THE EQUATION OF WORSHIP
Sometimes the teacher is more in need than the pupils. For quite awhile, I have been disturbed by the experience of worship. My wife and I have gone to many different church buildings (I deliberately use this expression to make the distinction between the church as an assembly of God believers and the place where God believers meet) in an attempt to find a local church home. No matter what the outcome, we always connect with people who are genuinely interested in God’s rule in their lives. Unfortunately, we are usually uncomfortable or disappointed with the corporate experience of worship. We come away feeling like we just don’t fit in.
This has bothered me so much that I started researching the concept of worship. What I found is that worship in both the Old Testament and the New Testament has one common and significant theme – to show reverence. In the Old Testament, the word translated “worship” literally means, “to bow down in respect”. In the New Testament, the Greek word means virtually the same thing – a physical act that shows humility and respect in front of another. Worship is quite simply acknowledging God’s rightful rule and majesty by demonstrating personal humility and submission.
My life is based on this fact. God is my Sovereign. I bow before Him out of gratitude, awe and respect. I often find myself looking up at the heavens at night and being overwhelmed by the thought that the God who put all those stars in the sky actually wants to know me. It is one of the most amazing thoughts of my life. God, in all of His power and majesty, and His terrible awe, actually desires to love me. If that doesn’t cause you to want to worship, I don’t suppose anything ever will. So, my discomfort with the “worship service” of the church building is about the equation of worship. Until we see both sides of this relationship, we don’t get the correct result.
It seems to me that worship has two related functions: First, it is about God. Worship is showing reverence to God. It is demonstrating, publicly or privately, that I know God is the proper focus of my homage, adoration and gratitude. I basically tell God that I know in the bottom of my heart that He is the King and Ruler and Lord and Master of my universe and of me – and He deserves my praise and love and respect. For me, this is a “down on my knees” expression. A physical demonstration of my humility before Him. A deep and quite contemplation of His authority over me. I let God’s rule soak into my soul by mentally and physically bowing before Him. This action is for God.
But, the action is self-reflexive. It is an action that is directed outwardly but reflects back on the person performing the act. It turns back on itself. When I acknowledge God as Creator and Lord, my action turns back on myself. In worshipping God for who He is, I also deepen my relationship to Him. This is the second aspect of worship. This action is for me. When I worship God, I first experience His power. I am humbled before Him. But immediately I also experience His grace – His favor toward me. I acknowledge my humility before God by bowing before my Master, but I extol my gratitude before God by any number of actions – praise, singing, shouting, dancing, etc. Worship for God results in praise before God. Worship transitions me from humility to gratitude, from obeisance to exultation.
Now I see why I am so uncomfortable in most “worship services”. Only half of the equation of worship is performed. Either I am directed only to the contemplative, humbling action or I am pushed into the gratitude, praising exclamations. Neither option fulfills the basic function of worship. My natural rhythm from humility to gratitude is truncated. I feel as though I missed something important. I did.
What should I do? This is a plea to those leaders of assemblies of God believers. Give me time for both. Let me enter into His presence with the ritual of humility. It is a ritual, an important one and a necessary one. If I don’t have time for humility, what am I singing praises about? “Praise and worship” services are backwards. Worship comes before praise. It has to. I can only praise after I have experienced the self-reflexive humility before my Lord. Worship acknowledges Power. Praise acknowledges Grace. This is why we teach our children that simple prayer at meals:
God is great and God is good
And we thank Him for our food.
Worship then praise.
The Lord’s Prayer follows the same pattern.
Hey Skip, this is Shane Butler, a worship facilitator at Covenant Center in Lakeland. I’ve been reading many of your articles on worship which I’ve greatly enjoyed, but up until this one they have mostly spoken of the reverence of worship and the humility before God. I’m glad you spoke of the abandoned praise which can only come through the humbling ourselves before God in adoration. I think the idea of having both elements in every worship service is awesome, and the worship before the praise, yes! My concern is can this too become a system and structure of how we worship, and can we miss the leading of the Holy Spirit if perhaps we wants to move in a different order or perhaps begin the meeting with a testimonial song, or a celebratory song. Also, what if I particular body of gathering believers has been in a season of repentance, reverence, and humility before God, without experiencing and participating in the high praise of halal… couldn’t God choose to highlight and focus on praise for a season or must the brokenness, humility, and reverence always be revisited to have a scripturally sound worship meeting. Lastly are there any more references you would recommend for worship leaders who want to worship in Spirit and truth, and help others experience worship the way God truly intended it. Thanks for your great work! Many blessings!
If you think of the Psalms as worship songs, you will see that they cover a very wide range of emotions and actions. This, it seems to me, is the guidebook for our experience. Worship is being before the Lord in the condition we find ourselves at that moment. So there are times when we will experience deep humility, times when we can only shout praise, times when we are in the throws of repentance, times when we are overwhelmed with awe. All are opportunities for worship. Of course, human beings tend toward a desire for predictability and control, so any of these can be turned into some formal system, and formal systems are not bad since they provide us with structure when we are not “feeling” the Spirit, but we must always allow the condition of our present circumstances to help form the worship of that moment.
I rarely attend buildings any more, and when i did i seemed to always miss the worship service. Sometimes the speaker would speak of how late comers had missed out on the blessing that came during that time, how everyone who had participated really ‘felt the presence of GOD”. A couple of times i even heard the speaker declare that people who were (chronically) late were actually walking in a spirit of rebellion.
I wondered if i were one of those, but in my heart of hearts, i just didn’t feel comfortable in the worship service. I just didn’t. My passive aggressive response of simply not attending was my best way of handling it.
What i have come in to believing, in this regard, is that there are times in life when ‘worship’ is silence. It is hanging on to YHVH, if nothing or no one else, it is maintaining integrity in spite of the lack thereof from those you expected it from. Integrity in response to what I believe YHVH gave to me, personally, even if not to others, and standing on that.
Worship is speaking truthfully and standing on what one believes YHVH unveiled for them, and acting on it, i.e., living out what one believes. Murmuring and complaining, crying out, anger and not so lovingly presented or thought out ‘conversation’ diminishes how others may think or speak of me, but YHVH merely waits for me to turn to him, allow him to right my life.
Sometimes worship is tears that refuse to condemn or let go of YHVH and my beliefs, beliefs that i, in my core, address as having been given by his holy spirit. Sometimes it is in quiet prayer “i know you are there, i know you care…” Sometimes it is a silent turning away from those that challenge and defile because of those beliefs.
Worship is a way of life. Not a moment in time or a building or a scheduled event.
My heart is to live in such a fashion that i am in constant worship.
A Raabi explained to me that it is our job, “on us”, to praise and worship God.
The prayer Aleinu (“It is our duty to praise”) is the closing prayer of the morning, afternoon and evening services in synagogues and temples. Translation below…….
It is our duty to praise the Master of all, to acclaim the
greatness of the One who forms all creation. For God did not make us
like the nations of other lands, and did not make us the same as other
families of the Earth. God did not place us in the same situations as others, and
our destiny is not the same as anyone else’s.
And we bend our knees, and bow down, and give thanks, before the Ruler,
the Ruler of Rulers, the Holy One, Blessed is God.
The One who spread out the heavens, and made the
foundations of the Earth, and whose precious dwelling is in the heavens
above, and whose powerful Presence is in the highest heights. Adonai is our
God, there is none else. Our God is truth, and nothing else compares.
As it is written in Your Torah: “And you shall know today, and take to heart, that Adonai is the only
God, in the heavens above and on Earth below. There is no other.”
Therefore we put our hope in You, Adonai our God, to soon see the glory of
Your strength, to remove all idols from the Earth, and to completely cut off
all false gods; to repair the world, Your holy empire. And for all living flesh
to call Your name, and for all the wicked of the Earth to turn to You. May all
the world’s inhabitants recognize and know that to You every knee must
bend and every tongue must swear loyalty. Before You, Adonai, our God,
may all bow down, and give honor to Your precious name, and may all take
upon themselves the yoke of Your rule. And may You reign over them soon
and forever and always. Because all rule is Yours alone, and You will rule
in honor forever and ever. As it is written in Your Torah:
“Adonai will reign forever and ever.” And it is said: “Adonai will be Ruler over the
whole Earth, and on that day, God will be One, and God’s name will be One.
Skip,
I have been a lurker here for quite a while and I thoroughly enjoy your teaching, but have yet to post because I feel that I have more to learn than to share on the vast majority of what you discuss in this venue. But this question is one that truly resonates within my heart and is one I have spent many countless hours in meditation and study. It is my understanding that Hebraic worship is more closely related to the life you live than to your physical expression in a service (church service, that is). In Romans 12:1 we read Sha’ul’s instruction to “present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy acceptable unto God, which is your spiritual worship”. As you wrote above, worship is more to do with humbling ourselves before Hashem, which also points to a life lived rather than a song sung.
The various Hebrew words for praise, however, paint a different picture. Praise is very specific and active and points more towards what we call “worship” in Christian circles today. Unfortunately, most churches (and leaders of churches) fail to study Hashem’s instructions on praise. In Ezekiel 43 we see the prophet being taken to the east gate, and the glory of the Lord returns to His temple through the gate facing the east. According to Numbers 2, the tribe of Judah was camped at the east gate. If we dig deeper into the word for Judah, we see it’s core is praise; specifically recognition and declaration of who He is. This is the core purpose of our praise. We are to search and seek who He is in our situations, and declare His truth in our lives. This is why we are promised that He will inhabit the praises of His people.
I’m not sure if this will answer your question or if I’m entirely accurate in my analysis. But I look forward to hearing your thoughts and wisdom.
Welcome to the arena, Keith.
Astute thoughts. Both lurking and posting have their place.
Feel free to do either, however I hope you post often. I have gleaned much from
those that express through their posts.
Yes Keith, ditto to what Michael C. posted. Lurking and posting is synomous to learning and teaching. Welcome. Looking forward.
I think you might have some misplaced feelings here. When you feel like there’s something not right in the Body of Believers, you do not simply withdraw because you don’t “quite fit in.” Maybe there’s a burden on your heart so that you can help the church move forward in worship.
Referring to the House of Worship as a mere “building” is also not considering the fact that whenever a “building” or temple was resurrected for our God; He gave specific instructions on how to construct the place, and even how to manage and govern it often times. It is not a mere building to God based on the attention that He places on it. It is the temple of the Lord. It should have as much respect for it as the Body of Believers.
When there’s a burden on you that the Body doesn’t have something right, help change it. Don’t withdraw and complain because your opinion is different; lest we forget Hebrews 10:25. And finally, make sure to examine yourself. Pride says I got it right and everyone else has it wrong. Humble yourself. Maybe YOU’RE the one missing something. Not accusing you or trying to attack but I don’t see why you can’t find a place that shows the love of God, teaches the word of God, and you help them to expound on worship. Maybe you’re called to lead a class on worship. Maybe you’re called to be a worship pastor. But I assure you, you’re not called to withdraw from “Building Worship” because you don’t think it goes far enough.
And to one of the other writers here; let’s be clear that worship IS NOT silence. There is absolutely no scripture to support that claim. Worship is an expression. Silence expresses nothing. Don’t let the enemy fool you into believing you can think worship. It starts with a thought but it ends with an expression.
-In love
Brandon
Is praise a part of worship or is worship a part of praise or is it one in the same thing. Sometimes I can get a little confused. But seriously, this past Sunday we commemorated the Lord’s Supper. We went from this celebration of remembrance to church announcements within a minute. I found that quite disturbing.
The few years I went to church as a young person, I was searching for God. I needed God. I was in trouble.
Now though, my focus is different and I find myself sometimes thinking that church seems pretty superficial. I enjoy the time we partake in remembering what Yeshua did for us. And I would have welcomed the whole hour to commemorate what He did. I think I read recently on this website a comment or in a TW that communion should only be celebrated at Passover. Maybe so. I honestly don’t know.
My time with God is meaningful to me now in so many ways. What Yeshua did for us, for the whole world means something quite different than it did not more than a year ago.
So….maybe this is what Skip is talking about in some way. Maybe we take God for granted!