"Worshipping the Living God"

(The following paper was presented at the annual study conference of the British Evangelical Council, Cardiff, 5-7 March 2002.)

"Worship is the vehicle of theology".

"Worship is a transitive verb, and the most important thing about it is its direct object".

"I fear the subtle replacement of the mystery of the Trinity with the pastor's personality in initiating worship".

There can be few more important themes for discussion among individual Christians and Christian churches than the theme of worship. Our worship of God is central to wholesome Christian living, and is the focus of our meeting together each Lord's Day.

Yet few subjects have generated more debate and controversy than the theme of how we ought to worship God, and what is permissible in that worship. In her study of worship in modern culture, Marva Dawn goes as far as to talk of "Worship Wars" in the [liturgical] churches of the United States, which can variously be described as a conflict between traditional and contemporary styles, between elders and the baby boomer generation, between clergy and lay persons or between organists and guitarists. Even in a denomination like my own which has a very conservative view of worship (for one thing confining the singing of praise to the metrical psalms), attempts in recent years to produce alternative versions of the psalms compatible with the renderings of the New International Version, have generated debate in our General Assembly. There are few areas of worship, it seems, which are not hotly contested, and few churches free from controversy in this area.

The practical issues involved in these debates are further complicated by a semantical issue: how is worship to be defined? On the one hand there are words in the New Testament which make it clear that for the believer, in some sense at least, all of life is worship. When Paul urges us in Romans 12:1 "to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God", the reason he gives is that "this is your spiritual act of worship" (NIV). Both the reference to sacrifice in this passage, and the word translated 'worship' or 'service' in 12:2 (latreia) invoke the language of the Old Testament cultus, and ground the whole of Christian living within the Old Testament framework of worship. In this sense, all of our life is an act of worship.

On the other hand, in much modern usage, to speak of a "time of worship" is to describe a period of singing within a church service. Many churches have a "worship leader" whose duties are taken up with the musical aspect of the service. This usage of the word "worship" is narrow in the extreme, and fails to do justice to the other elements of public worship, such as prayer and the preaching of the word. Worship becomes, in the words of Dr R.T. Kendall, "a euphemism for chorus singing".

"Worship", as C. Welton Gaddy put it, "is a gift between lovers", and our starting-point must be that worship is meaningful only in the context of a relationship with God. Paul's argument in Romans 1:18ff is that those who have rejected God's self-disclosure, in the face of the evidence of His eternal power and divine nature, "neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him" (Romans 1:21). On the other hand, those whom God has graciously brought into a living relationship with Himself are called to worship him, to "continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise -- the fruit of lips that confess his name" (Hebrews 13:15). Worship may be defined as the God-oriented response of thanksgiving, praise and obedience which is the result of a living relationship to God.

In a recent paper delivered at the Ninth Edinburgh Conference on Dogmatics (August 2001), Dr Robert Fyall defined worship by extending the analogy of a husband and wife -- one of the Bible's favourite metaphors for the relationship between Jesus and the Church (Ephesians 5:31-2). He reminded us that everything a spouse does, he or she does within the context of the marriage. The marriage bond has a pervasive, all-encompassing influence. Yet, in order to strengthen that bond, a couple needs special times of rest and relaxation, enjoying one another's company, separated from the distractions of everyday life. In the same way, Dr Fyall suggested, we must regard all of life as worship, since our marriage to God through Jesus Christ invades and pervades every aspect of our living; yet we too need 'special times' of intimacy and nearness with our Saviour. Public worship and congregational fellowship offer us such special times, which allow us to deepen our commitment, express our love and thankfulness, and continue to devote our lives as spiritual worship to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Worship, therefore, is a covenant issue: it is the fruit that grows from the seed of new life in Christ, and on the stalk of a covenant relationship with God through Jesus Christ. A related question, therefore, that we must address is: what precisely is the relationship between what we believe about our covenant God, and the way we worship him? What is the relationship between theology and worship? If our worship is a response to God, in which we offer praise to him, and come with hearts ready to listen to him, how does what we believe influence what we do? If we want our worship to be truly God-centered, Christ-honouring and Spirit-filled, what is the relationship between God's revelation of himself, and our response to that revelation?

At one level, we can say that theology is worship and that worship is theology. As we study the great doctrines of the Word of God, and meditate on their content and their implications, we are led to marvel at the being and the grace of God. In this sense, "theology is done in the presence of God and should therefore be reverent as well as rigorous". For this reason, Wayne Grudem appends a hymn to each chapter of his Systematic Theology, on the grounds that "The study of theology is not merely a theoretical exercise of the intellect. It is a study of the living God, and of the wonders of all his works in creation and redemption. We cannot study this subject dispassionately!".

It is equally true that worship is theology: "Worship in all its forms is laden with theological insights ... theology is acted out, expressed in practice. Worship is the vehicle of theology". Whether we fully appreciate it or not, every element of our public worship of God is pervaded with doctrine and theology. Our worship is an encounter with, and a response to, the presence of the living God who has made himself known to us. As Calvin puts it, "The beginning and perfection of lawful worship is a readiness to obey". It is the revelation of God in his word that forms the basis for all true worship; and when we are willing to obey the voice of God speaking to us and revealing himself to us in the Bible, then we can worship him aright.

In order to examine this relationship between doctrine and doxology, between faith and worship, we will look at several important biblical passages, and then draw some conclusions from them.

(1) Genesis 4 -- Cain and Abel

One of the interesting features of the Cain and Abel story is the way in which the events of Genesis 4 parallel those of Chapters 2-3. Just as Adam is created to work the ground (2:5,8,9), so Cain tills the ground (4:2). In both cases, God comes to a judicial decision (regarding Adam in 2:17 and Cain in 4:5) which is followed by wilful rebellion and God's interrogation of Adam in 3:9 and Cain in 4:9. This results in God's curse on the ground stated in both instances (3:17-19 and 4:10-12), mitigated in Adam's case by God clothing him (3:21) and in Cain's by God marking him (4:14-15). Both Adam and Cain are then expelled from their respective locations (3:23; 4:12,16), and the stories conclude with father and son 'knowing' their wives and conceiving children.

At the very least, the parallelism is literary, but the close connection of the two stories is a reminder of how the whole race of mankind, descended from Adam, fell in him and with him, and of how rapidly sin spread in human life and behaviour. As Geerhardus Vos puts it, "We have here a story of rapid degeneration". Yet we have here also a story of covenant grace, for in the costly piety and obedience of Abel we have a striking instance of light shining in a dark place. Genesis 4:4-5 simply states that God accepted the worship of Abel and rejected that of Cain. The reason for this judicial decision is not given, for the narrative wishes to concentrate on its results. There has been much speculation on what it was about these offerings that led to God's judgements regarding them, and perhaps the silence of the narrative is itself a commentary. There are some things only God can see, and that only God can know. We are reminded in Matthew 23:35 of the righteousness of Abel, and in Hebrews 12:24 of the fact that his offering in some sense prefigured that of Jesus Christ. But the most telling commentary on the passage is in Hebrews 11:4, where we read that "by faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead."

In Hebrews 11 we are reminded that faith provides us with testimony to the being and nature of God (verses 1-3) and that without faith we cannot please God (v6). In the case of Abel, therefore, the status of the offerer was more important than that of the offering; and the acceptance of Abel's worship was not the automatic result of what he offered, but of the way in which he offered it. God's acceptance of his offering was not inherent in the gift, but in the giver. Whatever knowledge of God Abel had, and whatever the status of the special revelation he possessed, his worship was accepted because it was a faith-response to God, oriented in a God-direction. Abel's theology informed his worship; what was given to God had originally come from God.

(2) Exodus 24 -- The Ratification of the Mosaic Covenant

Much study has been done on the form criticism of the Gospels, and on the question of why the evangelists have given us a life of Christ in its canonical form. Some interesting work has been done recently suggesting that the Book of Exodus provides a formal framework whose pattern is replicated in the Gospel narratives. The way in which the events of the life of Christ are selectively chosen in order to bring us to the climactic moment of covenant ratification at Calvary, parallels very closely the selective and judicious telling of the Moses story which leads to the climactic events at Sinai. As God brings his congregation to the holy mountain, history gives way to speech, and the covenant community is both identified and authenticated by the giving of law. The heart of the law is in the moral code of the ten commandments, subsequently written by God's own finger (Exodus 31:18). The manner and preservation of these commandments is an important testimony to their abiding, permanent quality. They were given for all time, as the guardians of the covenant and of covenant blessing. While Christ's sacrificial death and official obedience brought the ceremonies and sacrifices to a conclusion, the moral law of the ten commandments was never abrogated. This has profound implications for Christians today, not least in the question of Sabbath-keeping.

Exodus 24, however, has a direct bearing on our theme of theology and worship. As part of the covenant-ratification ceremony of Sinai, it stands midway between the giving of various laws and the specific regulations for the construction of the tabernacle, where God's glory, which caused Sinai to shake, could dwell among the children of Israel. The book of the covenant (24:7) was read to the people, while the blood of the covenant (24:8) was sprinkled upon them. Moses and the elders of Israel had an audience with the King, the Sovereign covenant-maker, and Moses tarried on the mountain for almost six weeks (24:18). The whole episode is striking, not least for the special role and privilege afforded to Moses, and for the foundation laid in this chapter for important New Testament themes (such as the significance of the cup in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper).

Exodus 24 highlights the theme of God's covenant and his divine presence with his people. It also picks up on the promise of 3:12, given to Moses as the bush burned before him: "when you (singular) have brought the people out of Egypt, you (plural) will worship God on this mountain". Redemption was for worship, and Mount Sinai becomes a focal point for the worship of the covenant God. Moses and the elders of Israel are called to approach God and to worship (24:1, 9-11). It was a place of sacrifice and offering (24:5) as the people responded to the word of God (4:3). The eating and drinking of 24:11 is an important feature of the worship of God, symbolising the ratification of the covenant by a covenant meal. The event was such that although the Sinai theophany posed a threat of death to any who approached the mountain (19:12), the nobles of Israel were safe on this occasion (24:11).

The whole scene is one of worship. In a study of this passage, John Hilber says that "In Exodus 24 worship is response to the covenant relationship, which is characterised by God's presence, defined by his word and mediated through sacrifice". The worship was initiated by God, and was at his invitation. It involved his self-revelation through the words of the law, and a commitment of the people to listen to these words. Integral elements included sacrifice and communal fellowship, the climax of the whole being the presence of God with his covenant people. As Hilber demonstrates in his exegesis of the passage, the worship scene of Exodus 24 picks up on earlier themes and anticipates later ones. His conclusion is that "perhaps it is too much to say that Exodus 24 is paradigmatic for worship. But the definition of worship that emerges from it can provide central categories for thinking about Christian worship in all ages that is in spirit and in truth".

(3) The Book of Psalms

The Psalter functioned as an important liturgical manual of praise within the Old Testament Church. Although there are hymnic compositions in other parts of the Old Testament, the fact that one book of Holy Scripture is dedicated to providing materials of praise is an important consideration. No less important, however, is what the Psalms tell us about the nature of worship, quite apart from their use in worship.

In the Book of Psalms, the Temple is the focal point for worship. Psalm 84:1ff expresses delight and love for the courts of God's dwelling-place, and Psalm 122:1ff speaks of the joy experienced on receiving an invitation to attend Temple worship. By extension, Jerusalem becomes a focus of special interest, since the Lord has chosen it as his own special dwelling-place (Psalm 76:1-2; Psalm 132:13). This focus on worship as a meeting with God echoes the emphasis of the Sinai theophany, and clarifies for us that the heart of the covenant of grace is the fact that God dwells among his people. The delight of God's people in the House and City of God is an important element in the worship of ancient Israel. As William Binnie, in his excellent treatment of the theology of the Psalms puts it,

The Lord had promised that in every place where he recorded his name he would come to his people and bless them (Exodus 22:24). The ancient believers came expecting the fulfilment of the promise; and so far was their expectation from being disappointed that the psalms in which they expressed the holy satisfaction they experienced in attending on God's worship, remain to this hour the truest and most adequate expression of the feelings awakened in the souls of Christian worshippers when their hearts are made to burn within them by the tokens of Christ's presence in their assemblies.

Throughout the Psalms, it is evident that worship is a response to the majesty of God's being, and the glory of God's saving acts. So Psalm 29:2 exhorts us to "ascribe to the Lord the glory due to his name; worship the Lord in the splendour of his holiness" and Psalm 99:9 calls on us to "exalt the Lord our God and worship at his holy mountain, for the Lord our God is holy". The Psalms explore the being of God, weaving a rich poetic tapestry which celebrates the revelation of God as creator of all things (Psalm 19:1, 95:6, 121:2, 134:3, 146:6), provider of food (Psalm 65:9, 104:14, 111:5, 136:25, 145:15) and ruler over all things (Psalm 67:4). Interwoven throughout that tapestry is the thread of salvation, colouring the Psalter with a celebration of all that God has done to deliver his people from sin's dominion (see for example, Psalm 31:2, 40:13, 60:5, 71:3). The Psalms firmly ground this salvation within God's covenant promises (Psalm 89:3,34, 105:8-9, 111:5,9). Throughout the Psalter, therefore, the primary emphasis is upon what God has done and worship is a response to God's primary redemptive activity.

That being so, two things follow. First, the psalms speak of a very personal worship. The first person singular personal pronoun appears almost 1000 times in the Book of Psalms: sometimes God speaks, sometimes the Psalmist. The effect of the whole is to make us realise that worship is dialogue: God speaking to his people through his saving word and work, and his people responding in adoration, love and obedience. Worship flows from and builds upon a sense of personal possession (did Martin Luther not say that religion was a matter of personal pronouns?): God is MY shepherd (23:1), MY Saviour (25:5), MY light (27:1), MY rock (31:3) and so on. This personal religion is sometimes expressed in terms of grief, melancholy and even depression. Psalm 6:6 finds the Psalmist's bed awash with tears; Psalm 42:3 finds him feeding on his tears, while psalms like Psalm 88 find the psalmist in abject and disconsolate loneliness. To be sure, the psalms express confidence in the One who alone can deal with such desolate and downhearted feelings (cf. Psalm 43:5); but it ought to give us pause, in view of the exuberant "happy-clappy"-ness of much modern worship, that the Psalms often address God out of the heart of loneliness, darkness and despair. The realism of the personal religion of the psalms is also expressed in Psalm 51's deep confession of sin and Psalm 73's honest acknowledgement of doubt and envy. These are as vital to true worship as the exuberant calls of Psalms 149 or 150, and are a reminder to us that the grace of God is sufficient for every need. He has provided a rich and glorious salvation by grace, which flows out of the depths of his covenant. It is often argued that the Psalms belong to the worship of the older covenant, and therefore fall short as hymns celebrating the fulness of God's salvation. But, as Binnie puts it, "the Psalms tell another tale. They show that, from generation to generation the Spirit of God went on convincing men of sin; and that, when men were brought to repentance, the oracles and ordinances of the Lord were seen to be radiant with evangelical light". This is no less true for the future than it is for the present; in response to God's saving acts the psalms express a deeply personal future hope: "you guide me with your counsel, and afterwards you will take me into glory" (Psalm 73:24).

An important element in the Psalter is its ethical strain, echoing again the covenant ratification ceremony of Exodus, as well as the Cain and Abel story. Worship takes place within a covenant context, but a covenant by its very nature is bilateral. It may be imposed sovereignly, unconditionally and unilaterally (as the covenant of grace undoubtedly is), but it results in a relationship that is conditional and two-sided, imposing obligations and standards upon both parties. A marriage union allows for individual and personal fulfilment precisely by imposing limits on the behaviour and expressions of those who enter into it. Similarly, the covenant that joins God and his people enables piety to flourish and worship to grow precisely by a bilateral imposition of complementary standards. God, on his part, promises to be our God for ever (Psalm 48:14); we, as his worshippers and followers, pledge ourselves to him in uprightness, integrity and faithfulness (Psalm 7:8, 26:1, 41:12, 119:7, 143:10). And the blessings of the covenant are the portion of those who keep the covenant (Psalm 25:10, 103:18, 132:12). It is no surprise to find delight in God's law given frequent expression in the psalms, particularly in Psalms 19 and 119 (cf. also Psalm 1:2, 37:31, 40:8). God's law is the believer's love and his delight (Psalm 119:163, 174); he loves to obey God, and responds to God's salvation in obedience and dedication. Worship without this ethical impulse is poor indeed. Those who worship God aright do so on account of what God has done for them, and in order that they might continue to do something for him.

Secondly, the Psalms emphasise the desirability and the beauty of corporate worship. Although worship and piety are intensely personal, they express themselves in social worship. So we have expressions of "how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell in unity" (Psalm 133:1). We have the psalmist remembering with longing when he used to worship alongside God's people, and lamenting that he is no longer able to do so (Psalm 42:4; cf. Psalm 137:1). We have the corporate people of God recalling and recounting the deeds of God's salvation (Psalm 25:6, 77:10, 78:3-4), and rejoicing in the universal call and proclamation of the Gospel (Psalm 67:3-5, 72:17, 96:1-3). The covenant is the spring out of which the universal Gospel offer flows; and although the Old Testament saw the purposes of God joined in a particular way to Israel, the universal aspect of God's saving interest was there from the beginning (such as in Noah's prophecy of the Japhethite-Gentiles dwelling in Shem's tents in Genesis 9:27 and the Abrahamic promise of a seed to numerous to count in Genesis 12:3 and 15:5). It is expressed in the psalms too, such as in Psalm 98, which Binnie designates a "Millennial Anthem". The Psalms keep alive the missionary spirit which fires evangelical mission in every age and generation. Christ's great commission to the church in Matthew 20:18-20 (which bring together our worship of the risen Christ, our discipleship in his name, and our missionary task) is rooted in the covenant promises of the Old Testament, expressed in psalms which anticipate the reign of the Prince of Peace in the lives of men, families and nations.

It is often alleged against the exclusive use of the psalms in worship that they contain no explicit trinitarianism, and that they never invoke the name of Jesus. It is doubtful, however, whether modern worship songs have as robust a theology undergirding them as the psalms do; and it is doubtful too whether the charge that the Psalms are pre-incarnational does adequate justice to the fact that they are embedded in the Bible's unfolding revelation of the covenant of grace. It is, after all, the covenant which supplies the Bible with its unity; and the fact that the Psalms are cited so often in the New Testament in passages which demonstrate clearly their messianic import shows that it is ignorant in the extreme to say that Jesus is absent from the Psalter (cf the citation of Psalm 16:10 in Acts 13:35 or Psalm 45:6 in Hebrews 1:8, to name but two examples). So Binnie: "if a man reject the eternal Godhead of Christ, he must either lay the Psalms aside or sing them with bated breath". References to the Spirit in the Psalter (such as at Psalm 51:11 or 104:30) are also indicators that the doctrine of the Trinity is not absent from the Psalter, and that the Psalms anticipate and are to be used in the light of the fuller revelation of the New Testament.

Thus the Psalter not only provides materials for worship: it also teaches us about the nature of worshipping the living and true God. It reminds us that worship is covenantal, that it is a response to the revelation of God in nature and in grace, that it appreciates the totality of God's gracious salvation, that it bears the fruit of holiness in ethical living, and that it anticipates and authenticates missionary evangelism to the ends of the earth. The Psalms also remind us of the fact that true worship does not deny or ignore our feelings. Modern praise songs might say that "now I am happy all the day", but the Psalms do not force us into a false exterior posture. They bring us to the God of the covenant, whatever our situation may be, and they enable us to worship him in the knowledge that he knows us as none other can, and he is able to lead us in his everlasting way (Psalm 139:1,23-4).

(4) Ezekiel 46

The theme of worship is taken up often in the prophetic literature. As critics of the cultus, the prophets often warn against a worship which is spurious and lacks reality and depth (cf. Isaiah 29:13, Jeremiah 7:2ff), and also prophesy of a coming day when true worship will emanate from Jerusalem and will involve all the nations (cf. Isaiah 2:1-4 = Micah 4:1-4; Isaiah 29:21; Malachi 1:11). The solemn note which is registered in some of these predictions is that men will worship God in response to his judgements, and not simply to his grace. So Zephaniah 2:11: "The LORD will be awesome to them when he destroys all the gods of the land. The nations on every shore will worship him, every one in its own land". Worship is the result of God's direct activity in human life, whether in grace or in judgement; men will praise him for his mercy, and they will praise him for his justice. The reality of his being, and the righteousness of his actions lead to his praise. The God of Israel, the God of the covenant, who intervenes in the affairs of men and nations, will make his influence known throughout the world, and he will be honoured. It is on this basis that Israel becomes a light to the nations, as the Old Testament lays the foundation for the missionary activity of the New Testament church.

The prophet Ezekiel emphasises the theme of true worship restored in chapter 46. The land which has been ravaged by invading armies, and from which the glory departed (10:18) will not be utterly left by God. Ezekiel's complex vision of the glory of God in chapter 1 lays the foundation for the book's theology, central to which is the majesty of the living God. Having joined himself to Israel in a unique marriage-covenant, a point came where the only way in which the divine husband could save the marriage was to walk out temporarily. But the glory has now returned, and Ezekiel sees true worship restored. He sees that "on the Sabbaths and new moons the people of the land are to worship in the presence of the Lord" (46:3), and there is a restoration of the feasts and the festivals of the covenant. But in the visionary material of chapter 47 there is a development: an ever-flowing and steadily rising river emanates from the temple, healing the land and even bringing life into the Dead Sea itself (47:8-9). The land will enjoy rest and be possessed by the tribes of Israel, and God himself will be present (48:35).

It is this prophecy which Jesus appropriates to himself in John 7:37-9. He is the temple, from whom the life-giving water and the healing streams of Holy Spirit power will flow. The worship of the New Testament is linked, through the climactic work of the Saviour, to the Old Testament form. The spiritualising of the Old covenant ritual is further developed by Paul, with his emphasis on the believer as temple (2 Corinthians 6:16 -- "we are the temple of the living God"), as well as by John in the Apocalypse, with his vision of a worship of the Lamb in the midst of the throne untrammelled by any mediation.

The prophecy of Ezekiel, therefore, is a reminder of God's intention to secure true, spiritual worship. In spite of the exegetical difficulties of the passage (who, for example, is the 'prince' of 46:2ff who will lead God's people in worship?), the emphasis is clear: "Everything serves one end: the worship of God in a reverent, orderly fashion". Daniel Block elaborates:

...the glorious fact remains: in his grace Yahweh not only invites the worship of mortals; he reveals to them activities that guarantee acceptance with him and appoints officials whom he will receive on their behalf. The alienation of the past is over. Ezekiel's vision of daily, weekly and monthly rituals proclaims the continuing grace of a deity at peace with his people.

The living God, who has chastised his people with his temporary absence, now gloriously and graciously returns. The door is open for communion and fellowship, for worship and service. The renewal of true worship is evidence of God's faithfulness.

(5) Ezra 3

This theme is given practical illustration in Ezra 3, with its account of the post-exilic community at worship. Professor Poythress sets the context of this worship not only in the post-exilic fortunes of Judah, but in the unfolding of the history of redemption. He argues that at each climactic deliverance within that redemptive history, the same pattern emerges: "(a) a deliverance from the bondage of the oppressor, (b) a house-building, and (c) an ordering of worship by the word of God". Thus, after Moses delivers Israel from Egypt (Exodus 3-14), God brings his people to Sinai, and gives them regulations for the construction of the tabernacle (Exodus 25-27; 36-38) and for the observation of worship (Exodus 28-9). When David secures rest for his people (1 Samuel 17), house-building soon commences with the construction of Solomon's temple (1 Chronicles 28) and the worship of the temple (1 Chronicles 16). Now, God has secured rest for Israel from the bondage of exile, and the temple will be re-constructed (Ezra 5:1-2) and worship is dominant (Ezra 3).

Several interesting points emerge in this chapter. First, the worship of the post-exilic community is regulated by what was "written in the law of Moses the man of God" (Ezra 3:2). As a new chapter opens in the experience of God's church and in the unfolding of God's historico-redemptive revelation, the people are taken back to first principles, back to the stipulations of the written text of the books of Moses. In his commentary on Ezra and Nehemiah, Derek Kidner makes the pertinent observation that God had promised in a unique way to meet with his people at the altar in Exodus 29:43, and it is no surprise either that the newly delivered people should wish to approach God at an altar of worship, or that they were careful to observe the details of the law in respect of its construction. There is no doubt that having seen God in action in their experience, their desire was to worship him.

Second, it is clear that the community had a mind to do so. Their willingness to worship and offer to the Lord is emphasised in 3:5. The worship was regulated by the Word, but grew out of a willing and a ready heart.

Third, the priestly activity was crucial to the worship of God. It was the priests and the Levites who encouraged the work of the house of the Lord to progress. This priestly function is important, because without it there can be no access to God. The contribution of Leviticus to Old Testament theology is to emphasise the importance of priestly functions, which in turn undergirds the New Testament emphasis on the sacerdotal work of Jesus Christ. We can come to the throne of grace with boldness precisely because we too have 'a great high priest' (Hebrews 4:14-16).

Fourth, the singing of the people is given particular prominence (Ezra 3:11). Voices were lifted up in praise of the mercy and the covenant faithfulness of the living God. No-one was silent. The company was one in which emotions were mixed; but the wistful memories of an older generation and the joyful anticipation of a younger generation blended together in holy song and in glorious praise of the covenant God. Whatever Ezra 3 teaches us, it reminds us that old and young must worship together in the service of God's house.

Worshipping the Living God: Some Considerations

It would be simple merely to conclude that worship is a response to the saving work of God in Christ. But the essential nature of worship goes much deeper. Worship is bound up with the being and the nature of God, as well as with his saving activity in the world. In the passages we have looked at (all from the Old Testament, since another paper is to deal with the transition from Old Testament to New), the worshipping community, the church, is brought into communion and fellowship with God by covenant. It is that relationship that determines the response: what God is determines how we relate to him. And from Sinai through to post-exilic Jerusalem, the emphasis is upon the greatness of the living God, the Creator of all the earth, the Redeemer of his people, the Holy One of Israel, who causes Sinai to tremble and the earth to shake, who remains sovereign, and yet invades history in order to deliver His people from the bondage of sin. This God is the object of the worship of his people; and his greatness is what determines the contours of their worship.

What, therefore, is worship? It is, first, evidence of the greatness of the living God. The natural proclivity of the human heart is to self-worship and self-glory. In Romans 1:18-32, Paul delivers his indictment upon the human race in the bondage of sin. In spite of the evidence all around, in general revelation, of God's divine nature, power and glory, mankind refuses to acknowledge the Creator and refuses to worship him as such: "although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened ... they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator -- who is for ever praised" (1:21, 25). The one thing that natural man will not do is praise and worship his God. It is easier for him, and more attractive to him, to serve created images or natural phenomena than to praise the God who made all things.

So that when man does actually worship God, and honour and praise him, there is evidence of grace at work. The living God has come in power and with saving grace to transform hearts and lives, bringing men to the altar of worship through the saving, priestly activity of the Lord Jesus Christ. As Paul says to the Thessalonian believers: "you turned to God from idols to serve (lit. 'worship') the living and true God" (1 Thessalonians 1:9). The sin that blinded and enslaved has been overcome by the grace that illuminates and liberates. The worship at Sinai was evidence of the exodus from Egypt, fulfilment of the promise of God to Moses in Exodus 3:12 -- "And God said, 'I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you (plural) will worship God on this mountain'". The activity of worship was an authentication of the call of Moses.

It seems to me that we often fail to do justice to the apologetic and evidential aspect of worship. Worship is the result of redemption. It is testimony to the reality of God and to the power of grace. It transforms a man's pre-occupation with himself into a pre-occupation with God. And the fact that believers join together in the worship of God evidences that God is there, and that God is living and powerful. To put it in Christological terms, when a Christian community gathers together for worship, Jesus sees the travail of his soul, and is satisfied (Isaiah 53:11, NKJV). He points to the church at worship and says, "I did that".

Second, worship is a response to the greatness of the living God. It is the impulse of the faith that cries out, "Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgements, and his paths beyond tracing out! ... For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory for ever! Amen" (Romans 11:33,36). Time and again we are furnished with exhortations to worship God which are drawn on the nature and being of God. What he is, and what he is like, furnish reasons for worshipping him: "Great is the LORD, and most worthy of praise" (Psalm 48:1; "Exalt the LORD our God and worship at his holy mountain, for the LORD our God is holy" (Psalm 99:9); "I am a Hebrew and I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land" (Jonah 1:9).

That response is characterised, first, by reverence. The angels veil their faces as they sing of God's holiness (Isaiah 6:2); John falls prostrate before the vision of the Son of Man (Revelation 1:17). But it is also characterised by boldness. We call the Holy One of Israel 'Father' (Romans 8:15), and we come to his throne of grace with boldness (Hebrews 4:16). Our worship must be marked out both by reverence and joy, solemnity and freedom. We respond to the glory of God in praise and worship, all the time conscious of our smallness in his presence, and yet marvelling at the kind of love with which God has loved us, characterising us as his own children (1 John 3:1).

Third, worship is determined by the greatness of the living God. There is never a point, in the whole development of redemptive history, at which God's people are left alone to decide how their God is to be worshipped. At Sinai, detailed, prescriptive regulations are given in order that God might be worshipped aright. After the exile, the worshipping community defers to these written precepts. And while the temptation exists to be content with an outward form of worship (such as Paul condemns at Colossians 2:23, in his polemic against regulations which have "an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body"), nonetheless our worship is still to be in truth (John 4:24). As 1 Corinthians 14:23 puts it (in a passage dealing with contentious worship-issues in Corinth), "the spirits of prophets are subject to the control of prophets". The touchstone of all worship elements, principles and practice, is the voice of God speaking in the Scripture. We have, as the Westminster Shorter Catechism puts it, "no other rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy God" (Question 2).

In Reformed thought, this has come to be known as the regulative principle. If God is truly sovereign, then he is not only to be worshipped because he is sovereign, he is also sovereign over his own worship. While the first commandment demands that he alone be made our supreme object of adoration and veneration, the second requires that we worship him in the way he has appointed. That means that what Scripture requires of us we must do; and, conversely, that all the elements of our worship must be justifiable from Scripture. In a helpful booklet on Reformed Worship: Worship that is according to Scripture, Terry Johnson reminds us that in applying the regulative principle we must distinguish between the necessary elements of worship, the variable form of worship, and the diverse circumstances of our worship. Thus while prayer is a necessary element, written prayer or extempore prayer is a variable form, and prayers may be offered in many different circumstances (sitting or standing, with or without a microphone etc.). The regulative principle does not mean that we have express scriptural warrant for every possible question; consistency in its application means that we will recognise "the important distinctions between elements, which require scriptural sanction (by command, example or implication), freedom in forms, and common sense in circumstances. Thus elements of worship will include praise, prayer, Scripture reading and exposition, benediction and offering, in a form relevant to the culture and time in which we minister, and in circumstances conducive to the good of the whole body of the Church.

The regulative principle asks a basic question about worship: who is the target audience? Do we meet for worship in order to 'get something' for ourselves? Do we meet for worship in order to evangelise? If we emphasise the former, we run the risk of exalting our own traditional comfort zones above the Word of God. If we over-emphasise the latter, we run the risk of ordering and packaging our worship with the sole aim of attracting consumers. In both cases we will have forgotten that our worship is primarily to glorify God. And while we may enjoy a blessing in our souls as a result, and while our worship must be relevant and contemporary, it must always defer to the authority of God himself, and the self-disclosure of his word.

At one level, of course, the regulative principle is much broader than the practice of worship. The whole of the Christian life is regulated by the Word of God. And precisely because there is no area of life over which God in Christ is not to have complete and final authority, our worship must conform to what his word requires. Worship becomes, therefore, an expression of willing, loving subjection to the living God whom we worship. A desire to have our worship regulated by God is an expression of submission to him, and an indication of the way in which we wish our lives to be lived -- in obedience to God, deferring continually to his mind and his will.

Fourthly, worship is a discovery of the greatness of the living God. As the Word of God is expounded and preached, and as the praises of God are articulated in song, so God's people learn more of the nature of the God to whom their worship is offered. This cognitive function of worship is important. To know God is eternal life (John 17:3). Worship is an expression of love, and we are to love with our mind (Matthew 22:37). If song is integral to worship, then we are reminded of the importance of singing with understanding (1 Corinthians 14:15), and of the use of song to teach, admonish and counsel one another: Colossians 3:16 asks that we "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your heart to God." In this connection it is important to note the use that Hebrews 2:12 makes of Psalm 22:22: in a passage devoted to the finality of the prophetic ministry of Christ, the writer to the Hebrews understands the reference to singing in Psalm 22:22 to be fulfilled in Jesus: he 'sings' the word of God as the prophet who makes God known to us.

But, supremely, it is through the preaching of the Word that such discovery of the greatness of the living God occurs, as the glory of the living God and the claims of the living Christ, by the power of the living Spirit, are brought home upon the listeners. John Piper of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, explores this theme in an interesting article on "Preaching as Worship: Meditations on Expository Exultation". One of Dr Piper's main concerns is that while worship songs have tended to move in a God-ward direction, he believes that preaching has moved in the opposite direction, more concerned with contemporary issues and personal problems than with exposition of the biblical text. I mention his thesis here because it will, I think, give food for thought to those of us who are called to preach, and who often preach within the context of public worship. Dr Piper is concerned that the church has failed to be stirred by the revelation of God in Scripture: while preachers want to engage the hearts and affections of their listeners through preaching in the same way as jazzy singing moves people, the general tendency for preachers is to deal with issues which are already emotive. So Piper:

"What gets preachers' juices flowing is a new psychological angle on family dysfunction; a new strategy for mobilizing lay people; a new tactic for time management; a fresh approach to dealing with depression; an empathetic focus on his own resentments and pain and anger after years of being beat up by carnal Christians. But not a book about God. Not the infinite expanse of God's character. Not the inexhaustible riches of the glory of God in Christ."

Piper believes that it is not enough simply to preach on contemporary issues on the basis of an underlying sense of God. It is not enough to have 'God in the basement', as he puts it:

"If we want to beget worship through preaching we have to bring the glory of God up out of the basement and put it in the window. We have to stop speaking in vague, passing generalizations about God's glory and begin to describe the specific contours of his perfections. The task of the sermon week in and week out is to help our people bring into sharp focus a fresh picture of why God is the all-satisfying Treasure of their lives. People are seldom moved by vague allusions to the greatness of God. They need to see some particular, concrete, stunning representation of his greatness -- some fresh angle on an old glory, that makes people say with Paul: I count everything as loss for the surpassing value of knowing this Christ."

There is no doubt that it is necessary to recover the centrality of preaching to the worship of the church. If the church is the covenant community, then the worship of that community will only arise out of an appreciation of the originator, Head and Mediator of that covenant. And we can only know the living God into whose fellowship we have been called (1 Corinthians 1:9) as we uncover the riches and depths of his word to us. As ministers and preachers, we are not only called to lead in worship. We are called to preach, and thus to declare, by exposition of the revelation of God in the Bible, the glories and excellencies of Him who is the object of all our adoration, worship and praise.

Fifth, worship ought to be characterised by interaction with the greatness of the living God. In other words, we ought to experience communion with God in worship. As John Owen puts it, the aim of all our study of doctrine, and the aim of preaching in worship ought to be communion with God: "when not the sense of the words only is in our heads, but the sense of the things abides in our hearts -- when we have communion with God in the doctrine we contend for -- then shall we be garrisoned by the grace of God against all the assaults of men". Doctrine is essential to worship, and communion is on the basis of doctrine. Owen develops this further in his treatise "Of Communion with God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost" (Works, Volume 2). In the course of his treatise, Owen exegetes passages which demonstrate that believers have communion with each of the Persons of the Godhead, just as these Persons have communion with one another within the Trinity. Owen brings the treatise to a conclusion by reminding us that "the proper and peculiar object of divine worship and invocation is the essence of God, in its infinite excellency, dignity, majesty and its causality, as the first sovereign cause of all things". He then suggests that "the Scripture so fully, frequently, clearly, distinctly ascribing the things we have been speaking of to the immediate efficiency of the Holy Ghost, faith closeth with him in the truth revealed, and peculiarly regards him, worships him, serves him, waits for him, prayeth to him, praiseth him ... The person of the Holy Ghost, revealing itself in these operations and effects, is the peculiar object of our worship".

Modern Charismatic and neo-Pentecostal experience has tended to make the Holy Spirit subject, rather than object, in worship. Stress is laid on the experience of Holy Spirit power, and its supposed manifestation in various phenomena, particularly in tongue-speaking. But there is surely a need to recover a sense of God, in the fulness of the Trinity, as the object of our worship, revealed to us in the words of Scripture, and the words as channels of blessing to our soul. There is no easy road to Gospel holiness. Our calling is to meditate on God's word day and night (Psalm 1:2; 119:19), and to be filled with the Spirit by meditating on the words the Holy Spirit teaches (1 Corinthians 2:13). Then, with our minds filled with the truth, our hearts moved by it, and our wills captive to it, we will experience communion with God in our souls and in our corporate worship.

This ought to colour our view of 'revival', and particularly of the place of worship and preaching in revival. In 1934 a revival took place in Carloway, in the Isle of Lewis. One of those converted at that time, Rev Murdo Macaulay, a former minister of my own congregation, writes: "The work of the Holy Spirit was from then on progressing steadily but calmly, with little external excitement, except the eager attention with which young and old listened to the preaching of the Word". It was the same in the Great Awakening in Jonathan Edwards' New England: "the holy Bible is in much greater esteem and use than before. The great things contained in it are much more regarded as things of the greatest consequence, and are much more the subjects of meditation and conversation". The ordinary means of grace -- Bible reading, preaching, praise -- were heightened when the Holy Spirit came anew with revival power.

Some of us may never have experienced such revival in our own congregations. But surely the knowledge of what the Lord may do for us ought to make us more diligent in what we must do for him, as we gather together in the company of the saints each Lord's Day. We worship the living God -- Father, Son and Holy Spirit. As we read, sing and meditate on the truth of Holy Scripture, so the Word will illuminate and affect, will challenge and counsel, will rebuke and chasten, will encourage and strengthen. And as it does, so we encounter the living God in our worship. So Edwards again:

In divine ordinances, persons have immediate intercourse with God, either in applying to him, as in prayer and singing praises, or in receiving from him, waiting solemnly and immediately on him for spiritual good, as in hearing the word; or in both applying to God and receiving from him, as in the sacraments. They were appointed on purpose that in them men might converse and hold communion with God. We are poor, ignorant, blind worms of the dust; and God did not see it meet that our way of intercourse with God should be left to ourselves; but God hath given us ordinances, as ways and means of conversing with him.

Which brings me, finally, to this: that worship is an expression of longing for the greatness of the living God to be understood, discovered and known in Christian experience. True worship awakens a sense of need and dependence coupled with yearning and desire. God's people ought to worship in God's house because that is where they long to be. If our worship is truly Bible-based, Christ-centred and Spirit-led, then the people of God will want to be there. The dynamic of worship is experienced when the God who longs to bless meets a people who long to worship through his servants who long to preach. And in that context, problems and cares will be cast on the living God. Practical issues will be resolved through exposure to God's word. Illumination and understanding will come. The preacher's personality is not the determining factor, although it is not an irrelevant factor. The being of God, in his glorious trinitarian fullness, revealed to us bodily in Christ Jesus (Colossians 2:9), will determine our worship. He is its object, and through it covenant blessings will be channelled to his people. Undoubtedly worship is what we offer to God. It cannot be less than that. But it must be much, much more. For the covenant that binds God to his people is bilateral and reciprocal, and the living God meets his own at the point at which they wait on him in adoration and praise. Little wonder that the psalmist said:

My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God? (Psalm 42:2).

May that be our experience as we worship the living God among his people week by week!

ŠIain D. Campbell 2002