What is worship? Is there such a thing as acceptable worship and unacceptable worship and if so, who gets to decide which is which? Is it really that important? Is worship just about a religious experience that caters to the emotional needs of the worshipper? And if this is the case, is it also acceptable to create the worship experience around the perceived needs of the worshippers? More and more, I’m convinced that the typical worshipper in western culture doesn’t think nearly as deeply about such questions as the issue demands. 

Over the next few weeks, I want to simply make some observations from Scripture that might help all of us to understand the nature and role of worship in the personal life of the saint and the public life of the church. 

Do you know what the word worship means? It means to “ascribe worth.”  “Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name, worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness” (Ps 29:2). There is a place for crying out to God, acknowledging my need, weeping or mourning because of my sin, and pleading for the desires of my heart, but only as those facts lead me to proclaim the goodness and splendor of God. If these real needs and heart desires do not lead us to proclaim the glories of God to God, then our activity has ceased to be true worship.

The Psalmist says, “The heavens (cosmos) declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork” (Ps. 19:1). All of creation teaches us a valuable lesson about what all of God’s image bearers are created to do. Jesus made a profound statement in response to the Pharisees in Luke 19:40. Many of Jesus’ disciples had lined the highway leading into Jerusalem and were loudly proclaiming, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” The Pharisees demanded that Jesus silence these loud proclaimers of Jesus’ worth who were causing such a commotion. To this Jesus replied, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out” (Lk. 19:38). Jesus was harkening back to Habakkuk 2:11, which reads, “For the stone will cry out from the wall, and the beam from the woodwork respond.” Nature itself screams, “God is good and glorious,” but those of us made in His image have an innate, sinister longing to worship ourselves instead of the God who made us. 

True, biblical worship is literally about declaring, proclaiming, and ascribing to God his worth. I recently heard it said that true worship does not begin with man and his needs, but with God and his glory. God is at the center of true worship, not man! If man, man’s desires, man’s needs, man’s preferences move to the center of our worship, then our worship ceases to be true worship and becomes a counterfeit, idolatrous worship, with man occupying a space reserved for the one, true God. 

We must always be evaluating our private and public worship to ensure that our own desire for acclaim and worth doesn’t subtly slip in unannounced. Every part of work, homelife, and every relationship must be an expression of worship toward our God. But the same scrutiny by which we measure our lives must also be applied as well to our corporate worship. Every song, every prayer, every sermon, along with the very order and posture by which we come to worship, must be measured against the backdrop of God’s design for worship. Are we truly proclaiming his worth in the manner through which we worship? Who are we really worshipping? Who are we truly seeking to please? 

We must be more diligent than ever before to heed the Psalmist’s invitation, “O Magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together” (Psalm 34:3)! I implore you as saints in the Lord, prepare your hearts and minds for worship by allowing the Word to shine its light into the dark crevice’s of your heart. Come to the worship gathering on Sunday full of Jesus and empty of yourself. It is dangerous to attempt to stand in the place reserved for God, alone. We should long to be a people who reflect the radiant light of God’s glory in every space, especially in corporate worship, instead of being one who seeks to steal the limelight from the only One who deserves it.