At the Heart of our Reformed Worship
We all exist as humans ‘to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever’. Our entire lives are to be devoted to worshipping God with our entire heart, soul and mind (Matt 22:37). And this worship comes to its culmination when a congregation gathers publically to say, “I was glad when thy said unto me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord!’” (Psa 122:1).
We do not exist to worship our Creator in isolation (Heb 10:25). In the beginning, the God who exists eternally in community as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, said, “Let us make man” (Gen 1:26). The Scripture then says, “So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female he created them” (Gen 1:27). God created us out of, into, and for community. Adam, though, on behalf of all humanity, rejected this purpose when he sinned by rebelling against his Creator (Gen 3:16; Rom 5:12-21). Not only did Adam reject his purpose to glorify God, his sin made all humanity incapable of offering true worship. God is so amazing, though. In response, He served the creature! Scripture says that God came to Adam and Eve, hiding from his Maker among the trees, and clothed them with animal skins, a visible sign to them that he covered their sins (Gen 3:7-8, 21). God’s serving His people in grace led to their response. While the communities of the world made names for themselves in city-building, animal domestication, music, and metallurgy (Gen 4:17-22), the community of faith gathered, to “call upon the name of the Lord” (Gen 4:26).
True worship is transcendent, that is, it is bigger than me, or my local congregation. We are united to those most ancient of believer’s in the Lord, that “great … cloud of witnesses” (Heb 12:1), as we too assemble for worship, on the Lord’s Day as the Lord’s holy people. We too are enabled to serve God by worshipping Him because He has first served us in lavishing grace upon us in His Son, Jesus Christ (Eph 1:7-8), who was born, lived perfectly in our place, died in our place, and was “raised for our justification” (Rom 4:25). He continues to serve us by calling us to Himself by the power of the Holy Spirit, speaking His precious promises to us in His Word, feeding us with spiritual food in the sacraments, and sending us into the world in His power and Spirit. In response to His amazing grace, we offer Him thankful, heartfelt worship in the power of the Holy Spirit. Worship, then, is what we do in response to God serving us in grace.
“Amen! Praise the Lord!” (Psa 106:48)