PSALM 96:6-9 – Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength! Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; bring an offering, and come into his courts! Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness; tremble before him, all the earth!

THEME OF THE DAY. THE SIMPLICITY OF WORSHIP. Worship. It is the reason why we were created. It is the reason why God so loved the world that He gave us Jesus. It is the chief activity in heaven. It is to be the central thing in the church. It is also to be the guiding principle in our lives. Yet, mention the word “worship” in a small group of diverse Christians and listen. What will we likely hear? A lot of things like style, type of music, environments, contemporary, traditional, informal, formal, and probably some other things I am missing. And all of those may or may not have their place, but if we really start to think long and hard about worship, we will conclude that there is a whole lot of things we think are necessary for true worship which are not. For instance, and I know this may “open a can of worms” with some, but we don’t need music to worship. Now I am not an “anti-music” guy who thinks all we need is preaching. Not at all. I love music and the greatest book of songs and hymns ever penned for worship is the longest book in the Bible – Psalms. But we don’t need music to worship. We also don’t need “special effects” like lights, stages, and other physical alterations in a place to worship. And when it comes to “contemporary” or “traditional” styles of worship, I may know the intent of those type of distinctions in church services, but I don’t think we can build a Biblical case for such distinctions. And that leads to the main thrust of today’s nugget – the simplicity of worship.

Perhaps one of the best definitions of worship was penned in the early 1940’s by the Archbishop of Canterbury, William Temple. He wrote, “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 capable and therefore the chief remedy for that self-centeredness which is our original sin and the source of all actual sin.”

Isn’t that good and soul-stirring? As we ponder this Biblical solid definition, we find a couple of things about worship. First, it consumes our whole being – conscience, mind, imagination, heart, and will. The application of this is not difficult to make. If we are truly worshipping either privately or with other Christians, it will change us. Worship is transformational because it encounters God and when a human being truly encounters God, we will not remain the same. And this is important. Being emotionally moved by a song, sermon, or spiritual atmosphere is not worship. True worship always transforms us more into the holy character of the One we are worshipping. Yes, the growth may be slow, but it will occur.

A second truth about the simplicity of worship taken from Bishop Temple’s excellent definition is that worship is founded upon and stays upon the nature of God. Notice the descriptive terms he uses toward God in the act of our worship; His holiness, His truth, His beauty, His purpose. Worship focuses on the theology of God or His attributes, primarily who He is, not what He does. That is why doctrine matters. That is why a sound Biblical theology matters. And the first thing mentioned about the worship of God is His holiness. True worship rises and falls on holiness. Holiness is the essence of God. It influences and shapes all He is and does. It also influences and shapes all of our worship, private and corporate. And we will know if our worship is being offered in holiness and thus acceptable to God by at least four things; deep humility, awareness of our sin and God’s purity, the presence of His fear filling the place of worship, and an amazing sense of His holy love that empties the worshipper of his or herself. We actually get lost, not in the emotion of the scene, but in the vastness of God’s Person and grace.

So, worship. It is why we exist. It isn’t dependent on anything we do or environments we create, but upon the God who is holy revealing Himself to His redeemed people called to worship Him in spirit, truth and holiness.

PRAYER: “Father, help me to see that worship is not dependent on anything but You revealing Yourself to me.”

QUOTE: “Worship is simply about encountering and being consumed with the God who is holy, holy, holy.”