Among hotly debated topics in many church circles for centuries is the question of what is “worship” versus “self indulgence”? Or perhaps, what is “high praise” versus “crass promotion for profit”? Taking a cue from long ago it is good to ask, is it “good for food and pleasant to the eyes”? In other words does it feed our soul and sit well with what our visual perspective of holiness is? Not just in a physical visual perspective but an intangible, spiritual sight beyond mortality, beyond the confines of this world. We are endowed with five basic senses giving us incalculable information for assessing what is pleasant or dangerous, sweet, kind, nice or tacky, cruel and evil.
Most Christians would assert that in the beginning God created everything for His good pleasure; it says that, in the Bible. Part of that pleasure appears to have been the communion or interaction between God and His creation. An overwhelming part of that relationship involves worship. Worship is the acknowledgement of who God is and who we are. It is expressed emotionally, spiritually and even physically. In the beginning it is recorded that worship was the total, unbridled, completely open fellowship humans had with their creator in the midst of all He had made for their enjoyment. It was by implication a continual feast of pleasantness. So when did that change?
At the end of the first chapter of the first book of the Bible it says “And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good”. In other words God was happy, man was happy, every created being and thing was participating in God’s design and plan just exactly as the Lord Jehovah God intended. There was no evil and no hint of any evil selfishness.
In the second chapter the entire creation period and some of the specific elements are revisited to give us a fuller appreciation for the complexity and beauty of God’s handiwork. At the end of that chapter is another extremely important phrase which is too often overlooked. It says “And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed”. It indicates that this first couple and the relationship they had with their creator was open and clean; in their eyes and in God’s eyes.
They had nothing to prove and nothing to gain by being or desiring anything other than what He had purposed them to be. Being naked was an expression of their purity. Holiness is that same level of purity which acknowledges proper purpose and complete satisfaction with it. Proper worship requires, emanates from, that nakedness of holiness.
So again, when did it change? In the third chapter of Genesis, the word subtle is used to describe the serpent. In its context and at its root is the sense of cunning deception. It is evident that its purpose and that of the evil inspired conversation recorded there is to supplant truth with a lie. A lie is anything which is not completely in agreement with what God has stated and the intended application of what He said from His perspective. But the lie, “Yeah, has God really said…” is not what changed. Neither was it in the nefarious promise of “you shall be as gods…” Not even when the woman saw it as “good for food and pleasant to the eyes” but when she saw that it was “a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit”. It is not possible for us, some seven or eight thousand years later to be able to judge or completely understand the unique relationship between the first couple and their creator. Yet we know of this one thing they were not to do and they chose to do it anyway.
God in His sovereignty created all. He created the opportunity for obedience and the opportunity for evil. It did not bother God in any fashion to give His greatest creation, humans, the ability to choose by their own free will. Consequences are the result of choices. Good choices, Godly choices, result in good and Godly consequences. The Bible clearly state that all glory and honor and praise are to be given only to the One who is worthy of worship. When the opinion of any other person is respected above or equal to the One who is worthy of worship, we place them on the same level or perhaps replace the first with the second. When Eve saw that it was “a tree to be desired to make one wise”, she replaced the warning and authority of God with herself.
It was not adherence to the serpent’s words but rather her own assessment which become her god guidance. And so “she took of the fruit”. She did so because it appeared pleasant, because it felt good, it seemed right. Not because God had given her advice or direction but because she deemed her own assessment as more worthy than His. The sensory faculties of her body fed information to her mental faculties which caused her emotional faculties to override her spiritual relationship. She did what felt good to her without regard for how God desired for her to worship Him in obedience.
Today we worship God who has redeemed us back to Himself. We worship by inwardly acknowledging and outwardly expressing our new restored relationship. He has made us naked before Him and removed any deception we might attempt to hang onto. We are naked and not ashamed; until. Until we determine that something else is just as valid as what He says. Until we choose to believe our own understanding and interpretation as more valid, more worthy of consideration than what He has given us. Ask a hundred people how God should be worshiped and you will get a hundred diverse answers.
They will cite form and repetition and adherence to formulas and practices and musical style and singing and quietness and making of loud noises and a myriad of other physical sensory inputs seen as “good for food and pleasant to the eyes”. Scriptures will be presented as support for their positions such as “Be still and know that I AM God”. Or “make a joyful noise”, “David danced before the Lord” and “Praise the LORD with harp: sing unto him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings”. All are valid and all are scripture but worship is not the physical act of outward expression. Those are the self absorbed sensual inputs being rendered as outward signs of an inner relationship. Worship requires, no, it demands an openness which transcends physical expression. Worship is the acknowledgement beyond mere mental assent of who Jesus is and what He has done for you whom He loves more than His own life.
True personal worship before God, your creator, your judge, your redeemer and savior is expressible in as many different ways as the Spirit of the living God will lead you. Corporate worship are those times when believers come together to “extol and honor the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment”. There are many outward methods of joining together which promote a sense of the presence of the Lord. In the midst of those corporately worshiping are a sea of personal and private worship moments adding to the swell of praise.
Yet differences of culture or practice can bring pain and disunity to those who seek to express a common love and relationship. If the music is so loud that you cannot think beyond it to express words of praise then maybe it is better that you worship in silence; without instrument, without vocal utterances. If the words don’t seem to be able to come which adequately express your spiritual connection then maybe the softness of instruments will calm your soul as when David played before Saul. “Singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord” works well too. Not everything which appears pleasant, seems to feel good, or seems right, is proper worship. Not because God gives specific advice or direction but because we might deem our own assessment as more worthy than His.
The sensual part of our body can override our spiritual relationship. The question is “Do we do what feels good to us without regard for how God desires for us to worship Him in obedience”. Do we see our form or practice of worship as “good for food and pleasant to the eyes” regardless of how it impacts those for whom Christ died? Is it by our means or methods that we are drawn closer to the place we have determined is evidence of our relationship. Have we come to the place that we believe “as though by our own power or holiness we had made this”? Are we worshiping our Creator God or indulging in “the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life”?