Essence of Worship
Oh magnify the Lord with me, let us exalt His name together. (NKJV)
As a worship pastor, the subject of worship comes up occasionally. Yes, even frequently. We talk about worship services, worship experiences, worship venues, worship elements, worship songs, worship creativity, corporate worship, private worship, and so on. Unfortunately, many of those discussions are like a blind archer shooting at a stationary target. It's a dangerous discussion that rarely hits the mark. There are, of course, many aspects to worship, including those listed above. There are times when it seems that the elements of worship take precedence over the essence of worship. That's when we begin to run into the never-ending discussions of culture and style. There are times when it seems that we are more concerned with the culture and style of worship than the essence of worship.
Fortunately, the Bible has a lot to say about worship and what it REALLY is all about. We need to spend more time understanding the essence of worship and less time arguing over the practice of worship.
Take, for example, this verse from the Psalms. It is an invitation to worship. It is an invitation to participate in the corporate activity of worship. Just as if your buddies were calling you on the phone to say, "Hey, let's go play some ball!" this verse is an invitation to engage in worship.
If you are a normal person (and I use that term loosely) somewhere along your life's path someone has said to you, "Hey let's go do something." The response to that question is almost always, "What do you have in mind?" Obviously you want to know exactly what it is that you are being asked to do. Why? Because "doing something" could range anywhere from robbing a bank to jumping into freezing cold ocean waters in January. If you are invited to "do something" you want to know what it is going to be.
David's invitation is to join him in "magnifying" the Lord. So what does that mean, exactly? The word magnify means to cause to be held in greater esteem or respect. Think of the Hubble Space Telescope. It was built and launched in space to magnify objects at the outer reaches of space. It brought into focus things that humans had never seen before. As we magnify God, we see more and more of His power, majesty, creativity, and person. We enjoy new and exciting vistas of who God is and what He has done. We begin to to see Him all the more clearly, and because of that we have reason to "exalt" Him.
Now the word "exalt" means to glorify. Or simply, to elevate through praise. As we see God more clearly, as we come to understand the depths of his love, his kindness, his mercy, grace, power, presence, and purpose, we are driven to elevate Him through praise.
Wrapping this up, we need to both magnify and exalt God to properly worship Him. We see nothing in this verse about what songs to sing. We don't have to read a poem. We don't need a snazzy visual or great video clip. We don't need a bulletin. If they organ isn't playing we can still worship. If someone beats a drum it might be distracting but it shouldn't hinder us from worship. If the guitar is out of tune God can still be worshipped. If a mic is feeding back, we can still worship.
Somewhere along the line we've got to come to this realization - the tools of worship are not to be confused with the act of worship. And yes, we all need to get our act together.
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