Worship

I have been thinking a lot about worship lately, especially church worship. And I have come to the conclusion that I cannot consciously and purposely glorify or truly worship a God I do not consciously enjoy and delight in. While I would not disagree that such things as obedience to God, hatred for sin, loving people, and of course passionately singing His praises glorify God, I would have to add that unless those things are motivated by delight in God they are nothing more than religious duties that glorify and worship God no more than a dutiful kiss glorifies your spouse. God is glorified in and by us when we come to find Him as our greatest delight and joy in life. In other words, God is glorified in us, by us and through us when we come to enjoy Him as our greatest treasure and pleasure in life. Now if I were the only one in the world that thought this, I’d be a little concerned that maybe I was chasing after a loose theological hair or something but the fact is, I’m not. As the puritan theologian, Jonathan Edwards, a Calvinist, wrote long ago:

"God is glorified not only by His glory’s being seen, but also by its being rejoiced in. When those that see it [God’s glory]delight in it, God is more glorified than if they only see it. His glory is then received by the whole soul, both by the understanding and by the heart. God made the world that he might communicate and the creature receive his glory; and that it might be received both by the mind and heart. He that testifies his idea of God’s glory doesn’t glorify God so much as he that testifies also his. . . delight in it."

Thus, God’s purpose in creating us was that we glorify Him by enjoying Him and His glory. This is exactly the same conclusion the framers of the almost 400year old Westminster Shorter Catechism came to in answering the question, What is the chief end of man? Their answer, which they searched the Scriptures to find was:

"The chief end of man is to glorify God
And enjoy Him forever."

John Piper, author of such books as Desiring God, The Pleasures of God, Future Grace, and Don’t Waste Your Life makes the argument that if you changed one little word in the Westminster Catechism’s answer you’d have the essence of worship and the purpose of man defined correctly. How would he change it to capture the essence of worship and the purpose of man?

"The chief end of man is to glorify God BY enjoying Him forever."

Richard Baxter, a puritan pastor who died in 1691 captured this thought when he prayed, “May the Living God, who is the portion and rest of the saints, make these our carnal minds so spiritual, and our earthly hearts so heavenly, that loving Him, and delighting in Him, may be the work of our lives.”

By the way, this concept of enjoying God as the means by which God is ultimately glorified was not unique to those in the Reformed tradition. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism and an Arminian, came to the same conclusion:

"One design you are to pursue to the end of time—the enjoyment of God in time and eternity. Desire other things so far as they tend to this . . . Let every affection, and thought, and word, and action, be subordinate to this. Whatever you desire or fear, whatever you speak or shun,whatever you think, speak, or do, be it in order to your happiness in God—the sole end as well as the source of your being."

And these sentiments were exactly those of King David, in Psalm 27:4, which says:

"One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek Him in His temple."

In other words, David’s one desire in life, the one He asks God for is to enjoy the beauty of the Lord as He sees Him in and through the corporate worship at the Temple. Now obviously, David enjoyed God in private. As he wrote in Psalm 16:11, “. . . In your presence is fullness of joy; In your right hand there are pleasures forever.” Thus, it was this fact that he enjoyed God in private worship that caused Him to enjoy God and thus glorify God in public worship.

All of our life is worship, whether in private or public, at work or in church, at home or away. Thus, all of our work and play has to do with enjoying God. As Sam Storms, author of the book, One Thing, writes:

You weren’t created to be a lawyer or school teacher or factory worker or football player. That’s what you do to make a living, but it’s not the reason for living. You were made to rejoice at the display of God’s glory in Jesus Christ. . . . You weren’t created for boredom or burnout or bondage to sexual lust or greed or ambition but for the incomparable pleasure and matchless joy that knowing Jesus alone can bring. Only then, in Him, will you encounter the life-changing, thirst-quenching, soul-satisfying delight that God, for His glory, created you to experience.

Well Sunday is only a few days away and if I am to enjoy worship then, I better start looking into my heart to see if I am really enjoying God and His glory today. It will make all the difference in the world on Sunday.