How to Worship God
Introduction
In his book, The Vision and The Vow, Pete Greig tells of how a distinguished art critic was studying an exquisite painting by the Italian Renaissance master Filippino Lippi. He stood in London’s National Gallery gazing at the fifteenth-century depiction of Mary holding the infant Jesus on her lap, with saints Dominic and Jerome kneeling nearby. But the painting troubled him. There could be no doubting Lippi’s skill, his use of colour or composition. But the proportions of the picture seemed slightly wrong. The hills in the background seemed exaggerated, as if they might topple out of the frame at any minute onto the gallery’s polished floor. The two kneeling saints looked awkward and uncomfortable.
Art critic Robert Cumming was not the first to criticise Lippi’s work for its poor perspective, but he may well be the last to do so, because at that moment he had a revelation. It suddenly occurred to him that the problem might be his. The painting had never been intended to come anywhere near a gallery. Lippi’s painting had been commissioned to hang in a place of prayer.
The dignified critic dropped to his knees in the public gallery before the painting. He suddenly saw what generations of art critics had missed. From his new vantage point, Robert Cumming found himself gazing up at a perfectly proportioned piece. The foreground had moved naturally to the background, while the saints seemed settled – their awkwardness, like the painting itself, having turned to grace. Mary now looked intently and kindly directly at him as he knelt at her feet between saints Dominic and Jerome.
It was not the perspective of the painting that had been wrong all these years, it was the perspective of the people looking at it. Robert Cumming, on bended knee, found a beauty that Robert Cumming the proud art critic could not. The painting only came alive to those on their knees in prayer. The right perspective is the position of worship.
Psalm 84:8–12
8 Hear my prayer, LORD God Almighty;
9 … look with favour on your anointed one.
10 Better is one day in your courts
than a thousand elsewhere;
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
than dwell in the tents of the wicked.
11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield;
the LORD bestows favour and honour;
no good thing does he withhold
from those whose way of life is blameless.
12 LORD Almighty,
blessed is the one who trusts in you.
Commentary
Discover the blessings of worship
There is nothing in this world that compares to worshipping God, walking in a close relationship with him and enjoying his favour. This is what the psalmist prays: ‘Hear my prayer, O LORD God Almighty... look with favour on your anointed one’ (vv.8–9).
This psalm is all about the blessings of worshipping God in his dwelling place (during this period, it was the Jerusalem temple). Those who dwell in God’s house are blessed and they ‘are ever praising you’ (v.4).
The psalmist says he would rather spend one day in the presence of God than a thousand elsewhere: ‘One day spent in your house, this beautiful place of worship, beats thousands spent on Greek island beaches. I’d rather scrub floors in the house of my God than be honoured as a guest in the palace of sin’ (v.10, MSG).
To worship God is to experience him as ‘sunshine’ (v.11, MSG), bathing us in his light and warmth, and a ‘shield’, defending us from evil (v.11).
He prays for this because he knows how wonderful it is: ‘The LORD bestows favour and honour; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless. O LORD Almighty, blessed are those who trust in you’ (vv.11–12).
Prayer
Romans 1:20–32
20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator – who is for ever praised. Amen.
28 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worth while to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. 32 …, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practise them.
Commentary
Worship only God
You become like what you worship. If we worship worthless idols, our lives become worthless. If we worship God, eventually we will become like him.
The apostle Paul begins, in this passage, to unfold what has gone wrong in the world. The heart of the problem is that humankind has ‘worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator’ (v.25).
God has specifically revealed himself in the Scriptures and ultimately in Jesus Christ, who is his ‘exact representation’ (Hebrews 1:3). But what about those who had never heard the good news? Paul’s argument here is that we are all ‘without excuse’ (Romans 1:20).
God has revealed himself in his creation: ‘But the basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can’t see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being. So nobody has a good excuse’ (vv.19–20, MSG).
This knowledge of God is only partial and limited. But, as the psalmist puts it, ‘The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands’ (Psalm 19:1).
We only have to look at the created world to know that there must be a God. The problem with the world is that, in spite of this revelation of God, ‘they refused to worship him’ (Romans 1:21, MSG). ‘They neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him’ (v.21). Instead, they ‘worshipped and served created things’ (v.25).
Therefore, the apostle Paul writes, ‘God gave them over’ (vv.24, 26,28). God allowed us to go our own way in order that we might at last learn from the terrible consequences that follow. Life turned away from the worship of God is ultimately futile. As The Message puts it, it is ‘godless and loveless’ (v.27, MSG).
‘Since they didn’t bother to acknowledge God, God quit bothering them and let them run loose. And then all hell broke loose’ (v.28, MSG).
As the worship of God declines, so the morality of a society declines, following in its wake. We should not be surprised that as the worship of God has declined in our nation, so many of the things described in this passage have followed in its wake.
If you want to keep the right perspective, keep your eyes fixed on Jesus and keep worshipping and serving your creator.
Prayer
2 Kings 25:27–30
27 In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the year Awel-Marduk became king of Babylon, he released Jehoiachin king of Judah from prison… 28 He spoke kindly to him and gave him a seat of honour higher than those of the other kings who were with him in Babylon. 29 So Jehoiachin put aside his prison clothes and for the rest of his life ate regularly at the king’s table. 30 Day by day the king gave Jehoiachin a regular allowance as long as he lived.
Commentary
Pray for a restoration of worship
As we look around at our society it can sometimes seem as if we are in a kind of exile. It can seem that the church is breaking down.
In this passage, we see that the people of God have been through desperate times in the past. But, we also see hope for the future.
As the book of Kings closes, we read of the terrible consequences of a nation that has done exactly what the apostle Paul describes in our New Testament passage for today. They had turned away from worshipping God to worshipping idols (created things).
As a result, we see the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple, and the people going into exile.
During the reign of Jehoiachin (597 BC), ‘Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon advanced on Jerusalem and laid siege to it’ (24:10). The leaders of the people were carried off into exile (v.14).
The next king was appointed by the king of Babylon. Zedekiah (597–587 BC) was no better and things went from bad to worse, as Nebuchadnezzar once again laid siege to Jerusalem (chapter 25). This time the outcome was even more devastating. Nebuchadnezzar ‘set fire to the temple of the LORD, the royal palace and all the houses of Jerusalem. Every important building he burned down’ (25:9). The people were ‘carried into exile’ (v.11), ‘Judah went into exile, orphaned from her land’ (v.21, MSG).
We are told, ‘it was because of the LORD’s anger that all this happened to Jerusalem and Judah, and in the end he thrust them from his presence’ (24:20).
All of this needs to be read alongside the books of Jeremiah and Ezekiel – two prophets who were prophesying at this time. (See especially, Jeremiah 13:18, Jeremiah 39 and 52, Ezekiel 12 and 24.) The greatest loss for the people of God was the destruction of the temple. This was the place where they worshipped God and experienced his presence. Now they were ‘thrust’ from his presence (2 Kings 24:20). This was the worst impact of the exile.
Yet, the book of Kings ends with a small ray of hope. In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, he is released from prison (25:27). He is invited to eat regularly at the king’s table (v.29). The exile is not going to last for ever. Here is a note of anticipation of better things to come. The people of God will return from exile and rebuild the temple and begin to enjoy the presence of God and the worship of God once more.
Prayer
Pippa adds
In Psalm 84:11b it says,
‘No good thing does [the LORD] withhold from those whose walk is blameless.’
I have been pondering this. It is a wonderful thing that ‘no good thing is withheld by the Lord’. But I've often wished that it said ‘for those who are not doing too badly’ because ‘blameless’ is rather a high standard. That’s why we need the cross because we can’t do it on our own.
Verse of the Day
Psalm 84:10a, MSG
‘One day spent in your house, this beautiful place of worship, beats thousands spent on Greek island beaches’.
Thought for the Day
You become like what you worship.
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References
Pete Greig, The Vision and the Vow, (Kingsway Publications, 2005) pp.17–18.
The Bible with Nicky and Pippa Gumbel (commentary formerly known as Bible in One Year) ©Alpha International 2009. All Rights Reserved.
Compilation of daily Bible readings © Hodder & Stoughton Limited 1988. Published by Hodder & Stoughton Limited as the Bible in One Year.
Unless otherwise stated, Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version Anglicised, Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 Biblica, formerly International Bible Society. Used by permission of Hodder & Stoughton Publishers, an Hachette UK company. All rights reserved. ‘NIV’ is a registered trademark of Biblica. UK trademark number 1448790.
Scripture quotations marked (AMP) taken from the Amplified® Bible, Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)
Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from The Message, copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.