David was happy to hear the words, “Let us go into the house of the Lord.” (Psalms 122:1.) The apostle Paul tarried in Troas seven days, until the Lord’s Day, when he could come together with the disciples “to break bread” – to worship. (Acts 20:6,7.) Earlier, in Philippi, Paul and Silas, finding themselves in prison, made good use of their time as they “prayed, and sang praises unto God.” (Acts 16:25.) The spirits of the righteous have always been made stronger through pure and proper worship.
And yet there is more to worship than what we get out of it. Yes, the blessings we receive from worship are not by any means the primary purpose of worship. The wonderful benefits of renewal, hope, strength – these are not to be confused with the moving motivation behind our worship. Worship has as its central, fundamental purpose the praise, adoration and glorification of God. Worship is directed first, foremost, and always, to God.
The moment we take our eyes off heaven, problems begin to emerge. Neglecting God as the sole object of worship, we’ve begun worshipping self – even in our own assemblies. We hear more about “feeling good about ourselves” than about pleasing the Father in heaven. We’ve come to exchange reverence for entertainment. We aren’t nearly so concerned with magnifying God as we are with “feeling good” when we leave the building. Worship is judged as a success or failure depending only on how we feel as we depart the assembly. The prayers, the songs, the sermon are all critiqued for nothing more than their entertainment appeal. In many churches, hand-clapping has become the rule. After all, a good performance deserves a round of applause, doesn’t it? Truth is forgotten, God is forsaken and, “decency and order” are words acceptable for Paul’s day but not for ours. We will be entertained! Now, really, who are we worshipping? God? or self?
Yes, we’ve overstated the case. At least we hope the foregoing is an overstatement. And, yes, we should be joyful in our worship. We should leave uplifted. Yet when these benefits are mistaken for our PURPOSE for worshipping we soon find ourselves neck deep in the mire of apostasy. Our worship must be tested first, not by its crowd appeal, not by its entertainment value, not by its excitement, but rather by its acceptance of God.
