Modern Delusion Part 4: Worship as Praise and Thanks

Issue 14

We have been recently focusing on several “delusions” that the modern church has gotten itself into regarding corporate worship. All of them have crept their way into the church for a variety of reasons, but it is somewhat understandable why they have taken such a firm hold—they are all true on some level. Having a spiritual experience, being evangelized, and becoming saturated in God’s word are all things which can legitimately happen during corporate worship. But they are not the sole point. Similarly, while praising and giving thanks to God should happen, to focus on these aspects is to ignore equally important things.

While I can’t pinpoint where exactly I have heard it, the prayer of the average evangelical worship leader summarizes this tendency: “Thank you, Lord, for bringing us together this Sunday morning to praise You and give You thanks. We come asking for nothing in return, but we just want to give You all the glory. Let us think of nothing but to give You our worship and simply praise You for who You are.”

Now, this sounds very spiritual and selfless. We empty ourselves of all merit and focus on nothing but praising God and thanking Him for His deeds and gifts to us. As is so often the case in fallacies within church doctrine, this a legitimate activity. But is it biblical to focus on this entirely? Should we enter God’s presence presuming to need nothing from Him? And should we think that the only requirement from us is praise and thanks? If God were to command a person with a voice from Heaven saying “Come into my presence that you may repent of your sins and seek My forgiveness; I have work for you to do in My kingdom,” we would call the man exceedingly foolish who says in response “No thanks, God—I just want to praise you.” The man who dedicates his life to nothing but praising God is not a dangerous man—worse yet, he is a disobedient man. The enemy typically leaves such people alone. Christians can go do their churchy thing and praise their God on Sunday mornings, and as long as they stick to that, the devil can do his work without being bothered in the slightest.

This might seem rather obvious, but in our culture we have a tendency to view our relationship with God as that of asking Him for things throughout the week and praising Him on Sunday mornings.

This misguided and unfortunate view of the world can be dealt with in many ways, but the Psalms are an excellent rebuttal to this way of thinking. First, let us not forget that we are indeed commanded to praise God in many places throughout the Psalms, such as in 111:1: “Praise the Lord! I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart, in the company of the upright and the assembly.” Obviously, giving praise to the Lord has always been a scriptural requirement. Having a grateful heart to God is also a virtue we also find in many places.

But as we continue reading, we find many other things required of us. Just to handpick a few examples from Psalms, Psalm 51 is the ultimate Psalm of a wretched man seeking forgiveness. Psalm 119 describes the joy of feasting on the word of God. In the last portions of Psalm 69, the author calls upon God to damn the wicked who are afflicting him, and in 67, God is called upon to bless His people. Psalm 22:22 demonstrates the edification which occurs amongst one another during corporate worship. Psalms 34 and 41 bless the Lord, 84 and 94 bless His people, and Psalm 58 lays curses upon the unrighteous.

In all of these examples, we find the activities of what the gathered assembly did while singing—and while praise and thanks is included in this, it is far from all-encompassing. Singing in worship is musical prayer, and as such it should reflect the guidelines of prayer.

In the broader scope of things, praise and thanks on their own is not the point of corporate worship in general either. Amongst the newer Reformed world, people are often uncomfortable with the idea that they should offer something to God, ask things from God, and receive things from God. In their minds, we are unworthy to do anything but praise Him while we are in His presence. After all, it seems very spiritual to deny all sense of worth and come before the Creator God groveling and eating dust, refusing to lift up our heads within his throne room—maybe even refusing to come into His presence because we consider ourselves unworthy. But this is not a Biblical idea—we are told to come when God calls and to come in boldly before His throne. The only reason we can do this without being struck dead is because of the saving work done by His son. Hebrews 10:19-25 reads:

Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

And if we are indeed unworthy, we are exactly the people who should come before Him, repenting of our sins and seeking his forgiveness and favor. But for many who are new to the reformed idea of God’s sovereignty or are otherwise misguided, obeying God’s command to come before Him with boldness is not easily done. Neither is the idea well understood that God is also offering us things and acting upon us when we enter His presence.

Corporate worship does not consist of ourselves addressing a silent God who watches our praise, is refreshed by our good words about Him, and turns back to more important tasks while we do a private Bible study session with the pastor. God’s relationship with His church is far more involved. And this has always been the case, ever since he covenanted with Adam, despised Cain’s offering, passed between the two halves of the birds Abraham split, poured out roaring thunder from Mount Sinai, and descended in His glory-cloud upon the temple. He interacts with His people, first by calling them into His presence, then by cleansing them, by sanctifying them, by communing with them, and by commissioning them to return to do His work on earth, armed to the teeth, deadly, and recalibrated.

This is a very different attitude from what we find in modern society. I believe that due in large part to the second great awakening, the American people grew to have a very confused idea of what corporate worship is. In the previous articles, we have shown several of these fallacies: the purpose of corporate worship is not spiritual renewal, evangelism, education, or even praise and thanks to God. These are all good things which are a byproduct of what happens when the congregation is gathered on the Lord’s day.

If this sacred gathering is nothing more than a repeated tent meeting, where a bunch of religious friends get together to talk about God and pray and sing a few praise songs, then praising and thanking God might rightly be the sole occupation and the greatest thing accomplished. But to reduce corporate worship down to such a low degree is simply sad. This mindset of “filling the time” with spiritual things on Sunday morning is what has led to evangelical churches with low views of corporate worship, mega churches with no view at all, and house churches with unguided views, like sheep without a shepherd.

Praise and thanks is good. It is commanded in the scripture. But we need to realize that many other things are also commanded. And furthermore, to say that this is the extent of our interaction with God on Sunday mornings—that we need nothing from Him—is a backwards idea. We are created beings, fully dependent on God to provide us with physical and spiritual food. Thankfully, if we take the blinders of modernity off our faces and return to the scriptures, we will find much better strategies for executing corporate worship.