How I flunked my worship test

October 29, 11:57 AMFaith & Culture ExaminerDr. Bob Beltz

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The view from my deck - 24" of snow
photo by author

It is a snowy day in Denver.  We've been pounded by  just over 20 inches at our house in the last 24 hours.  I’ve been taking advantage of the weather by staying home and catching up on some reading.  For many years I have practiced a discipline of reading the Psalms on a daily basis.  I usually read a psalm that corresponds to the day of the month.  Since today is the 29^th I have been reading Psalm 149.  (I am in the fifth cycle of thirty psalms a month, which began on October 1 with Psalm 120.  November 1 I start the entire cycle over with Psalm 1.  This is an easy way to read through the psalms regularly.) 

Psalm 149, like its three predecessors Psalm 146, 147, and 148, is a psalm that repeatedly calls the reader to “Praise the Lord.”  Psalm 150 does the same.  In the original Hebrew text, this phrase translates the two words “hallelu”, meaning to “give praise”, and “Yah”, a shortened form of “Yahweh” the name of God.   We obviously derive our word hallelujah from this Hebrew phrase.  The psalms are the words that went with the songs the people of Israel sang when they worshipped at the Temple in Jerusalem.  I often refer to them as God’s Greatest Hits, since there were probably many other songs that we have lost through the ages, but these 150 sets of lyrics have been preserved. 

Worship is at the heart of our relationship with God.  It can be a transcendent experience when grace enables us to actually experience a sense of God’s presence.  By that I mean when we are so focused on the majesty of God and his wonderful works on our behalf that we virtually lose self-consciousness and find ourselves carried away with God-awareness.  In theory, this is what is supposed to take place when we attend a “worship” service at church. 

This past Sunday was cloudy and cold in Denver and I arrived at church in a semi brain fog.  You probably have had the experience.  I had sung the words to several songs in the service before I realized I was going through the motions, but in no way actually worshipping the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  I often teach people that when they leave a worship service they should be asking the question, “How did I do, God?”  Usually we leave thinking about whether we thought it was a “good” service and the message and music inspired or entertained us.  Last Sunday, the answer to the question for me would have been about a D-. 

I also find that it takes me a while to get into a spirit of worship.  This is a problem at many churches, because just about the time you are getting warmed up, the worship part of the “worship” service is over.  At our church we are trying to do a longer block of worship songs so that we can help people get in a worshipful state of heart and mind.  If you sing a song; then make announcements; then sing another song; then take an offering; then listen to the choir sing a song before the pastor gives a message – you will probably leave the building without experiencing any heart-felt worship.  In other words, most worship services do not lead to worship.  I know there are exceptions, but I would venture to say the lack of worship in many worship services is more common than we would like to admit. 

I believe the need to worship is part of the “DNA” of the human heart.  I have often felt that one reason people love rock concerts is because they simulate an experience of ego-transcending worship.  Have you been to one lately?  Several years ago I was able to hit two nights straight of U2 when they were in Denver.  They were two of the best “worship services” I had been to in a long time.  People stood and sang along unrestrained with every song Bono and the boys launched into.  Many probably didn’t know that about half the songs they were singing were filled with messages of faith and worship.  At one point Bono began to sing their song “Yahweh”.  The lady next to me turned to her date and said, “Oh, this is that Yeah-wah song.”  I asked her if she knew what the song was about and explained to her that “Yahweh” was the transliteration of the name of God given to Moses at the burning bush.  She looked at me with a blank stare and turned back to her date.

It was a thrill to hear twenty thousand men and women singing Psalm 40 a cappella at full-volume.   By the time Bono had given a few challenges between songs, and encouraged people to give to the One Campaign to fight world hunger and Aids, I was sure that church had happened at the Pepsi Center.  If you watch people in these kinds of events, you will see that they let their hair down and rarely think about what the person next to them might think about them.  They wave their arms and sing at full volume without regard to the quality of sound emanating from their mouths.  They have lost ego awareness and are into the event.  If the same person did this in most churches, people would think he or she was a raving religious lunatic.  

King David danced before the Lord with all his might when the Ark of the Covenant was brought from Shiloh to Jerusalem.  His wife Michal despised him and told him he had made a fool of himself.  After all, he was the King of Israel!  He was supposed to act more dignified.  There was only one problem: he lost his sense of who HE was when he got in touch with who GOD was.  He worshipped.  Try that in most Presbyterian churches!  (I am one – Presbyterian that it is – so I’m picking on myself.  Feel free to change “Presbyterian” to any denomination or non-denomination you like.)  They will ask you if you’ve visited the church down the street where they do “that kind of thing.” 

I’m not saying that if you don’t wave your arms and dance and sing at ear splitting levels you are not worshipping.  What I am saying is that often what passes for worship is nothing more than a mild culturally-defined religious substitute: worship-lite.  And I know I am often guilty of letting it pass for worship – and I should know better!  So this Sunday, if you go to a worship service, try to worship.  Think about what you are doing.  Concentrate on the words you are singing.  Are you singing into thin air, or are you singing to God, telling him how you really feel about him, or want to feel about him?  When you leave the building, ask the question: “How did I do, God?”  Hopefully, the answer will be better than a D-!