Why Do We Worship?

Well you may notice that I am already ignoring the order that I had previously mapped out. As I was getting ready to write on whom we should worship, I realized that my answer was lacking important background information. I realized that I needed to talk about why we worship before we discuss whom we should worship.

As we dive into the question at hand, I want to first offer a quote from "The Dissertation Concerning the End for Which God Created the World" by Jonathan Edwards:

"All that is ever spoken of in the Scripture as an ultimate end of God's works is included in that one phrase, the glory of God. . . . The refulgence shines upon and into the creature, and is reflected back to the luminary. The beams of glory come from God, and are something of God and are refunded back again to their original. So that the whole is of God, and in God, and to God, and God is the beginning, middle and end in this affair." (emphasis added)

In other words, Edwards is saying that throughout the Scriptures, when it speaks of the ultimate reason God did anything, it either clearly states that it was done for His glory, or that is the exegetical meaning of what is said. We can see this played out in Isaiah 48:8-11:

"You have never heard, you have never known,
from of old your ear has not been opened.
For I knew that you would surely deal treacherously,
and that from before birth you were called a rebel.
For my name's sake I defer my anger,
for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you,
that I may not cut you off.
Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver;
I have tried you in the furnace of affliction.
For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it,
for how should my name be profaned?
My glory I will not give to another." (ESV)

He then paints a beautiful picture for us of how His glory is magnified through His creation. If you consider that one of God's works was creation, we must conclude that the ultimate, stand alone reason that God created the universe was for His own glory. This is affirmed for us in verses such as Psalm 19:1:

"The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork." (ESV)

We, as God's creation, are made to glorify Him. We were created to worship Him. We were created to be worshipers. A moment's thought will show you that we find ourselves most awed, inspired and joyful when we see something magnificent. We paint pictures of breath-taking landscapes. We enjoy the crystal blue waters of Hawaii, and the awe- inspiring red, rocky terrain of the Grand Canyon. We enjoy colossal skyscrapers and cityscapes, as well as snow covered mountains and woody forests. Sport fans are wowed by last second touchdown throws, booming home runs, buzzer beating jump shots to win the game, and perfect 10 performances in gymnastics and figure skating. We were not created to be wowed by our image in a mirror. We were created to be wowed by something far more magnificent.

Unfortunately this is where we start to dive into Paul's teaching in Romans 1. As a fallen race, we are all too quick to settle for the things of lesser glory. We are wowed by our own image in a mirror (or we have the opposite feeling of it - which, if you consider it, still reveals a mind that is consumed with the image in the mirror... good or bad). Maybe we do move past our mirrors, but we end with spectacular scenery or phenomenal sporting highlights, or some other magnificent piece of artwork. We never see, as Edwards eloquently puts it, that "the beams of glory come from God," or that they "are refunded back again to their original." Consider Romans 1:21-25:

"For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen." (ESV)

According to that passage, the fall of the human race didn't end worship at all. What it did is redirect it's focus. Fallen man continues his God-created purpose to worship: but he now worships the creature rather than the creator. We do not look at the glory of God's creation and refund glory back to Him. We let it stop at the creation in our hearts and in our actions.

Our challenge, then, has to be to commit to give God the glory He is due, and not His creation. We need to view the universe as a telescope, allowing us to get a better view of God's indescribable glory. We should enjoy God's creation, and use that enjoyment to worship a God so powerful and magnificent that He could make our magnificent universe out of absolutely nothing. We should use our amazement as we look at the vast expanse of the starry night sky to worship the God that flung those very stars off of His fingertips.

The answer to the question is that we worship because that is what we were created to do. Every individual worships. There hasn't been, there isn't, and there never will be an individual who doesn't engage in worship. The question, then, is not IF we worship, but WHOM we worship: the creation, or the Creator?

What is Worship?

Our English word "worship" is derived from the Anglo-Saxon word "weorthscipe." In the Anglo-Saxon language "weorth" means worthy or honorable and "scipe" corresponds with our "-ship" ending. So it is easily observable how the word developed into "worthship." As time and the English language progressed even further, the word became, simply, "worship." But the meaning of the English word, as you can understand from its root word, is simply to attribute worth to an object.

There are two main Greek words in the Bible that are commonly translated as "worship." The first is "proskuneo" - this is a combination of the Greek words for "toward" and "kiss." Literally, "proskuneo" means to kiss toward. This is an idiomatic word that carries the idea of prostrating oneself before someone. Later on, the word came to mean to show honor, reverence or adoration to someone.

The second Greek word is "latreuo" - this word is derived from the Greek word "latron" which means wages. "Latreuo" originally meant to work for wages. Somewhere down the line the meaning of this word actually took a turn, and came to mean to serve without wages in public or religion. This being the case, the word slowly came to mean to render honor to the state or gods.

It should be clear why those two words are typically translated "worship." However one of the most glaring issues we can see by a simple study of our English word and the words used in the Bible that are translated as "worship" is the fact that all too many Christians use the word "worship" to specifically refer to singing. As is obvious from the word study above, worship is not just singing.

Worship is also not always God glorifying either. This is first seen right away since neither the English word nor the Greek words used actually refer to anyone specifically. People have historically worshiped many things. People commonly are worshiped when they are famous (actors, musicians, athletes, writers and other artists). Those people are surrounded by others who attribute high amounts of worth, honor, reverence and adoration to them. This is a form of worship that is not God glorifying, and it is one that is sadly all too easy at times to fall into. Our challenge, here, is to constantly evaluate just how much worth we are placing on anything. Ultimate worth should be placed on God, as He is the ultimate Being. He is our Creator, our Sustainer, our Savior, and our Protector. He is an infinite Being, and is therefore deserving of infinite worth. The moment we give more worth to a lesser being, we dishonor the greater.

Another window into worship that is decidedly not God glorifying comes to us when we read Matthew 15:8-9:

"This people honors me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines the commandments of men." (ESV)

When we read this verse, it is striking that Jesus is not saying that "This people" (the Pharisees in this specific case) do not worship Him. They do worship Him. However, they worship Him in vain, because they teach as doctrine the commandments of men. They honor Him with their lips only, because their hearts are far from Him. The act of worship is still going on - but to God this act is meaningless. And if the act is meaningless to God, it should be meaningless to us.

It becomes apparent, then, that worship can be just actions... sets of actions or words that are performed in order to obey Biblical commands and traditions. The act of bowing, of lifting up hands, of kneeling, of singing, of reading scripture and many more can all be considered worship. It also becomes apparent that the act of worship is not all that is important to God. He wants us to have hearts and minds of worship as well. The physical act of worship is rendered vain when our hearts and minds are not engaged in worship: when our hearts and minds are not attributing ultimate worth to God, or showing honor, reverence and adoration to Him.

Worship, then, if it is to be God honoring, needs to be all encompassing. At this point it may feel more natural to flow into the discussion of how to worship: of how to worship in this all encompassing manner. However, I would like to take a pause in the next 3 parts of this discussion to address whom we should worship, why we should worship, and who exactly should be worshiping. Once we get those preliminary discussions out of the way, we will be free to dive into the discussion of how to worship God in an all encompassing, God honoring way.

Welcome

Greetings all!

So this is my first blog ever - I am finally joining the 21st Century I suppose.

I intend to begin by writing a lot on the subject of worship. I plan on doing 5 blogs on the subject to start off with, discussing what it is, whom we worship, why we worship, who should worship and how to worship. And actually, looking at the list, the last point will either be one really long blog or I will split that into two parts (which would be how to worship individually and how to worship corporately). So I suppose it may be 6 parts.

After that, we will see where it goes. Anyway... welcome to my blog!