The Worship Lifestyle, Pt. 4

Part 1 -- Part 2 -- Part 3

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I'm not sure if this is a new school of thought or if it's existed for some time now, but I've encountered on a number of occasions now the perspective that a god who demands worship is a god who is needy or selfish.  "If I'm going to worship a god," these individuals say, "I want to worship a god who deserves it.  Not one who just tells me to."

Though He does require of us adoring praise and worship, the God we serve needs no validation.  He is not an emotionally insecure deity -- like some Greek god, lusting after humans and self-fulfillment, all as part of an endless competition with other minor deities for supremacy.  To the contrary, God demands worship because He is worthy to receive it, and there are no other gods with which He contends.

Furthermore, when we raise our voices in praise to Him, we are not giving Him something He does not already possess.  By attributing to Him glory and honor, we are not adding to His character or refilling his "glory" tank, as though He is somehow dependent upon us.  The popular vote of the people is not what will elect Him "God" for another four years.  When we worship our God, we are merely celebrating who He is by making statements pertaining to His holiness, justice, power, and eternality.  We are making much of who He is.

One of my favorite hymns captures the idea this way:

Could we, with ink, the oceans fill
And were the skies of parchment made
Were every stalk on earth a quill
And every man a scribe by trade
To write the love of God above
Would drain the oceans dry
Nor could the scroll contain the whole
Though stretched from sky to sky

In our worship of God, we are merely in the act of describing what He already possesses.  Furthermore, our best effort -- our life-long endeavor -- will still fall so far short of the praise God truly deserves.  Yet our practice of worship is not an exercise in futility, because we offer our lives in totality.  As believers, we are giving everything we have in response to the grace which He gave to us.  That is why, for all of eternity, we will join with the angels in constant and unending praise of our Father, Maker, Redeemer, and Friend.

The first verse of another favorite hymn begins this way:

Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing
My Great Redeemer's praise
The glories of our God and King
The triumphs of His grace

I used to think the writer of "Oh For a Thousand Tongues" was longing for a throng of fellow worshipers to join with him in praising God, and that a thousand was just an arbitrary number intended to evoke the image of a huge crowd, all worshiping together.  However, upon deeper reflection, I think what he's really wishing for is a thousand tongues all of his own with which to give the Great Redeemer praise, because the solitary instrument he does possess is simply not enough.  He sees the worship of God for what it is: an exercise in reflecting back to God His own honor, glory, and praise.  Even 999 additional tongues in the mouths of all the saints could not possibly express the sum total of God's magnificence.

We worship a God who is not "needy."

We worship a God who needs no validation.

We worship a God who is worthy of the praise and adoration we express to Him, and then some.

We worship a God whose surpassing greatness eclipses the wisest theologian's estimate, yet whose humble condescension on our behalf brought Christ the Son to an inglorious death on a cross, forsaken by man and the Father alike -- all for the sake of His creation, out of the kindness of His eternal, gracious character.

That is why we worship Him now, and it is why we will sing of Him for all eternity. 

He is rich in might, love, and power.

He breaks the power of cancelled sin.

He sets the prisoners free.

What more could we possibly give Him than all our hearts in adoring worship?  He deserves that and more.