THE IDEA OF WORSHIP
By The Rev. John M. Ross, Riverside, Cal.
“I HAVE seen Thee,” says Lord Bacon, “in Thy works, I have sought Thee in Thy providences, but I have found Thee in Thy temples.” In His worship men come close to God. The offering- of spiritual service to God in the celebration of His praise is one of the highest, noblest employments in which man can engage, the supreme reach of the soul. It is the first thing that He asks of His Church. It is not to be forgotten that an aim of the Church is to seek the salvation of those outside the kingdom, and the comfort, instruction, and edification of believers ; that it is a school for the training of Christ’s disciples, a home for God’s family, an organization for aggressive work, a force for righteousness transforming whatsoever it touches, conserving the dearest interests of humanity. But likewise let it never be forgotten that primarily and distinctively and preeminently the Church is an organization for worship. If there were no reflex influence on ourselves, if there were no longer need of spiritual culture, if there were no longer need of Christianity as a redeeming agency, the obligations of Christian worship would still continue, and will forever continue.
This follows from the very nature of God. A Being so exalted, “infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth,” calls out the homage and adoration of the renewed soul. When one gets the vision of Jehovah, with the French preacher at the bier of his king he exclaims: “God only is great!” He bows in worship. The divine character invites it. Man is predisposed to render it. God is pleased to receive it.
Religion has its outlook on the human side. The practical James speaks of it as a visiting of the fatherless and widows in their affliction and keeping oneself unspotted from the world. It has its Godward aspect also, which manifests itself in adoration and homage. Indeed worship is the soul of religion, the pulsations of the inner life, the breathings of the spirit after God. The religious faculty must find expression. If it is repressed it withers, and man does not come to his best. One of the propositions laid down by modern psychology is that there must be an expression in some active way of every bodily and mental state. Nothing can come to its full significance without expression. Herein lies the philosophical basis of worship.
The root idea appears in the etymology and use of the word — an ascribing of worth to God. In the Scriptural history of worship it is seen that the essential force of the term is maintained and the central idea indicated in the acknowledgment of God’s supremacy and rights and in man’s desire to honor Him. It showed itself in the faith of Abel, the obedience of Abraham, the homage of Isaiah, the adoration of David, the love of John, the consecration of Paul. From such heart-shrines the incense of devotion has risen during the ages, as men have ascribed worth to God in the manner that He has required and in the way that He has appointed, describing that worth in terms most fitting and honoring. The recognition of the renewed soul’s relation to God is religion. As one tells us, ” it is the re-binding [re-ligo] of the soul to its divine Creator; and the realization and manifestation of this relation are worship. In worship there are two parts or elements — adoration and manifestation, an essence and a form, a service of the heart and an appropriate external expression.” Reverently does man stand before God to render it. The proper attitude is that of a soul uncovered before Him.
That which makes man’s worship so rich is the strain of redemption underlying it. In the worship of the angels there are praise and thanksgiving without petition or supplication. There are in it no redemptive features. But man’s worship reaches God only through the Redeemer. Even the adoration of redeemed souls in heaven has in it the strain of redemption: “Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests.” Around the throne throughout the ages to come there will be a richer and deeper tone and a sublimity in man’s worship that can never be reached by that of the angels.
The worship of God has its uses. It is worth while. It has “an ultimate and a proximate end.” The ultimate end is the glory of God, the proximate is the good of man. But only as the ultimate end is kept in view is the proximate secured in the measure that is to be desired. Thus when He is truly worshiped God is glorified and man is helped. “We can add nothing to God’s happiness or greatness, but we can please Him with our adoration, and we can promote His glory and magnify His honor before the intelligences of earth and heaven. And by the contemplation of God’s perfections, and by communion with Him, we get nearer to Him, see more of Him, comprehend Him better, trust Him more implicitly, and love Him more fervently. And then we are made richer in our heart’s desires, for He has said to no one, ‘Seek ye My face,’ in vain. Worship is truly no empty form or mere routine performance. It is instinct with life, high and noble life.” Let God be exalted in our thoughts, this Being of infinite perfections worshiped, and the tendency is for us to become like Him. Men do become like that which they love, adore, worship. There is profound philosophy in the Apostle’s statement, “Beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, we are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” Men are as their conception of God is, and according to the character of the worship they render Him. If a man does not worship there is wanting in his life the most potent factor in human development. What a tremendous influence the Church’s worship has had in the life of individuals and the history of the race! The place of nations in the scale of civilization has been determined by their worship. It has been the mightiest educative influence known among men, turning their attention to the higher values of life, bringing before their minds the highest of truths, bringing them into touch with the Infinite. It has emphasized the teachings of Christianity and conserved the faith of Christ far better than controversial statement or written creed. During the ages it has been “for a memorial before the Most High, for a testimony before the world, and for the nourishment and consolation of the body of Christ on earth.” It has been God’s agency for man’s higher interests and man’s way of honoring God.
Such being the influence of the Church’s worship and its far reaching results, what an argument we have as to the reasonableness of insisting that the original divinely constituted and prescribed elements of it should all be carefully safeguarded, lest any one of them should be vitiated, atrophied, or impaired. The Psalter is a book of worship by means of which man may express in fitting terms his homage and adoration. It gives us the completest view of God which we, in our present limitations, are capable of receiving. “Canst thou by searching find out God?” We can only know Him as He reveals Himself. Herein lies the weakness of an uninspired hymnology; it cannot give us a complete view of God. Man cannot transcribe on canvas the glory of a summer sunset. Man cannot adequately describe God’s majestic works. He stands in awe before a Niagara, but can give no adequate description of it. How much less can man describe the unseen God in the greatness of His being and the glory of His perfections. Yet in His praise man is to recount God’s perfections and exalt Him in His attributes. God only can give man words by means of which in any adequate sense he can do this. To the end that he may do so God has prepared and given to His Church the Psalter. The astronomer comes back from the survey of the heavens and reverently exclaims : “I have been thinking God’s thoughts after Him.” Only as we think over God’s thoughts of Himself can we know that we are in the pathway of truth and are expressing that which is fitting and acceptable in His praise.
It is a misconception of worship, especially the praise feature of it, to regard it as chiefly subjective. When it is so regarded the tendency is for the praise service to degenerate into a mere song service, with the idea uppermost of making the services bright and attractive and entertaining. Thus the true idea of worship is obscured ofttimes, not only by the subject matter offered, but by forgetfulness of the real end and purpose of the praise service. “In fact,” as one tells us, “in the great mass of modern hymnology there is little or nothing of the element of praise. There are tender appeals to human emotions and affections. There are songs which stir the sensibilities more quickly than the majestic and incomparable songs of the Word of God. But how little a grain of praise they offer to Him Whom they profess to worship. The tendency of all uninspired hymnology is subjective, manward, rather than Godward.” The true conception of praise is that it is objective. It is not meant to terminate on ourselves or others, but on God. It is to celebrate the greatness of His name as He is revealed in His Word and works. The fixing of our thoughts chiefly on ourselves, the recounting of our frames and states and feelings, though in never so beautiful sentiment and inspiring song, is not praise. It is lacking in the real idea of worship. In our praise our thoughts and emotions are to go out to God and reverently rest on Him. Herein lies the superiority of the Psalms as a manual of praise.
They draw our thoughts and emotions and feelings out to Him and mass them upon Him. When the Psalms do lay hold of our subjective states they do not leave us there, but lead us out to God and center our thought on Him as the One with Whom we have to do.
It is a misconception of the praise service to regard it chiefly for impression rather than for expression. The praise service is not chiefly for the purpose of impressing truth upon ourselves or others, but its purpose is to express unto God the glory due to His name. The singing of the gospel, helpful though it may be in its place, is not of the nature of praise, for the gospel is addressed to man, not to God. In seeking to make an impression upon men the singing of the gospel may be usurping the place of that which is due unto God. That which terminates on ourselves or others may be a means of grace, but only that which terminates on God is praise. The praise service is not meant chiefly for instruction, though it instructs; is not meant chiefly to stir spiritual emotions, though it does so; is not meant merely to make the services more attractive, though it does so; is not meant to terminate on ourselves, but on the great God. It is to magnify Him. Sermon and sacrament may be for the impressing of truth, but praise is the expressing unto God that which is His due. Let Him not be robbed of it. Such a conception of praise will spiritualize our worship, give God that which is owing Him, and make for a strong, virile Christianity, where the thought is centered not on ourselves but upon the great God, infinite in His perfections, glorious in His attributes. “I will exalt Thee, O my God.” This is the essence of praise ; this is the idea of worship.
A Selection from THE PSALMS IN WORSHIP, edited by John McNaugher, D. D., LL. D., 1907
Calvin’s preface to the The Genevan Psalter first appeared in the edition in 1543, and is found in all subsequent issues. 
“He who is prayed for will know and feel that he is prayed for. Paths of duty will be indicated (to children); dangers will be marked; sins will be arrayed before conscience; divine blessings will be set forth as infinitely desirable. By the same means, through God’s blessing, incentives to piety will be reiterated, convictions deepened, and the object of faith placed in open light. Where all this is done day by day, the heart of the child must experience some affection until it is steeled by habitual resistance. The daily regular solemn reading of God’s holy Word by a parent before his children is one of the most powerful agencies of a Christian life. A family thus trained cannot be ignorant of the Word.” James Alexander in Thoughts on Family Worship, p 35.
“One obvious effect of psalm-singing was that Reformed worshipers had the psalms well planted in their minds and hearts. If we should hide God’s Word in our hearts that we might not sin against him (Ps. 119:11), singing the Word is one of the best ways to do that. Early Reformed leaders did not so much argue that we may sing only psalms as they argued that the psalms are the best songs to sing because they are divinely inspired….The principle argument used to promote hymn-singing from the eighteenth century on has been that hymns are more clearly centered on Christ than are the psalms. This argument was known before the eighteenth century, but was not very persuasive among early Reformed people. Calvin and Luther believed that the psalms were filled with Christ. They also believed that if our prayers and sermons and sacraments are filled with Christ, then we will see Christ in the Psalter. But as the Lord’s supper became infrequent and the sermons were too often moralistic, a great push developed to use hymns that preached the gospel. This impulse was strengthened by the increasingly revivalist spirit of much of American religion since the eighteenth century.”
“Jehovah has ordained his people the heirs of blessedness, and nothing shall rob them of their inheritance. With all the fulness of his power he will bless them, and all his attributes shall unite to satiate them with divine contentment. Nor is this merely for the present, but the blessing reaches into the long and unknown future. “Thou, Lord, wilt bless the righteous.” This is a promise of infinite length, of unbounded breadth, and of unutterable preciousness. As for the defence which the believer needs in this land of battles, it is here promised to him in the fullest measure.” Charles Spurgeon commenting on Psalm 5 in A Treasury of David.
“When God blesses [with revival] we exchange problems of deadness for problems of liveliness. I have no interest as a pastor in spending my life tending to a graveyard. Graveyards can be very tidy places. Liveliness can be a very disorderly thing. Oh, God grant us the problems of liveliness in our day rather than bogging us down with the problems of deadness.” J. I. Packer
“A man must first be righteous before he can work righteousness of life. ‘He that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.’ 1 John 3:7. The tree makes the fruit, not the fruit the tree; and therefore the tree must be good before the fruit can be good. Matthew 7:18. A righteous man may make a righteous work, but no work of an unrighteous man can make him righteous. Now we become righteous only by faith, through the righteousness of Christ imputed to us. Romans 5:1. . . . Wherefore let men work as they will, if they be not true believers in Christ, they are not workers of righteousness; and, consequently, they will not be dwellers in heaven. Ye must then close with Christ in the first place, and by faith receive the gift of imputed righteousness, or ye will never truly bear this character of a citizen of Zion. A man shall as soon force fruit out of a branch broken off from the tree and withered, as work righteousness without believing in, and uniting with Christ. These are two things by which those that hear the gospel are ruined.” Thomas Boston.
“But there are those who will trust Christ no further than they can see Him, and will not believe His promise, unless the means of the performance of it be visible; as if [God] were tied to our methods, and could not draw water without our buckets.” Matthew Henry, Commentary on John ch 4.
“What is significant about this story in Scripture is that the disciples’ fear increased after the threat of the storm was removed. The storm made them afraid. Jesus’ action to still the tempest made them more afraid. In the power of Christ they met something more frightening than they had ever met in nature. They were in the presence of the holy…It is one thing to fall victim to the flood or to cancer; it is another thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” R.C. Sproul commenting on Mark 4:41 in The Holiness of God.
“It must not be supposed that the persons who are thus described by their inward and outward holiness are saved by the merits of their works; but their works are the evidences by which they are known. The present verse (Ps. 24:5) shows that in the saints grace reigns and grace alone. Such men wear the holy livery of the Great King because he has of his own free love clothed them therewith. The true saint wears the wedding garment, but he owns that the Lord of the feast provided it for him, without money and without price. “He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.” So that the saints need salvation; they receive righteousness, and “the blessing” is a boon from God their Saviour. They do not ascend the hill of the Lord as givers but as receivers, and they do not wear their own merits, but a righteousness which they have received. Holy living ensures a blessing as its reward from the thrice Holy God, but it is itself a blessing of the New Covenant and a delightful fruit of the Spirit. God first gives us good works, and then rewards us for them. Grace is not obscured by God’s demand for holiness, but is highly exalted as we see it decking the saint with jewels, and clothing him in fair white linen; all this sumptuous array being a free gift of mercy.” Charles Spurgeon on Psalm 24:5, The Treasury of David.
“When Christian had travelled in this disconsolate condition some considerable time, he thought he heard the voice of a man, as going before him, saying, “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.” [Ps. 23:4] 
“But that which concerneth our case, is, that the middle way betwixt the Arminians and the Orthodox, had been espoused, and strenuously defended and promoted by some Nonconformists, of great note for piety and parts; and usually such men that are for middle ways in points of doctrine, have a greater kindness for that extreme they go half-way to, than for that which they go half-way from. And the notions thereof were imbibed by a great many students, who laboured (through the iniquity of the times) under the great disadvantage of the want of grave and sound divines, to direct and assist their studies at universities; and therefore contented themselves with studying such English authors as had gone in a path untrod, both by our predecessors, and by the Protestant universities abroad.” Robert Traill, the younger, in A Vindication of the Protestant Doctrine Concerning Justification (a treatise regarding the Marrow Controversy), 1692, found 
