. 

To encourage us to practice regularly this important spiritual discipline, I am going to explain the meaning of worship and then offer some ideas about how we can practice it in both private and public settings.

I. The Meaning of Worship

The primary Hebrew word used for "worship" in the Old Testament chawah (always found in the form hishtahawah), which originally meant to prostrate oneself to the ground (Neh 8:6). In the Ancient Near East, bowing down or lying down was a customary way of showing respect and humility to a superior (Gen 18:2; 23:7, 12). For example, on the Black Obelisk, King Jehu is depicted as bowing down on his knees with his forehead to ground before Shalmaneser III. This word is used 170 times in the Old Testament, referring mostly to worship of God (Ps 29:2; 95:6), gods, or idols (Yamauchi, 1980, pp. 267-9).

The primary Greek word used for "worship" in the New Testament is proskuneō, which means "to bend the knee." It is used to translate hishtahawah 148 times in the Septuagint. Both of these terms suggest that attitudes of submission, humility, and dependence are integral to the act of worship. In worship, we recognize that God is greater than ourselves and deserving of our respect. Our English word "worship" derives from the Anglo-Saxon term weorthscipe, which means "to attribute worth" (Watson, 1978, p. 179). When we worship, we acknowledge that God is worthy of our praise and love.

A more comprehensive definition is provided by Ronald Allen and Gordon Borror: "Worship is an active response to God whereby we declare his worth. Worship is not passive but is participative. Worship is not simply a mood; it is a response. Worship is not just a feeling; it is a declaration" (1982, p. 16). William Temple offered an eloquent description of worship:

Worship is the submission of all our nature to God. It is the quickening of conscience by his holiness; the nourishment of mind with his truth; the purifying of imagination by his beauty; the opening of the heart to his love; the surrender of will to his purpose—and all this gathered up in adoration, the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable and therefore the chief remedy for that self-centeredness which is our original sin and the source of all actual sin (Watson, 1978, p. 181).

Perhaps the most fundamental fact about worship is that it is primarily for God's sake, not for our sake. We often think of worship as something that serves our needs. We often take a self-centered, consumer-oriented approach to worship. And so we go church-shopping and church-hopping to find the worship experience that best meets our needs. We evaluate worship services just as we do a restaurant or a movie. We say, "What did you think of the service today?" We evaluate the sermon on the basis of whether it was interesting or entertaining or moving. We evaluate how well the musicians played and the singers sang. We complain if the music was too loud or too soft, too fast or too slow.

For some reason, we think the worship service is about us. We evaluate the worship service as if it were a performance put on for our entertainment and pleasure. This point reminds me of the story about the family who was returning home after the worship service on Sunday. The father was complaining that the sermon was boring, the music was too loud, and the service was too long. His little son spoke up and helpfully offered, "Yes, but it wasn't too bad a show for a quarter, was it, Dad?"

We often forget that worship is not intended primarily for our benefit. In worship, we focus our attention on God to give him our devotion and affection. R. Kent Hughes suggests that too often, the question we ask ourselves after attending a worship service is, What did I get out of it? Instead the question should be, What did I give to God? Hughes reminds us that we gather together to worship God, not to get a lift for ourselves (Hughes, 1991, p. 106).

The philosopher Kierkegaard offered a profound reminder about worship: "In the theater, the play is staged before an audience who are called theatergoers; but at the devotional address, God is also present. In the most earnest sense, God is the critical theatergoer, who looks on to see how the lines are spoken and how they are listened to."

When we focus on our own needs and desires instead of on God, we are tempted to use our disappointment with the church as an excuse not to develop the discipline of worship. If we applied the same strict standards of entertainment to other aspects of life as we do to the church, we might never go to a restaurant or see a movie or attend a ballgame. For example, here is a list of eleven excuses for giving up attending sports events (source unknown):

1. Every time I went, they asked for money.
2. The people I sat next to didn't seem friendly.
3. The seats were too hard and not comfortable at all.
4. I went to many games but the coach never came to call on me.
5. The referees made bad decisions that I couldn't agree with.
6. The game went into overtime and I was late getting home.
7. The band played numbers I'd never heard and it wasn't my style of music.
8. It seems the games are always scheduled when I want to do other things.
9. I suspect that I was sitting next to some hypocrites. They came to see their friends and they talked during the whole game.
10. I was taken to too many games by my parents when I was growing up.
11. I hate to wait in the traffic jam in the parking lot after the game.

Now, I am not saying that we do not receive any personal benefits from participating in worship. Of course we do. When we focus on God and give him glory, we receive a sense of personal blessing because we are fulfilling God's intention for us. We were designed by God to worship and love him, and we receive a feeling of satisfaction when we do that. As we fulfill God's intention for us, we feel right with him and at peace with ourselves and others.

Herb Miller identified ten benefits of worship (1994, pp. 34-36):

1. Worship dispels loneliness.
2. Worship brings hope.
3. Worship counters self-centeredness.
4. Worship reminds us of important values that we tend to forget.
5. Worship strengthens courage.
6. Worship gives us the opportunity to express thanksgiving.
7. Worship brings us a sense of forgiveness.
8. Worship renews our faith.
9. Worship calls us out of what we are to what we are yet to become.
10. Worship is a form of corporate prayer that brings positive change to people.

Whenever we fulfill God's will for us, we will be blessed. But that should not be our primary motivation for worship. We worship God because he deserves it.

In the next post, I will discuss worship as a private practice.

Reflection Questions:

1.    What role does worship play in your spiritual growth?

2.    How often do you critique worship experiences in terms of how they benefit you?

3. What can you do to keep your focus on God in worship?

Sources:

Allen, R., & Borror, G. (1982). Worship: Rediscovering the missing jewel. Portland, OR: Multnomah Press.

Hughes, R. K. (1991). Disciplines of a godly man. Wheaton, IL: Crossway.

Miller, H. (1994). Connecting with God: 14 ways churches can help people grow spiritually. Nashville: Abingdon Press.

Watson, D. (1978). I believe in the church. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.

Yamauchi, E. (1980). חוה. In Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament
(Vol. 1, pp. 267-9). Chicago: Moody Press.