Resources for Believers

Disclaimer: It is extremely easy to have inflamed, passionate discussions about the nature of modern praise and worship. I will admit that as someone who comes from a family of praise and worship leaders, I have strong opinions on the matter. This has been the most difficult matter for me to write on, though, as I recognize I have been harboring wrong ideas about worship. I've had very poor experiences with the contemporary Christian artist movement, and I had become bitter about it all.

Method
For days I tried to write out a systematic doxology based on my own experience, sort of throwing in Scripture where it suited my position, and my position was rooted in bitterness. But instead, I went back to Scripture and read all of the more than 350 verses mentioning the words "praise" and "worship" in the Bible to understand the concept better, but removed from my own relativism. Those scriptures are posted in the links below. I praise God for His mercy on me and His patience with me throughout this process. All glory be to Him.

Click Here to read the source materials for this post:
All ESV verses mentioning "praise" with light commentary

All ESV verses mentioning "worship" with light commentary

5 Awe-Inspiring Passages in Scripture

What is praise?
First, praise is public. You can't praise God whispering inside your soul because praise is out loud, with your lips, with your mouth, with singing, and sometimes with instruments. To praise God is to tell everyone about God's deeds and amazing character. It's like you are bragging about who God is and what He's done.

Second, to praise is to publicly give thanks. Specifically, we thank Him for His mighty deeds. This can be as a form of remembrance of His deeds in the Bible or remembrance in what He's done in our own lives. It can be a form of thankfulness when we see the Holy Spirit do something amazing in the present day. It can be a form of thankfulness for the future - which is called "hope".

Third, to praise is to publicly recognize God's character. An oft-repeated phrase in the Old Testament associated with praise is "the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases". Declaring God's character - He is just, He is good, He is true, He is righteous - these are all valid ways to praise God.

Fourth, praise is to publicly glorify God. In non-religious terms, that means to speak highly of someone or to make them famous. However, in Christian terms it means to recognize who is the one in control. Glory is associated with weight. In other words, to glorify is to recognize God's supreme weight in all matters. Keep in mind, glory has an element of "crushing".

Lastly, praise is distinct from worship. Almost never do you see the words "praise" and "worship" in the same verse.

What is true worship in the Old Testament?
Praise is very straightforward compared to worship. When you study verses on worship you quickly find out that there are only a handful verses that deal with corrupt praise, but there are buckets of verses about corrupt worship vs true worship. Let's look at true worship then see it's counterfeit later. Worship also changes with the covenant change of Jesus, so we'll examine this further.

First, worship is a location-based response. This was probably the most shocking thing I read in the Old Testament verses. It is still true but used very differently in the New Covenant. The location of worship is vital because worship is a response to being "before God" or "in the presence of God". God moves His place(s) of worship in different places in the Old Testament, but chooses Jerusalem alone for His final temple location. This is no small thing which we will see in the sections on corrupt worship and New Covenant worship.

Second, worship is highly regulated. Location is one of those regulations, but also every aspect of worship is laid out by God. No idols. No sacrificing pigs. No sacrificing your children. No human inventions of worship - they must all come from the revelation of God in Leviticus/Deuteronomy. There are an immense set of regulations for proper, clean worship that is acceptable to God. It is something that is completely different from normal human activity - in other words it is holy.

Third, worship is awe from the heart. When you see God in His Majesty, recognizing His awesome power and deeds, you are compelled to worship. In the Old and New Testament it is almost always shown by being on the ground face down. Isaiah 6 is a great illustration of the absolute fear that overcomes a person in God's presence and glory in the throne room of heaven. That awe encompasses how worship must be from the heart. We thank Him, like we do when we praise Him. We glorify God and exalt Him. To exalt means to make something greater than all others; in our culture we call it the greatest of all time.

Lastly, worship is accompanied by service in obedience. Obedience is an indicator of whether or not you truly worship God. Obedience is expected in all spheres of life, not just a specific location. A token of this obedience is the offering. It is a portion of life one dedicates to God in some manner, whether it be a song, money, purified animal for sacrifice, first fruits of harvest, etc.

What is corrupt worship?
First, corrupt worship is based on human invention. This is extremely concerning. It's worth taking time to understand. At the dedication of the tabernacle, the first day of the tabernacle, after God's magnificent glory was manifested, two priests were killed by God for offering something that was not regulated in worship. "Made for themselves" is a common phrase when corrupt worship is described. Idolatry is worship that we invent. This includes literal idols - gods fashioned from wood, stone, glass, gold, whatever.

Second, corrupt worship is from a corrupt heart. At best it means mere lip service. Going through the motions. Checking a box off. Honoring God with our words but not having any honor for Him in our hearts. At worst it means abandoning God altogether and going after idols.

Third, corrupt worship is tied to disobedience. If you are not living in obedience to God in your regular life, your worship is not acceptable. It goes back to the heart. You cannot say you worship God then ignore what He says about how we are to live life.

Fourth, corrupt worship is deadly. It provokes God to anger. The sinners in the end of days as shown in Revelation refuse to repent and they worship evil instead. They willingly provoke God to anger. This is not just an Old Testament reality.

What changed in the New Covenant?
First, location is still God's presence but is not constrained to a physical location any longer. Jesus predicted it when speaking with the Samaritan woman - that it will not matter where you worship (John 4:24). When Jesus died the veil of the temple that shielded us from God's presence was torn down by God (Matthew 27:51). Now, we the believers are the temple (1 Corinthians 3:16, 6:19). Where 2 or more are gathered in Jesus' name, He is there (Matthew 18:20).This is both fantastic and horrifying. If it weren't for Jesus & the Holy Spirit, we'd all be dead from this.

Second, we are in Christ. True believers are now in Christ. We are protected in Christ. He gave us His own righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21). We are holy because He made us holy through His work on the cross (Hebrews 10:10). Right now we are seated in the heavenly realms in Christ (Ephesians 2:6). Because of Jesus being our High Priest, we can boldly approach the throne of grace (Hebrews 4:14-16). This is no small matter. Approaching the throne of God is deadly if you're not perfect or made clean.

Third, the Holy Spirit takes control of our hearts. Jesus again predicted this when speaking with the Samaritan woman - that we would worship God in spirit and in truth. The Holy Spirit continues the work of sanctification to transform our hearts. He makes it so that we are not heartless in worship; and if we lack a pure heart He sustains us & He fixes us (See Romans 8:29, 2 Corinthians 3:18).

Fourth, we have a direct relationship with God. In the Old Testament obedience was tied to worship, yes. However, there was a buffer zone between the clean and unclean realms - the temple and the priesthood. If you don't believe that, think about the reaction the people had when God spoke directly to them in Moses day; they were immediately stricken with fear and begged to not hear God directly (Exodus 20). It was terrifying to be in direct relationship with God. The New Covenant takes it further. Now we are all priests (1 Peter 2:4-5). We have fellowship with God (1 John 1:4-6). In the terms of corporate time together, we are all expected to bring songs (Ephesians 5:18-20), instruction (1 Corinthians 14:26), judgments (1 Corinthians 5:12), etc.

Fifth, our entire lives are a form of worship. Because the buffer zone of the temple and priesthood is gone, obedience and cleanliness is not something you do outside of the presence of God in order to enter the presence of God in a temple. Instead, our whole lives are to be an act of spiritual worship now. Again, impossible without Jesus. Impossible without the Holy Spirit.

Summary
My opinion based on what I see in Scripture is that the New Testament worship requires much more than the Old Testament ever required in terms of holiness, constant priest-quality obedience and cleanliness, ministering before God. However, for us who believe in Jesus, we have a grace from God. This for me expresses the best of news. Instead of instant death, by Jesus, we are holy. Instead of being cast out, by the indwelling Spirit, our hearts are made new and we are able to render priest-quality obedience and minister before God. Hallelujah.

There is a lot I left out
I recognize I left out a lot about worship. Why? The entire Bible is about worshiping God rightly. All of life is about worshiping God. The concept cannot be contained in a short post, sorry.

Resources for Believers

Thursday, February 13, 2020

Praise & Worship Sermon w/Notes

Thursday, January 23, 2020

What is Praise? What is Worship?

Becoming a Singing Culture

New Songs to Praise God by