Worship

What is Worship?

Whereas edification focuses on benefiting believers, worship is directed at God. The essence of worship is the intentional ascription of worth, service, and reverence to the Lord. Worship can take place in public or private, in individual or corporate ways. In fact, for the integrated believer, in one way or another, everything in life can be understood as an act of worship. In this sense, worship is expressed in one's overall approach to life and in every area of life (Romans 12:1). Worship creates a home for the soul as it learns to rest in God. As Isaiah 26:3 (NASB) promises, The steadfast of mind Thou wilt keep in perfect peace, Because he trusts in Thee. This is good news in a culture where the average person changes his or her geographic home about every four years.

A more specific form of worship occurs in specific acts of praise and exultation, especially in the assembly with the people of God. Of special importance to this latter understanding is the conscious expression of worship in the very act of study in high school or college or in and through the vocation a believer selects.

Worship and the Nature of God

There is another aspect of worship that is extremely important. To grasp this aspect, consider a young man who respects and, in a certain sense, reveres a sports figure precisely because that figure is good at what he does. In this case, the sports figure is a worthy object of that respect and reverence. If the sports figure were in reality a complete joke at his sport, then while it would be permissible for the young man to like the sports figure, it would be inappropriate for the young man to revere him.

A person ought to proportion his respect and reverence to the actual worthiness of the object of that respect and reverence. If a second sports figure came along who was superior in skill to the first hero, the young man would owe the second athlete more reverence than he gives the inferior athlete. Even if a second athlete never came along, the young man should not give total reverence to his hero because he doesn't deserve it. This becomes obvious when we realize that if a superior athlete were to enter the scene or if the revered hero were to improve his skills over the years, then the young man would be obliged to hive more respect to the new hero or to the same hero now improved.

These insights about respect have dramatic implications for our worship of God. Theologians describe God as a maximally perfect being. This means that God is not merely the greatest, most perfect being who happens to exist. He is the greatest being that could possibly exist. If God were merely the greatest being who happens to exist, it would be possible to conceive of a case where a greater god could come along (even if such a being did not actually exist) or where the real God grew in His excellence. In these cases, our degree of worship ought to increase and, therefore, a God who just happened to be the greatest being around (and who could be surpassed in excellence) would not be a worthy object of total worship.

Fortunately, the God of the Bible is a maximally perfect being; that is, He is the greatest being that could possibly exist. It is impossible for a greater bing to supersede God or for God Himself to improve Himself in any way. Thus, God is owed our supreme, total worship.

This is why Scripture calls idolatry the activity of giving more dedication to something finite than to God. God is worthy of the very best efforts we can give Him in offering our respect and service through the cultivation of our total personality.