Lesson 2 - Why Worship God

8/3/2019 Lesson 2 - Why Worship God

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Lesson 2 Why Worship God?

Last lesson, we tried to define worship. This week we will try to get ahandle on the reasons why we worship God. Since worship is such abasic part of being a Christian, many believers never methodically

think it through.

Last week, I encouraged you to ponder why you worship God. Whatdid you come up with?

Lots of people will state that they worship God out of gratitude for allthat He has done or made, out of thanksgiving for their salvation, orsimply because God deserves it.

One often overlooked reason for worshipping God is that Hetells us to worship Him.

Sing to the LORD, all the earth; Proclaim good tidings of His salvationfrom day to day. Tell of His glory among the nations, His wonderfuldeeds among all the peoples. For great is the LORD, and greatly to bepraised; He also is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of thepeoples are idols, But the LORD made the heavens. Splendor andmajesty are before Him, Strength and joy are in His place. Ascribe tothe LORD, O families of the peoples, Ascribe to the LORD glory andstrength. Ascribe to the LORD the glory due His name; Bring anoffering, and come before Him; Worship the LORD in holy array.Tremble before Him, all the earth; Indeed, the world is firmlyestablished, it will not be moved. Let the heavens be glad, and let theearth rejoice; And let them say among the nations, "The LORD reigns."(1Chronicles 16:23-31)

Some people have a real problem with this concept.

The famous, nineteenth-century German philosopher FriedrichNietzsche said I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised allthe time.

Participate! Why do you worship God?


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Oxford professor, literary critic, and Christian apologist, C. S. Lewis,also had an initial reluctance to praise God. Especially difficult for himwas that God, Himself, required that people praise Him. He wroteabout this in his book, Reflections on the Psalms. Here are some

quotes:

When I first began to draw near to belief in God and even forsome time after it had been given to me, I found a stumblingblock in the demand so clamorously made by all religious peoplethat we should "praise" God; still more in the suggestion thatGod Himself demanded it. We all despise the man who demandscontinuous assurance of his own virtue, intelligence ordelightfulness; we despise still more the crowd of people roundevery dictator, every millionaire, every celebrity, who gratify thatdemand.

Thus a picture, at once ludicrous and horrible, both of God andof His worshippers, threatened to appear in my mind...Worse stillwas the statement put into God's own mouth, "whoso offerethme thanks and praise, he honoreth me" (Psalm 50:23). It washideously like saying "What I most want is to be told that I amgood and great."...More than once the Psalmists seemed to besaying, "You like praise. Do this for me, and you shall havesome."

Gratitude to God, reverence to Him, obedience to Him, I

thought I could understand; not this perpetual eulogy...

But of course this is not all. God does not only "demand"praise as the supremely beautiful and all-satisfying Object.He does apparently command it as lawgiver. The Jews were toldto sacrifice. We are under an obligation to go to church. Butthis was a difficulty only because I did not then understand...that it is in the process of being worshipped that Godcommunicates His presence to men.

Both Nietzsche and, initially, Lewis had difficulty in offering praise and

worship to God. This stemmed from a faulty view of the person of Godand a misunderstanding of His reasons for encouraging us to worshipHim. Lewis continues:

I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflowsinto praise...The world rings with praise--lovers praising theirmistresses, readers their favourite poet, walkers praising the


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countryside...I had not noticed how the humblest, and at thesame time most balanced and capacious, minds, praised most,while the cranks, misfits and malcontents praised least...I hadnot noticed either that just as men spontaneously praisewhatever they value, so they spontaneously urge us to join them

in praising it: "Isn't she lovely? Wasn't it glorious?"...ThePsalmists in telling everyone to praise God are doing what allmen do when they speak of what they care about...I think wedelight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merelyexpresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointedconsummation.

Examples of an invitation to worship:

A Psalm of David when he feigned madness before Abimelech,who drove him away and he departed. I will bless the LORD at all

times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul willmake its boast in the LORD; The humble will hear it and rejoice.O magnify the LORD with me, And let us exalt His nametogether. I sought the LORD, and He answered me, Anddelivered me from all my fears. (Psalm 34:1-4)

O taste and see that the LORD is good; How blessed is the manwho takes refuge in Him! (Psalm 34:8)

Give to Jehovah the glory of His name; bring an offering andcome before Him; worship Jehovah in the adornment of holiness.

(1Chronicles 16:29)

Oh worship Jehovah in the beauty of holiness; tremble beforeHim, all the earth. (Psalm 96:9)

To summarize, if anyone beside God encouraged you to praise them,you would have grounds to suspect some pride or even conceit. Butthe Lord is worthy of all praise and worship. He even tells us to praiseHim because it is good for us. His motive is perfectly pure.

We become like the object of our worship.

Youve probably heard that after years of being in the intimaterelationship of marriage, a husband and wife become more like eachother. They slowly influence each other until they have similar speechpatterns, accents, and personal tastes, even thought patterns.Sometimes they even begin to look alike. After decades of marriagemy parents were known to swap eyeglasses back and forth.


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If the personal intimacy of marriage can influence us in such strongbut subtle ways, how does the intimacy of worship effect us?

We become like the object of our worship.

Their idols are silver and gold, The work of man's hands. Theyhave mouths, but they cannot speak; They have eyes, but theycannot see; They have ears, but they cannot hear; They havenoses, but they cannot smell; They have hands, but they cannotfeel; They have feet, but they cannot walk; They cannot make asound with their throat. Those who make them will become likethem, Everyone who trusts in them. (Psalm 115:4-8)

The idols of the nations are but silver and gold, The work ofman's hands. They have mouths, but they do not speak; Theyhave eyes, but they do not see; They have ears, but they do not

hear, Nor is there any breath at all in their mouths. Those whomake them will be like them, Yes, everyone who trusts in them.(Psalm 135:15-18)

An extreme example is what happened to Moses after 40 days in Godspresence.

It came about when Moses was coming down from Mount Sinai(and the two tablets of the testimony were in Moses' hand as hewas coming down from the mountain), that Moses did not knowthat the skin of his face shone because of his speaking with Him.

So when Aaron and all the sons of Israel saw Moses, behold, theskin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him.(Exodus 34:29-30)

2 Corinthians 3:13 tells us that the glory on Moses face faded away.

and are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face sothat the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end of whatwas fading away.

But a few verses later we are told that we can be transformed with an

inner glory.

But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the gloryof the Lord, are being transformed into the same image fromglory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.(2 Corinthians 3:18)


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What we worship and why we worship can have a profound impactupon our lives, our families, and our churches. When we cling to anyidols in our lives and give them the attention and status that belongsto God alone, we allow ourselves to become like them. Such idolsinclude wealth, possessions, power, sex, entertainment, careers, food,

reputation, and even the computer that I am using to type this list.None of these things will satisfy us in the inner man, none of them canever fulfill the claims they make.

When we worship the God of the Bible we come into His presence andHe has an influence on us. Psalm 22:3 says But thou artholy, O thouthat inhabitest the praises of Israel. (KJV) 1 When we worship God weinvite Him to be with us, in a potentially deep, intimate manner. TheLord who sees the innermost parts of our hearts can, and often does,impact us from the inside out.

More on this next week.

Homework Assignment: For next week, ponder the differencebetween being in the same place with someone and being insomeones presence.

1 The NASB for this verse reads, Yet You are holy, O You who areenthroned upon the praises of Israel.

Lesson 2 - Why Worship God

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