We worship God because He is good. There is a primary purpose behind all humanity, and that purpose is to offer articulate worship(2) to God the Creator, God the King, God the Trinity and God the Saviour(3). Because God first loved us(4), our worship is a response to Him. Ours is not to conjure up, but to respond.
How do we worship?
Scripture tells us to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”(5)
Having been created imago Dei(6) (in the image of God), we have been crafted with a set of inherent traits that enable us to worship God in ways completely unique to the rest of creation.
We have free will. Worship is never a forced act, it is a willed act. Acts of the will are inherently acts of creativity, so offering our creativity to Him is a major component of our worship, both symbolically and practically.
We are royalty. Historically, worshiping God directly was the exclusive privilege of priests. Scripture says that we are made a “royal priesthood” by the redeeming power of Christ. This informs our worship dramatically. God is King of everything and we are servants, yet having been made in His image, we are more than servants. We are His vice-regents(7). That means we come to Him under His own authority. He is God and we are not, yet we can come to Him boldly. Unbelievable.
We are in community, both with God and one another. We are invited into the Perichoresis(8) (mutual indwelling) of God. This is among the most astounding tenants of Christian belief. As a result of this, our worship isn’t exclusively an external thing (though certainly that’s part of it). Worship becomes deeply personal as we interact with the God of the universe who is present IN us.
We don’t worship God in a vacuum, either in space or time. We are part of an ancient and present community of believers that inspire us and inject into our knowledge of God the deep wisdom of the ages.
We speak God’s language. The language of worship should mirror the language of the Kingdom of God, His new creation. “Justice”, “Spirituality”, “Relationship” and “Beauty”(9) are the great nouns of the language of new creation. Scripture describes Jesus as the primordial Word of God, encased in flesh(10). As He became the story of God’s redemption for the world, so worshipers are called not just to reflect on the story, but to become part of that story. Worship goes beyond a telling of the story, it is indeed a living of it.
Kris MacQueen
(1) N.T. Wright, Simply Christian, HarperOne, 2006. p. 144.
(2) N.T. Wright, The Creation Integration, Audio/Video, iTunes U
(3) Dan Wilt, Essentials*Blue Online Studies in Worship Theology and Biblical Worldview Online Course Text, iTunesU
(4) 1 John 4:19
(5) Mark 12:30
(6) Dan Wilt, Essentials*Blue Online Studies in Worship Theology and Biblical Worldview Online Course Text, iTunesU. p.27
(7) Ibid. p28
(8) Berten Waggoner, Leading Trinitarian Worship, Inside Worship, Volume 52, Vineyard Music Global 2004. p.5-6
(9) N.T. Wright, Simply Christian, HarperOne, 2006
