Worship With a Heart For God

The central piece to the life of the church today is the weekly worship service. More people come into church by first attending worship than through any other means. We put a lot of time and energy into our worship – as well we should – but do we really lead people in worshiping with a heart for God?

A study of the life of David, the second king of Israel, led me to consider this question this summer. It is a question well worth pondering.

David had faced this question, because he became king at a time in Israel’s history in which they had neglected the proper worship of God for over twenty years. We know this because the Ark of the Covenant, the place where God’s glory rested and therefore the centerpiece of their worship, had been left in the home of a priest named Abinadab for all those years (you can read that story in 1 Samuel 4-6 and 7:1-2).

When David became king he realized that this centerpiece of their worship was missing, so he determined to bring the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem where he had established his capital. In the account of his bringing the Ark to Jerusalem, as told in 2 Samuel 6, I find three ways in which we can worship God. Each has relevance for today’s worship practices.

(1) We can worship God with complacence. This is the worship largely promoted by the church. I know; I know. You say, our church does not worship complacently, but observe the experience of David.

David took 30,000 people with him to the home of Abinadab, 10 miles from Jerusalem, to retrieve the Ark. They put the Ark on a new ox cart to transport it. Everyone was celebrating and singing and playing instruments and worshiping. David knew that in order to worship God properly, they needed the Ark of the Covenant in their midst, but Abinadab must have been aghast at the complacency of the celebration. They were taking it all too lightly. This was the Ark of God, after all.

Do we forget who the God is that we worship? Do we become too casual and too complacent in our worship, forgetting that we worship a holy God in all of his glory? Do we simply worship God so that he will improve us a little bit, and design our worship services to make people feel better instead of to pour ourselves out before the Most Holy God?

(2) We can worship God with anger. This is the worship most common in our culture. Nearly one-third of people in our culture believe God is an authoritarian, angry God.

The worship mood of the celebrating crowd moving the Ark to Jerusalem suddenly changed. As they marched along with the Ark of the Covenant on the ox cart something happened. Perhaps the wheel of the cart hit a rock and was jolted. The Ark became unsteady and began to fall. Uzzah, walking alongside the cart, reached out and steadied the Ark. That’s all he did. He probably reacted without even thinking about it but he Lord’s anger burned against Uzzah and struck him dead because he touched the Ark. They named the place, “Outbreak against Uzzah.” They had failed to follow God’s instructions for moving the Ark, and, even though his intentions were right, Uzzah lost his life, and David got angry. The celebration ended. The plans were scrapped. They left the Ark at the home they were passing by.

Many people in our culture have become angry at God for all the evil that is present in our world, but they will not turn to him. How do we explain a loving God to people who are angry at him? Like Israel, when we neglect the proper worship of a Most Holy God, we will only know anger. As Eugene Peterson says, ““Sometimes I think that all religious sites should be posted with signs reading, "’Beware the God.’"

(3) We can worship God with extravagance. This is worship as God intended.

Three months later David returned to retrieve the Ark. In the interim, he had learned how to properly move the Ark, and he observed those regulations. They made sacrifices as they moved toward Jerusalem. When Michal, David’s wife, criticized him for his display of exuberance, he said he would celebrate before the Lord, becoming even more undignified than he had in order to honor the Lord.

That is the kind of celebration we need to bring before the Lord. Call for people to worship by giving all of themselves to the Lord. Remember that we worship the Most Holy God, and pour yourself out before him.

(This post is based on a sermon preached on July 17. To listen to the sermon, go to this page and choose the sermon for July 17.)