on worship

“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.

Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.

There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard.

Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.

In them he has set a tent for the sun, which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy.

Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its heat.

The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether.

More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.

Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.

Who can discern his errors?

Declare me innocent from hidden faults.

Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me!

Then I shall be blameless, and innocent of great transgression.

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.”

—Psalm 19:1-14

What do you picture when you hear the word worship? You might think of ancient people praying in exotic temples; maybe you’d think of hundreds of men all bowing at once in the same direction; if you’re a bit more savvy maybe you’d think of fandoms and followers with their idols, people screaming and shouting when their favourite singer even looks at them.

If you’re a Christian maybe you’d chuckle and be a bit smug about it. Christians don’t worship idols, we might say, Christians worship the one, true God. 

But, Christians — is that true though? When was the last time we truly worshipped, the way King David does in this Psalm? This psalm is just about the most joyful song in the entire Bible. Really look at what David says here: nothing compares to what God is like! The wonders of creation, the sun itself, that gives life and light to everything, that blazes in glory every morning? God made that. The laws of God, the wisdom, the weight of it, the fear of it, the goodness — all of it from God; all of it declaring out loud that God is the King of everything — brighter than the sun, wiser than the best doctor, and so righteous that he cares about even the sins we don’t know we’re doing, how great is this God! 

When was the last time any of us Christians felt that joyful about God? When was the last time we truly worshipped God? Because nowadays to most Christians, worship is maybe something that happens every Sunday morning, those 15 minutes when the pianist and the choir members do their thing and the pastor takes a break from talking.

If we’re honest, we often don’t feel the need to worship God. We aren’t in awe of God as the King of creation who spoke everything into existence, from whales to poetry to the Sun in the sky to neurons in our brains — instead we’ve put him into a box that we open for two hours every Sunday because we feel guilty if we don’t. We aren’t surprised by God being wonderful counsellor, prince of Peace, the one who knows us more than we know ourselves, and instead of feeling disgusted by our hearts, loves us unto death and beyond — instead we treat him as someone who maybe can make us feel better about ourselves when we don’t get what we want. We aren’t moved by a God who exists outside of space and time but who then willingly became a man to walk with us, and died lonely and cursed so that we won’t have to — instead we make him into something that we poke and prod and study and criticise, or something that makes us feel warm and fuzzy for a few minutes before the next task comes up.

But that’s not how the people of God should see God. King David only had the wonder of creation to see, and the goodness of God’s words, and it already moved him to worship with joy. And Christians? We’ve seen all that King David saw, but we have something else that King David never had: we have the story of Jesus. We have a love letter from God himself, that we are loved more than we know though we are worse than we know, that the King of Heaven cares about what’s going on in our lives, in our hearts, that we will see him face to face one day — we have all of this and somehow it isn’t the most wonderful thing in our lives, it doesn’t bring us joy everytime we think about it. Maybe we’re too busy. Maybe we’re too stressed. Maybe. But it’s not like King David was living easy: he was fighting wars for most of life. But he was amazed with God. Can we Christians today in Hong Kong say that we have it harder than him? If the gospel of Jesus isn’t the best news we’ve ever heard, maybe it’s not the times that are hard, maybe it’s our hearts that are hard.
We need to rediscover what it means to worship. It shouldn’t be something that we just do, and definitely not something we just do for 15 minutes every Sunday. Worship is when we put down our pride and our achievements, put down our fears and bitterness, and really try to see God for who he is; it should move us to tell ourselves, and the whole world through how we live, that God is number one in our lives. Everything we do as people, as students, as daughters, as friends, all of it flows out of the fact that God is King of our lives. When other Christians see it, they’ll take heart. And when non-Christians see it, they might wonder, or they might chuckle as we Christians sometimes do; but that might be the start of something wonderful for them too. Let’s worship God then, with everything we are, and everything we have.