What is worship?

I write a quarterly column for Preach magazine, in which I explore a significant word, phrase, or idea in the Bible, or a theme or section of Scripture, and the ideas that it expresses. At the end of this piece I list the previous articles I have written for them. Here I explore what Scripture says about worship.

The Shorter Westminster Catechism offers a succinct summary of the purpose of humankind: 

Q. 1. What is the chief end of man?
A. Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever.

In the Church of England, the catechism (teaching) in the Book of Common Prayer says something similar, in more words:

Q: What is thy duty towards God?

A: My duty towards God is to believe in him, to fear him, and to love him, with all my heart, with all my mind, with all my soul, and with all my strength; to worship him, to give him thanks, to put my whole trust in him, to call upon him, to honour his holy Name and his Word, and to serve him truly all the days of my life.

There are two fascinating things to notice about these summaries. First, our worship and honouring of God is a reciprocal relationship of enjoyment. Despite the language of ‘fear’ (in the sense of ‘being reverent toward’) it is clear that our worship of God is something that both pleases him but also brings delight to us. Secondly, this worship is not a merely ‘cultic’ that involves going to a special place to do and say special things, but it involves all of life, in every place and in all we do. 

These realities are expressed at the beginning and end of scripture, but there is a long detour in the middle that we need to explore.

In the beginning

It is not immediately obvious that the opening chapters of Genesis are about the worship of God—yet the language there is closely related. God creates humanity male and female, blesses them, and then invites them to ‘rule over’ the different spheres of creation. All of life is to be an exercise of faithful dominion that has been delegated to us by God. In the second creation account, there is already language of intimacy between God and humanity, as God sees the adam’s need for a ‘suitable companion’, and he tenderly opens his side to form his partner. And in Genesis 3.8, we read the suggestive language of God ‘walking in the garden in the cool of the evening’, an image of intimate friendship in the natural time of close conversation. 

But as humanity turns from God, there comes a separation—not just in relationship with God himself, but in their relationship with one another, and with the world. 

Worship, rather than being an effortless part of all of life, now needs a special place for us to encounter the holy God in an unholy world. Where God originally intended all of humanity to worship him in holiness, now he calls apart a special people for himself, to be a ‘kingdom of priests’ (Exodus 19.6). And even amongst them, he has set apart a special place for himself, firstly a tabernacle in the desert wanderings, and eventually a temple in the holy city, Jerusalem. 

To encounter and worship the holy God, you now need to make a series of journeys: from the nations into Israel; from Israel to Jerusalem; from Jerusalem to the temple; and within the temple to the Holy of Holies, and that only for one special person on one day of the year, the Day of Atonement. Worship and world have been radically disconnected. 

Worship and the world

And yet God has not left himself without a witness in the world. It is still the case that ‘The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it’ (Psalm 24.1), and this world speaks the silent music of his praise to anyone who will listen to the truths of God (Psalm 19.1–4). It is for this reason that Paul argues that humanity is ‘without excuse’ before God, since he has revealed his glory in the created order (Romans 1.20). 

This puts the people of God in an unusual situation. On the one hand, the worship of the holy God needs to be offered with great care and precision; you only have to read the complexity of the regulations of the offerings in Leviticus (the ‘priest’s book’) to see this. On the other hand, God still calls his people to worship and honour him with the whole of their lives; even the way they plough their fields and reap their crops is to honour God and reflect his nature (‘When you reap the harvest of your land…I am the Lord your God’, Lev 19.9–10). You can trace the phrase ‘for I am the Lord your God’ all the way through Leviticus, particularly in chapter 19, and you will find every aspect of life is to be done to honour him. That is why it is very hard to separate the moral, the civil, and the ceremonial from one another in these laws; all of life is God’s and to be offered up to him in worship and honour.

The new covenant of worship

In the New Testament, Jesus’ death and resurrection are understood not only to deal with the penalty of sin, but to undo its effects and consequences. Jesus chose 12 apostles to demonstrate that he was bringing about a (re)new(ed) Israel—but, for Paul, he was also bringing into the present the promised new creation (2 Cor 5.17) that would come to pass at the end of the age. The future healing of both creation and God’s covenant people was being made real. 

Thus we begin to see the original intention of worship restored. The followers of Jesus did not just continue to worship in the temple, but worshipped with the whole of their lives, as they shared all they had in common, and blessed those outside as well as within the community—‘they gave to anyone who had need’ (Acts 2.45). 

The original vision for Israel was that they were to be a whole nation of priests, interceding for the world and proclaiming to it the goodness of God, but the sin of the golden calf (Exodus 32) had destroyed that and led to the creation of a distinct priestly caste, of Levites. That was undone by Jesus, so once again all his followers are a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (1 Peter 2.9, Rev 1.7), to ‘declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light’. And everyone was called to minister with the gifts distributed to all, for the common good (1 Cor 12). 

Worship is therefore now offered by the whole people—but also offered in the whole world. Instead of being limited to the Jerusalem temple, ‘the true worshippers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth’ (John 4.24). God’s holy temple presence is now present in his people wherever they are, and whatever they do (1 Cor 6.19) and so we honour God with every action of our bodies. ‘Whatever you do, work at it…as working for the Lord’ (Col 3.23). 

The end of worship

All this is leading to the final vision of scripture, when heaven comes down to earth, and the first vision of God’s purpose for humanity is fulfilled because of Jesus. 

The New Jerusalem, which comes down from heaven to earth, is not a place for the people of God to live—it is the people of God, the bride of the lamb (Rev 21.9). The most striking thing about it is that it is a colossal cube, large enough to fill the whole known world. But as a cube, it represents the Holy of Holies (compare 1 Kings 6.20); this is both the space occupied by the people of God and the space occupied by God’s holy presence. Instead of this holiest of places being separated from the world, it now fills the world. Every one of us will ‘serve him’, the term here being the one of the service of the priests in the temple, and we will each have ‘his name on [our] forehead’ as the high priest did in the holy of holies (Exodus 28.36; Rev 22.3–4).  

An ethics lecturer once said to someone teaching worship: ‘I teach worship; you just teach ecclesiastical group dynamics.’ In biblical terms, he was right. When we gather together week by week to ‘worship’ God, we are encouraging one another to offer our whole lives as a sacrifice of worship (Romans 12.1). So on leaving the gathering each Sunday we need to remember: the meeting has finished; the worship begins!

For a different answer to the question ‘What is Worship?’ see this reflection based on the Venite, Ps 95, which was historically a central part of Anglican worship services.

My previous articles have been on the themes of: