What Is Worship?
Doxology
We have officially made it to November which means a new topic to study! I am very excited to dive into this topic and hope many of you will learn much from what we discuss. This may be wishful thinking as I have probably lost half of my audience due to my not-so-favorable take on Halloween, but this topic nonetheless is of utmost importance. This month we be looking at doxology. According to Merriam-Webster, doxology is ‘a liturgical expression of praise to God.’ In other words, the idea that this phrase studies and dissects is praise and worship. Many questions have been raised and asked about worship and honestly, that’s a good thing. In fact, I would argue that based on how we view worship today, some of us should be asking more questions about this act. We will get into many of these thoughts and questions this month, but for now, I wanted to start by simply asking, ‘What is worship?’ According to its original Greek translation, ‘worship’ means ‘to do reverence to; bow down.’ Quite simply, when we worship, we are giving all reverence to God Himself.
Dr. John MacArthur puts it this way, “To worship the Lord is to ascribe to Him the honor, glory, adoration, praise, reverence, and devotion that is due Him both for His greatness and for His goodness.” As we can see, worship is us offering all honor and glory to God and God alone. It isn’t dependent on anything or anyone. We don’t need permission to worship, we don’t need to feel a certain way, and we certainly don’t need life to be going in a particular direction in order to worship the Lord. The reverence we give to God is because of what He has done and who He is, not because of what we hope He’ll do and who we hope He’ll become. As simple as that is to understand, it’s fascinating how many self-proclaimed ‘Christ-followers’ will only worship the Lord if the situation calls for it. All throughout God’s Word, we have solid examples of what worship is, and how it should look. Let’s look at a few of those references.
Spirit & Truth
In John 4, we see Jesus talking to a woman of Samaria and He tells her what kind of worshipers we should strive to be. John 4:23 notes, “23 But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.” Notice the two contingencies that Jesus hangs ‘true worshipers’ on. Spirit and truth. We will be diving into these concepts further in a later blog post but I want this to be on your mind as we go throughout this month. God is not seeking people whose lives are great, who have spare time, and who will worship Him when they feel like it. True worshipers, according to our Lord, do not reject or withhold honor and glory from Him simply because life is not going according to plan. True worship is not based on what life does to us, but on who God has been to us. This is why worshipers are described as worshiping in spirit and truth and not feelings and circumstances. The sad and yet honest truth of this matter and passage is that the Lord seeks these people to worship Him. Even with everything that God has done for us and all the majesty that is due His name, the creator of the universe is still seeking those who will worship Him in spirit and truth. Those who will show reverence to His name for His greatness and goodness.
You Were Made For This
Now I don’t want to get too ahead of myself and focus on topics and questions that we have scheduled for later this month, but I do want to ask you this. What does worship look like to you in this country? Does the average church worship the Lord in spirit and truth or do we need more in order to do so? What about your church? What about you personally? What is worship dependent on in your life? Because whether we like it or not, we were created to worship, and we will spend a lot of time doing it. Look at what Revelation 19:5-6 says, “5 And a voice came from the throne, saying, “Give praise to our God, all you His bond-servants, you who fear Him, the small and the great.” 6 Then I heard something like the voice of a great multitude and like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns.” We will be worshiping God for eternity in heaven. This is a glorious picture of how one day we will have the honor and privilege of participating in this worship on the other side of this life. We will get to praise the Lord face-to-face. On the topic of eternal worship, Dr. Richard Mayhue mentions, “Worship is the theme of salvation history, the supreme purpose for which believers were redeemed, and the occupation with which they will be eternally enthralled.” Worship is not just something we should do from time to time, it is something that we were literally created to do.
We may have heard many definitions of what worship is or how we should do it, but in the end, only God’s definition of it matters, because He’s the only one deserving of it. We don’t need a particular type of music, a specific church, the right kind of job, a perfect marriage, or the ideal circumstances in order to glorify our creator. Contrary to popular belief, worship really isn’t about you at all. All we need to ascribe honor and glory to the God who has saved us is a heart that humbly acknowledges just that. That we were once dead and lost, with no way of being saved, and yet, God made a way. If you still need help offering reverence to God after realizing that, I would greatly question your motives and values. I hope we have come to an understanding today and built a solid foundation for the rest of this month on the true definition of worship. Worship is not reliant on any circumstance, but on the character and being of our Lord. This worship is to be done by ascribing all honor and glory that is due to His name for who He is and what He has done for us. When all is said and done, worship is something that we can all participate in because it is what we were created to do. And whether we realize it or not, worship is what we will be participating in for all of eternity when we finally finish our race here. May you be encouraged this week to give God all the reverence that you possibly can and worship His great name.
Sources
[1] “Access Your Bible from Anywhere.” BibleGateway.Com: A Searchable Online Bible in over 150 Versions and 50 Languages., www.biblegateway.com/. Accessed 2023.
[2] MacArthur, John & Mayhue, Richard. A Systemic Summary of Bible Truth: Biblical Doctrine. Wheaton, Crossway, 2017
[3] The Strongest NASB Exhaustive Concordance. Zondervan, 2004.
[4] Definition of doxology. (n.d.). In Merriam-Webster Dictionary. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/doxology
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