WorshipSource.com

The Bible says in Psalm 92:1, “It is good to give thanks to Yahweh, to make music for your name Most High…” And so obediently we worship in our personal/family prayer and in community services like the Mass or prayer meetings. Because we know it is good as per God’s word.

And yet the Bible also says in Romans 11:35-36, “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things…Amen.”

If we take both verses together we cannot help but ask

- if nothing can be given to God, who is it good for to give worship and thanks to Him?

- and why is it good?

The first one is easier to answer, worship is good…for us.

To understand why, we need to understand pride.

"…you will be like gods…" (Genesis 3:5) was a temptation that our first parents could not resist. And it is a temptation all of us struggle with today…for who does not enjoy being in control…of self, of family, of school, of office or of even ministry? We love to be in charge and do what we want…like gods.

Pride is a reservoir of all other sins and one of it’s offspring, greed (for wealth) is the root of all evil (1 Timothy 6:10). Pride turns our focus away from God. It urges us to lift ourselves up and be gods (Isaiah 14:13-14). No wonder pride is the first of the seven deadly sins (Proverbs 6:16-19).

Contrast this with worship, which calls for humble submission to another, acknowledging another as greater than ourselves, admitting another as God.

Pride and worship are therefore spiritual opposites. For pride says ‘I am god’, whereas worship says ‘you are god.’ This is why God’s word commands us to worship no other but the Lord (Luke 4:8), because what we worship becomes our God.

As William Temple once said, “Worship is the submission of all our nature to God. It is the quickening of conscience by His holiness; the nourishment of mind with His truth; the purifying of imagination by His Beauty; the opening of the heart to His love; the surrender of will to His purpose – and all of this gathered up in adoration, the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable and therefore the chief remedy for that self-centeredness which is our original sin and the source of all actual sin.”

The more we worship the Lord, the more we receive grace, become humble, overcome pride, die to selfishness and live a life of victory over sin placing others before self.

So come, let us worship the Lord.