Worship ~ Part 1

...Worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.

(I Chr. 16:29, Ps. 29:2, Ps. 69:9)

Worshipping God is foundational to Christianity.  Much of our church lives centre around worship.  Perhaps even great portions of our personal lives centre around worship.  I've been thinking a lot about worship lately, and also studying the topic from the Scriptures.  It seems that the 21st century concept of Christian worship 99.9% of the time equals music.  I don't believe I exaggerate when I say this.  Churches have worship teams, worship services, worship pastors, worship practices, worship programs, and almost always these activities focus solely on music.  I'm sure if you've been in church any length of time, you would agree that I speak truth.  When Christians speak about worship, they are usually talking about music.  

I'm a musician, and I like music, but I'm not convinced that this idea of worship/music is what God intended our worship to be.  Yet, without drums, guitars, microphones, keyboards, and other instruments, many Christians seem to be at a loss of how to worship.  Is worship really that integrally connected with music?  MUST we have music in order to worship God?  Is it possible to worship God without music?  Is music the PRIMARY vehicle of worship?  I've often wondered what would happen to our worship if we took the music out of our services?  What does the Bible say about worship?

There are 188 verses in the Scripture containing the word "worship", "worshipping" or "worshiped" (biblegateway.com).  I've been reading these verses, thinking about them, and trying to use them to answer some questions that I have about worship.  I've also been trying to formulate a Scripture based definition of worship.  I've come to the conclusion that we're not even close to understanding what God really means when He says we are to worship Him.  Not. Even. Close!


Letting the Scriptures speak for themselves is an amazing thing.  Trying to get rid of pre-conceived ideas is difficult.  However, I'm doing my best through much prayer and reading to approach this study without applying my own finite wisdom.  Instead, I'm seeking to rely on God's wisdom (James 1:5), and trust that I can better understand and know what He considers to be true worship.  One hundred and eighty-eight verses makes this a pretty significant topic in the Scriptures.  God is specific about worship, and a clear understanding of worship is possible.  


More to follow...