For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. (Ps 84:10)

 

If there is one thing we can say without qualification about worship, it is that worship must be unflinchingly focused upon God. However, there are a number of surprising (from a modern viewpoint) set of concerns around the worship of God.

 

The Place of Worship

 

To begin with, the overwhelming issue related to worship throughout Scripture is the location of worship. The Hebrew Scriptures are saturated with talk about the place where God is worshipped. Much of the Pentateuch is concerned with the building and activity of the tabernacle. It was the overriding concern immediately after the Exodus (see Exodus 25-40[1]). Upon the heels of the conquest of the Promised Land in Joshua and Judges, we see that the story of the rise of David to king in books of Samuel is framed by a concern about where the ark of the covenant (the centerpiece of the tabernacle) would stay.[2] Through David, the city of God – Jerusalem – was secured, and the land and preparations for the permanent temple were made. While the subsequent history of Israel in the books of Kings and 2 Chronicles make little explicit mention of the temple, they are both framed in the beginning by the building and consecration of the temple under Solomon (1Kgs 5:1 – 9:9; 2Chr 2 - 7) and at the end by the destruction of the temple as a sign of God’s judgment on Israel (2Kgs 25:1-21; 2Chr 36:17-21).[3] After the exile, the Old Testament’s historical concern is solely upon the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the temple in Ezra and Nehemiah. Moving beyond the historical books, the prophetic literature is so thoroughly concerned with Jerusalem, Zion (the name of the temple mount), and the temple that the concern is obvious. The Psalms similarly riff persistently on the “holy hill,” “sanctuary,” “the house of the Lord,” and other such poetic references to the temple.

 

The New Testament also shares this concern. Each Gospel moves towards Jerusalem and the temple. The clearing of the temple in the Synoptic Gospels (Mt 21:12-17; Mk 11:12-25; Lk 19:41-48) serves as a crucial turning point in the minds of Jesus’ enemies.[4] In John, we learn that it was not the first clearing (Jn 2:13-22) – a powerful declaration early in John about Jesus’ authority. When Jesus meets the Samaritan women at the well (Jn 4:1-45), we hear a similar concern from a woman who knows that she doesn’t worship at the sanctioned place.[5] Moreover, when Jesus died, the curtain in the temple that marked off the Most Holy Place tore in half (Lk 23:45). The meaning of the torn veil becomes clear at Pentecost when the presence of God in fire spreads to the followers of Christ (Acts 2:1-4).

 

The apostles go on to affirm that God dwells in those who believe in Christ. For Paul, this point has major ethical implications (1Cor 3:16-17; 6:19-20; 2Cor 6:16). Moreover, the church – the new assembly of God – becomes the locus of God’s presence (Eph 2:18-22; 1Pet 2:4-10). The book of Hebrews elaborates on the way in which the temple had only been a copy of the real temple – which is the heavenly throne-room of God (8:1-7; 9:1-11,23-28). Finally, at the very end of Revelation, chapters 21 and 22 give us a vision of the New Heavens and New Earth. Here heaven and earth have fused into a garden, which is also a city (the New Jerusalem), which is also a cube like the Most Holy Place in the temple. 

 

Hebrews and Revelation finally help us see what all of this detail about place could mean. The real place of worship is before the throne of God – as other passages such as Isaiah 6 and Revelation 4 and 5 make plain. The tabernacle (and later the temple) had been a copy of what Moses saw when he entered into the presence of God in the form of the cloud (Ex 25:8-9,40).[6] The tabernacle recalled the Garden of Eden in its artistry, and finally the Garden is regained in the New Heavens and New Earth. Real worship had always take place in God’s presence – which is to say in heaven[7] – but in various times the heavenly dimension has opened up for humans to worship. Now in Christ, we have the presence of God’s Spirit at work in us always – especially when gathered as Christ’s church – and we look forward to the time when God’s presence fills the whole created order, heaven and earth. In other words, worship happens not simply when we focus upon God but because God has broken into the lives of his people.

 

The Time of Worship

 

Understanding that worship happens only in God’s presence means that worship is something which on the one hand is perpetual and on the other particular. Worship is perpetual because, as we see in Isaiah 6 and Revelation 4 and 5, the throne room of God is always filled with those giving him praise. On earth – or as it were in the earthly dimension to reality – it happens on particular occasions.

 

With the Spirit of God at work in the Christian, all of life ought to be transformed into worship. We’re called to do everything to the glory of God.[8] In other words, we’re called to make everything we do a celebration of God’s work in and through us. Through the power of the Spirit, the Christian life should be shaped by a sharing in God’s worship at all times.

 

While this calling might tempt us to minimize the corporate worship of the church, Scripture is clear that the Spirit works in a peculiar way when the church meets together (Mt 18:20; 1Cor 5:4-5; 11:23-34). From a practical perspective, Scripture is realistic about the life of Christians – we often fail to live up to our calling. We need to be called back together and reminded of what God has done for us and who we are in him. The worship of the church functions as a covenant renewal – a celebration of God’s saving work for us and the commitment he calls us to. 

 

The Person of Worship

 

Finally and most importantly, let’s circle back to our central claim: the worship of the church is focused on God. Place and time matter because they focus our attention on submission to God’s calling. In the Old Testament it was easier to try to go elsewhere or create an image – even if it was supposed to represent Yahweh – than to accept an unseen God who only accepted worship offered at the tabernacle/temple. In the New Testament, the temptations of various kinds of capitulation to God’s all-encompassing claim on our lives are unmasked.[9] Yet God calls us to worship him alone. The famous scenes in Isaiah 6 and Revelation 4 and 5 show us just how transfixed the angels and the saints are before God’s throne.

 

For worship to really celebrate who God is and what he has done, it will naturally be Trinitarian and Christological. It will be Trinitarian as a celebration of God’s person and character. Trinitarian worship, like Trinitarian theology, will be Christological as well because it is the work of the Spirit to convict the world about the work of Christ (Jn 14:26; 15:26; 16:12-15). It is sometimes said that historic Protestant worship lacks an emphasis on the Spirit; but, in fact, the true test of the Spirit is whether he draws out confession of Christ (1Jn 4:1-6).[10] Therefore, Spirit-filled worship is Christological worship – there is no wedge between a Trinitarian emphasis and a Christological one.

 

From this perspective, the greatest danger in worship is idolatry. Idolatry shows itself in worship. It shows up when we try to manipulate worship to focus on other things than Christ. When we want it to focus on our emotions, our success, our merits, we prove that we really are like those things we worship. If we’re really most concerned about our wealth, then it will be the focus of our services. If we’re most concerned with being comforted, then sentimentality will flood our worship. The list could go on. 

 

Worship is a one-way street – it’s about God. Nevertheless, in that self-forgetfulness, we are changed by worship, and we’ll explore that theme in our next installment.

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