Category Archives: Worship

Worship from your toes up

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“Now King David was told, “The LORD has blessed the household of Obed-edom and everything he has, because of the ark of God.” So David went down and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-edom to the City of David with rejoicing. When those who were carrying the ark of the LORD had taken six steps, he sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf. David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before the LORD with all his might, while he and the entire house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouts and the sound of trumpets.” (2 Samuel 6:12-15)
I love that image of worshiping God with all your might. My wife once heard someone make the comment, “Emotion has no place in worship.” Ugh. Makes me shudder to think about worship without emotion. Can you imagine the early disciples meeting to worship, remembering the sacrifice of the man they had lived with, and them not getting emotional? Words like fervor and zeal imply emotion. They imply exertion in worshiping God.
So when was the last time you worshiped so hard that it made you physically tired? When was the last time you worshiped with all your might? When was the last time you worshiped God from your toes up?
If you’re like me, it’s been too long.

Pleasing sacrifices

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In the last post, we looked at what Jesus quoted from Hosea 6:6 — “I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.”

Other passages in the Old Testament seem to have that “anti-sacrifice” attitude, like this one from Jeremiah 7:

“Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh. For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices.” (Jer 7:21-22)

Wait a minute. Wasn’t it God who ordered the people to sacrifice? Why did He change His mind? I don’t think He did. I just think His people misunderstood Him. They wanted to live their lives according to their own wishes, even worshiping other gods, then come and “get right with Yahweh” by offering the prescribed sacrifices.

I think that Psalm 51 offers a good bit of insight into this: “For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; build up the walls of Jerusalem; then will you delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar.” (Psa 51:16-19) If you just read verses 16 and 17, you can still get that idea that all God wanted were spiritual sacrifices. But if you read on down to verse 19, you see that, once the spiritual part was taken care of (and Jerusalem taken care of), God would again be pleased with sacrifices.

Psalm 50 is also important when talking about sacrifices: “Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you; your burnt offerings are continually before me. I will not accept a bull from your house or goats from your folds. For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine. “If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine. Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats? Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High, and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.” (Psa 50:8-15) God didn’t rebuke them for their sacrifices, but for the attitude in which they were offered. And He wanted them to offer thank offerings, those spontaneous offerings, rather than merely fulfilling the prescribed sacrifices. God wanted their worship to come from the heart, not merely be a time of rule following.

There are lots of other passages to look at, but the point is this: God didn’t want “rule following” if the heart wasn’t in it. Yet He did seek certain physical types of worship. It wasn’t all a matter of right attitudes; right actions were also sought, in worship and in daily life.

So how does all of this apply to us today?

The verse Jesus recommended twice

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“Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Matthew 9:13)

And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless.” (Matthew 12:7)

Maybe it’s a coincidence, but Jesus twice told people that they needed to learn the meaning of Hosea 6:6.

Let’s say it’s not a coincidence. What do you think is so important about this verse that would make Jesus quote it twice?

Singing as Two Acts of Worship

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First, some confessions. Among immediate family, in-laws, uncles and cousins, I have a disproportionate number of music teachers and professional musicians. I participated in music groups from grade school through college. I’ve grown up taking music seriously.

And I think we in the church rarely take our singing seriously enough. Need to say something to someone? Not during the sermon. Not during a prayer. Do it during a song. Want to get people to come in and sit down? Let’s sing ’em in. I’ve never been in a church that “prayed ’em in.”

Many songs are prayers. I guess I didn’t really think about that until studying the story of Paul and Silas in Acts. Most English versions stick in a conjunction that isn’t in the original. While they say something like “Paul and Silas were praying and singing,” the original text says “Paul and Silas praying sang…” They weren’t two separate activities. Their songs were prayers to God, as are many of ours. When we sing “Lord, we come before Thee now,” what is that but a prayer? When we sing to God, we are praying. And if you look at the songs we sing, many are directed to God.

Another way in which we don’t take our singing seriously is in not thinking about the words we sing. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14:15 “I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also.” Too many times we sing songs because they are fun to sing and not because they have anything meaningful to say. Most people who sing “Just a Little Talk With Jesus” don’t believe that you can be made whole just by having a little talk with Jesus. We sing “Down in the Evergreen Valley” without ever questioning where in the Bible it talks about an evergreen valley. I personally don’t like to sing “I’ve Got A Mansion” because I’m not in it for a mansion, a robe and a crown; I want to live eternally in the presence of God, be it in a mansion or a hut with rags on. And I have yet to find anyone who can explain the phrase “May Your kingdom be established in our praises,” which is a line from a popular praise song. God’s kingdom is established in our praises?

You’re being too picky! Am I? It’s quite possible, based on the confession I made at the beginning. But I think if we viewed singing as a solemn act, we’d do some things differently. We might even get guys to take their caps off while singing, rather than just for spoken prayers.

Though I doubt we’ll ever get to the point of saying, “Brother Jones will lead our opening prayer song.”

Red Herring or Heartfelt Inquiry

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Painting by Simon Dewey

I don’t think it was noontime. There, I’ve said it. I’ve offered up my red herring, my distracting observation that will keep you from reading on to my main point. In John chapter 4, I think that John was using Roman time when he says “the sixth hour.” It was probably 6 p.m.

But that’s not actually what I wanted to write about. As I’ve heard this story retold, many feel that the woman became flustered when Jesus spoke about her 5-and-a-half husbands and that she proceeded to ask a totally irrelevant question, bringing up a popular debate without any real significance. “The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.”” (John 4:19-20 ESV)

I think that this question is not just trivia for this woman. It’s not just a smoke screen. I think she’s finally met a real prophet, and she finally gets to ask the question that’s been bothering her for a long time: Do we proskuneo to this mountain or to Jerusalem? My extremely limited Greek studies tell me that proskuneo refers to a physical worship, usually meaning a bowing down. [Interestingly enough, the writers of the New Testament never use it to describe what Christians did in the first century; that may be because of Jesus’ comments in this passage] She’s asking a question about physical worship.

I think this woman wants to know where to pray to. Remember that the Old Testament talks about praying toward the temple in order to have one’s prayers heard (1 Kings 8:29-30, 35; 2 Chronicles 6:38). Remember that Daniel prayed toward Jerusalem while in Babylonia (Daniel 6:10). I think this woman wanted to pray to God so that her prayers would be heard, but she didn’t know which direction to pray. Jesus tells her that God is spirit (not a physical God that lives in a temple) and is worshiped in spirit and in truth, not by bowing down in a certain way or in a certain direction.

I think the question that this woman asked was the question: how do I worship God?