UNDERSTANDING WORSHIP
Pastor Eric J. Hanson (January 22, 2023)
Read I Chronicles 16:23-36 & Psalm 150.
Worship: Hebrew is Shachah which means to prostrate in homage to God, to bow, to humbly beseech, do reverence, stoop down.
Greek is Sumphemi which means to say jointly, to assent to. A second Greek word for worship is Latreuo which means to minister to God.
To love God is one of the five great purposes of the Church as found in the great Commandment and the Great Commission. This love will express itself in many ways. such as changed lives, wherein people become given over to obeying the will of God. Worship involves much more than living right, however. Several of the Old Testament books have large sections given over to instructions for the temple instrumentalists and singers. There are several lengthy passages which tell what happened when the people worshiped God there in Jerusalem. There are also Bible accounts of the worship of God at other places, such as when the army of Judah worshipped God while marching to battle and God caused supernatural victory, (II Chronicles 20) or when David played songs of worship to God in King Saul’s palace, and tormenting demons left King Saul for a while (I Samuel 16:23).
One of the ways that love for God is seen throughout the whole Bible, is through the unmistakable visible worship of God. This holds true from the days of Moses to the multitudes in Heaven in the book of Revelation. When believers gather together for God’s purposes, a major way that the presence of God becomes strong and clear among us is as we reach out to him together in worship, saying the same thing together and calling out to God together. As we minister to God, together as a church family, God moves among us in tangible ways.
Why do we meet together as a church family? There are many reasons actually. Perhaps the clearest and strongest is that we are commanded to do so in the Bible. Hebrews 10:25 gives a direct order to believers that we must not forsake meeting together. We also have the clear example in Acts and the Epistles that the believers met together often, in large gatherings on the Lord’s Day, and in smaller gatherings on other days. Obedience is important, but the early Church didn’t meet together only to be able to say that they had obeyed God’s will in this matter. There were and are purposes when the local Church gathers together. One of the big ones is the corporate (group) worship of God, and experiencing God’s presence together.
Worship leaders from around the whole World are giving accounts of people being spontaneously healed of diseases and injuries, set free from bondage to certain sins, or otherwise greatly blessed without anyone even praying for them, while the worship of God is happening.
Psalm 22:3 tells us that God inhabits the praises of His people. This explains these amazing accounts of seemingly spontaneous miracles. When God is strongly present in any gathering of people, the atmosphere of that event become more like Heaven and less like the fallen Earth we are used to.
Did you know that in the year 367, the instruments and the singing were removed from the churches. Soon the Bible was taken from the people too. This happened after the marriage of Church and State in the late stages of the Roman Empire. Within the empire in those days, worship was suppressed and sin was encouraged, by the government. Soon the entire World was plunged into the dark ages. The Roman Empire fell once and for all in the year 500, and a powerless Roman Catholic Church, robbed of her heritage of God’s word and joyous worship, had no answers for the desperate people of the day.
I’d like to share some thoughts by one of the great worship leaders of our nation. LaMar Boschman is the president of Worship Institute. He has taught in depth on Worship all over the World from Washington DC to Ivory Coast, Africa, and even into Muslim lands. This renowned Worship Leader also has 33 songs published in Song Select’s data base. He shared the following principles at a worship seminar which I attended in Bedford New Hampshire. These are eternal principles which go beyond matters of style, personal preference, or even national culture and native language. Please consider them with me now.
1. If we love God, we will be worshipers. We are commanded to love the one who held back nothing for us. Mark 12:30 tells us to Love God with all of our Heart, soul, mind, and strength. This is both an inward and as outward kind of love. When Moses’ sister Miriam led the women of Israel in a great song and dance after they came out of Egypt, they all participated. The whole community worshipped God visibly and audibly. Personality type didn’t stop any of them.
How could this be? It was because they were thinking about their awesome God and not about themselves. This is how it needs to be for us too, if we are to break through the natural tendency to not enter into wholehearted worship. If we center our thoughts on the Lord during our corporate and private worship times, then entering into singing with gusto, raising of our hands, bowing before the Lord, etc, will flow from a source beyond self. The Holy Spirit can then be in charge of us in worship when we are centered on the Lord, because the natural self is not in the way.
2. The Heavenly Father is looking for worshipers who are well grounded in the
word of God. Such people can worship God not only in Spirit, but in Truth too.
3. The Father is also looking for people to worship Him who are filled with the Holy
Holy Spirit. Such people can worship God not only in Truth, but in Spirit too. John 4:23-24 brings this out clearly.
4. Starting with Psalm 33:3, there are nine places in the Bible which tell us to
worship God with a new song. Whenever there is a genuine move of God happening, new songs, both written ones, and spontaneous ones come forth. People who are musically gifted, and who are experiencing God, have even written new songs during personal repentance (Psalm 51) and during personal or corporate prayer.
5. The Bible teaches us that our bodies are also the Lord’s property, just as our spirit
and soul are. (I Corinthians 6:13) We are each a temple of the Holy Spirit if we are genuine believers in Jesus Christ. (I Corinthians 3:16) As living Temples, our bodies have a real role to play in our worship of God. From simple things such as the lifting of our hands while singing the Lord’s praise, to being part of public worship events, bowing before the Lord, clapping, or even dancing before the Lord, like King David did, using our bodies in worship honors God, and is a real part of what it means to be a Temple of the Lord.
6. Finally, let’s always remember that the center of Heaven itself is filled with the
worship of God. When we get to the point that we forget our self-consciousness while we are singing and worshiping God, a bit of Heaven moves right into the room where we are, because the Lord inhabits the praises of His People.
There is so much more to teach on this matter of Worship. I wish that we could all experience a seminar by one of the master teachers of this important matter.
Let’s commit to being a people of worship. The reasons are powerful.
1. God is pleased when we worship Him together.
2. His very presence, a little bit of Heaven, is attracted to real praise & worship.
3. When God shows up tangibly, good things happen which are totally beyond Human capability.
4. True worship draws people to the Lord. It often leads to genuine conversions as people simply understand that they need to give their lives to Jesus Christ.
