Theology of Worship
What is worship, in general?
One way to define worship generally is that it is the most appropriate response to the Lord God. Worship is our response to the all-surpassing greatness of who God is and what He does. In this sense, every aspect of our life can be “worshipful” if we are actively acknowledging God with qualities like reverence and gratitude. We recognize that He is infinitely above all things, that He is utterly separate from all darkness, sin, and evil, and this should fill us with a sense of humble reverence. We also recognize that He has given us life and breath, and that, though we strayed, He has drawn near to us in Christ, forgiven us, and opened His arms to receive us with an everlasting love. This should fill us with loving gratitude. In this sense, true worship must have both “objectivity” (recognizing the truth about God) and “subjectivity” (expressing personal affection for God), as taught by Jesus in the book of John.
In John 4:24, our Lord Jesus said that true worshippers of God did so “in spirit and in truth.” To worship in truth means to be conformed to the truth of who God is. Therefore, it is to be conformed to objective witness of what God has revealed to us. However, it must also be “in spirit.” This means that true worship must have that “inner” life of contrition and sincerity of heart. It is not enough to sing songs or merely participate in other religious activities if there is no sense of conviction and love behind what is being done outwardly. Without this, our worship is empty in the eyes of God. “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me in vain do they worship me…” (Isaiah 29:13).
Worship on Earth
While sin has brought all kinds of corruption and bondage upon the earth, the Bible also teaches that every earthly creature, and even the sun, moon, and stars above, are still created and called to bring praise to the Lord. “Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures and all deeps, fire and hail, snow and mist, stormy wind fulfilling his word! Mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars! Beasts and all livestock, creeping things and flying birds! Kings of the earth and all peoples, princes and all rulers of the earth! Young men and women together, old men and children! (Psalm 148:7-12) Psalms like this make it clear that worship is much deeper than singing songs. Even animals, winds, and mountains are called to worship. These created things do not rebel against God. Instead, they have continued to obey His will, they “fulfill His word,” and they reveal His power, beauty, and goodness — they magnify His glory. On earth, it is only human beings that have willfully refused to offer worship, living contrary to His will and creating idols to praise in place of the one true God.
Human Idolatry: False Worship
The root of all sin is the desire to worship something else in the place of God. This is “idolatry.” We see it in the fall of Adam and Eve because the serpent's temptation was not only to disobey God, but to put ourselves in the place of God: “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:5). In our fallen state we pretend to be God, judging for ourselves what is good and evil. We have judged the Highest Eternal Good as less than God, or even judged Him as “evil.” In all of this we have come to prefer falsity over the truth and darkness over light, and living this kind of life has continued to unfold and corrupt our humanity: “Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity… because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator...” (Romans 1:21). We have come to worship the many creations of God’s hands as if they were God himself or to worship the works of our own hands, and this false worship sets us on a path of illusion, self-destruction, and divine wrath.
Jesus Christ: the Renewal of True Worship
As the one who redeems us from our sin, Jesus also restores true worship, pointing us back to the Father in everything He does. As the divine Son of God, one who has been with the Father from all eternity, Jesus alone knows the Father perfectly and is able to truly reveal Him. In His high priestly prayer Jesus proclaims, “O righteous Father, even though the world does not know You, I know You, and these know that You have sent me. I made known to them Your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them” (John 17:25-26). Through the salvation of Jesus applied by the Holy Spirit, God heals our spiritual blindness. He liberates our darkened hearts from the bondage of worshiping what is not God. Furthermore, Jesus affirms that if we have seen Him, we have seen the Father (John 14:9). To truly see Jesus is to see the most faithful image of God. It is to see God, “For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily” (Colossians 2:9). For these reasons, there is now no true worship that is not also the worship of Christ our Savior. “Through Him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name” (Hebrews 13:15).
Worship in Heaven
Most of the details of what heaven is like remain a mystery to those of us who are on this side of the veil. However, one of the things that the Bible makes clear to us is that worship is the heart of heaven, that the creatures of heaven are offering perfect, unbroken praise to God: “And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within; and day and night they do not cease to say, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come’” (Revelation 4:10-11). Similarly, in the age to come, in the “New Heavens and Earth,” God will be enthroned and His glory unveiled for all to see, filling all the world like the radiant light of the sun. When we enter into this glory, we won’t be able to help but to lift our voices with the heavenly host and give Him praise. We too will be glorified and purged of all sin. Every thought, word, and action will be in harmony with the will of God and full of that reverence, gratitude, and joy that constitutes true worship. “No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.They will see his face…” (Revelation 22:3-4)
Why do we sing?
In all of these things, it has been clear that worship is much bigger and much deeper than singing hymns on Sunday morning. As Christians, every aspect of our lives is to be an expression of worship to our Lord — imperfectly in this age, but perfectly in the age to come. So why is it that we sing and offer music? First, it is given as a command and example to follow in the Old and New Testaments. Psalms 150:1-6 tells us to “Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens! Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness! Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals!”And in Colossians 3:16, Paul tells us to “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” Therefore, when we sing, we are aligning ourselves with the spiritual devotion of all the saints of old, we are harmonizing with the worshipful heart of heaven, and we are honoring the will of the Lord. It is an act of loving solidarity and obedience.
Secondly, praising the Lord with harmonious singing and music can also be seen as one of the most excellent and beautiful ways to worship as a community. In worship, the sincerity of the heart is primary. One old saint in her prayer closet is able offer more excellent worship to the Lord than a whole congregation with majestic songs in the most ornate cathedral. However, we should still desire for excellence in both the inward and the outward display of our devotion. The psalmist tells us in chapter 147: “Praise the Lord! For it is good to sing praises to our God; for it is pleasant, and a song of praise is fitting.” Why is a song fitting or appropriate? Throughout history, when humans have sought to testify to the greatness of something, we have attempted to magnify it through one art or another, whether sculpture, painting, poetry, or song. These are the most excellent forms we have, and the Lord deserves no less, to the extent we are capable and to the extent He has gifted us. We should seek to compose the finest words and expressions of Biblical truth and Christian living. We should also seek to put them to the best music we are able, not to gratify our flesh, but to magnify the glory of our God. He, after all, chose to create this world full of beauty, harmony, and excellence, and created us in His image to echo the same.