Some people go through life like Calvin, the obnoxious little seven-year-old in the comic strip, Calvin and Hobbes. Now, Calvin has a sense of humor, but it’s all cynical and gruesome. There is no joy connected with the humor. It’s somewhat like the faces of those who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ, but live life as sour as a lemon dropped in pickle juice! Have you ever known people who, when they walk in a room, the lights go out?
Praise is the act of worship most required of humans toward God Almighty. Yet praise is often the missing quality of so-called worship services.
In the Bible the word “worship” appears in only a few forms. One word literally means “to serve”, and it is where the term worship service originated. Another word is “dox-a”, meaning “to give glory”. We sing “the doxology”…Praise God from whom all blessings flow….
A third [and the most prominent] word in the New Testament carries the meaning of “to kiss towards”, as in bending before a king to kiss his ring. This is the center of true praise and worship. We have a King; we bow to kiss towards His throne.
Worship is one of only two valid reasons for a church to exist (the other being evangelism). The Book of Psalms is the original worship and praise book for God’s people. Psalm 146 and 147 neatly answer the questions:
WORSHIP:
WHAT is it…WHY do we do it…HOW do we do it?
What is Worship?
I. Internal praise
Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD, O my soul! Psalm 146:1
The soul, the very internal and eternal essence of a person, is the beginning point of praise. I cannot praise God, except that I have been changed in my heart (inner being), by His grace. Scripture tells us that without a spiritual relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ there is no way to please God [1] . Order of business #1? – give your heart to Christ, and God will change that heart so you’ll give him praise! Worship is internal praise, and…
II. External praise
I will praise the LORD while I live; Psalm 146:2a
The Bible tells us that one of the eternal pleasures and duties we will have as a church is to worship the King forever. My prayer for a long time in my private devotions has been, “Lord, allow me the presence of mind to have my whole life magnify Jesus.” I wish I lived up to that better than I do, but that is my prayer.
Worship is internal and external and it is…
III. Vital praise
I will sing praises to my God while I have my being. Psalm 146:2b
Singing praise, in this context, has little to do with correctly hitting those little spots on the lines and spaces. To sing is to bring forth the innermost of who we are as people, created for, and in the image of a holy God. The songs of a people or a culture, tell the pulse of who those people really are.
Vital praise means we bring forth from our hearts that internal praise we have for God. Internal must, at some point, become external! And it should be LOUD!
In David’s day they sang these Psalms. The choir would sing the words of the praise, and the congregation would echo back HALLELUJAH! It’s like the cheerleaders at a football game want the crowds to shout back the letters to spell out the home team’s name; in worship the worship leader sang the praise and the people echoed-back that praise towards heaven.
We tend to be stodgy, bordering on downright comatose in our “worship” when we refuse to be enthusiastic. We become like the church that had a visitor. The services were always rigid and formal. The minister quietly and systematically read his sermon. He made the mistake of saying something about Jesus being our only Lord and Savior. The visitor said, “Amen.”
Everyone was stunned…the minister almost lost his place when he looked up to see what had happened. He continued reading, and the fellow said, “Amen” a second time. The usher got to him this time; “Sir, you must be quiet.” But later in the service the minister commented on a great truth about the gospel, and the man this time shouted, “AMEN! AMEN!!” This time the usher said, “Sir, if you don’t be quiet, you will have to leave the service.” The man said, “But, I got Jesus, man.” To which the usher replied rather aristocratically, “Yes, indeed…we see. But you didn’t get Him here!”
Psalm 146 is a hymn written by King David, an individual who had been helped by the Lord. We have something in common with the king – we are all pilgrims who stumble – we are all in need of help. And God is the Great Helper! It’s something that ought to create praise…internally, externally and vitally!
Question #1…What is Worship? The offering of vital, exuberant praise from the inside out! And then…
Why Worship?
Because we have a God
Do not trust in princes, In mortal man, in whom there is no salvation. His spirit departs, he returns to the earth; In that very day his thoughts perish. How blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, Whose hope is in the LORD his God, Who made heaven and earth, The sea and all that is in them; Who keeps faith forever; Who executes justice for the oppressed; Who gives food to the hungry. The LORD sets the prisoners free. The LORD opens the eyes of the blind; The LORD raises up those who are bowed down; The LORD loves the righteous; The LORD protects the strangers; He supports the fatherless and the widow, But He thwarts the way of the wicked. The LORD will reign forever, Your God, O Zion, to all generations. Praise the LORD! Psalm 146:3-10
One commentator made the point about God’s power:
The call to praise is reinforced by the abundant references to the covenant name of the Lord throughout the psalm (Yahweh, eleven times; plus El/Elohim four times). [2]
Aside from the obvious, that the Lord is worthy, and He is God [and we are not, and he only therefore is worthy of praise]…if He never gave us anything He is also a God who can be trusted. He is faithful, THE Creator. His providence feeds us, supplies all we need, loves, lifts, protects. But the obvious is still the primary reason – He is God; that’s why we worship!
Yet some folks treat regular worship like a menu item – I’ll be there if I feel like it, or if there’s nothing better happening. Let’s take a little test. What do these four things have in common?
• Pay your Income Tax
• Pay your Property Tax
• Renewing your driver’s license
• Obeying the speed limit
Answer: These are all things you do simply because they’re the law, and you obey the law because it is bigger than you. (Okay…the speed limit thing may be subject to interpretation about obeying).
But that’s just the issue when it comes to the worship of God. Like the speed limit, every time we violate it – even a little – we knowingly make the roads just a little less safe for others and ourselves. And by being rebellious we encourage others to do the same thing. This escalation makes our relationship with each other more estranged and barren.
As for worship, when we neglect corporate worship we make our souls a little more rebellious and less inclined towards God. This is why regular worship with the Body of Christ is not an option in the United Methodist Church; it’s a vow!
Our souls have an empty spot in them for the worship of Almighty God. As Augustine put it, You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.[3] We worship because there is no peace without giving our Creator His due!
We have looked at what constitutes worship, and why we worship; what’s left is to brush stroke the canvass with how we worship.
How Shall We Worship?
I. With Singing
Praise the LORD! For it is good to sing praises to our God; For it is pleasant and praise is becoming. The LORD builds up Jerusalem; He gathers the outcasts of Israel. He heals the brokenhearted And binds up their wounds. He counts the number of the stars; He gives names to all of them. Great is our Lord and abundant in strength; His understanding is infinite. The LORD supports the afflicted; He brings down the wicked to the ground. Sing to the LORD with thanksgiving; Psalm 147: 1-6
This has little to do with “performing” a musically-correct piece. It has everything to do with bringing-forth to God the very best praise from within YOU! Now, with that said, let me add that, for the musicians who are charged with the responsibility of leading with music, it is shameful to do less than your best. It is sinful to come unprepared. Those of you who are gifted with musical ability have a responsibility towards those of us who are musically-challenged to help us do our best. You can’t do that if you take a slip-shod or lackadaisical attitude. It is as bad as a preacher “winging” the sermon. That’s not bringing the best of praise from within – that’s offering a blemished sacrifice!
On the other hand, we musically-challenged people must try. As a pastor I have seen week after week, year after year folks stand with their arms folded, counting the tiles on the ceiling while the rest sing. Shame on you! If it is sinful for the music leaders to do a sloppy job, leading in worship and praise, it is criminal for the followers to refuse to even try! Put a smile on your face and sing!
No one came here to hear you hit the wrong notes. And no one should have come here to listen to another person hit the right notes. We are not here to judge each others’ singing; we are here to offer the sacrifice of praise to the only One qualified to judge.
Our singing is for the glory of God. There is no place for hero worship, other than Jesus. And there is also no place for half-hearted, feeble worship. Our singing ought to be strong.
Every revival in the modern era has been characterized by two great features – Biblical preaching and great Bible-based singing. In England, when the state church had become stiff, formal and decadent – so empty and hollow that it had lost its message – to this abysmal state God sent John and Charles Wesley. John Wesley was a fiery preacher who went to the common people and preached. But, alongside the great preacher was his brother Charles, author of great soul-stirring words, sung by common voices…miners, farmers. That’s us; or it should be! How shall we worship? With singing, and…
II. With Music on Instruments
Sing praises to our God on the lyre, Psalm 147:7b
I am as nearly musically-illiterate as one man can be…however I CAN make music. It may not be particularly pleasing to your ears, but in the context of worship, I wouldn’t be playing for you!
Children have less hang-ups than we adults; they just make music. Have you ever heard a child when he is happy – there’s always singing, humming, whistling. The lyrics are incredibly creative and hardly ever rhyme. You won’t find them in anyone’s hymnal or “praise and worship segment”; but they are songs gushing from a happy and pure heart.
In a Sunday worship service, a congregation was singing the chorus that goes: "I exalt thee, oh Lord...”. A mother of a 5-year-old realized that her daughter was fervently singing, "I’m exhausted, oh Lord ..."[4] Perhaps that is what Jesus meant when He said we must become like little children to enter the Kingdom. Don’t wait to be perfect; just make music!
Worship with singing, music on instruments, and…
III. With Reverence
The LORD favors those who fear Him, Those who wait for His lovingkindness. Psalm 147:11
Reverence has much less to do with being quiet than being ready. Reverence is found in a heart that is willing to do the will of God. There are times to be quiet in church, and children [in particular] must be taught about those times. But true worship with reverence demands that we shout the “AMEN” at the appropriate time as well. Children need to behave…adults need to be alive!
Worship with singing, instruments, reverence, and…
IV. With Witness
Praise the LORD, O Jerusalem! Praise your God, O Zion! For He has strengthened the bars of your gates; He has blessed your sons within you. He makes peace in your borders; He satisfies you with the finest of the wheat. He sends forth His command to the earth; His word runs very swiftly. He gives snow like wool; He scatters the frost like ashes. He casts forth His ice as fragments; Who can stand before His cold? He sends forth His word and melts them; He causes His wind to blow and the waters to flow. He declares His words to Jacob, His statutes and His ordinances to Israel. He has not dealt thus with any nation; And as for His ordinances, they have not known them. Praise the LORD Psalm 147:12-20
Sooner or later it comes down to being willing to share Christ. Earlier the point was made that the church only exists for two purposes, worship and witness. In reality they are components of only one purpose – that of being the people of God. To witness is to worship; to worship is to witness.
Invariably they also point to each other. All true worship will witness of the presence of God, while the witness is incomplete except it points to the worship of God.
Conclusion
What is worship, why and how do we do it – these are the questions to which our text has given us some very clear answers. One other needful thing to take home…
A Reminder about What Worship DOES
Victor Hugo, in one of his short stories, describes a man walking along a path. Suddenly he discovers that the path is slipping out from under him. He sees that he is caught in something sticky that is pulling him down. He tries to get out; he pulls at his feet, but the harder he tries, the deeper he sinks. He’s caught in quicksand.
The story describes the horrible feelings of this man in despair. As the man sinks to his waist, he tries to reach the tree limbs, but they’re too far. He reaches upward to the sky and cries out. The sand comes up…up…up.
The sand reaches his neck, and he begins to choke with the pressure. Then his drying, cursing, shrieking lips are suddenly covered by the sand…and he strangles, and is gone.
You know what quicksand is; we worship because God has reached His loving hand downward in Jesus Christ. Here we are, in the quicksand of mortal life, where sinking economics drag us down and the weight of our sin pulls us apart.
If – a big word, but still trustworthy – if we simply take that hand of God extended down in grace, take Him at his word and his gift of Calvary’s cross, lean our full weight of all of our life and future on God’s offer of salvation in Jesus Christ, we are saved. It is the very first step in worship you can ever make. And it leads to eternal life!
Now, THAT is something to worship about – enthusiastically!
Let the church say, Amen!
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ENDNOTES
1] Hebrews 11:6
2] James K. Mead, WorkingPreacher.org
3] St. Augustine’s Confessions (Lib 1,1-2,2.5,5: CSEL 33, 1-5)
4] Today’s Christian Woman, "Heart to Heart.
