What is Worship?
Worship is at the heart of following the way of Jesus. Through this next season, we’re going to be unpacking the who, why, and how of worship. This week, consider what worship is.
Remember David Foster Wallace? In his Kenyon College commencement speech, he observed that “everybody worships.” Wallace - who wasn’t a Christian - understood that we are essentially doxological creatures. This is what the Westminster Shorter Catechism identifies as our chief end; our purpose is to glorify and enjoy the Triune God. American theologian Hughes Oliphant Old wrote “We worship God because God created us to worship him. Worship is at the center of our existence, at the heart of our reason for being.” Your purpose is worship. That’s why Paul invites followers of Jesus to do everything to God’s glory (1 Corinthians 10:31) and offer our bodies as living sacrifices (Romans 12:1). We are called to offer our whole selves to God because we are vertically-directed beings, made for God’s glory.
So what is worship? Scripture doesn’t provide us with a neat definition. The biblical writers use a whole range of words and images to communicate what worship is. But the etymology of the word worship does give us some clues. “Worship” comes from old English “worth-ship” - the idea of ascribing worth to someone or something. When I was preparing to get married, I consulted some old English prayer books and was not a little weirded out by some of the language the groom would communicate to the bride: “With my body I thee worship.” The groom wasn’t making his bride into a deity, but he was saying something profoundly true - the bride is worthy. In Christianity, the Triune God is the only one of ultimate worth. So in many places - like Psalm 29 - we are invited to “ascribe to the LORD” the glory that He’s due and to “worship Him in the splendor of holiness.” Both in the Old and New Testaments, God’s people are given a litany of postures and activities that give shape to worship. The people of God are invited to adore, serve, obey, pray to, sing to, bow down, magnify, give to, and praise the LORD. Worship involves all these things - but fundamentally, it’s an orientation of our heart. We’re called to love the LORD.
In Exodus, we often think that God rescued Israel merely to free them from slavery. God’s son, Israel, had spent 400 years serving Pharaoh the tyrant. But when God sent Moses to Egypt he identified why he wanted Israel freed: so they could worship and serve him (Exodus 3:12). He was their rightful king, not Pharaoh. The great philosopher Bob Dylan (much like DF Wallace) sang: “You may be an ambassador to England or France. You may like to gamble, you might like to dance. You may be the heavyweight champion of the world. You may be a socialite with a long string of pearls. But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.” The purpose of redemption was to restore Israel to the rightful worship of the one true God (Exodus 20:1-3). It was a service they were to pursue with all their heart, soul, and might (Deuteronomy 6:5). Their love and trust was to be centered on God above all else. That’s worship.
What’s fascinating is that right before the command to worship God in Exodus 20 - the LORD makes a covenant with Israel in Exodus 19. He takes the place of the Groom in a wedding ceremony with His people Israel. He had called them out of Egypt so that they might declare His worth and ascribe to Him the glory due His Name. And yet, here the LORD is, at the mountain of God, ascribing worth to His bride Israel. But before the wedding night is even consummated, Israel has proved unfaithful with the golden calf. God’s people were called to worship, love, and serve God, but they would need a true Israelite, a true son of God who would devote his love and life to God. We’ll reflect on the story of worship next week.
