Why Do We Worship?
“We learn in Genesis that from the very beginning God created us for Himself, to enjoy relationship with Him and to bring Him praise and glory. We therefore worship God as our Creator. But we also worship God as our Savior and Redeemer. Our worship is therefore a response to both who He is and what He has done in rescuing us and reconciling us to Himself. First John 4:10 states, ‘This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.’ John goes on to write, ‘We love because He first loved us.’ The implication is that the more we are in touch with God’s love and saving grace, the more likely we are to respond in passionate worship, both personally and corporately. At a personal level, our response of worship is something that involves the whole of our lives. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:31, ‘Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.’ Yet at the same time, …there also has to be a corporate response.
“I don’t know what your experience of corporate worship is – if the services at your local church include extended times of worship, or use songs as ‘hymn sandwiches’ to break up the service into manageable chunks, or even use worship as a warm-up for the sermon. But biblically speaking, worship is not a warm-up for anything: It is the central activity of God’s people. The Bible commands us to gather together and worship Him through song: ‘Sing to the LORD, you saints of His; praise His holy name’ (Psalm 30:4); ‘Sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God’ (Colossians 3:16). The Psalms also encourage us to offer praise with musical instruments: ‘Praise Him with tambourine and dancing, praise Him with the strings and flute, praise Him with the clash of cymbals’ (Psalm 150:4-5).
“Through such worship we participate in the worship of heaven. We join the angels (as well as Christians across the world) around the throne of God as we worship and participate here and now in what we will experience fully when Christ returns. So let us worship God with our whole lives and gather together to pour out our love to Him with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength.”
From Lex Beckley’s book Rise Up & Sing.