Why Worship God?

Lesson 2 – Why Worship God?

Last lesson, we tried to define worship. This week we will try to get a handle on the reasons why we worship God. Since worship is such a basic part of being a Christian, many believers never methodically think it through.

Last week, I encouraged you to ponder why you worship God. What did you come up with?

Lots of people will state that they worship God out of gratitude for all that He has done or made, out of thanksgiving for their salvation, or simply because God deserves it.

One often overlooked reason for worshipping God is that He tells us to worship Him.

Sing to the LORD, all the earth; Proclaim good tidings of His salvation from day to day. Tell of His glory among the nations, His wonderful deeds among all the peoples. For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; He also is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are idols, But the LORD made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before Him, Strength and joy are in His place. Ascribe to the LORD, O families of the peoples, Ascribe to the LORD glory and strength. Ascribe to the LORD the glory due His name; Bring an offering, and come before Him; Worship the LORD in holy array. Tremble before Him, all the earth; Indeed, the world is firmly established, it will not be moved. Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; And let them say among the nations, "The LORD reigns."

(1Chronicles 16:23-31)

Some people have a real problem with this concept.

The famous, nineteenth-century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche said “I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time.”

Oxford professor, literary critic, and Christian apologist, C. S. Lewis, also had an initial reluctance to praise God. Especially difficult for him was that God, Himself, required that people praise Him. He wrote about this in his book, Reflections on the Psalms. Here are some quotes:

When I first began to draw near to belief in God and even for some time after it had been given to me, I found a stumbling block in the demand so clamorously made by all religious people that we should "praise" God; still more in the suggestion that God Himself demanded it. We all despise the man who demands continuous assurance of his own virtue, intelligence or delightfulness; we despise still more the crowd of people round every dictator, every millionaire, every celebrity, who gratify that demand.

Thus a picture, at once ludicrous and horrible, both of God and of His worshippers, threatened to appear in my mind...Worse still was the statement put into God's own mouth, "whoso offereth me thanks and praise, he honoreth me" (Psalm 50:23). It was hideously like saying "What I most want is to be told that I am good and great."...More than once the Psalmists seemed to be saying, "You like praise. Do this for me, and you shall have some."

Gratitude to God, reverence to Him, obedience to Him, I

thought I could understand; not this perpetual eulogy...

But of course this is not all. God does not only "demand"

praise as the supremely beautiful and all-satisfying Object.

He does apparently command it as lawgiver. The Jews were told

to sacrifice. We are under an obligation to go to church. But

this was a difficulty only because I did not then understand

...that it is in the process of being worshipped that God

communicates His presence to men.

Both Nietzsche and, initially, Lewis had difficulty in offering praise and worship to God. This stemmed from a faulty view of the person of God and a misunderstanding of His reasons for encouraging us to worship Him. Lewis continues:

I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise...The world rings with praise--lovers praising their mistresses, readers their favourite poet, walkers praising the countryside...I had not noticed how the humblest, and at the same time most balanced and capacious, minds, praised most, while the cranks, misfits and malcontents praised least...I had not noticed either that just as men spontaneously praise whatever they value, so they spontaneously urge us to join them in praising it: "Isn't she lovely? Wasn't it glorious?"...The Psalmists in telling everyone to praise God are doing what all men do when they speak of what they care about...I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation.

Examples of an invitation to worship:

A Psalm of David when he feigned madness before Abimelech, who drove him away and he departed. I will bless the LORD at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul will make its boast in the LORD; The humble will hear it and rejoice. O magnify the LORD with me, And let us exalt His name together. I sought the LORD, and He answered me, And delivered me from all my fears. (Psalm 34:1-4)

O taste and see that the LORD is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him! (Psalm 34:8)

Give to Jehovah the glory of His name; bring an offering and come before Him; worship Jehovah in the adornment of holiness. (1Chronicles 16:29)

Oh worship Jehovah in the beauty of holiness; tremble before Him, all the earth. (Psalm 96:9)

To summarize, if anyone beside God encouraged you to praise them, you would have grounds to suspect some pride or even conceit. But the Lord is worthy of all praise and worship. He even tells us to praise Him because it is good for us. His motive is perfectly pure.

We become like the object of our worship.

You’ve probably heard that after years of being in the intimate relationship of marriage, a husband and wife become more like each other. They slowly influence each other until they have similar speech patterns, accents, and personal tastes, even thought patterns. Sometimes they even begin to look alike. After decades of marriage my parents were known to swap eyeglasses back and forth.

If the personal intimacy of marriage can influence us in such strong but subtle ways, how does the intimacy of worship affect us?

We become like the object of our worship.

Their idols are silver and gold, The work of man's hands. They have mouths, but they cannot speak; They have eyes, but they cannot see; They have ears, but they cannot hear; They have noses, but they cannot smell; They have hands, but they cannot feel; They have feet, but they cannot walk; They cannot make a sound with their throat. Those who make them will become like them, Everyone who trusts in them. (Psalm 115:4-8)

The idols of the nations are but silver and gold, The work of man's hands. They have mouths, but they do not speak; They have eyes, but they do not see; They have ears, but they do not hear, Nor is there any breath at all in their mouths. Those who make them will be like them, Yes, everyone who trusts in them. (Psalm 135:15-18)

An extreme example is what happened to Moses after 40 days in God’s presence.

It came about when Moses was coming down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the testimony were in Moses' hand as he was coming down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because of his speaking with Him. So when Aaron and all the sons of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him.

(Exodus 34:29-30)

2 Corinthians 3:13 tells us that the glory on Moses’ face faded away.

and are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end of what was fading away.

But a few verses later we are told that we can be transformed with an inner glory.

But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

(2 Corinthians 3:18)

What we worship and why we worship can have a profound impact upon our lives, our families, and our churches. When we cling to any idols in our lives and give them the attention and status that belongs to God alone, we allow ourselves to become like them. Such idols include wealth, possessions, power, sex, entertainment, careers, food, reputation, and even the computer that I am using to type this list. None of these things will satisfy us in the inner man, none of them can ever fulfill the claims they make.

When we worship the God of the Bible we come into His presence and He has an influence on us. Psalm 22:3 says “But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.” (KJV) ¹ When we worship God we invite Him to be with us, in a potentially deep, intimate manner. The Lord who sees the innermost parts of our hearts can, and often does, impact us from the inside out.

More on this next week.

Homework Assignment: For next week, ponder the difference between being in the same place with someone and being in someone’s presence.

¹ The NASB for this verse reads, “Yet You are holy, O You who are enthroned upon the praises of Israel.”

Defining Worship

This was originally a Sunday School lesson on worship. There are 3 other parts that I hope top post soon.

Defining Worship

Recently, I asked some members of my family if they could define the word “worship” for me. It was kind of awkward for them to do so. Not because my kids can’t define words well, but because worship is sometimes hard to define.

Ask people, even Christian people, to define “worship” or “praise” and you will find that most of them will have a hard time articulating a specific definition. The reason for this is that these words represent such large, deep, full concepts that it is difficult to sum them up briefly. When we try to give a concise answer we run the risk of leaving out some important aspects.

There are other considerations that complicate the process of defining worship and praise.

• The Bible shows many outward forms of expressing worship and praise
• God has allowed creative and expressive worship methods to develop over the years
• Even within a single congregation people bring in their own experiences and personal preferences
• Worship, by nature, encourages a person to interact with God on a sometimes-intimate level that cannot be easily vocalized.

Still, it is important that we get a handle on these terms for the sake of clarity and unity in our worship. Worshipping God is the chief business of the citizens of Heaven. As a Heavenwardly –mobile person I want to get a good head start by worshipping God here on earth.

Toward that end I have included some dictionary definitions of praise and worship. Even here the usually concise Noah Webster has turned rather verbose. This indicates that even the writer of America's first dictionary found it necessary to use a lot of words to get the point across.

What is Worship?

Some definitions:

WORSHIP, n. [See Worth.] 1. Excellence of character; dignity; worth; worthiness. - Elfin born of noble state, and muckle worship in his native land. In this sense, the word is nearly or quite obsolete; but hence, 2. A title of honor, used in addresses to certain magistrates and other of respectable character. My father desires your worship’s company. 3. A term of ironical respect. 4. Chiefly and eminently, the act of paying divine honors to the Supreme Being; or the reverence and homage paid to him in religious exercises, consisting in adoration, confession, prayer, thanksgiving and the like. The worship of God is an eminent part of religion. Prayer is a chief part of religious worship. 5. The homage paid to idols or false gods by pagans; as the worship of Isis. 6. Honor; respect; civil deference. Then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee. Luke 14 7. Idolatry of lovers; obsequious or submissive respect.

WORSHIP, v.t. 1. To adore; to pay divine honors to; to reverence with supreme respect and veneration. Thou shalt worship no other God. Exo 34. 2. To respect; to honor; to treat with civil reverence. Nor worshipd with a waxen epitaph. 3. To honor with extravagant love and extreme submission; as a lover. With bended knees I daily worship her.

WORSHIP, v.i. 1. To perform acts of adoration. 2. To perform religious service. Our fathers worshiped in this mountain. John 4.

PRAISE, n. s as z. [L. pretium.] 1. Commendation bestowed on a person for his personal virtues or worthy actions, on meritorious actions themselves, or on any thing valuable; approbation expressed in words or song. Praise may be expressed by an individual, and in this circumstance differs from fame, renown, and celebrity, which are the expression of the approbation of numbers, or public commendation. When praise is applied to the expression of public approbation, it may be synonymous with renown, or nearly so. A man may deserve the praise of an individual, or of a nation. There are men who always confound the praise of goodness with the practice. 2. The expression of gratitude for personal favors conferred; a glorifying or extolling. He hath put a new song into my mouth, even praise to our God. Psa 40. 3. The object, ground or reason of praise. He is thy praise,and he is thy God. Deu 10.

PRAISE, v.t. [L. tollo, extollo; pretium.] 1. To commend; to applaud; to express approbation of personal worth or actions. We praise not Hector, though his name we know Is great in arms; 'tis hard to praise a foe. 2. To extol in words or song; to magnify; to glorify on account of perfections or excellent works. Praise him, all his angels, praise ye him, all his hosts. Psa 148. 3. To express gratitude for personal favors. Psa 138. 4. To do honor to; to display the excellence of. All thy works shall praise thee, O Lord. Psa 145.

Worship Whom?

Then God spoke all these words, saying, "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. "You shall have no other gods before Me. "You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. "You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.(Exodus 20:1-6)

No one but God alone is to be worshipped. He will not abide any other god, angel, person or thing to compete with Him for His rightful place in our lives. (Exodus 20:23, Rev 19:10, Daniel chapter 3) Isaiah 49:11 tells us that God refuses to give His glory to another.

Biblical Examples of Worship

O.T.

Earthly: David worshipped God all through the psalms and had such a heart to please God that he danced with reckless abandon when the Ark of the Covenant was returned to his city. Even when, Michal, his wife, despised him for this David would not turn from loving the Lord. (2 Samuel 6:12 – 23)

Heavenly: The Seraphim flew about the throne room in Heaven, calling to one another” Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory." The seraphim emphasized the holiness of God in their speech and in their actions. They did not look upon the Lord but covered their faces and bodies with their wings. (Isaiah 6:1 – 4)

N.T.

Earthly: The Magi came to find the Christ child, and fell on the ground to worship Him. They also brought gifts of their earthly wealth. They had traveled far and put a lot of effort, time, and expense into making this journey. (Matthew 2:1 - 12)

Heavenly: Twenty-four Elders and the Living Creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, and fall down before Him. They continually worship God in His holy presence. (Revelations 4:9 – 11)

From the above examples, we can see worship taking on two general forms: exalting God and humbling ourselves.

David led “all the house of Israel” in bringing in the Ark of the Covenant with dancing and singing before God. He gave no thought to himself or his appearance while dancing before the Lord. When Michal tried to ridicule him, David pointed out that he did this for the Lord and that he would “be more lightly esteemed than this and will be humble in my own eyes.”

The Seraphim continually shouted to each other with praises to God. These mighty beings that dwell in the very throne room of God dared not even to look upon the holiness of Jehovah.

The magi traveled far to bring precious gifts to Jesus, but humbled themselves to worship the infant messiah.

The 24 elders worship God with their words and humble themselves with their actions (falling down, casting their crowns before the throne.)

Discussion Questions

1. What is the best worship experience that you have been part of? What made it memorable?

2. There seems to be a relationship between exalting God in worship and humbling ourselves. Is it possible to worship God without humbling yourself? Why?

3. God will not share His glory with anyone. Do we allow things in our life to compete with God? What are they, and what can we do to change this?