What Is Worship?

October 2021 — Grace & Truth Magazine


What Is Worship

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. — John 4:23 NKJV

It is a most marvelous fact that God is seeking worshipers. But what is worship? How does anyone become a worshiper if they do not have any idea as to what worship is?

The wise men who came to visit great King David’s greater Son provide a good definition and model of worship. Matthew 2:11 specifically records that they “worshiped Him.” How? They fell down before Him in complete obeisance, or homage, to the kingship of the Christ. The magi expressed their worship in presenting gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh – each of which spoke of Him:

• Gold is a precious metal used for ornamentation from earliest times. It addresses the Lord’s divine glory and kingly majesty;
• Frankincense is the dried sap of trees in the Boswellia genus. When dried, the sap is burned as incense. Its aroma indicates His being God manifest in flesh and all that in His life was exclusively to the pleasure of the Father.
• Myrrh is an expensive spice, used for making perfume, incense, medicine, and for anointing the dead. It pointed to His healing power from sin, secured by His suffering unto death.

Each of these gifts brought by the wise men represented a special beauty of our Lord’s intrinsic qualities. Simply stated, their worship was the presentation of the excellencies of Christ to God! We can do the same, collectively and individually, in prayer and song, or through personal contemplation.

I found another definition of worship recently. It is a deeper description that may even surpass the essence of what we have seen in the wise men falling down in homage to the Christ child.

Worship is the submission of all of our nature to God. It is:

• The quickening of the conscience by His holiness;
• The nourishment of mind with His truth;
• The purifying of imagination by His beauty;
• The opening of the heart to His love;
• The surrender of will to His purpose –

all this gathered up in adoration, the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable.*

That definition is something to ponder seriously.

ENDNOTE
* William Temple, Readings in St John’s Gospel (London: Macmillan, 1940), p.68.

By G. H. B.

Come, let us sing the matchless worth,
And sweetly sound the glories forth, Which in the Savior shine: To God and Christ our praises bring;
The song, with which high heaven will ring, Praises for grace divine.
How rich the precious blood He spilt,
Our ransom from the dreadful guilt Of sin against our God; How perfect is that righteousness,
In which unspotted beauteous dress His saints have ever stood!
How rich the character He bears,
And all the form of love He wears, Exalted on the throne; In songs of sweet untiring praise,
We e’er would sing His perfect ways, And make His glories known.
And soon the happy day shall come,
When we shall reach our destined home, And see Him face to face; Then with our Savior, Lord and Friend,
The one unbroken day we’ll spend In singing still His grace. — Samuel Medley (1738–1799)