Lookahead: I’ll never forget our formally trained pastor, who had “come up” in the choir, going back to his roots and assembling his very own 120-member choir for Pentecost Sunday. For a few weeks, he rehearsed us impeccably, and directed us with amazing, even airborne, vigor (one member credited him with jumping like a frog!). At last the big day came and we were expertly singing our hearts out under his impressive direction…when the pastor suddenly turned his back on us completely…and started vigorously…directing the congregation. It’s hard not to put all that good training to use.
Public figures on the topic of worship reflect the fixation of the present day church on the act, atmosphere, and multi-faceted aspect of worship. Why this fixation?
- One Omaha pastor described it by saying, “a foundational piece of our lives as Christians is worship…a revelation of worship and I mean true worship is essential to the life of every believer.”
- A global worship leader described it as: “Head below your heart. One voice. The ‘stage you’ is the ‘off stage you.’”
- A second one of comparable fame said, “It’s so refreshing to come before Him in stillness. We must have clean hands and a pure heart to ascend the holy hill…God can smell your ‘TUDE.’”
- A TV pastor who also hosts a show about current events asked, “Do we even need music to worship?”
- On the other hand, a newscaster who was being interviewed on Christian TV said, “Listen to Christian music in your genre and God will talk to you.”
- A renowned author who wrote a book about NDE’s quoted that, ‘Worship is love put to music.’”
- Finally, another TV pastor said essentially that he will be out of a job in heaven, but there will be worship leaders everywhere…
The new millennial format in many churches is: worship leaders, with worship teams, with contemporary musical instruments, on stage. Unfortunately, this format greatly expands the opportunities for self-worship, idol worship, pride (which, we will recall, was hasatan’s downfall), secular influence, etc. These distractions can make it difficult to get/keep the focus on God. Some examples…
- I’ve gone through seasons in which members of the worship teams–in some of the churches I attended–were inappropriately dressed. It’s hard not to judge, but at least it got my eyes riveted on the big screen with lyrics which helped me to focus on God. However, even that could be problematic when AV technicians weren’t “advancing the slides” (and this applies to the big screen as well as the worship team’s monitor/prompter):
- When the lyrics weren’t showing up on the monitor/prompter in last Sunday’s service, our poor solo singer actually had to turn around and sing with her back to us to have access to the big screen lyrics. So you gotta wonder what her worship experience was like.
- And let’s consider the team’s worship experience in general. Talk about the huge temptation of constantly being put up on a pedestal. New believers who have musical gifts are sometimes “jumped in” right away while they’re still effectively in the secular entertainment business. Some never have the opportunity to grow in the Word or in their relationship with Jesus. They are then more likely to fall away…unless they do mature while the church members…endure.
- Many songs we sing are focused on man, not God. They may be holy songs that can minister, redeem, save, heal, and definitely should be heard and meditated on. But they can sometimes distract from the act of worship.
- Anyone who isn’t singing/playing music by, with, and in the Holy Spirit has to worry about hitting and playing notes properly, hoping the words appear on the prompter (or come to mind) at the right time, and synchronizing with the rest of the team.
- Anyone who has received formal training or education on how to be a worship leader may be bound up in legalism–and may feel that their responsibility is to re-educate everyone in the audience on how to properly worship.
- I’ll never forget our formally trained pastor, who had “come up” in the choir, going back to his roots and assembling his very own 120-member choir for Pentecost Sunday. For a few weeks, he rehearsed us impeccably, and directed us with amazing, even airborne, vigor (one member credited him with jumping like a frog!). At last, the big day came and we were expertly singing our hearts out under his impressive direction…when the pastor suddenly turned his back on us completely…and started vigorously…directing the congregation. It’s hard not to put all that good training to use.
- And, in an opposite scenario, what happens if someone can’t sing a note? Can they enter into corporate worship in this type of setting? I remember watching, in another church I attended, a guest speaker who was a consummate revivalist, but didn’t seem to be too musical. One night it seemed like he just rode our worship wave right into his message. The anointing was glorious, almost tangible and he wanted in. It seemed that preaching was his only point of entrance. So he literally interrupted the worshipers to preach a powerful sermon on what happens when revival breaks out in a church.
- There was also the case of a worship leader who interrupted our worship…to scold us. He had his own methodology and we weren’t even close to being compliant, I guess. My take: it’s not too important to me about the environment I’m in, as long as someone isn’t advocating a forced religious experience that might take my mind off God. Worship is spending time in a(n) devotional response/inescapable overflow of His Glory, Greatness, Goodness, and Perfection.
Back on topic, in these recent centuries, the church has really “wired us” for the act of worship. Worship has seemed to be woven into the formats and agenda of every church service I have ever attended–and it may actually have been the centerpiece of a service, depending on the denomination–and whether or not the pastor could sing. I would venture to say that yet another new worship format has emerged in contemporary Christian congregations even in the last three years or so–in response to the prevailing cultural generation. In addition to the traditional worship formats which have persevered over the centuries, I’m sure some of us have watched new formats emerge in response to U.S. generational cultures like the Boomers, the Echo Boomers, the Hippies, the Yuppies, and the MTV Genners. Also, the Australians totally dominated contemporary worship music and expression ten years ago or so. And this was on the heels of Irish revival music which was such a blessing! Therefore, we must bear in mind that it’s a constantly changing landscape. Nevertheless, if Moses were to attend our worship services today, best case, he’d be utterly confused. Worst case, he’d be highly offended. On the other hand, I can’t think of a bigger mood dampener for me than animal sacrifice.
I’d like to follow up on the remark about worship leaders being plentiful in heaven. I would hope they are only going to lead by example; because I’ve heard quite a few teachings about one worship leader–who was seriously “stood down” when he tried to overhaul the format–in attempting to get everyone to worship him. However, the Google AI Overview did not agree that this was the case: “No, Lucifer was not an archangel of worship. He was a fallen angel who rebelled against God and was expelled from heaven.”
And another source explained, “Ezekiel 28:13 of the KJV and NKJV seems to hint that satan was involved with music in Heaven. The NKJV says, ‘The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes was prepared for you on the day you were created,’ although the exact meaning of this difficult Hebrew text is uncertain. There may have been such instruments in heaven, but there is no evidence outside this verse to verify it…satan was the ‘anointed cherub’ (Ezekiel 28:14). He was adorned with every precious jewel imaginable (Ezekiel 28:13). He was ‘the model of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty’ (Ezekiel 28:12b). Likely he was the highest of all angels. He was persuasive enough to convince one-third of the angels to join him in his rebellion…Was satan the head musician? This cannot be answered definitively. Scripture does not say enough about what his duties were in heaven. Considering the fact that the angels constantly worship God (Isaiah 6:3; Revelation 4:8), it is possible that satan led that worship.”1
But what if his role was actually intended to be accompanying that worship on musical instruments? It does sound like God gave him musical gifts and musical instruments. The Interlinear Hebrew on biblehub translates: you were the anointed cherub who covers…you walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones…the workmanship of your timbrels and pipes was prepared for you on the day you were created. Ezekiel 28:13, 14 That curious “workmanship” word is מְלֶ֨אכֶת in the Hebrew. It occurs 12 times elsewhere in the Old Testament. On one occasion, it refers to the gold workmanship in the Tabernacle of Meeting. Then it refers to the workmanship of the pillars in the Temple. Later it refers to the work of the servants in the House of God. And then the work of the servants in the field. This seems to imply that the work for satan’s instruments began on the day that God created him. Also, God didn’t create the instruments–or scripture would say that. 🙂
Perhaps God’s intention was that satan worship Him by playing the timbrels and pipes or contribute to the pleasant sound of the on-going worship (heaping on or “covering” Him with praise). After all, his primary mission was as the cherub who “covered” God (also means “guarded or defended” Him–almost like U.S. Secret Service!). So he may have been at the top of the angelic hierarchy in that he had direct access to the Father (Top Secret Clearance?). However, he still revealed that he would have to rise or ascend to be like God: I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High. Isaiah 14:14
Another teaching that I’ve frequently heard is that the main reason that God created us was to (choose to) worship Him. This would explain our present day compulsion to worship Him appropriately in New Millenial Churches. Again, this belief was not universal, and proved to be another grey area from a scriptural standpoint. Scripture listed many reasons for our creation, but none of them was expressly to worship God. Reasons included: for good works, to love Him, to fear Him, that we would be conformed to the image of Jesus, and…for His glory (wording is not “to glorify Him”). Someone was meant to honor and praise Him for creating us, however, scripture doesn’t say that this was our intended reason for being.
What does the Old Testament say about format and style? And for that matter, when is the first time that the expression “to worship” is mentioned in the Bible. “Here, in Genesis twenty-two, the Hebrew word ‘shachah’ is first translated worship. Remember the story. God commissioned Abraham to travel three days to Mount Moriah and there to sacrifice his beloved son, Isaac.”2 And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the donkey; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you. Genesis 22:5 I believe it’s true that Abraham told the servants that he and Isaac were going to Mount Moriah to worship God. And although Abraham totally trusted that God would not irreversibly destroy his child of promise, he had to have realized that the worship act might involve stabbing and burning his precious son on an altar. So this may have been one of the first instances in the Bible in which the act of worship was equated to a sacrificial offering.
Nevertheless, although shachah is subsequently used 174 times in 166 verses in the Old Testament, it almost exclusively describes prostrating oneself or making obeisance to God (or false idols). In Genesis 22:5, Abraham may have been worshiping…by bowing to God’s plan and His unswerving faithfulness as a Promise Keeper. I have also heard teachings along the lines of…
…going all the way back to Genesis, Abel was the first worshiper, when he brought his best offering to the LORD. But I web-searched on “where does it say in scripture that offering = worship?” I came up empty–even in spite of the wonderful praise verses in Psalms and 1 Chronicles. The search referred me to 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 for verses that explained that giving was a part of worship. Notwithstanding, the “worship” word couldn’t be found in those (powerful) verses. Then I remembered Romans 12:1 which does include the worship word: Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. This seems to imply that the New Testament writings were more in line with the “worship = sacrificial offerings” paradigm.
In the next post, I plan to continue to park on the Old Testament and explore the historical context further. God commanded us not to bow down to false idols. So what was the “idol worshipers’” concept of worship back then? And is this compulsion to worship rooted in our DNA-coded tendency to submit to authority when it’s unquestioned and absolute? (Hint: I don’t think this is what the LORD had in mind. :-))
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Cross-Denominational Bible Study 