Reformed Church Box Hill

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12 July 2020

What is worship?

There is no human experience more profound or important than worship.  It touches on the very core of who we are, it concerns the lifeblood of our existence.  It is the heartbeat of purpose in our lives and the essence of God’s will for the created order He has made.  It is the defining feature of our personhood.  There can be few questions of greater importance: What is worship?

Worship is the human heart seeking to revel in God, experiencing His presence, and exalting His name above all.  It is the new creation in the human heart plunging headlong into the infinite depths of God’s love, seeking to know His mind and bask in His radiance.  It is to cherish the manifold delights of God and His works.  It is to proclaim His majesty and excellence to our very dying breath.  It is a heart beating in time with God’s word, yearning evermore to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind.  In its purest form, worship is the soul of Christ’s redeemed living their lives with but one all-encompassing burden: to know Christ and make him known.  The only regret of such a heart is that there is not more of self to pour out in service to the Master.  Worship as we know it now is eschatological, for it yearns and looks forward to its consummation.  It longs for the day to come when our hearts will at last be fully purified of sin, and thus enabled to worship Him with undiluted and sublime devotion.

My words are starting to fail me here.  Worship is an attitude of the heart, an attitude that increasingly consumes and shapes our lives in their entirety.  It is the cast in which all that is human must be shaped – in all things we are thus called to be worshipful.  This is why Scripture says that we were created to “do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).  This is what it means to live in a state of worship – to live the life of worship: it is to be totally devoted to Him in every possible way and with all that is within us.  The glory of God is the crowning purpose of all creation (Ephesians 1:5-6; Philippians 2:11), and when we worship God, we express that purpose in the fullest and highest sense.

Now does this in some way resonate with you?  Do you know something of what it means to yearn for God in your soul? (Psalm 42:1-2).  Do you know something of what it means to have your breath taken away by His beauty and glory?  In this life, our worship will never be unencumbered by sin.  Sin ever darkens our hearts, and to grow in worship is, in a sense, to grow more aware of how far away we are from God.  And yet as believers there must be a sense in which we know something of what I have been saying.  We have tasted and seen that the Lord is good (Psalm 34:8), impoverished though we are in our souls (Matthew 5:3-4).  Brothers & sisters in Christ, does this describe you?  Does this connect with you?  Do you delight in the worship of God?

For some weeks now we have been deprived of the privilege of corporate worship due to the Covid pandemic.  But looking back on your experience of worshipping with God’s people, do you know what it is to worship?  If you do not, then you are only on the doorstep of your faith, a babe in Christ.  Perhaps you have never known Christ at all.  Seek the Lord!  If you know and delight in God, then make it your aim in life to know Him more!  To worship Him more fervently.  “Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him! Oh, fear the LORD, you his saints, for those who fear Him have no lack! The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.” Psalm 34:8-10

What is worship?  Here’s a doctrinal/catechetical summary for meditation: Worship is a heartfelt act of relational communion with God, in which, enabled by God, and in response to His goodness in Christ, we seek to serve and glorify Him by exalting and delighting in Him through praise; and also by rendering thanksgiving unto him for all of His mercy and care for us. Brothers and sisters, let us worship the Lord!

Psalm 150

Praise the LORD!

Praise God in His sanctuary; praise Him in His mighty heavens!

Praise Him for His mighty deeds; praise Him according to His excellent greatness! Praise Him with trumpet sound; praise Him with lute and harp!

Praise Him with tambourine and dance; praise Him with strings and pipe!

Praise Him with sounding cymbals; praise Him with loud clashing cymbals!

Let everything that has breath praise the LORD!

Praise the LORD!

Soli Deo Gloria!