Several years ago, I joined a local business organization. Their stated intention was to help business people do their job better; a kind of coaching through semi-monthly seminars.
At the opening and close of each session, we sang a song that went something like this: “Yes, I can do it; Yes, I can do it; I have a positive frame of mind.” (I kid you not—truth is stranger than fiction.) By the end of the evening, every face was aglow with expectation; and two weeks later, everybody needed another face-lift.
I also found their teachings to be less substance and more selling. Instead of nourishing tips on handling angry clients, I received frothy, double-shot lattes of motivational, positive thinking. The talks were inspiring but insubstantial; caffeine without fruit or vegetables. Or protein.
Then I began to wonder how close my worship-music experience paralleled that seminar jingle feeling; maybe a boost to my spirits to face another week, but mostly just a jolt of java.
Bear with me. Worshipful music is wonderful. But I began to examine the nature of worship. I asked myself, “What is the essence of worship? Does worship require music?”
I tried an experiment: I took a six month sabbatical from any form of worship music—personal prayer time, worship CD’s, and even singing during a church service—and I found I love it.
Song-free worship taught me how to worship better.
Because real worship changes us
Real worship is a two-way street. The English word, “worship,” comes from the Old English phrase, “worth-shape.” The worth of our subject shapes our souls. Everyone worships something—fame, wealth, or a good family—and the value we give it drives our lives.
Psalm 115 says the gods of the peoples have unseeing eyes, unhearing ears, and unfeeling hands. Then it claims, “Those who make them become like them, and so do all who worship them” (vs. 8). It says that the act of worship re-forms us in the image of the thing we worship.
If we worship success, we become arrogant (or depressed) and if we worship people-pleasing, the fear of rejection rules our behavior. Our object of worship controls our lives.
If we examine our biggest problems—our anger, deepest sadness, anxieties, or most uncontrollable behaviors—we will always find an object of worship cracking its whip. Our problem in life is that we functionally worship other gods, taskmasters with whips in hand.
So what is worship?
Real worship is more than singing praises; it is the act of giving away our hearts. Worship is attributing ultimate value to something; it thinks, “If I had that I’d be happy;” it is a deep belief of the heart that says, “That is all I need.”
Worship is what we most deeply value. It’s not just the times we set aside to sing praise songs. We are constantly worshipping. Moment-by-moment, we live for something. “Where our treasure is, there will our hearts and minds be also.”
Archbishop William Temple wrote, “Your religion is what you do with your solitude.” What do we think about when we wait in line or drive to work? Where does our mind naturally drift when no external force (like TV, work, or screaming kids) engages it?
Our minds drift to what we most deeply believe we need. It imagines kids on the honor roll, our names in lights, bank accounts full, a different spouse, our bosses serving us, or our ministries suddenly exploding in success. Something deep down inside us believes that is our greatest need; that “that” will make us happy.
This is worship.
Instead of singing, I meditated on the Psalms; in place of rhythm, I read the gospels. Worship is not a feeling as much as the place of our deepest trust. Worship is a heart-rest on God.
What do we do?
We need a change of mind; we need a vision of God that destroys the earthly religion of what we do in our solitude. We need an intense focus (of heart, mind, soul and strength) on the beauty of God. It means looking, gazing, meditating, and reflecting on the majesty of God
We can reform our worship by a conscious decisions to attribute ultimate value to the Ultimate Being who is ultimately beyond us; and yet who sits beside us on our front porch and lives within us as we wash the dishes. It is a decision to think and meditate on God. It’s worship.
Singing can be an act of worship, but it isn’t worship itself. It is ever-so-possible (and we’ve all probably done it), to sing a half-hour of godly worship songs—and even temporarily be inspired—and then return to our “normal” lives where we grasp for appreciation, praise, health, or financial peace.
Real worship, instead, is an inner vision of the reality of God, and giving all our hearts to him.
And worship music can open the rusty doors of our heart to spiritually see what the dust of the world obscures. The gods of this world constantly tempt us in Superbowl commercials and the success of others around us. Singing truths reminds us of how reality really works.
It is in the truth of the songs—which the music unveils—that changes us forever. We come to see the amazing God through singing of his Amazing Grace; and that sight shifts the deep song in our hearts to a new rhythm that remains. Even when the emotional high dissipates.
Substance over hype
That seminar jingle, “Yes, I can do it; I have a positive frame of mind,” was vapor-ware, a sales pitch to myself based on nothing but smoke and mirrors.
Worship of the real God reveals rock-solid truths to my heart: that he is all I need, that he has done it, and I’ll never be the same. Only worship of the real God will really satisfying.
I’m glad I’m singing about God once more. It comes from a real positive frame of mind.
Sam
For more information about connecting with God through worship, read my latest book, Hearing God in Conversation. It is written with the idea of a personal, engagement, connection with God.
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Hearing God in Conversation
I think that if your worship music 6 months ago had been substantial instead of “praise songs”, you’d have a different perspective on the place of art in worship. What are the psalms, if not poetry and hymn? Nothing frothy there. The music in my congregation is what helps me grow and mature. Definitely not just entertainment or distraction. To remove the non-verbal arts from public worship is to invite the elevation of our words, and words convey only part of the meaning. They can deceive and divert just as quickly as art.
Hi Lynn,
Thanks for your comment. Perhaps I mis-communicated.
The worship leader at my church really does pick substantive songs over frothy songs. My personal exploration was into the nature of worship; it is more than just the half hour of singing. Worship is where we rest our hearts.
I remember visiting a church once where the pastor stood up (after the worship time), and said, “Okay the worship time is over, now let’s listen to the sermon.”
But that is wrong! The sermon (if done right) also leads us to worship because it reveals to our hearts the truths of God; it makes us give our hearts to him more; it should make us adore him more.
It was that pastor’s announcement, coupled with the business seminar, that lead me to examine the ESSENCE of worship. Singing, dancing, bowing, praying, raising hand — these are all ACTS of worship but they aren’t the ESSENCE of worship.
The essence of worship is a heart totally given to God; which means we worship as we live. Music (and sermons, and books, and scripture study) can lead us to worship only to the degree they lead us to rest on hearts on God alone.
Sam, How exactly did you go about your 6 month sabbatical? What did you do instead of singing worship songs at church and/or listening to worship songs/CD’s? I would be very interested to hear the method that you went about this, because I think in our modern Christian society, we can go really off track when it comes to true and reverent worship. It can become more of a concert and performance focused on how “I feel” or “my experience” as opposed to entering further up and further into worship because of who God is and what he has done for us.
Hey Charles,
I agree that we modern Christians often go off-track; coming to worship as a concert or for the euphoric feelings music can stir. (Though I bet all ages have had some of this temptation; music does stir us, whether secular or gospel, the music itself stirs us.)
Here is what I did:
– At church (when worship songs were sung), I mouthed the words and meditated on their meaning;
-In personal prayer, I read the Psalms aloud, and asked myself, “How much do I really believe this to be true?” and, “What would my life look like if I really believed this?” and, “What does this say about the nature of God?”
– I also read and re-read the gospels. I asked myself: “how would I have responded if I had been Jesus?” and “What does HIS response (or word or action) say about how beautiful he is?
In essence, I took time to see who God is: his nature, his responses, his love of humans and his love of justice. I tried to see how far beyond me he is.
As I did that, I came to trust him more; the things of the world literally began to fall off me.
When I finally did sing again, I found myself engaged in the words more, focused on attributing to God ultimate value.
Worship is not so much an “action” as it is the “value” we place; it is what our heart believes that we need more than anything else.
Thought provoking article. Anything that makes us THINK has value, I think. However, you mention those times we are waiting or whatever, and our mind naturally drifts toward something. I would contend that in today’s world that rarely happens. Today, we have our Bluetooth plugged permanently in our ear, or we are in our car with something guiding our minds in some direction. I have lived by a park for many years and when I have gone for a walk there, I would observe parents actively watching their children play. Today, they are nose-deep in their phones, pads, and etc. There is little or no interface with the kids, no encouraging, no caution, no instruction, no discipline, just absorption in “devices.”
I am afraid that we have made the “devices” our God. They take us from our friends, from our children, and they are beginning to control our lives. When we go to “Worship” in our churches today, I see people sending and receiving texts and calls, young people playing games on “devices,” and an inability to be without their “devices.”
Hey Jim,
You made me laugh uproariously. Yeah, I think you’re right. We just don’t think AT ALL anymore.
In that case, all we are doing is numbing our minds. If we do it with media, I also think we do it (or can do it) with worship music. In worship, we should “see” God (in the mind’s eye) to the degree that we offer our hearts to him.
If all we want in worship is that sense of euphoria, we aren’t changed. We haven’t let the truth penetrate to our souls.
I hate to say it, but I think we need to learn to think.
Sam
Jim – that reminds me of something CS Lewis wrote in the Screwtape letters, about how the demons just love noise, noise, noise, constant noise crowding out thought, and how much they dread silence, and fear to let humans sit in silence. if they keep us busy, never stopping, never reflecting, always with some new stimulation, they can steer us into all sorts of things. You never hear Satan say “Be still, and know that I am Satan”…
wow- I really find your post to be true, Timothy! I think it´s Satans way today to make us stop thinking and acting on our gut, that mostly leads us astray!
Sam, could not have said this better as worship really is the emphasis, place, position that we give value to anything. As the one quote you give what we do in the silence of the moment really reveals what we worship.
The real issue is not in taking a six month sabbatical, or through our Sunday Worship, or through our prayers, or through our listening habits, but in the moment to moment truths in which we listen to. For those moments become bigger periods of time. This is the real truth in 1 Cor 10:31 n Phil 4:8. What is it we are telling ourselves and listening to moment by moment, no matter what may occupy us in that moment. One moment may indeed be filled with doubt, uncertainty, fear, accusation, doubt, condemnation and other lies, but the next moment we can stop ourselves and remind ourselves of the truths of God’s word.
Hopefully, as the gospel of grace permeates our hearts and our lives the moments that we have in which we believe the lies become less and less. As a result, the moments we spend reflecting on the truths, God’s passionate love and the gospel, the more moments we spend in true worship.
Thanks for this great reminder Sam!
Thanks.
In some senses, worship is glorifying God; it is attributing/ascribing/giving all meaning, significance, and splendor (synonyms of “glory”) to God.
John 15 says, the father is glorified if we bear much fruit. BUT!!!!!!! We only bear fruit to the degree that we “abide” in him. “Abiding” means a heart rest, a soul quench, a fulfilled desire — In God alone.
-We can “rest” in the good feeling we get from worship; but it’s not abiding in Christ.
-We can “rest” in the fact we know the right theology; but it’s not abiding in Christ.
-We can “rest” in all the good things we do every day; but it’s not abiding in Christ.
Abiding in Christ (which is worship) is when we no longer trust anything … but the heart of God.
Sam
Moment by Moment
“when we no longer trust anything…but the heart of God.” This is the truth unfurled. I also pray the words instead of singing, much of the time. I began to see those around me just bopping along to the song and seemingly putting on a spiritual face. I cannot judge where they are in their hearts, but I judge from the experience of my own heart. I find when I’m not just mouthing or singing the song, but sensing the Spirit of God speaking through Christ to me, that often means just “shut up.”
When I sing just to go along with the congregation I often miss those moments of worship in my heart. I still worship without singing out loud often, it’s not just an experiment for me anymore. I think part of it is because I have learned that when I tune out the rest of the congregation and tune in instead to my heart, I’m not focusing on going along with the congregation just because that’s what I’m supposed to do, but instead I’m going along with the “heart of God “..
When God said his house was a “house of prayer” I believe that means often to just “shut up” and hear Him. I hope you continue to just pray the words in your heart when you need to and not just set it aside as an experiment.
I love music. It stirs me. I think that is good. Sometimes I need a “truth” to be stirred deep inside me.
But it is the truth that I need to believe in.
Like you, I still often simply mouth the words and meditate on them in my heart. I really like to read the Psalms in my prayer time.
Sam
Me too! That David, so raw and honest and yet so trusting in that love, called grace.
Thanks for that Sam! I was really struck by your description of worship as a deep belief of “if I had that, I’d be happy”. When I hear those words, I instantly recoil, because it almost always reflects idolatry! And it took me a minute of thinking to realise that it is entirely right and fitting and honouring to think that about God, to fill ourselves up with thoughts of how wonderful it will be (and is, to the extent that we experience it here) to be in God’s presence. It’s a struggle for me sometimes, worrying about what it will be like to exist forever, or what I’ll know and feel for my friends and relatives who aren’t saved. In my flesh I doubt that all my happiness is truly in God. But… hmmm… well, I was about to fall back on the old faithful “where else have we to go? You alone have words of eternal life?” I believe that. I see no hope anywhere but in God. But is it dishonouring to God to come saying “well, I don’t see any better options, so I guess I’ll just stick with you.”? What do we do when it’s difficult to convince ourselves of the worth and joy of Christ?
Hi Timothy,
You always have the greatest (meaning, “toughest”) questions.
So, as you point out, worship is not primarily an act as much as an attitude; that is, if I sing praise songs but simply rely on myself, it it not nearly the worship of God it can be if I wholeheartedly rely on God, when I give him my all.
Second, yeah, I understand the concern for our friends and relatives. My only answer is this: God always is more gracious and merciful than we imagine. The cross was above and beyond any expectation we could have dreamed of. This means, when we get to heaven, we will see God’s “answer” is mercy and grace beyond our imagining. I’m not saying universal salvation; I’m saying that God’s answer is always better than our answer. And we will rejoice when we see it.
Finally, I love the father who said, “I believe, help my unbelief.” I think God too loves that humility. If we say, “I can’t see a better solution”–hey!, it’s a great place to start.
Don’t you think?
Let’s let God reveal himself to us more, and then we’ll worship and glorify him more.
Sam
Sam – you should feel sorry for my pastor, who cops a lot more of my “great” questions! 😉 Thanks so much. Your words are very comforting. It’s such an amazing thing to be able to rest in God’s grace, and offer him even our feeblest efforts sincerely and know that they’re accepted already because we’re His.
‘If I had that I’d be happy’- I really like that phrase, Sam… And I feel I have come a ways in just the last year or so in that idea… I was greatly encouraged by a young man who grew up in our congregation, expressing to us more or less that Jesus and His Sacrifice was the perfect solution to every problem and every need… Sounded kind of clever; as I considered it more over time I started to apply it to situations, and it seemed to really take a weight off of my life, and make joy- filled worship much more accessible. Is Jesus the perfect friend? He has infinite time to spend with any of us (unlimited by time or space) but gracious enough to not overwhelm our time or push himself on us.. He is able to handle any offensiveness we might subject him to, and respond in a way that encourages and builds up us, as well as the relationship. He is gracious enough to be happy about us taking the time to be with Him… He has unlimited resources, yet perfectly understands our situation and perspective, and is gracious enough to respond in a way that builds us up rather than appeases us. He is able to build us up into greater ways and things than we imagine, yet is not in any possible way threatened by us. So, I am somewhat more convinced in my heart, not just my mind, that what He has is going to leave me ultimately happier (ie did you get the chocolate cake, or the cold mashed potatoes?, oh, you got the cake!) – and if it doesn’t ever seem real enough I am more often realizing that I am just not seeing Him clearly enough. And, I do feel happier….
Good post Sam. Here’s what I think Worship looks like (this might be difficult for you to see if you had an angry, unhappy, maybe even violent Dad — but in Christ we now have a Loving Heavenly Daddy who only loves us unconditionally and is totally pleased and in a good mood toward us, all the time.):
So if your Dad was good, do you remember when you were like 2 or 3 years old and it was about time for him to get home from work. You got excited because you couldn’t wait to be with him. So you were looking out the window and when you saw his car pull into the driveway, you almost couldn’t contain yourself — you were jumping up and down and your eyes were wide and your heart started beating real fast. And then when he walked in the door, you couldn’t even wait for him to take his coat off, you just ran and jumped into his arms (and he was happy to catch you and hold you). Well, Worship is that excitement that says, to be with you Dad is EVERYTHING. And God really likes that — He will just pick you up and hold you in the midst of it all if you want Him to. Be blessed.
Hi Dave,
Great comment. In that way, we all need to become like children again (not child-ISH but child-LIKE).
It is almost impossible to separate worship from belief; the child believes that father is all it needs; the child believes in the excitement of the father.
In some ways, we need to recapture that the father is all we need. To the degree we do that, to that degree we worship in our hearts.
I have to close my eyes, during praier, during singing a.s.o. If I don´t, my mind will wander….So if I want everything in chruch to course through my mind,my soul and my heart, I just close my eyes. And then it actually does not matter whether I am singing or thinking or saying my praier (hope I wrote it correctly:):):)) ´cause I am letting it all flow through my heart and I usually get “directions” and many thing are clear to me after church- I usually know what I will have to do. So it is actually possible to worship truy in any way, if the thoughts are not coursing through, but you are focused. And sometimes music is a distraction….As our minister said last time: The feelings during worship are as important as the routine- it is important to follow the tradition also on those days when you dont exactly feel it- and he quoted a section in the Bible where Jesus “went to the temple, as HE WAS USED TO”…:)
Hi Sam – As always, your post is so timely. It just recently occurred to me that among the world religions, Christianity is the one whose Object of worship tells us to sing praises. As Lynn pointed out, psalms and hymns which contain rich theology, is what I carry with me through my day…God knows that when words are put to song, they’re easier to remember. Who cannot sing the words of Agnus Dei and know they’re in the presence of God no matter where we may be physically. In Hebrews 2:12 we read, “I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters; in the assembly I will sing your praises.” Although many churches have strayed from this, it should not take away from the privilege we have of worshiping our God in song.
But as you point out, singing is not the only way to worship. Throughout scripture, we read where His people worshiped Him with no singing involved. When Jesus heals the man born blind in Matt.9:38 we read, “the man said, ‘Lord, I Believe.’ and he worshiped Him.” Pretty straightforward stuff.
This is a perfect article for churches during the pandemic.