joeywithammusic

In defining worship it should speak supremely about one’s response to God.  Evelyn Underhill has defined worship as “the total adoring response of man to the one Eternal God, self-revealed in time” (Underhill).  Therefore our time is now.  Our time as we know it is revealed, and with every breath, thought, and action we are to adore our Lord and Savior.

Our English word worship simply means, “worth-ship.”  The very purpose of worship and the reason we worship is because our God is worthy.  “You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power” (Rev. 4:11, NIV).  “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain”  (Rev. 5:12, NIV).  Warren Wiersbe states, “We aren’t worthy of worship, and certainly the idols that we make are not worthy.  Only God is worthy of our worship.  What people worship is a good indication of what is really valuable to them” (Wiersbe).  William Temple, archbishop of Canterbury (1942-1944), does a great job of putting into words of what worship means to him in his Readings in St. John’s Gospel, first series:

Both for perplexity and for dulled conscience the remedy is the same; sincere and spiritual worship. For worship is the submission of all our nature to God. It is the quickening of conscience by His holiness; the nourishment of mind with His truth; the purifying of imagination by His beauty; the opening of the heart to His love; the surrender of will to His purpose - and all of this gathered up in adoration, the most selfless emotion of which our nature is incapable and therefore the chief remedy for that self-centeredness which is our original sin and the source of all actual sin. Yes – worship in spirit and truth is the way to the solution of perplexity and to the liberation from sin.

Notice how much Temple’s definition of worship is centered around the revelation of God’s holiness, truth, and beauty.  To Temple, worship is the response of all that we are to all that God is and does.  We don’t worship God for what we get out of it, rather because He is worthy of worship.  We attribute to Him the glory that is due is name.  “Ascribe to Yahweh, O families of nations, ascribe to Yahweh glory and strength.  Ascribe to Yahweh the glory due his name; bring an offering and come into his courts” (Psalm 96:7-8, NIV).  Yahweh is a Hebrew name for God. (Yahweh: The God Who Is, Eternal, Everlasting).  Our whole lives need to be poured out in worship.

be grateful.

www.joeywitham.com