Wednesday, January 27, 2016

A Biblical Survey of Worship and Praise

Over the years, I occasionally had this haunting feeling hit me during a worship service that what we're doing is fabricated, arbitrary, and even artificial. In my journey away from traditional church, the problem sort of solved itself. But recently, the issue popped in my mind again as a pressing question that wouldn't go away, "What is proper worship?". I think most people have the same qualitative idea of what worship means, "to assign value to something". But Biblically, how is this done? I mean, what do you actually do physically and mentally? To answer this question, I did a survey of a praise and worship and I'd like to share some of my results here.

The Bible never really gives us a textbook description of worship, but there's a lot that we can piece together. To start off, the vast majority of the time you see "worship" in the Bible, it's translated from a word that means "to bow down, fall down, stoop, give obeisance". If not the act of bowing down, it is primarily done while bowed. This is specifically described several places in the Bible (Josh. 5:14, Rev. 4:10). If you look at all the places in the Bible where the word 'worship' occurs, it primarily carries this idea of bowing down, with the idea of service coming in a distant second (Luke 4:8). It's worth pointing out that service is also a way of humbling yourself before a higher authority. Therefore, humility seems to be the common theme where worship is used in the Bible. In short, worship is all about you humbling yourself before God, acknowledging your unworthiness, and bowing before God's supreme holiness, power, and beauty.

Therefore, worship is not a loud raucous noise. It is quiet submission in the heart. There's a strong precedent for physically bowing down during worship, but the primary issue is humbling of the heart. Also, I note that while it is not explicitly stated, Biblical worship seems to be primarily private. Although you hear many churches focusing on "corporate worship", that concept is not found in Scripture. Yes, there was public worship in the temple, but people weren't really worshiping together, more like worshiping by themselves, but in a public place. Think of it like praying at church...it could be said that you're praying together, but in reality each person is doing their own praying while occupying a shared space.

So let's settle on a final answer of the original question, "what is worship?". First and foremost, worship is internal. It starts with you placing yourself in a low, humble position, afraid to even imagine looking on the face of God, being conscious of your sinfulness, and recognizing that we are unworthy to even be in his presence. Outwardly, worship is typically done while bowing or serving. Worship is reflective and reverent. There is a place in the Christian life for jubilance, but worship is not one of them; it is a solemn activity.

What about the modern concept of a church worship service? To begin with, I can't find a single instance of worship being associated with music in the Bible. Also, it's clear that the Biblical concept of worship as a humbling of oneself is incompatible with the jumping, dancing, and loud music of typical worship services. I'm not sure that corporate worship is possible even in a solemn service, because worship is an internal thing, and therefore inherently private. But can't we worship in our own way as long as our heart is right? Nope. Colossians 2 speaks ill of this kind of worship, which is according to the doctrines of men and not God. It is called "will-worship"(Col. 2:23), arbitrary worship devised by yourself or others rather than the one to be worshiped.

Can I make one other observation? I've often written about the greatest problem in Christianity: a false gospel that replaces repentance with a sinner's prayer. I can't help but notice that the humility that is required for true worship goes hand in hand with repentance. It makes sense then we see worship and the gospel being corrupted simultaneously.

So are churches wrong to have a 30 minute worship service every Sunday? Well, I think we need to first acknowledge that this is praise, not worship. I would also note that there's no specific commandment for churches to praise together, but certainly for individuals. However, since church is a gathering of individuals, this may still have some application. Especially since praise is public by nature, unlike worship. Also, in the Bible praise is not just singing, but also takes the form of spoken words. There's also the command to teach one another through song (Eph. 5:19, Col. 3:16). Putting all of this together, I think it's fair to say that praise should happen in church meetings. There is no clear Biblical precedent for when or how often, but I have to question the wisdom of spending 40-60% of the church's time together on praise at every single meeting. I just don't see that kind of emphasis in Scripture. That time would be more appropriate for things like doctrine, admonition, fellowship, and prayer.

In conclusion, it's important to understand that praise and worship are two very different things. Otherwise, we risk completely neglecting the spiritual discipline of worship, which has the benefit of renewing humility and repentance in our lives. Worship is a specific activity that involves reverence and humility. It has no link whatsoever to music, which would almost certainly be a distraction. It is my observation that true worship is commonly misunderstood, and therefore not practiced intentionally. Let us renew our understanding of worship and practice it as we should.

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