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Throughout the scriptures, we are called to worship the Lord. But to worship the Lord rightly we have to know Him. More than that, we have to see Him rightly.
Ascribe to the Lord, all you families of nations,
ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
bring an offering and come into his courts.
Worship the Lord in the splendor of his[a] holiness;
tremble before him, all the earth.
Psalm 96:7-9
We live in an age where authority is being fought against. There are many horror stories of the abuse of authority in various spheres – including the church. As a result, a reasonable question arises; can any authority be trusted? Yet, in the scriptures, it couldn’t be more clear that we ought to submit to the authority of God. Even more so that we are explicitly commanded to worship God. In the book of Exodus, the Israelites have just been liberated from slavery through the mighty hand of God yet shortly after their liberation they seem to forget who redeemed them. They consistently complain against the One who saved them, even wishing to return to slavery (Exodus 16:3). God, however, was committed to His people and demonstrated that by drawing up a covenant between Him and the Israelites. As this covenant was being created, the Israelites became impatient and created another god for themselves attributing praise to this creation of their hands that belonged alone to God (Exodus 32). The Israelites forgot the reason for their liberation – to worship God (Exodus 7:16, 8:1).
The Beauty of God as the foundation of Worship
Like the Israelites, we often are prone to forgetting about the God who saved us. When we have prayed regarding a situation or person, if God doesn’t answer us as quickly as we would like; we are swift to form a God who will. Why do we do this? Because we fail to see God as beautiful. Now, I refer to beauty not in the sense of attraction but one of delight. The problem of the Israelites is the problem of all of mankind. Sin causes us to see God differently from how we ought to see Him. Satan seeks to tempt us to believe the lie that God isn’t as good as He is. That God has some nefarious motive in loving us and that there is some catch to the eternal joy that God promises us in Christ. We are commanded to delight in the Lord (Psalm 37:4), follow the Lord (Deuteronomy 30:16), and obey the Lord (1 John 5:3) and these commands are impossible. We cannot follow these commands apart from Christ. If our problem is sin, then our solution is Christ. Sin corrupts our members so we are unable to enjoy God in all His fullness. Thanks be God for the promise of the gospel. All who trust in Jesus will be saved from their sins and given new and eternal life. The new covenant we enter in Christ is better than the old. We are given a new mind and affection to see God as He is. Now these commands we are called to obey are no longer burdens for the soul, but delights for our heart (1 John 5:3-4).
Satan, sin and this world are waging war against us and want us to believe that God isn’t as good as He declares He is. Do not believe their lies. Each day we are being transformed from glory to the next (2 Corinthians 3:18) and one day we will see Jesus exactly how He is (1 John 3:2). And together, with all the saints, we will worship God in the beauty of His holiness (Psalm 96:9).