The most important activity any Christian does in
this world is to worship the one, true and living Heavenly Father as He is
revealed in Christ Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit. The Trinitarian
God is the ChristianÕs only object of worship
ÒSing praises to God, sing praises; sing praises to our King, sing praisesÓ (Psa. 47:6).
ÒCome let us
sing for joy to the LORD; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before him with
thanksgiving and extol him with music and songÓ (Psa. 95:1-2).
ÒCome let us
bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker . . .Ó (Psa. 95:6).
ÒShout for joy
to the LORD, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with musicÓ (Psa. 98:4).
ÒThe LORD
lives! Praise be
to my Rock! Exalted be God my SaviorÓ (Psa. 18:46)!
Worship
is first an individual act. A Christian must know who
God is and why He is to be worshipped before he or she can offer up acceptable
individual worship. All defective
worship is essentially a misunderstanding of the person of God and what He
requires of His people to worship Him correctly.
ÒI will give thanks to the LORD because of his righteousness and will sing praise to the name of the LORD Most HighÓ (Psa. 7:17).
ÒAscribe to
the LORD the glory due his name; worship the LORD in the splendor of his
holinessÓ (Psa. 29:2).
ÒI will sing
to the LORD, for he has been good to meÓ (Psa. 13:6).
The
Christian must also be convinced that the one, true and living God has been
revealed to us in inspired Scripture.
He has told us in the Bible how He wants to be worshipped, and it is our
responsibility to rightly understand the Bible as to how we are to worship God
aright. Only the God of Scripture
is the true God and worthy of our worship.
ÒI call to the LORD, who is worthy of
praiseÓ (Psa. 18:3).
ÒTo
him belongs eternal praiseÓ (Psa. 111:10).
The God of Scripture is the
only one, true and living God. There is no other God, and He is to be exalted above all
false gods.
ÒFor you, O LORD, are the Most High over all the earth; you are exalted far above all godsÓ (Psa. 96:9).
ÒI will praise
you, O LORD, with all my heart; before the gods I will sing your praiseÓ (Psa.
138:1).
Praise
exalts the Lord God and it is pleasing to Him. He delights in the worship of His people.
ÒPraise the LORD, for the LORD is good; sing praise to his name, for that is pleasantÓ (Psa. 135:3).
ÒPraise the
LORD. How good it is to sing
praises to our God, how pleasant and fitting to praise himÓ (Psa. 147:1).
ÒSing joyfully
to the LORD, you righteous; it is fitting for the upright to praise himÓ (Psa.
33:1).
For
individual worship to be effective, it must come from the inner man that wants
to please God.
ÒI will praise you, O LORD, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonders. I will be glad and rejoice in you; I will sing praise to your name, O Most HighÓ (Psa. 9:1-2).
ÒMy heart is
steadfast, O God; I will sing and make music with my soulÓ (Psa. 108:1).
Individual
worship is not something we do once a week at church but we do it all the
time. A Christian is to have a
lifestyle of worship and praise.
ÒTherefore,
I urge you, brothers, in view of GodÕs mercy, to offer your bodies as living
sacrifices, holy and pleasing to god—this is your spiritual act of
worshipÓ (Rom. 12:1).
ÒI will sing to the LORD all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I liveÓ (Psa. 104:33).
ÒI will extol
the LORD at all times; his praise will always be on my lipsÓ (Psa. 34:1).
ÒIt is good to
praise the LORD and make music to your name, O Most High, to proclaim your love
in the morning and your faithfulness at night. . .Ó
(Psa. 92:1-2).
ÒLet the name
of the LORD be praised, both now and forevermoreÓ
(Psa. 113:2).
Worship is secondarily corporate. Once the Christian understands
individual worship, then he must seek to grasp the
meaning, motive and method for corporate worship. Collective worship is unique. There is a presence and power of God in corporate worship
that cannot be experienced in individual worship.
ÒGlorify the LORD with me; let us exalt
his name togetherÓ (Psa. 34:3).
AuthorÕs
Comments
One of the major purposes
for this study on worship is to determine what the Bible teaches about
individual and corporate worship.
It is the authorÕs desire to build a biblical theology of individual and
corporate worship. The design of this
material is to reach the average Christian and Christian lay-teacher with the
basic Scriptures about worship.
This work might be called a ÒBiblical Handbook on Worship.Ó The purpose of this book is not to
present every aspect of worship from a scholastic view, but to state what the
Bible teaches with mention of various views on key differences between
Christians on the subject of worship.
All will not agree with the authorÕs conclusions, but hopefully all will
grapple with the Scripture on this vital subject of worship. Ultimately, the worship wars of the
modern church will be solved as all come to the Bible, making it the only
rule of faith and practice for individual and corporate worship. Hopefully, this book will bring
a spirit of love, tolerance and acceptance between those who hold dearly to
their particular traditional or contemporary or blended worship services, which
they honestly believe is the right way to offer up acceptable worship to Almighty God.
This biblical theology may
seem odd to some, inappropriate to others and irrelevant to many. The author clearly understands how
people may react to making an attempt to reproduce New Testament worship. However, all Christians must take
seriously the statement that the Bible is the only rule of faith and
practice, even as it relates to individual and corporate worship. The heart desire of every Christian
should be do make the content, structure
and style of worship conform as nearly as possible to the biblical
pattern.