The Essence of Worship
What is worship? More specifically, what are the essential elements of worship? The topic of worship is hotly debated, and rightly so. When we deal with one of the core aspects of our religious experience, it begs the question, “How should we worship?” Furthermore, we can draw out an existential question, “Why should we worship?” These two questions strike at the very core of worship, the essential foundation, that worship contains service to God, borne of devotion to God, and these questions are adequately answered in 1 Chronicles 16:23-27[1]. Both questions, the how and the way, are clearly stated by David in his song of praise.
How Should We Worship?
In 1 Chronicles 16:23-24, we can perceive two clear commands: first, to sing, in verse 23, and second, to declare God’s glory, in verse 24. Not only are we given commands, but we are also given modifiers of those commands, extensions of the precepts. When we sing to the Lord, we ought to “tell of His salvation day to day.” When we declare his Glory, we should say, “Among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples!”
Looking at the structure of all modern worship, we can see these two elements at the forefront. Hymns, songs, and spiritual songs are sung almost universally in every Christian church service held, and alongside that is the preached word of God, which is the declaration of God’s glory, as God himself has revealed it.
Singing as an Act of Worship
Singing is one of the oldest acts of worship we see in Scripture. It’s abundantly clear that not only does God want us to sing to Him, but he wants us to sing about Him, and His people want to sing to and about him as well. Among many other passages, a clear point of contact would be Psalm 7:17. In our text of 1 Chronicles and Psalm 7:17, we see David singing to God in worship. More than that, we see David singing to God in response to God delivering Him or His people.
Singing as a response to salvation, or a mighty work of God, is also abundantly common. The retrieval of the ark of the covenant was not a trivial matter. It resulted in, at least, the death of Uzzah, and David had a military encounter with the Philistines indirectly because of the retrieval. David’s triumph and his return to Jerusalem with the ark sparked this song of praise we see in 1 Chronicles 16. On a separate and notable occasion, we see God’s people singing in praise after a victory from the Lord, one with salvific notes: Exodus 15:1-21.
In Exodus 15, the people of Israel had just crossed the Red Sea. Before this chapter, we see the iconic image of faithfulness and salvation of God through Moses, parting the river and allowing the Israelite people to escape Pharoah and his chariots. Much can be said about these events, but notably, we see the people of Israel, led by Moses, beginning to sing a song immediately after crossing the river.
Moses and the people of Israel, in response to the deliverance, or salvation, from Egypt by passing through the Red Sea, immediately begin singing praise to the Lord, calling him their strength, a man of War, repeating his covenant name, and singing their resolve to worship him, particularly in verse 2, the song is a holy song, designed to consecrate the day, to set God apart in his power and glory, and to highlight the salvation that the Lord brings. David raises this same point in 1 Chronicles 16:23.
We can plumb a parallel text for this passage, particularly Psalm 96:1-2. When David exhorts us to tell of God’s salvation, this is not merely a political deliverance, like from the Egyptians or the Philistines, but similar to the deliverance from the Egyptians, this points forward to the coming Messiah (Calvin, Commentary on the Book of Psalms 2010). We can perceive that from the inception of worship, we are praising God for his salvific work, and in the essence of worship, we are singing of our need and our love for Christ, the Messiah.
Declaration as an Act of Worship
In addition to singing, David encourages us to “Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples!” Here, we see a clear prescription that is shockingly like one given by Christ himself: declare God’s glory among the nations. Given what comes before and after this phrase, we can be sure this is positive and evangelistic. Indeed, telling God’s marvelous works among all the peoples is a positive act because those superb works seem to be the salvific and covenant blessings that God bestows on any man who is saved.
This is, once again, clearly pointing to a coming redemptive reality in which the Messiah will come. We know this to be sure not only because of the parallel text and the nature of the language of newness of songs pointing to being messianic in nature (Plumer 1872), but also that David is speaking of prophetic words in the past tense, which as has been noted in the past, is not only a common prophetic expression, but the nature of the declaration that all nations and peoples should hear the works of God, necessitates a future, and more expansive, e.g. relating to the inclusion of gentiles, covenant relationship with God (Martyr 1885).
How does this declaration strike at the essence of worship, and what ought we do in worship? The gospel promise is a unifying factor for all men in corporate worship. It ought to be continually declared as an inalienable truth that has gone forth and will continue to go forth into the hearts of men. The exhortation of the great commission[2] is not a new issue but the fulfillment of a phrase uttered 1500 years before the coming of Christ.
Why Should We Worship?
The question of why we should worship can be answered in two different and equally apparent in the text pieces. First, we can see that we should worship God because he deserves our worship and adoration. In short, you could summarize that as “we should worship because we should worship.” This is entirely circular, which is the point, as we’ll see. Secondly, we should worship God because of the wonderful works he does for us.
God Deserves Our Worship
God’s worthiness of our worship is simply stated as “God deserves our worship because He is God.” His worthiness is evident, which is clearly perceived by David when he says, “For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised, and he is to be feared above all gods.” (1 Chron. 16:25). The God of David, Yahweh, is so transcendent over other Gods, that they amount to nothing more than idols, and are worthless. David notes that Yahweh made the heavens, contrasting Him with other gods. They are god in name only, but they do not contain anything resembling a deity or have any actual existence or substance in their being (Poole 1853).
In contrast to Yahweh, the objects of idolatrous worship are insignificant; they do not deserve any reverence. On the other hand, David says that Yahweh is to be “Feared above all gods.” Feared, in Hebrew, often means genuine terror, as it does in English. In a sense that we don’t use so commonly anymore, fear can also mean reverence, and it seems to be the intention of the composer, David, that this is what is meant when he says that Yahweh is to be feared above all gods. (Gill 1810)
We can arrive at this conclusion exegetically, without commenting on the Hebrew, when we look at the context. David contrasts God with idols and makes a case that Yahweh, our God, deserves reverence and worship above all other Gods because of his attributes, namely, his power to create. This, in summary, leads to the original statement that God deserves worship simply because he is God. Certainly, we need no other reason, yet we see another reason in the text.
The Blessings of Worshipping God
“Strength and joy are in his place” (1 Chronicles 16:27) are the final words to dissect here. Not only are strength and joy things that God possesses in his place, as David says, but they are things that God gives to His people. We can see David affirm this claim in Psalm 21:5, where David says, “His glory is great through your salvation; splendor and majesty you bestow on him.” Not only does God deserve our worship because he is God, but he also deserves our worship because of the love and strength he lavishes on his people.
The power of David is manifest not through anything in and of himself but is wrought exclusively by the power of God in an act of love for David. In response to this truth, David devoutly confesses the glory and splendor of God! (Plumer 1872)
Conclusion
The essence of worship is encapsulated in 1 Chronicles 16:24-27, that in David’s song celebrating the successful transplant of the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem, David provides us with the two essential elements of biblical worship: How we should worship, singing songs of praise, and declaring the good works of God, and Why we should worship, because God is a perfectly Holy God, who transcends all the false idols in His perfection and sovereignty, and because God so lavishes his strength, joy, and many blessings onto His people.
[1] Unless stated otherwise, all scriptural references are from the English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016).
[2] Matthew 28:18-20
Bibliography
Calvin, John, and James Anderson. Commentary on the Book of Psalms. Vol. IV. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010.
Gill, John. An Exposition of the Old Testament. Vol. IV. London: Mathews and Leigh, 1810.
Martyr, Justin. “The First Apology of Justin,” in The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus. Edited by Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, & A. Cleveland Coxe. Vol. I. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1885.
Plumer, William S. , Studies in the Book of Psalms: Being a Critical and Expository Commentary, with Doctrinal and Practical Remarks on the Entire Psalter . Philadelphia: Edinburgh: J. B. Lippincott Company; A & C Black, 1872.
—. Studies in the Book of Psalms: Being a Critical and Expository Commentary, with Doctrinal and Practical Remarks on the Entire Psalter. Philadelphia: Edinburgh: J. B. Lippincott Company; A & C Black, 1872.
Poole, Matthew. Annotations Upon the Holy Bible. Vol. II. New York: Robert Carter and Brothers, 1853.
This article by Will Martin was originally submitted as an essay for a Biblical Historical Literature paper in the undergraduate program at College of Biblical Studies, Houston, TX.