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Public Worship and the Reformed Faith
by Rev. Barry Gritters
I. What is Worship?
In its very nature, worship is fellowship with God.
This is plain from the Old Testament form of worship. The children of Israel worshipped God collectively at the tabernacle or temple. Worship was brought there because God was there. God's people frequented the tabernacle to fellowship with Him in covenant fellowship, through the offerings of lambs and goats and doves and incense.
New Testament fellowship with God is made possible through the offering of Jesus Christ, the true Lamb of God. Now we meet with God in blessed covenant fellowship as Christ dwells among us through His Pentecostal Spirit. But now we need no particular place to worship. Although it is nice to have a church building, we can fellowship with God in a school gym, a public hall, a store attic or a catacomb, as Jesus said, "Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there I will be in the midst of them." That is worship: God in the midst of us through Christ!
The purpose of our public worship is to bring glory to God's name.
This is brought out in the two New Testament words for worship. The first word means "to kiss the hand of" or "to bow down towards" someone. This is the word for worship used to signify humble adoration. The second main word means "to render honor" or "to pay homage." Both these words carry the idea of giving something to God. The Anglo-Saxon word from which we get our word 'worship" is weorthscipe, which is what worship is: declaring the worthiness of God. Psalm 95:3 says it well, "The LORD is a great God, and a great king above all gods."'
This brings out the truth that worship is for God.
In this, our humanistic society, there is a strong tendency to make our worship services man-centered instead of God-centered. Dr. P.Y. Dc Jong sounded a warning about this already many years ago in The Banner, the official periodical of the Christian Reformed Church: "Today we hear voices insisting that worship must meet our needs. It must become the channel of self-fulfillment for man. It must ennoble his life and give him worthwhile ideals. It must comfort him in sorrow and give assurance in the struggle with sin. The Calvinist does not deny that these have a legitimate place in life. Yet with all the strength of his soul he fights against the idea that these alone validate worship. We worship as the company of believers to praise our God who is the overflowing fountain of all good." Worship must be God-centered.
When complaints are lodged against the worship of a church (and sometimes legitimately), ninety-nine percent of the time the complaint is, "I didn't get anything out of the service!" How often does the complainer say, "This worship service brought no glory to God!"?
A danger exists that we forget that going to church is worship of, bowing the knee towards, kissing the hand of, God! We reflect that loss of memory when we say, "I sure don't feel like going to church today." Do we realize what we are saying? We would be much less inclined to speak that way if we viewed worship as going to worship our great God. "I don't feel like worshipping God today?"
We begin our worship services by saying "God," and we end the same way (Isaiah 42:8). God is great and greatly to be praised. "I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images." Because of this principle truth, our view of God will directly affect how we worship in church.
This is the Reformed tradition.
Dr. P.Y. De Jong said, "One of the chief emphases in Calvin's teaching which greatly influenced his order of worship was his adoring sense of the majesty and power of God. Although all Christian believers accept in one form or another the doctrine of the transcendence and glory of the God of the Scriptures, none emphasized this as emphatically as Calvin. And we see immediately how this would influence the pattern of worship. If man exists for the sake of the glory of God rather than that God should exist for the sake of the happiness of man, worship takes on a new perspective."
Whether or not he receives personal satisfaction and pleasure from the acts of worship is secondary. We do not throw this out as a consideration, but it is subordinated to a high aim and goal: the glory of our God.
For this reason the God-glorifying and God-centered Psalms have pride of place in the Reformed worship service and not hymns, which are, for the most part, man-centered. (We have available another pamphlet that presents the Reformed position for exclusive Psalmody in the church. Please write to the address on this booklet to receive a copy.)
Glorifying to God, worship will also edify His church. That is the second purpose of worship.
Edification means building. Edification of the church takes two forms. In the first place, the living stones must grow. We are concerned that we benefit from worship service, that we are led into the green pastures and beside the still waters, that the bread of life is broken for us. This is why the Psalmist could say in Psalm 84, "How amiable are thy tabernacles, O LORD of hosts! My soul longeth, yea even fainteth for the courts of the LORD: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God...." And, "I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness." Why? "For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly." (See also Psalm 27:4.) In the second place, building up of the church is the addition of new stones: the elect whom God has chosen from eternity. These elect are gathered from the children of believers and from unbelievers who are brought into the church from the church's mission work.
The third purpose of worship is to bring believers into fellowship and communion. The Psalms are clear on this. The body of believers sings, "O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation." And, as Psalm 122 is versified, "With joy and gladness in my soul, I hear the call to prayer; Let us go up to God's own house, and bow before Him there... We stand within thy sacred walls, O Zion blest for aye, Wherein the people of the Lord united homage pay...."
This fellowship is both necessary and possible because of the nature of the church. The church is the body of Christ, each believer living his life as a necessary member of that body. Apostle Paul drives that point home in I Corinthians 1:12-27, that great extended comparison of the human body and the church. Believers need each other! Members of Christ's body may not and can not live in isolation. This is one reason why the apostle's calling to the church in Hebrews is so urgent: "Let us not forsake the assembling of ourselves together..." (10:25).
In the fellowship of worship, believers pray together for their life as a body, offer united homage to their king, support the cause of God's kingdom in the world, listen collectively to the word that they preach through their pastor. This fellowship (and the fellowship after the official service) cements the bond of love among them, serves to encourage each in his calling, and supports the witness that they give to the community.
The question comes down to this: "Since edification of the church and true fellowship of believers can result only when worship is for the glory of God, how can we conduct a worship service that glorifies God?" The answer is twofold: first, if we worship only as God has commanded us (the Regulative Principle Of Worship); second, if our worship services have certain basic characteristics.
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