What is worship?
Part 2.
In part 1 we looked at what worship isn’t and I gave a very succinct answer to the question “What is Worship?” by answering: Worship is a heart adoring God. Here I want to spend some time looking at that answer from a positive angle.

Worship is a verb. It is an action. It has a subject and an object. In worship I am the subject and God is the object. Okay, that sounds a bit grammatical, but if we miss this, we can easily assume that worship is about me, when it’s really about God. We do not worship for a worshipful experience, so much as for a worshipful expression. In other words, the point of worshiping is not to “get something out of it.” Instead the point of worship is to “put myself into it.” To borrow a phrase from Paul, in worship we offer ourselves as a living sacrifice.

Once we understand this perspective change, our first question becomes “How can I worship in a way that will please God?” There are several ways the Bible answers that question, but the answers all boil down to this: Offer yourself, your heart to Him in adoration, praise, thankfulness and obedience. Here are just a few Scripture references regarding that:

I 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 High. (Ps 9:1-2)

Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but my ears you have pierced; burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not require. Then I said, “Here I am, I have come— it is written about me in the scroll. I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.” (Ps 40:6-8)

I will praise God’s name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving. This will please the Lord more than an ox, more than a bull with its horns and hoofs. (Ps 69:30-31)

The Lord detests the sacrifice of the wicked, but the prayer of the upright pleases him. (Prov. 15:8)

There’s something in church history called the ‘regulative principle’ that has been used to restrict worship to a set of (apparently) Biblical guidelines. The concept, in theory, is sound. The practice, however, has left a lot to be desired, and I say this as one inside the movement that champions this principle! Most often it has been used to endorse a particular liturgical form, or style, and exclude whatever seems ‘out of the ordinary’ to the one holding the principle.

But as we have seen above, although God commanded certain specific actions (a liturgy or sorts, if you will), He has always been much more interested in the worshiper’s heart.
David dancing before the Ark of the Lord with all his might (2Samuel 6:14) might offend the sensibilities of the proponents of this principle, as it offended David’s wife Michal. In fact we don’t see dancing as a form of worship commanded anywhere in Scripture – thus excluding it according to some proponents of this principle.

But they, as Michal, have it all wrong. The basic regulative principle of worship in the Scriptures is that we worship from our hearts; the way in which we worship is secondary to this. And while God certainly prohibits certain things from worship (making an image of Him for the purpose of worshiping Him, for example), there seems to be tremendous freedom of expression in worship found in the Scriptures.

Jesus, in speaking about forms and places had this to say:
Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth. (Jn 4:23-24)

“Spirit and truth” point to the basic heart issues God is interested in as we worship Him. Are we worshiping in and with our spirit (a New Testament synonym for ‘heart’). Are we truly worshiping, or just going through the motions. Jesus statement also points to worshiping in the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit and worshiping the True God through Jesus. But the main contrast in this passage is between the where and how of worship and the spirit of worship. Since God is spirit, temporal actions, activities, liturgies, etc., aren’t of primary importance. What God is interested in instead, is what is our spirit doing? Are we worshiping or are we merely singing, listening, thinking, feeling, etc.?

Rather than getting caught up in what is “the proper way” to worship God (with attention to particular actions), the Bible points to our simple definition of worship as a heart adoring God. If we start here, we find that the adoring heart will find a way to express itself. That heart can find a way to express itself in a ‘dusty and musty’ liturgy, or in a fresh and lively worship setting, and anything in between. That heart can worship with Gregorian chant, or Contemporary Christian, or with a group of Zulu believers singing songs in a completely foreign language. That heart can worship completely alone, in a small group, or in a huge stadium. I could give more illustrations, but I hope you’re getting the idea: a worshipful heart finds a way to worship. In fact, we can say that a worshipful heart must find a way to worship. It can’t help it.

What about you, do you have a worshiper’s heart?

Are you growing in your ability to go deeper in worship?

Are you growing in your ability to stay exclusively focused on God as you worship?

Holy Spirit, we want to worship in spirit and truth: with our entire spirit, in your power, Spirit; to truly worship, and to truly worship You the God of Truth. Help us go deeper today and even deeper tomorrow. We ask in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.