Bible Speaks by Rev. L. Althouse 

 

Dec. 14, 2014

Background Scripture: Psalms 95:1-7a

Devotional Reading: 1 Kings 8:54-62

I confess that when I realized the 95th Psalm was the scripture chosen for the third Sunday of Advent, I was mystified. What could these words possibly have to do with the coming birth of Jesus of Nazareth? So I read and re-read Psalm 65:1-7a, trying to find some link. And then I remembered a quotation from Archbishop William Temple that also had stumped me every time I came across it: “I am disposed to begin by making what many people will feel to be a quite outrageous statement. This world can be saved from political chaos and collapse by one thing only, and that is worship.”

My reaction: “No! Worship is important, even essential, but it cannot affect the political chaos that surrounds us. How could the good archbishop have made such a ridiculous statement?”

Recently I came across Temple’s words again, but this time there were the rest of his words on worship: “For to worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to feed the mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty of God, to open the heart to the love of God, to devote the will to the purpose of God.”

His understanding of worship was obviously much broader, deeper and more profound than mine.

One’s encounter with the spiritual can and should affect not only the functioning of the single person, but also our society.

My problem was my mind had not been thinking much beyond the worship services that I and many Christians experience on a regular – or sometimes irregular – basis. Is the “worship” of which Temple is speaking what you and I experience on a Sunday morning? In fact, what does this word mean?

I imagine if you ask 10 people that question, the majority of replies will be something akin to “going to church.” And if you ask, “What do you do when you ‘go to church?’” most will probably reply “pray,” “listen to the sermon,” “sing hymns,” “hear the choir,” “observe a baptism,” “give something in the offering plate” and “hear announcements.” If you’re lucky, someone may reply “to worship.”

Worthship

People, without knowing how to define the word, may actually “worship” while engaged in any or all of the preceding activities. So, what does it mean?

My Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible defines it thus: Worship (from Saxon weorthscipe) or “worthship” is homage – the attitude and activity designed to recognize and describe the worth of the person or thing to which the homage is addressed. It is thus synonymous with the whole of a reverent life, embracing piety as well as liturgy. The range of meaning of worship is therefore great.

Most of us would agree there is no one right way to worship God (although many of us act to the contrary). Some of us regard church attendance as an obligation, but true worship meets an enduring need. Hugh Blair reminds us: “It is for the sake of man, not of God, that worship and prayers are required: that man may be made better – that he may be confirmed in a proper sense of his dependent state, and acquire those pious and virtuous dispositions in which his highest improvement consists.”

In simpler terms, Nathaniel Micklem said: “The introductory organ music does for Protestants what the scent of incense does for Catholics: It lifts them over the threshold of the church.” So worship is not a duty – except to ourselves – but “a lifting adventure that “renews the spirit as sleep renews the body” (Richard Clarke Cabot).

Psalm 95 is about the experience of worship. It comprises a hymn (1-7a) and then a prophetic admonition (7b-11). The hymn was probably used as the worshippers made their way to the temple, and there are two calls to worship.

The first of these is: “O come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all kings”(1-7a).

The second call begins with: “O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand”(95:6). So, worship is a transcendent wonder, an opportunity to experience the mystery, majesty and presence of God.

Hearken to His voice

The prophetic admonition begins with this plea:“O that today you would hearken to his voice! Harden not your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day of Massa in the wilderness, when your fathers tested me and put me to the proof though they had seen my work” (7b-10).

So, worship is also a call to respond to the experience of God with gratitude expressed in renewed faith and action. The Good News is a religion of gratitude expressed in words and deeds. Words of gratitude are appropriate, but the true reaction is one of wordless thanksgiving.

Sometimes I suspect that instead of worship, our services are programs of “spiritual entertainment” with an overabundance of words, Words, WORDS. It appears we are fearful of silence and thus prevent God from getting a word in edgewise. Over the years I have infrequently attended a mass with a Roman Catholic friend and have been deeply impressed with the periods of silence during which worshippers can listen for God’s voice. Ralph Waldo Emerson declared: “And what greater calamity can fall upon a nation than the loss of worship!” (It was a pronouncement, not a question.)

“O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.” Could the world really be saved from “political chaos and collapse” by truly devout and expectant worship? Maybe it is our “missing link,” and we should give it a try.

The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Those with questions or comments for Rev. Althouse may write to him in care of this publication.