Biblical Theology of Worship in a Nutshell

Biblical theology portrays how the Bible views God and his creation. A biblical theology of worship portrays how the Bible portrays our relationship to God and his creation. In English Bibles, worship translates the Hebrew verb shachah and the Greek proskuneo which actively portray our bowing in obeisance to God as the one true Lord. Doing obeisance to God is similar to submitting to God, and his will, in a face-down manner.

Whenever we read worship in the Bible, it portrays doing obeisance to God as the Lord. However, worship is expressed in many ways in the Bible through what we call liturgies. Liturgies portray various activities in which believers live out their obeisance to God.  For instance in the Old Testament, presenting tithes to God is a liturgy as is rendering sacrifices. In the New Testament being baptized, and sharing in the Lord’s Table are liturgies. They enable believers to live out their willful obeisance to Christ as the Lord.

Since the crucifixion, resurrection and glorification of Christ, worship (as obeisance) has now taken on an awesome intensive relationship to God. The apostles Paul and Peter portray worship as the believers’ participation with Christ in his death, resurrection and glorification. Portrayed as a mystery by these apostles, the true worshiper partakes in Christ’s obeisance to the Father by sharing in his death (dying to sin), his resurrection (living with justice), and his glorification (embracing his eternal glory).

Our biblical theology of worship so far has mentioned the Father and the Son, but not the Spirit. Throughout the Bible the Spirit is portrayed as the person of the triune God that enables worshipers to overcome sin and pride in order to do obeisance to God as Lord. In the New Testament, Jesus and the apostles portray the Spirit as carrying out Christ’s mission after his entrance into Heaven. Therefore, the Spirit now nurtures worshipers in doing obeisance to Christ through holy baptism and the Lord’s Table.

The Spirit served in Old and New Testaments in showing obeisance to God through instrumental music and sung lyrics. Serving the Spirit as worship leaders, Moses led the Israelites after escaping the Egyptians with the “Song of Moses” (Ex. 15:1-18); David openly danced in restoring the Ark to worship with singers and trumpets and stringed instruments (1 Chron.16:1-36), and the apostles sang psalms and hymns and spiritual song submitting themselves publicly to God and to one another (Eph. 5:17-21).

Now, since acknowledging the Spirit’s role in nurturing worshipers to do obeisance to God through bible-based music and liturgies, it follows logically and naturally that almost any vehicles of worship that exist to do obeisance to God is blessed by the Holy Spirit. No matter how a vehicle may please worshipers or doesn’t, if that vehicle expresses due obeisance to God in dealing the issues of their daily lives, it’s a vehicle of genuine worship. Without expressing due obeisance to the triune God, nothing is true worship.

One Response