Is worship our problem?

Psalm 95

There is a correlation between the worship of God by His people and their faithfully living for Him.  This Psalm is about that link.  The Psalm begins with a description of worship (vs. 1-2) and the cause of that worship, namely God’s greatness (vs. 3-5).  In verses 6-7a we see as a part of our worship our posture and relationship with the One who is worshipped.   Three postures are described for being before God, all of which express radical humility; worship: literally to prostrate, bow and kneel.   It is striking how different these postures are from the pompous and proud bearing we often see in our churches.  In regard to relationship we are described as sheep.  The motif of the Lord as our shepherd is perhaps the most common and sentimental of metaphors we have for our relationship to God.  It bears remembering that the shepherd does what is good for the sheep, which may not be the same as what the sheep are inclined to or want to do. 

Sadly, what is described as contemporary worship is often almost entirely unlike the description we see in the first part of this Psalm.  We have replaced “let us sing” with “let us watch a concert”.  I attended a pallet church once (Pallet church: noun, a pejorative term that describes churches that will follow any fad that comes along in an attempt to grow numbers, so long as that fad doesn’t require real hard work.  “If we put old pallet wood on our stage it would make us cool and we can attract cool, seeker people) in which everyone stood as the praise band did a mini concert and the audience looked on with remarkable disinterest, but no singing. Instead of concentrating on God’s greatness and what God has done as we see in verses 3-5, we direct our attention to how we feel about God or how we feel about what God has done or what we want Him to do.  The teaching is often reduced to self-help pabulum, political activism, lazy rehashing of old sermons, or a monologue of self-aggrandizement.  We down play offerings, to the point that some churches only have a collection box near the exit, forgetting that sacrifice as an act of worship was God’s idea.  If the Lord’s Supper is shared at all, it often falls into the dry ritual of a somnambulating automaton or the awkward, unprepared spectacle of those who dabble in what they do not understand.  And as for prayer… “What is this thing ‘prayer’ of which you speak?”  We measure the quality of worship based on how much we like what transpires.  We have bought the lie that if we put on a good show we can attract a crowd.  That has happened in some mega, big-box settings.  But generally, all we have accomplished is a dumbing down of God’s people and not extending the Kingdom at all. 

In the second half of verse 7, we see what may strike us as a random shift.  The Bible doesn’t do random.  In the balance of this Psalm is God’s description of Israel’s great moral failure and God’s response that rebellion.  In short, their hearts were hard, they erred in their hearts, and they did not know God’s ways. Their external failure was the result of a bad, or may I say, a misaligned heart.  It is no random thing that the Psalm expresses.  Right worship is set in contrast to the rebellion of a wicked heart.  How does God intend to correct or realign our hearts?  He works the change through the means of worship!  This Psalm is echoed in Hebrews 4 with a warning for the church. 

Since the rise of the seeker driven and seeker sensitive movement we have focus our worship and programing on finding and appealing to the wants interest and felt needs of target audiences.  We have offered a dessert buffet of whatever people have wanted. One church had professional Christian wrestling.  (Please give me an airsick bag.)  But for all our pandering we have in the last generation not seen the promised growth of the church, unless you count growing weakness, indifference and carnality.  But as the second half of this Psalm says and Hebrews quotes, there is “Today.” Beginning now let’s restore the worship of our God and the salvation He has brought by the cross.   That alone has the power to change the church, and the lives of men.