How Majestic Is Your Name

An Introduction to Biblical Worship

Walter Leslie McConnell

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781725246010
• Topic: Théologie et religion
• Subtopic: Rituels et pratiques chrétiens

Christians give a broad spectrum of answers to the question, "What is worship?" These include ascribing worth to God, performing certain activities during worship services, singing a particular style of song, responding to God with our whole being, and more. That Christians have such a splintered understanding of something as important as worship is far from satisfactory. How Majestic is Your Name aims to broaden our understanding of worship by engaging the subject biblically and theologically as developed in both Testaments of Scripture. As we learn more of God's design, our daily, weekly, and seasonal practices of private and public worship will be renewed.Foundations are laid by identifying the Old and New Testament words for worship and demonstrating their importance. The object of worship is brought into focus as we encounter the God who is experienced as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The object identified, we consider the people who worship within space and time by engaging in a variety of activities. Not content with simply recounting biblical evidence about the worship of Israel and the early church, the book challenges modern worshipers to allow this biblical theological study to guide their thinking and shape their practice.

1

What is Worship?

What is worship? Ask this question of a group of Christians from the average congregation and you will receive a wide spectrum of responses. For some, it is the action of ascribing worth to God. Others understand it to be the activities one does during a worship service, or the part of the service that is made up of singing and prayers as distinct from Bible reading, preaching, and announcements. Still more equate worship with the singing of choruses or “worship songs.” And while some believers only connect worship with certain celebratory acts performed during a weekly service, others insist that it should reflect our response to the Creator for who he is and what he has done in every activity of life.

That Christians have such a splintered understanding of something as important as worship is far from satisfactory. Many of us have worshipped God for a long time, some of us regularly lead worship, others are church pastors or students taking an academic course on worship. Yet, in spite of all we have learned and experienced, it is probably accurate to say that we are all only novice worshippers. The fact that there is still so much to learn has motivated me to write this book. My goal is to increase our understanding of worship and provide some practical suggestions that will help us become better worshippers of the Lord in public and in private.

Most of us have accepted certain ideas about worship or adopted a particular style of worship simply because it is practiced by our family, congregation, or denomination. Some are unacquainted with other worship styles and have never considered alternatives; others are familiar with other practices but retain the cherished forms they feel comfortable with or believe are most pleasing to the Lord. Other worshippers have decided to adopt a new style after experiencing it in another setting. And though they may not be sure what they should replace it with, some have determined that the style of worship they had originally experienced has become stale, past its use-by date.

Our feelings toward and understanding of worship are guided by both theological and social influences. In many cases, they are determined more by personal experience than biblical revelation. Is it possible to develop an understanding of worship that will be acceptable or even considered valuable to all Christian communities? Can we find a way to think about and practice worship in its public and private forms that will be accepted in charismatic fellowships and liturgical high churches? What about churches that identify themselves as being somewhere in between, those that see themselves situated in a totally different orbit from either, or those that maintain they are both charismatic and liturgical at the same time? Assuming that such an understanding of worship might possibly exist, where can we look to find it?

As is usually true when one considers complex questions, much can be gained by examining a variety of sources. We could, for instance, turn to current and historical sources to add to our understanding and give us a more solid basis for our worship practices. Or we could consider the way scholars have understood the definition or etymology of the English word. But while they may stretch our thinking about worship, investigations into such things may also prove misleading since the biblical authors used Hebrew and Greek when they addressed the worship of God and some of our historical and liturgical questions may distract us from the concerns of Scripture.

This book is written to present the modern church with a biblical theology of the worship of God and to demonstrate how that teaching can be applied today. And though the biblical texts provide scant liturgical direction for Christian worship, I am convinced that what they say should influence contemporary practice far more that either the standardization of liturgy in the fourth century or the various worship renewals that have sprung up at other times in history. It is for this reason that we will begin by examining the words used in the Bible for worship. Unless we appreciate the rich vocabulary used by biblical authors as they expressed themselves in worship and bore witness to the way Israel and the church worshipped God, our understanding of the subject will always remain flawed.

The Words of Worship

The problem is, one can scour the Bible from Genesis to Revelation without exposing even one definition of worship. Nevertheless, readers are left in no doubt that God requires certain kinds of worship and rejects others. We see this in the various literary genres of the Bible. The narrative sections tell of people engaged in worship activities that included sacrifice, prayer, praise, fasting, and feasting. The laws often record that God, whether directly or indirectly, commanded his covenant people to follow certain worship forms and practices faithfully. Compiled over several centuries, the psalms provided resources for corporate and private worship to guide God’s people through the seasons of life whether they experienced joy or sorrow, hope or fear. The Gospels and Epistles make it clear that the one God revealed in the Old Testament should be worshipped through Jesus Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit. They further show that even though Christian worship retained much of what had been required of Israel, God’s new revelation through his Son demanded the adoption of some new forms and the abandonment of others. The book of Revelation, building upon imagery found throughout Scripture, envisions the worship of God and of the Lamb being perfected in the new heavens and new earth where all rivals will be decisively eliminated when the kingdom is fully ushered in.

In addition to the instruction and examples it gives about the worship of God, the Bible shows that ancient Israel and the early church maintained a vibrant vocabulary of worship terms. These words indicate that biblical worship is essentially a proper response to the person of God and his actions that results in a person falling or bowing down before him in humble submission, expressing fear or reverence due to his majesty and power, and serving him through various religious activities and in one’s day-to-day life. Understanding the Greek and Hebrew words for worship is crucial if we are to grasp the Bible’s teaching on the subject and allow it to impact the way we worship today.

To bow down

The most common Hebrew word for worship in the Old Testament is ḥāwâ, which carries the basic meaning “to bow down,” or “to prostrate oneself.”1 Found some 170 times in the Old Testament, it is almost universally translated in the Septuagint2 (148 times) by proskuneō, the Greek word that is used for worship sixty times in the New Tes...