Worship is to God and for God. This means that our worship must be how God requires it. From the beginning, God has informed man how we are to approach Him. When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden, God demonstrated to them the sacrifices that were then necessary to approach God. These sacrifices continued through Moses when God prescribed a set of laws. The first five books of our Bible testify that we cannot approach God any way we want. However, now that we are under grace in the New Covenant, has this changed? Since God does not change, the answer would be no. So how do we find out how we are to worship God? Once again, the answer is found in His Word.
Peter informs us, “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire” (2 Peter 1:3-4). So the Word of God contains everything that we need for life and godliness. This Word contains what we need to approach (or worship) God rightly. To this end, we should consider three principles of truth in worship.
First, worship should be Biblically saturated. Throughout the Word of God, we see that when God’s people approach God in worship, they often repeat God’s words back to Him (Psalm 119:54). This is what Hannah did when she praised God in 1 Samuel 2. An examination of Hannah’s song reveals that it is saturated with Scripture.
But not only is this an example for God’s people. We also see this as a command to us today. Consider Ephesians 5:18-19 and Colossians 3:16. “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart” (Eph 5:18-19). “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God” (Col 3:16).
When we gather, we sing to one another in Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Whatever your definition of hymns and spiritual songs is, there are a couple of facts here that are beyond argument. The first is that Psalms refers to the inspired book of the Bible, Psalms, and other songs found in the Bible. We are to sing God’s Word. Second, hymns and spiritual songs imply that the rest of the songs are to be heavily spiritual (Biblical) in nature. They are to be Scripture saturated. We also see the command about what is to occupy our minds in Philippians 4:8: “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”
We live in an age that has relativized truth. However, truth is not fluctuating, and the truth is not relative. Truth is dogmatic. And Christ informs us that truth is found in the Word of God. In fact, beyond being found in the Word of God, the Word of God is truth itself (Jn 17:17). If we are going to worship in truth, then the Bible must saturate our worship.
Second, worship should not only be Biblically saturated, but worship must also be Biblically accurate. In 2016 Donald Trump shocked the world with his election as the president of the US. His campaign was largely successful because he tapped into the country’s mistrust of news agencies. Through his campaign, he brought the country face to face with the fact that most people do not trust the news because it often fails to be accurate.
Sadly, this downplaying of accuracy has infiltrated most of life, and the church is no exception. The Word of God is handled as though it can be used to say whatever we want. This is not a new problem. One of the final books of the Bible given to us by God addresses this very issue. “Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures” (2 Pet 3:14-16). Peter states that the Scripture can sometimes be hard to understand. But that is not an excuse to fail in biblical accuracy. For note that Peter says when ignorant and unstable people twist the Scripture, they do so to their destruction. We must be accurate with the Word of God. We must handle the Word of God correctly in our worship of God.
One of the most important questions we can ask in worship is, “Is it true?” When the speaker stands behind the pulpit and presents a message, we must ask, “Is it true?” Does what the speaker says align with what the Word of God says? When we sing songs, the question is not “How does it make me feel?” but “What is it saying, and is it true?” Just because it is old or just because it is new does not make it true. Just because it is catchy and put to music you like does not make it true. We must make sure that our worship is Biblically accurate.
We come now to the final principle; our worship must be Biblically proper. Since worship is to God and for God, we cannot worship however we want. And since God has instructed us in his Word what he desires, our worship must be Biblically proper. We must then ask how God has instructed us to worship Him. What does Biblically proper worship look like? This is a massive question that we will begin to address next week.