John 4:19-24: The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.”

Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (My underline)

Halleluia! We begin a new Series today—on the utterly profound topic of worship.  This series will hopefully help us to move closer to an understanding of what worship is.  I have pondered innumerable questions about worship over the years, some of which I include below.  It is my prayer that this series will help to address these questions, as God gives the revelation. 

Questions, always questions:

• Capstone question:  What did Jesus mean by John 4:23,24?
• What does Halleluia mean and why is everyone always proclaiming it? 😊 
• What did the woman in John 4 consider worship to be? And how would she have interpreted Jesus’ new definition?
• Is “forced” and/or “formula” worship really worship?  
• Are we commanded to worship, no matter what–whether we’re in the valley or on the mountaintop? 
• Should physical pain be the inspiration/prerequisite for writing contemporary worship songs?
• Even if it’s “broken worship,” should we do it anyway?
•  Do we have to worship joyfully for it to be true (effective) worship?
• Should we be expecting God to act on our behalf if we worship effectively?
• Can people be physically/emotionally healed during corporate worship?
• Should worship be an attempt to purchase God’s favor, or to pay Him back for the wonderful things He does?
• Did God, in fact, specify in advance to Cain and Abel, etc. what acceptable worship was…or was this done after Cain’s fauxpas?
  • What does it mean to “Call on the Name of the LORD?”
• Does Worship = Thanksgiving?
• Is worship thanking God in advance for the upcoming miracle that we seek? (IAW 2 Chronicles 20)
• Does Worship = Serving the LORD?
• Does Worship = Preaching?
• Can someone who is tone deaf and can’t sing a note enter in…during worship services as we define them contemporarily? 
• Does Worship = Praise?
• And on the related topic of praise (while still applicable to worship?):
  • Is God OK with us parsing our corporate praise into thirty second time slices, or giving Him a sincere round of applause?
  • Or…will we die if we try to touch God without praise?
  • Are we praising so that we will feel God’s Glory?
• Does Worship = Animal Sacrifice?
• Are some worship music genres inappropriate?
• In private worship, do we need to listen to our preferred genre of music to achieve a worshipful state?
• Can you worship with dance? mime? musical instruments?
• What did the patriarchs consider to be worship?
• Is David (the psalms) the absolute authority on how to worship?
• Is worship bi-directional?  Is it true that God worships with us when we worship? 🙂
• How did Jesus worship during His earthwalk?
• Are there certain criteria for worship songs? e.g.,
  • If the song is centered around “me, myself, and I” is it still a worship song?
  • Is Amazing Grace a worship song?
  • Is Handel’s Messiah worship?
• Is (what is considered to be) heavenly worship different than the worship that God wants on earth?
• Worship NOT – The devil torpedoed himself forever because (as a worship leader) he wanted people to worship him versus God.  What was the brand of worship that he sought from Jesus in the wilderness?
• How can we be sure we’re not worshipping the Christian celebrity?
• How does a financially compensated Christian celebrity keep from performing during worship?
• How does someone who is leading worship keep from teaching and critiquing during worship?
• What does it mean that worship always involves a sacrifice? 
• Do we have to sacrifice something in order to worship correctly?
  • Or another take, is the sacrifice that we must lay down…our PRIDE?
• Was Jesus essentially worshipping the Father from the cross when He quoted Psalm 22?!
• Do we need to worship in a corporate setting to worship effectively?
• How are we going to worship in the Millennial Kingdom? 
• What roles do love, fear, and emotion play in worship?
• After God revealed Himself to Job, did the latter forever nail the worshipful response? 
• If we’re using worship as a weapon, is it still worship?

Prior to jumping right in and giving you the benefit of my personal take on all these questions, I felt like the LORD sent me to the Word of God for a (two and a half month) season.  And though I was strongly tempted to share my experiences and superficial knowledge on the subject of worship—basically adding to a countless chorus of participants in the on-going dialogue—I believe that I had an inner witness to write a Word-based series; I also felt that, if it were not Word-based, writing the series would be one big lesson in futility. 😊 Additionally, I believe that the LORD pointed me to the Psalms that David had written. 

David is alleged to have written 73 of the 150 psalms.  Therefore, these are the ones I focused on.  Also, I ignored the venting/imprecatory psalms, as I did not consider them to be worshipful under any stretch of the imagination. Why were the Psalms God’s starting point?  My theory was that the general understanding, in some hermeneutical circles, is that the Psalms represent “serious worship.”  So was God showing me how we should achieve effectiveness and appropriateness in worship using the psalms as our template?

After reading these psalms, I came to the conclusion that they were incredibly beautiful in revealing more of Who God is, as well as expressing the vastness of the potential for an awesome relationship that He offers us.  They were absolutely chocked full of David’s praise and thanksgiving.  They were also full of David’s prayers/supplications, and represented reinforcement/reminders of God’s faithfulness and promises.  But did they represent the kind of worship that the angels and saints conduct in the Book of Revelation?  hmmmmm 

My conclusion was that the Psalms emerged from a heart of worship.  David is credited with having the same heart for God that, for example, Job was given…after He honored him with a personal audience.  Basically, Job’s takeaway was:  my pea-sized brain was not able to appreciate how irrelevant anything that’s happening in the earthly realms is…in the light of You, Who You are, and what You’re doing…so face-on-the-ground prostration will work for me. 😊

To be continued…