God demands worship
Godly worship is forced just once
People, especially men, love making grandiose pronouncements that summarize some aspect of human life. Yes, men love to make themselves sound important by repeating wise sayings as if they thought of those words themselves. It’s a universal law about men and one-line pearls of wisdom. We all do it… OK, OK, enough already!
If men are guilty of overplaying their hand when it comes to patterns of life, Christian scholars are much more guilty. They are condemned and confined. They are … OK, OK you get the point.
However, I’ve been saying for years throughout these devotionals that “God doesn’t demand worship.” Well, like most everything else in the Bible, while mostly true, there are a few exceptions. The exceptions may not seem all that relevant, but we’re going to tackle them anyway. Huh. I mean we can learn something interesting about worship, God’s power and the future by examining this topic.
Besides it will get this weight off my chest – God rarely demands worship. OK. I feel much better now.
To be more precise, God only demands worship in the future and in specific cases. None of them apply to our weekly worship routine.
So, if God doesn’t command anyone to worship Him, why do we worship Him most every time we come together as believers? First, it seems like the right thing to do. We are fallible and sinful humans, and He is “Holy, Holy, Holy.” It reminds us of our current position relative to God’s perfection.
Second, we worship God because we love Him. So we do things that we believe will please Him. Worship that pleases us, doesn’t fit in this equation. Please rethink your worship from His point of view.
Finally, our worship demonstrates the power of Christianity. When vile creatures (with no regard of godly things) change their ways to enjoy and appreciate worshiping the Lord God Almighty, we know something has changed about them. It validates the power of Christ transforming our hearts into the likeness of Him.
If you had asked me before these series of worship devotionals four years ago, I would have said that God demands and expects worship. I was as surprised as anyone to learn the exact opposite from my study of worship in the Bible. One of the reasons for my misperception was a history of poor interpretation by my former pastors and music leaders of various verses in the Bible. The verses call for God’s people to worship, but don’t demand worship as a divine command.
For example, consider this verse:
Come, let us worship and bow down,
Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. (Psalm 95:6, NASB)
This is a fairly typical example of mixed verb “moods” occuring in the same verse. The verb “come” is an imperative (a command). While the entreaty to “worship” is a plea, not a command. Thus, we are commanded to come together, but not to worship when we do. Elsewhere, we will see that God commands His people to gather, but not necessarily to worship. God can command attendance which has an objective measurement of obedience. However, how can one tell whether one is worshiping? No one can tell since one can easily fake it. God may desire worship, but commanded worship is of little value compared to worship that is volunteered freely, without coercion…
“Praise the Lord, congregation!”
“Praise…the…(yawn)”
“Y’all are asleep. Say it loud!”
Yeah, without coercion.
Besides, who is commanding and imploring us to come and to worship? Other believers, not God! “Let us worship.” If God commanded us, the text would say, “You must worship Me!” However, pastors, music directors and other Bible teachers turned a free invitation into an imperative like the Ten Commandments.
Divinely mandated worship is bad hermeneutics and bad theology (with the few exceptions we cover in this unit). God receives our worship but doesn’t command it. The same applies to several similar verses (Psalm 95:1-2, Isaiah 2:3; 2:5; Hos 6:1-3).
We have already studied related verses (Psalm 29:2; 96:9). The psalmist commands his readers to worship God in “holy array.” Since only the priests could wear these garments, it is a round-about way of including the priests in one’s worship rather than worshiping God in self-styled and isolated ways. (Remember, the psalms are poetry and music. Modern examples utilize a vast array of allusions to paint a large canvass in our minds with just a few words.) Even so, these verses don’t command worship, but how one should worship God (“in holy array”).
You see God commanding worship from the angels (Psalm 97:7). They were made to worship God. The scenes from heaven (from Isaiah, Ezekiel & Revelation) show angels of various ranks worshiping God 7x24. Apparently, Satan initially directed worship of God before sin entered into his heart.
God made humanity for other purposes – fellowship, reign with Christ, rule over the world, etc. We will walk with Him in heaven. We will serve Him (without a temple) in the New Jerusalem. We will bring in the glory of the nations to Him (Revelation 21-22).
A final poorly interpreted pair of verses deal with John mistakenly worshiping an angel (Revelation 19:10 & 22:9). The angel rebukes John, “Don’t do that!” and tells him to “worship God alone.” Does that count as a divine imperative to worship God? Well, not really. The angel was identifying himself for John and invoking the first commandment, “You shall have no other gods before Me,” (Exodus 20:3). Now that you see the text of the commandment, you have probably already noticed that it doesn’t command worship of God but prohibits worship of “other gods.”
The Bible calls for exclusive worship of the Lord alone. Even those don’t mandate worship of God but prohibit worship of anything else.
I emphasize these passages because they paint such a strong contrast to ones we study in this series of devotionals (God demands worship). His demand for worship is so out of character for God, that they stand out as exceptional. God has a perfect reason for these occasions which don’t translate into normal life. Worshiping God is a treat, not an order. He seeks those who worship Him in spirit and truth rather than worship from guilt and shame.