CHAPTER 2

THE CREATURE WORSHIPS

Hallelujah!

~ Psalm 150 (HCSB)

On May 27, 2009, the world’s largest worship venue opened in Arlington, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. With close to 30,000 parking spaces, the ability to hold 110,000 people, a state-of-the-art sound system, and a gigantic center-hung, high-definition television screen that measures 160 x 72 feet, it is the perfect location to gather, sing, shout, cry, clap, and feel the energy that occurs when that many souls come together with the same hope in mind.

What church does this massive edifice belong to? It must be the Baptists or charismatics, right? Who else has that kind of coin? No, the owner of this $1.33 billion monster in Arlington with its retractable roof and almost limitless possibilities for usage is none other than Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys. And all year long, whether for a concert, motocross event, tractor pull, or football game, men and women flood into the stadium ready to support and cheer on their favorite team, band, or player. They’ve come for one reason and one reason alone. They have come to . . . rejoice!

Rejoice is a simple yet serious word, meaning to celebrate, cheer, exult, or delight in. One synonym for rejoice is worship, and we were each created by God to do so, hardwired by our Creator for it. And thus, even those men and women who don’t enjoy worshipping their Maker can sometimes be seen with their bodies painted in team colors, becoming emotionally affected for hours, sometimes days, by how the game went on a particular Saturday or Sunday, or Monday night, or Thursday night. They’re ready for worship any day of the week—morning, noon, or evening. But, their hearts are yielded to lesser things.

Because we humans are worshippers, we are rejoicers. It’s what we do. Every single person, whether religious or irreligious, actively worships. They have identified something bigger than themselves that they believe is worthy of their money, time, and the meditations of their hearts. In many ways, they have offered themselves as sacrifices to that “something,” whatever it is. It comes naturally to them. Easily. Enjoyably.

But in our sinfulness, this tendency to worship things other than God is an exercise in disappointment. It offers us nothing but temporary satisfaction while simultaneously bringing down God’s judgment upon us (Eccl. 11:9). Since we are worshippers by God’s design, the problem is not that we rejoice but rather that we rejoice wrongly. In the book of Romans, Paul writes:

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. . . . They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served something created instead of the Creator who is forever praised. (Rom. 1:21–23, 25 ESV and HCSB)

Simply put, we prefer creation to the Creator.

So in essence, sin is a fundamental failure to rejoice in what we should rejoice in. Our worship has to be redeemed and rescued from futile things. Rather than rejoicing in our Creator—the Creator of all that exists—we rejoice in and serve shallow, temporary things that are here one moment and gone the next. The reason some of us swing from elation to despair so easily is that we rejoice wrongly. Our worshipping is in the wrong place. We spend too much of our energy and vitality on the wrong thing.

Yet God, because He created us for worship, pursues our worship. The first commandment listed in the Ten Commandments is God instructing His people to worship only Him. He said to the Jewish people in Exodus 20 (with major implications to all of us):

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.” (vv. 2–5 NIV)

Out of slavery. Delivered into freedom. By His own gracious hand.

Sounds a lot like the gospel, doesn’t it.

Prior to giving the command to have “no other gods,” God reminded the people who He is and what He has done. His demand and desire for worship were based on His character and the fact that He had rescued these people from bondage. He was worthy, He said, of their rejoicing in Him.

Martin Luther articulated that the first commandment appears first because it is the foundation for all the other commandments. He said that if we keep the first commandment, we will keep all the others. And if we break another commandment, it is because we have already broken the first commandment.1 For example, if you break the commandment to “not give false testimony,” it is because you have rejoiced in something other than God, something that seems worthy of your lies. If you break the commandment not to covet, you have first elevated the thing you are coveting as the object of your affection. You have made it your god. Luther wrote, “Under every behavioral sin is the sin of idolatry.”2 When we sin, we are ultimately worshipping something other than God, placing an idol on the throne of our lives.

We tend to think of idolatry as expressing adoration to false gods, bowing down to carved, graven images. Perhaps when you hear the word idolatry, you conjure up images of people in distant lands singing and dancing before their statues. And that is certainly part of it. But idolatry is more relevant to us and our own experiences than we like to believe. Puritan pastor David Clarkson, in his sermon entitled “Soul Idolatry,” identified the presence of external idols (those we outwardly bow to) and inward idols (those we revere in our heart).3 Our inward idols—be they greed, lust, prestige, or whatever—are the ones that are most offensive to God because He is ultimately concerned about who we are on the inside. He insists on being the center of our hearts, the One in whom we rejoice.

Throughout this chapter, we’ll look at this issue of Jesus-centered worship by taking notes from Jesus’ encounter with the woman at the well in John 4, where He begins to reveal the barriers that keep us from genuine, soul-satisfying, awe-inspiring, eternal worship of God. By the Spirit’s power, may we learn to avoid the pitfalls of lifeless, manipulative worship, or of leading our people into worship based on anything less than gospel realities. May we realize more clearly Who we worship, why He calls us to worship, and how we can achieve greater freedom as a church in expressing our worship.

Barrier #1: The Wrong Wells

The Samaritan woman had a question or two for Jesus when He offered her a taste of water more refreshing and long lasting than the water that came from this particular well. “Are You greater than Jacob?” she seemed to say. “Are You too good for this well? Jacob and his sons drank from this well. Aren’t You a Jew? The livestock of Your people for generations have drunk from this well. All that Israel was built upon drank from this well. Are You better than that?”

Truth is, Jesus basically said, there were flaws with this well. “It doesn’t work long-term. It only helps for a moment, then you have to come back for more.” The contrast was simple: her well never quenched her thirst for long; His well, however, would satisfy forever. Then as now, drinking from the wrong well becomes a serious problem of supply and demand.

In our Western culture, we consistently dip our buckets into three wells that promise to leave us feeling satisfied. And even though we know they’re lying to us—every time—we keep coming back, hoping against hope they’ll finally be telling us the truth.

The most predominant is the well of money and comfort. Not just money, because very few people hoard money just for money’s sake. It’s money and comfort.

New stuff is nice. Almost intoxicating, isn’t it? We feel an emotive response to trinkets and toys, to new gadgets and gear. But especially in our day and age, when new becomes old very, very quickly, the high of a new purchase barely has time to wear off before we want to feed it something newer. So we go from trinket to toy, to trinket to toy, from new thing to new thing. We keep drawing from that well. It feels good for a second. Those new clothes, that new house, that new car, whatever we collect. Everything that’s unsettled in our soul feels settled for a moment. But deep inside, we know we’re holding the stuff of future garage sales. We know we’re drinking sand. The well of money and comfort always does that to us. It’s never enough.

The second is the well of relationships and sex. These desires, of course, are not intrinsically evil or wrong. Like money and comfort, they are gifts from a good God. But like everything, they can steer us off track when we elevate them beyond what God created them for, when the gifts become gods.

That’s what we’ve done with sex and relationships. We have perverted these blessings from God, the Author and Creator of these gifts, and have elevated them beyond their assigned place, leaving nothing for ourselves but heartache and disappointment.

We simply ask too much of our relationships. Women—you’ll never find a man who completes you. Regardless of what the TV shows and movies promise you, no one can fix what’s broken in your heart. If you had a man who thought of nothing but you, how to romance you, how to love and encourage you, you would still be empty. If you came home every day to rose petals on the floor, a house your husband had cleaned while you were away, his chiseled physique leaning over the changing table finishing up the care of another dirty diaper, you would eventually think, “Gah, why does he keep doing this with the roses? Does he think I’m an idiot? He doesn’t think I can even change a diaper?” You’d begin to wish he would be somebody else, would do things differently.

No man is enough. You need a Savior.

And men—if you came home each evening to a woman who was skimpily dressed, presenting you a platter with a freshly grilled steak, having sequestered the kids to their rooms so you could watch football uninterrupted till bedtime, you would still be empty if you thought you could find all your satisfaction in her . . . because your heart is broken. And over time, you would begin to fantasize about a salad and some other woman.

She can’t fix you. No woman can. You need a Savior. None of us can go to this well expecting to find the answers to our deepest thirsts.

A third empty well we commonly employ is that of respect and success. We want approval. We want acceptance. We want other people to look at us and be impressed by what they see. We want to be pointed to as the example. We want to be shown respect. We feel like we are entitled to it. We love this well.

But that little pat on the back from other people is fleeting. The same guy who pats you on the back today will turn around and stab you in the back tomorrow. The encouragement we received from that girlfriend of ours will quickly turn into gossip about our weaknesses. This well just doesn’t hold up.

When Jesus extended the offer of water that would quench thirst once and for all, He was offering us affirmation, acceptance, and approval that goes far beyond what any human can give. What more affirmation do we need than the cross of Jesus Christ? How insignificant is a “good job, buddy,” compared to the fact that God, knowing the absolute truth about you and your motivations, died on the cross for you. Man can approve and accept you without any knowledge of your motives. He may never spot the shady, sinful, selfish motives that lead you to perform your “good deeds.” But God knows your wicked heart. And still, He died on the cross for you.

That’s gospel truth.

That’s worship material.

Your approval before God is woven into the life and sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross, not what other men and women think about you. In fact, living your life trying to please them becomes a form of slavery. Jesus went so far as to warn us, “Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets” (Luke 6:26 ESV). “Be nervous,” He was sort of saying, “if everyone loves you. They persecuted Me, and they persecuted the prophets. This is what happens when you make a stand—what happened to Me. People get angry. They don’t like you anymore.” Jesus didn’t need the approval of man, “for He Himself knew what was in man” (John 2:25 HCSB)—insincerity, false flattery, selfish interests, the fickle winds of change. Never enough water to satisfy us.

In the wisdom literature of the Bible, we find two stories that are vitally important to us in today’s climate. The first is in the book of Job, where this righteous man loses everything, yet finds that God is enough. The second is from the book of Ecclesiastes, where King Solomon gets everything and finds that obtaining all you desire doesn’t solve any soul issues.

Solomon’s voice should be an alarm for us today. We should hear him screaming, “It doesn’t work, I tell ya! I had three hundred wives—a different one for nearly every day and night of the year—and yet I was miserable! I built houses for all of them, I built my own mansion, I planted forests, I owned ranches and hilltop estates, I threw parties so big they were sung about and written about, and it was meaningless! All of it—meaningless!”

We will probably never be Job or Solomon. Our lives will most likely fluctuate somewhere between the extreme experiences of these two men. Most of us, for example, are never going to be wealthy or powerful enough to come to Solomon’s conclusion on our own. We will always have something more to pursue, something new to acquire, some ungranted wish we’re trying to crank up out of that well in hopes that it will bring us life.

But it’s not going to work. The wrong wells never do. And our worship suffers because we keep going back to them.

Barrier #2: Unconfessed Sin

Not only do we have the tendency to drink from empty wells, we also have the proclivity to live with unconfessed sin. In the woman at the well, we see our own foolish ability to deny the impact of our sin, hold on to our sin, and try to cover up our sin.

Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.” (John 4:16–19 ESV)

With each of our kids, we have played the game “Hide and Seek.” We count to a certain number while they run off to “hide” in different places, then at the announced moment, we “seek” to find them. But all of our children have made a similar mistake over the years. They have simply plopped down under a blanket on the floor or under a chair that is fully exposed, closed their eyes, and assumed that because they couldn’t see us, we couldn’t see them. As fathers, of course, we play along and ask, “Where are you? Are you over here? Are you over there?” The truth is, however, they’re in plain sight and are hardly hidden at all.

We often make the same mistake with God. Most of us try to avoid the thought that God knows and sees everything about us. But like a reality show star, we don’t have any secrets. There is no place we can go, not even in our own thoughts, where He is not present. And to the natural-thinking mind, this is a problem. How are we supposed to react to this invasive, 24/7 nature of God’s knowledge about us? We don’t like it. We feel impinged by it. And therefore, we have this hot-and-cold relationship with God—all because we’ve lost sight of the gospel and have failed to understand its implications.

Sometimes being obedient to the commands of God seems fairly easy. Temptation is manageable. We don’t feel called upon to flex our faith muscles much at all. We just trust Him. Following His direction at times like these is not particularly difficult or weighty. But then there are other times—times when we feel like God is asking us to do the impossible, leading us to places we don’t want to go. So instead of trusting in His goodness and wisdom, we refuse like a strong-willed child. Instead of finding our security and comfort in His sovereign power, we run away from Him and try finding comfort in other things that don’t ask so much of us.

It’s important that you see the two-step movement here: running from Him while simultaneously running toward things that make matters worse—soothing the heat of conviction with accomplishments, food, movies, porn, whatever you think will give you temporary relief. Then when you feel like you’re doing better, you’ll run back to God, hoping He’s forgotten what He originally told you to do. This ends up being a sad cycle for many of us.

But this cycle can stop for you because . . . (read this next sentence slowly) . . . God has made provision for our sin in Christ. So when we struggle to believe and obey, we should run to Him, not from Him—the opposite of our pattern, in contradiction to our feelings. Why? Because He already knows!

See, the gospel just keeps changing everything.

The cross should continually testify to us that God fully knew we would need to be justified. Therefore, unconfessed sin is actually the foolish decision to run away from our healing and growth rather than toward it. We hang on to things we believe will satisfy us, thinking we need those more than what God offers to provide.

But how can we rejoice in and worship the majesty of a loving and forgiving God if in practice we don’t believe He loves and forgives, if in practice we don’t believe the gospel? How can our churches rejoice and worship corporately when our collective energy is expended carrying around the saddle of unconfessed sin and shame? When people walk in honesty about their fears, shortcomings, and needs—not in thoughtless disobedience but in grace-based freedom and forgiveness—they reveal a deep understanding of the gospel. To confess our sins to one another is to violently pursue our own joy and the glory of God . . . and to exponentially increase our rejoicing and worship, both individually and corporately.

Barrier #3: Ignorance

Seeking satisfaction in the wrong wells and harboring unconfessed sin prohibit the worship that honors God and replenishes our souls. So, too, does ignorance. Jesus confronts and corrects this problem in the life of the Samaritan woman:

“Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.” (John 4:20–22 ESV)

Most of us find the God of the Bible to be a bit too edgy for modern sensibilities. So instead of submitting to Him, we’re drawn toward creating a “God” we like better, choosing to be ignorant of who He really is. We pull back on the wrathful, vengeful stuff, for instance—the God who’s angry toward sin every day (Ps. 7:11). We feel that Jesus needs better PR—something along the lines of an “extreme makeover.” Make Him friendlier, a bit whiter, give Him a happier disposition. He’s not going to flip tables over anymore. He’s not coming back with a tattoo on His thigh (Rev. 19:16), wielding a sword and filling the streets with blood. People don’t want that kind of stuff—maybe in their movies, but not in their Maker. For many, Jesus is more like a masculine Tinker Bell, sprinkling pixie dust of love on everyone He meets. And who doesn’t feel safe with Tinker Bell?

The problem, however, is that if we strip Jesus of His deity, we also strip Him of His authority and power. If we change our perception of who He actually is, we cannot be free to worship Him genuinely. We end up missing out on real depth of relationship with Him. Our churches end up with a God who is safe, but weak; domesticated, but limited.

So why do we do it, then? Why do people choose to be ignorant of the one true God, even at the cost of authentic, grateful worship?

The underlying motivation in creating a God other than the One we see in Scripture always boils down to the same, wishful falsehood: “I’m not as bad as the Bible says I am; besides, God would never really judge anyone because that would be wrong.” And, sorry, that’s just not gospel.

Worship always suffers when man is exalted and God is belittled. If you remove the fact that you’re a sinner, if you elevate yourself to a more righteously entitled place, if you exalt yourself and think, “I’m not really all that bad; I’m kind of a good person,” then your worship is going to suffer. If your church doesn’t understand the nature of their sinful condition, they will be stunted in their adulation of salvation. By stripping away aspects of His power, we worship a God who isn’t real. Every time we stray from the revealed Word of God—from the Mississippi River that fuels our spiritual power—we attest that we actually believe some aspects of these foolish statements.

Yet here’s the paradoxical reality: you are a rebellious, wicked sinner, and God has loved you in Christ. In the gospel, these opposites go together. You retain no secrets from Him, and yet He has still pursued and saved you.

The people we serve need to be constantly reminded of that.

Jesus confronted the woman at the well with the fact that secrecy is a myth. God knows and yet has still chosen to extend mercy and grace in the cross. Worship flourishes when people know this—when we know who we are, know who He is, and then stare into that massive, terrifying gap that Jesus has filled with blood-bought grace and forgiveness. As Thomas Merton powerfully writes, “When sin becomes bitter, then Christ becomes sweet.” Worship explodes from the nucleus of that reality, when the gospel truly informs our worship. It compels us to put no other god before Him . . . to magnify Him to the extinction of all rivals.

The more we hear and receive the gospel, the more the Spirit sanctifies us from empty wells, unconfessed sin, and deceptive ignorance. The more we become worshippers of the one true living God.

All-Around Worship

During His encounter with the woman, Jesus declared:

“But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:23–24 ESV)

God is seeking people who will worship Him “in spirit and truth”—with both inflamed hearts and informed minds4—two things that seem almost opposed to each other, as if they were mutually exclusive. And yet when they are infused by the gospel, God causes them to nourish one another, both within ourselves and within our churches. We need (and can have) both.

Most people do typically have a disposition toward either end of this spectrum, toward either heart or mind, toward spirit or truth. Some are more intellectual, wanting a theological grid that lines out how God works, where we fit into His plan, and how all of life should function. They’re not prone to emotions or to giving themselves over to expressive affections. In fact, they often view emotions as a danger that must be suppressed to a manageable level. They say things like, “What we need is truth, not feelings.”

Other people have the opposite disposition. They say, “Are you kidding me? What we need to do is to hold hands, sing, and worship together. You guys always want to talk about doctrine and theology, which is all so cold and dead. That’s what your problem is. You read too much. God never asked me to be a theologian. I just want to love Jesus with my whole heart.”

Easy to go there and feel so justified in bashing theology, but the reality is that everybody is a theologian; some of us have just unwittingly become heretics. Everybody has an idea about who God is and how He works. Some are just, well . . . they’re wrong, that’s all. Because just as God has never asked you to be a brainiac, neither has He asked you to simply guess what He’s like. He calls us to worship Him from both of these perspectives—in “spirit” and in “truth”—from hearts inflamed through minds informed by the revealed Word of God and the indwelling Holy Spirit.

By illuminating the text, the Spirit inflames our heart. And the inflamed heart then creates energy for the growing mind. Our intellect is not at odds with our faith, nor our faith at odds with our intellect. Understanding God’s nature in a deep way should lead to an emotive response that creates an even deeper hunger to meditate on Him all the more. The mind and the heart feed each other. Mind to heart and then heart to mind.

And just as truth inspires spirit, and spirit calls for truth, our worship as individuals should constantly be seeking an outlet for worshipping corporately, which then leaves us wanting to worship everywhere we are.

Worship is in some ways organic and individualistic. After my (Matt’s) conversion to Christ, a friend gave me a tape (that’s right, a cassette tape—Google it) filled with songs of praise to God. I blared that thing in my car until my ears were ringing. Windows down. Hair-dryer hotness whipping through my sleeves and messing up my hair. Sailing down the road, I just got after the Lord—just me and Him. No, my local church hadn’t bought the tape for me. Giving them out to people wasn’t some ministry program of theirs. It wasn’t in my “membership covenant” with the church that I should turn up loud music in my car and worship the Lord at set times of the day. I was just a young guy being moved by the Spirit to enjoy Jesus, rejoice, and worship Him. Simple and natural as that.

And still today, I love worshipping God even when outside the typical corporate gathering of a church service. Almost every ­morning besides Saturday and Sunday, my wife and I get up, sit at our dining room table, and read, talk, and pray. We worship. At night before we go to bed, we gather our kids around the Bible as a family and read a chapter of it, sharing prayer requests. After prayer we all sing together—hosannas and praises and clapping hands and rejoicing. Worshipping. My local church doesn’t drive that; my new heart in Christ is what drives it. But not only does this serve an individual purpose in my own, my wife’s, and my children’s lives, it continually connects us with times of corporate worship that expand our awe of Him more and more. Private worship excites us for times of public worship.

We can draw this parallel again from the woman at the well in John 4—

So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” They went out of the town and were coming to him. (vv. 28–30 ESV)

See the immediate change in her? This woman had been hiding for years in guilt and shame, as well as from the hostilities of other people in town. Imagine the things that must have been whispered about her as she walked through the streets—this five-timing woman, now with another on the side. Yet she met Jesus one day, who exposed her sin in a compassionate, forgiving way. Reborn, she was no longer inclined to hide anymore. Instead, she went running into town, rejoicing, free from bitterness and resentment toward those who had judged her harshly, entreating them to come, come hear the good news, saying to everyone who would listen, “You’ve got to come hear this guy. Let Him tell you what He told me. He told me everything about myself. You’ve got to come check this out.” The whole state of her heart had shifted. She wasn’t worshipping to hear herself worship. Worship was flowing out of her individually and leading her to herald it to others.

That’s when something even more special occurred.

Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.” (vv. 39–42 ESV)

Here we go. It’s happening again. Right here in the fourth chapter of John. God is creating a people by the Word of the gospel, and their worship is flowing out of them and creating more worship, more rejoicing, leading to a gathering of that covenant community both by decree, design, and delight. This is the biblical pattern, the expected trajectory of the gospel. “Regular corporate seasons (or services) of worship that include the pursuit of full satisfaction in God through expressing dependence and longing for God, expressing gratitude for God’s glory and gifts and expressing the delight of admiration and adoration to God, are normative in the Scriptures.”5

God commands us today as His people to come together for worship. This is a part of His plan to care for, grow, and encourage us. We are not to gather in begrudging submission but in delightful obedience, knowing that when God’s people make much of Jesus together, something spiritually profound happens. Corporate worship is a sustaining force in the life of individual believers. It’s where our personal worship takes us—week after week, as often as we meet—and where our personal worship comes from as we leave to serve Him in other places.

King David, in one of his darkest seasons of his life, remembered times of corporate worship as a source of nourishing strength (Ps. 42:4). They can be equally special to us—times when we are reminded as a people that God is good and sovereign, that we are saved by His blood. But that’s not all that happens when we meet together. First Corinthians 14:25 tells us that even unbelievers should be moved by what occurs in our gatherings. In the assembly of God’s people, He gives the world a visible picture of steadfast joy in the midst of any and all circumstances of life—through the worship of His name by the people of His Word.

This “Creature of the Word” is an eclectic group. We are immature, but maturing. Struggling, yet with hope. Hypocrites, yet covered by grace. Some of us are sick and in pain, others of us are as healthy as can be. We are rich and poor, educated and uneducated, of all different ethnicities and backgrounds. And yet we’ve come together as a “city on a hill,” as a “light to the world,” showing what redeemed rejoicing looks like. The Creature of the Word exposes the weak, futile worship of the world by worshipping the only One who can satisfy every longing of the human heart.

The book of Psalms ends with Psalm 150, which includes the word “praise” a total of thirteen times. (Evidently the psalmist didn’t get the memo about people not liking to repeat lyrics.) The word in the original language is halle, in the imperative tense, which means it’s a command. Hey, you—praise!

How fitting that the editor of the Psalms—a body of ancient writing loaded with such gripping, diverse content—would choose to conclude the collection this way. In the Psalms, we hear godly people crying out in pain. We see them struggling against insurmountable odds and adversity. We hear them angry, joyful, discouraged, and grateful—practically every human emotion known to man. At times we detect their songs pointing prophetically to Jesus, hundreds of years before He was born. And in wrapping up all the rich content in the Psalms, the closing words leave us with this one command: “Praise the Lord!”

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! Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! (Ps. 150 ESV)

As you read Psalm 150, you see an array of instruments used; trumpets, tambourines, strings, cymbals. This is no one-man-band. It’s a picture of a corporate worship gathering, same as many of the psalms that come before it. Psalm 95, for example . . .

Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! (vv. 1–2 ESV)

The Creature worships. She gathers together. And as she does, her worshipping presence allows individuals to do what the gospel always intended us to do: see ourselves as “a people,” not just a person. Worshipping in spirit and in truth. All of us.

A church engaging regularly in collective worship also accomplishes two important things, which we’ll consider for a brief moment: worship shadows eternity and provides supernatural encouragement.

Shadow of Eternity

Right now, this very moment, God is being perfectly praised in the heavens by angels and believers who have already entered His eternal presence. And every time we gather to praise Him corporately, our gathering is a foretaste of this eternal gathering. Our worshipping together shadows eternity.

Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” (Rev. 5:11–12 ESV)

The picture in heaven is one of “myriads of myriads” of people gathering around the throne with “a loud voice,” declaring how worthy God is. It’s an amount beyond calculation—people who have been forgiven because of the slain Lamb of God, Jesus the Christ—a people from every tribe, tongue, and nation, each of them declaring the praises of God. Heaven is filled with a people satisfied in the very character of God, not just the benefits He gives.

Church people often make comments that cause one to think they’re not likely to enjoy heaven very much (assuming they’re going). Perhaps you’ve heard someone say, “I’m uncomfortable around people from other cultures.” Hmmm. Heaven might not be their cup of tea then, because it will be forever filled with people from every people group on earth.

Some church people approach worship with an apathetic attitude, as if praising God is boring and unappetizing—a necessary chore before heading out for Sunday lunch and an afternoon of NFL football. Heaven, though, is an eternal gathering of people enthralled with praising God. Someone with no desire to corporately rejoice in Him is not exactly prepping well for the eternal gathering that is to come.

When we and the people in our churches consider whether we really want heaven or not, we must realize that we are not simply asking ourselves if we prefer heaven to hell. Choosing one thing over another doesn’t necessarily mean we love the thing we choose. If given the choice to eat spinach or broccoli, you may choose broccoli. But that doesn’t mean you love broccoli. It may only mean you don’t want to eat spinach. Heaven is not for people who just want to skip hell. Heaven is reserved for those who love Jesus, who have been rescued by Him and who long to praise Him. If someone doesn’t have much use for praising Him now, it’s foolish to think they’re ready for heaven. Those set apart for the eternal corporate worship gathering enjoy the temporary gathering of the Church on earth.

Since our corporate gatherings here are a shadow of eternity, even our imperfect, incomplete expressions of worship as the people of God should foreshadow the perfect response that is to come. A church gathered for worship should embody a sense of awe and anticipation because of the One who has rescued the worshippers.

Supernatural Encouragement

Not only does our worship as rescued sinners reflect an eternal reality, God also supernaturally utilizes our corporate gatherings to mature and encourage His people in ways not available anywhere else. God designed our faith to be communal and interdependent—and markedly supernatural. When believers gather together as a worshipping community, we benefit from all the spiritual gifts of the body of Christ. Worship reminds us that the Church is bigger and more beautiful than any one person or a few leaders alone. Each of us, worshipping together, is used of God to build each other up in Jesus.

Notice the plural language throughout this passage from the writer of Hebrews.

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. (Heb. 10:19–25 ESV)

“Let us draw near. . . . Let us hold fast. . . . Let us consider how to stir up one another . . . encouraging one another.” Worship brings us together and is infused with supernatural power through the “blood of Jesus” and the “new and living way” that He has given access for us to enjoy and experience in Him.

Worship gatherings are not always spectacular, but they are always supernatural. And if a church looks for or works for the spectacular, she may miss the supernatural. If a person enters a gathering to be wowed with something impressive, with a style that fits him just right, with an order of service and song selection designed just the right way, that person may miss the supernatural presence of God. Worship is supernatural whenever people come hungry to respond, react, and receive from God for who He is and what He has done. A church worshipping as a Creature of the Word doesn’t show up to perform or be entertained; she comes desperate and needy, thirsty for grace, receiving from the Lord and the body of Christ, and then gratefully receiving what she needs as she offers her praise—the only proper response to the God who saves us.

Your Gatherings

Throughout the Old Testament, we see God expressing deep disgust with some of the empty gatherings and routine worship offered to Him. At one point, He tells His people He hates their religious feasts and won’t listen to their showy, insincere offerings of worship (Amos 5:21–24). In another place He asks His people to quit lighting worthless fires on the altar (Mal. 1:10). In each case, the Lord knew He didn’t have the full hearts of His people. They were going through motions of worship without hearts melted by His grace, without being filled with awe by His greatness and His goodness.

Only the gospel can grip our hearts with this kind of ongoing, unending awe. Only the gospel can cause grateful praise to flow, and keep flowing, and never stop flowing from our lips. Therefore, your gatherings must be soaked in the gospel. Everything from the music, to the teaching, to the observance of the ordinances—all of it must unashamedly, explicitly, point people to Jesus and what He has done. Otherwise, the Creature suffers.

Music. As you consider selecting songs for your worship services, consider them in light of the truth of the gospel. Imagine the songs as teachers—because they are! If your people could understand your doctrine only through the music you sing, what would they know about God and His pursuit of us? If your people could understand your church’s beliefs only through the music, what would they know? These are good questions to ask yourself in order to stay Jesus-centered.

Too often the songs we sing in many churches are bold declarations of what we can do for God, of what we have that we can offer Him. And while the character of God and His work on our behalf does demand an active response from us, we must be careful not to teach people unintentionally that the Christian faith is about our personal resolve and commitments. Choose songs instead that remind people about the greatness of God. Choose songs that boldly remind people of the gospel—how He found us in the hopelessness of our sin and redeemed us for His own pleasure and glory—because only the gospel can stir the Creature to worship authentically and live. Without consistent reminders of the gospel, our worship services quickly become empty religious feasts that (according to Scripture) disgust the Lord.

Teaching. We will address this in further detail later in the book, but as you prepare the teaching moments of the worship service—both the sermon and other instructive elements—be sure the gospel is the foundation for all that is said. Connect the imperatives of Scripture (things to do) with the indicatives of Scripture (what Christ has done). Don’t mention the gospel only at the end of your messages, when you speak to those who are not yet Christian, accidentally teaching that the gospel is only for unbelievers. Instead, show how the gospel impacts all of life. Help your people feast on the gospel throughout the whole message, throughout the whole service.

Ordinances. As you prepare and lead people through the ordinances of communion and baptism, aggressively apply the gospel to the hearts of your people. These two ordinances were given to the Creature to remind her that she is alive because of the gospel.

Baptism is a visual statement of the gospel, a reminder that our sins were buried with Christ and that we have been made alive because of His resurrection. Communion, too, is an opportunity to surround ourselves with the powerful realities of gospel truth—the unleavened bread, a symbol of the purity and holiness of Jesus; the cup, the blood of the covenant, reminiscent of His great sacrifice as the pure and faultless Lamb of God.

We come together each week from our individual modes and manners of life to unite in shared worship not only of His majesty but also of His deep love—a love wholly undeserved and yet lavishly given. We don’t just celebrate God; we celebrate His gospel. And, we celebrate as a community.

No other worship will satisfy.