Not so long ago, I preached on Psalm 95, which raises the topic of worship in verse 6. (Download the MP3.) In passing, I made the standard (well, ‘standard’ in our circles) point that the word ‘worship’ is never really applied to church gatherings in the New Testament; it’s much broader.
This was a key insight in David Peterson’s book on worship Engaging with God. He’s a New Testament Lecturer and former Principal of Oak Hill College, London (and also once the Senior Minister of St Michael’s where I serve).
For Christians, the ‘worship’ vocab belongs not to religious meetings, but to the whole of life—our hospitality, the use of our money, honouring marriage, our help of the needy and so on.
But it’s fair to say that when Psalm 95 raises the topic of worship, it is talking about our corporate worship. Three times the Psalm invites us to “come”: verse 1: come to sing; verse 2: come before God with thanksgiving; verse 6: come to bow in worship. And it’s plural all through the Psalm: ‘let us’ not ‘me’, and ‘you’ plural. (In Australia, we’d translate it as ‘youse’.)
So Psalm 95 is talking about our experience as the people of God when we gather. Of course, this applies not just to church, but to the conversations afterwards, and to the mid-week Bible study groups, and informal get-togethers for care and encouragement.
But it’s no mistake that Psalm 95 was often used on Sabbath Day meetings in first-century Jewish synagogues and more recently, as a “call to worship” in Christian assemblies (for example, in the Anglican Prayer Book’s Order of Morning Prayer).
My sermon went on to speak of the important place of
- exuberant praise and joy in the rock of our salvation (vv. 1-2), and
- deep reverence in our submission (which is our worship) to our shepherd king, God, and so
- the necessary centrality of the Word of God (and heeding it) in our Christian gatherings.
After the sermon, I was asked a good question about the psalm’s language of coming to God: “Do we come into God’s presence at church, or continue in his presence?” My answer was as follows: of course the Bible teaches that God is all-present (“omnipresent”—Jer 23:23-24; Psa 139:7-10). Being a spirit, he cannot be contained in particular physical places, as Solomon notes in his prayer dedicating the temple (1 Kgs 8:27; cf. Acts 7:48).
Nevertheless, the Bible speaks of God’s presence dwelling in a special way—for example, among his people, the pillar of smoke and fire in the desert wanderings, and his presence filling the Old Testament temple (e.g. 1 Kgs 8:10-13; cf. Isa 6).
In the New Testament, this special presence of God to bless and comfort comes to each believer with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and also among his people when they gather (often as a solemn warning): e.g. see Matthew 18:19-20 and 1 Corinthians 3:16-17, 6:19-20. John 4:20 shows that this special presence is not attached to particular buildings or places in the New Testament!
Yet the Bible talks of approaching or drawing near to God when we gather as believers to praise him and hear his word—as in Psalm 95:1-2 or Hebrews 10:19-25. Because of our great high priest Jesus, the author says, “Let us draw near with confidence”!
All this is using the language of presence to indicate that God is present to act in a special way in these situations, not to make physical comments about God’s whereabouts. So when we leave church, of course God is still present with us as individuals—especially in believers—by his Spirit. But Christianity is clearly a corporate faith. And there seems to be a special way in which God is among us corporately—such that the Bible says that when we gather together for church around his word (whether formally or informally), then we are drawing near to God in a special way. Solo Christianity would be an oddity!
Sandy, how do you understand the word “reverence”. I have been looking at various web dictionaries. My experience is that many people use it but don’t always mean the same thing. It is almost like it is a jargon. I understand that it incorporates the concept of fear, so I am a bit confused as the Hebrews passage (10:19-25) seems to be suggesting that we don’t need to fear God as we “draw near”.
Good comment, Greg. As I review my sermon notes, I see that I did not actually use the word ‘reverence’ except as a summary word right at the end.
I was really talking about worship as submission – taking the literal posture of the key ‘worship’ vocab – referring to prostration or ‘bending the knee’ before a sovereign – over into our whole life as our attitude to God.
At this point I did pick up on a critique by John Stott about our gatherings as often being a bit irreverent and casual, and lacking a sense of God’s greatness and awe. [Tell me if you want me to post the quote.]
I don’t think Stott was complaining about kids making a bit of noise in church or people not dressing up or that sort of thing, rather about leadership of meetings, which creates a bit of a culture where we are cocky or flippant or casual or mechanical.
And at that point I affirmed what Proverbs say that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
You are correct of course, that reverence often has an overtone of fear. Not, I think of cringing fear, but deep respect for the power and majesty and goodness of the one we revere.
To trivialise by way of illustration, it’s the fear/awe I felt before a senior high school teacher: a very good teacher, an excellent sports coach, who could be stern and demanding but always seemed in control, even when angry.
This was a different fear from the fear many of us felt at another teacher who was also strict but had en explosive temper, but was not nearly as fair or competent as a teacher. With him, it was a cringing fear and not much positive respect.
You are also correct that Hebrews 10:19-23 encourages us to approach God with confidence and assurance and clean consciences – through Christ – and hence we do not need to fear his condemnation.
However the same author warns in the same chapter (10:26-31) against deliberately keeping on sinning after receiving a knowledge of the gospel truth, because otherwise all we will face is a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire. Knowing the gospel, and responding warmly but superficially, such that you count yourself amongst the people of the visible church, yet then despising Christ leads to severe judgment, such that the author says those sobering words,
Likewise, the author says in Heb 12:28-29,
thanks for the helpful article Sandy.
I have found that the two words that confuse and confound many Christians are ‘worship’ and ‘church’.
I wonder whether using the language of ‘corporate worship’ is more helpful in capturing that sense of reverence which Stott refers to. Part of his concern seems to be a ‘horizontal’ flattening out of God’s people gathering in a way that diminishes a reverent ‘vertical’ focus.
If what we do is ‘special’ than our language needs to reflect that it is not just any old meeting. It is God’s meeting, a gospel meeting,a special meeting, a worship meeting, but not just a meeting.
that ‘special way’ seems to be captured well by Colossians 3, where we see the beloved and holy elect ones of God living out the gospel to one another. They are united in love, ruled by Christ’s peace and the word of Christ is mutually taught and admonished. it is a wonderful expression of corporate, one another focussed, Christ exalting, word indwelling, worship. it is also the kind of worship that is very difficult to do alone, apart from the felloship of the saints.
you said ‘we gather together for church around his word’. would it not be more accurate to say we gather to gether AS church around his word’? or we gathering together AS WORSHIPPERS of CHRIST around his word?
I find it difficult to gather FOR church when we already ARE the church.
ie just as we are worshippers apart from being corporate worshippers, we are his people (his ‘church’) apart from gathering are we not?
in him , S
<i>Solo Christianity would be an oddity</i>
Or an impossibility? What do you think, Sandy?
Actually, the notion that “worship” applies to the whole of life is the result mainly of poor translation in English Bibles which conflates distinct terminology in Greek. The result is the NT uses the word “worship” to encompass both “service” and what many people actually think of as the definition of worship. The matter was discussed extensively on this thread which included some discussion of David Peterson’s book.
I wonder if starting a gathering with Psalm 95 actually misleads people about the purpose of gathering today, in the light of the cross.
Are we in danger of making the shadow the reality?
Is ‘church’ more than ‘worship’? I think so. Christ is central to our meetings and he himself is not worship. At best worship is our response when we hear him. God ‘speaking’ is central to ‘church’ but this isn’t worship is it?