We were made to worship – and not just to worship, but to worship our Creator, God. The psalmist exhorts us, “Come! Let us worship and bow down; let us kneel in the presence of the Lord, who made us. For he is our God” (95:6-7 ISV). Angels worship Him, for He is their Creator (Neh 9:6). We, too, must worship Him, not only because He is our Creator, but because He is our Redeemer, our Savior and Provider. In short, we worship Him because of who He is and what He has done. He alone is worthy to be worshipped. The word “holy” (i.e., set apart) perfectly describes our great God, for there is none like Him. He is indeed set apart from all others. Thus, we are exhorted to “worship at His footstool; for he is holy” (Psa 99:5).
Although He alone is worthy of our worship, the Lord has many competitors, and we must confess that, at times, the competition is winning the day. We devote excess time, energy and resources to achieve often earthly and merely material goals. It is our prayer that this month’s issue, devoted to the great subject of worship, will be used to help us recognize and eliminate such unworthy rivals and to be more devoted worshippers of our glorious Lord.
In this issue, we will review biblical definitions of worship, consider who can worship, discover how to develop the discipline of worship, examine some modern misconceptions about worship, study the role of the Holy Spirit in worship, and observe how the Lord Jesus transformed a blind beggar, and us, to become worshippers. The distinction between Christian worship and OT worship is helpfully detailed, as is an answer to the question, “Why does God want to be worshipped?” We will ponder what the Lord Jesus meant when He said that those who worship God must “worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24). A day in the life of a worshipper is described for us, and we will also contemplate the place of our worship. Finally, we will get a glimpse into the worship of heaven, both now and into eternity.
We may be able to look back upon great moments of achievement in life, but we are never more “at our best” than when we are worshipping our God. Ultimately, we will be “at our best” unceasingly, for our occupation in the Eternal State will be to worship Him (Rev 22:3). As we peer into the telescope of the future, may our hearts join a worshipping creation which cries out unitedly: “Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. And the four beasts said, Amen. And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped him that liveth for ever and ever” (Rev 5:13-14 KJV).
