Q: Les and Des, I go to a church that spends 20—40 minutes each Sunday morning in praise and worship. I love the pastor of this church, but I just don’t enjoy or get the point of singing this long. I have even been known to run late so I don’t have to endure this torture. Can you explain why most churches have set aside time for what they call “praise and worship?”
A: First off, this is not an uncommon feeling. I have had my moments when I have felt the same thing, but I have to say that was because of my own struggles I was going through. I will tell a story on myself later in this article, but for now, let’s focus on the what’s and why’s of worship.
We have to settle the fact that God established in His Word that we are to worship him. Read the following scriptures.
Psalm 102:18 This shall be written for the generation to come: and the people which shall be created shall praise the LORD.
Psalm 148:5 Let them praise the name of the LORD: for he commanded, and they were created. Being that we love the Lord, we want to be pleasing to Him.
It is an awesome thing to think that our God wants to experience our praise, worship and adoration. It is kind of like being married. We love our spouse, but what if we just didn’t want to spent that “intimate” time with her or him. Better yet, what if he or she just didn’t show any pleasure in spending time with us. Wouldn’t that hurt?
Q: OK, but why singing? I can sit and spend time with the Lord.
A: I do not pretend to know why God has us do things. Just like in baptism, there is a yielding taking place to His Will, not ours. There is no magic that happens when one person dunks another in a pool of water. But, when someone yields in obedience to the Will of God and submits themselves to being “dunked” in a pool of water representing the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, you will find POWER and ANOINTING that cannot be explained. Singing to God is the same thing. You can sing a song, but not sing to Him. But if you will dedicate your heart and singing to Him, the same POWER and ANOINTING will flood your whole being.
In Exodus 15 we find Moses’ crew (children of Israel) singing to the Lord.
Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the LORD, and spoke, saying, I will sing unto the LORD, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.
In I Chronicles 16 we find God commanding singing.
Sing unto the LORD, all the earth; show forth from day to day his salvation. Declare his glory among the heathen; his marvelous works among all nations. For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised: he also is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the people are idols: but the LORD made the heavens. Glory and honor are in his presence; strength and gladness are in his place. Give unto the LORD, ye kindreds of the people, give unto the LORD glory and strength. Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come before him: worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness (I Chronicles 16:23-29).
We even find scripture in the New Testament directing us to “sing.” For example, Romans 15:9.
And that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy; as it is written, For this cause I will confess to thee among the Gentiles, and sing unto thy name.
Q: OK, I get that I really should try to sing to the Lord in my personal quite time, but why do we have to do it in our church services?
A: First, I am going to share with you what one of my Facebook friends just shared with me. I thought it was great.
“Every other part of the church service is really steered towards meeting OUR needs. Praise and worship is our time to give back to God."
Isn’t that a great explanation of why churches have praise and worship? I have always looked at it as proper protocol. Before we look back at scripture, I want to share an illustration.
If we were invited to meet the president of the United States, or the Queen of England, someone from their staff would come and tell us what proper actions would be. For instance, we would never try to shake hands with the Queen. We would curtsy or bow. There would be other rules and regs that we would have to follow. Well the Bible sets forth our protocol. First we have to establish the fact we need to be in church.
Hebrews 10:23-25: Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
Nothing is clearer than that scripture. Also, we find that Jesus attended Temple. And, as a side note, the last part of Hebrews 10: 25 about “seeing the day approaching,” is being fulfilled today. We need to be in a body of believers. (I know, I preach that all of the time.)
Q: Yea, but….
A: I know, why do we worship in our church services? In 2nd Chronicles 20 we find a bad situation. It was where the children of Israel were going into battle considerably out- numbered. They gathered together and found that they needed to send out the worshipers. And you know, what? They didn’t even get a scratch.
And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the LORD, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, and to say, Praise the LORD; for his mercy endureth forever. And when they began to sing and to praise, the LORD set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and they were smitten. For the children of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of mount Seir, utterly to slay and destroy them: and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, every one helped to destroy another.
That is just an example, but many times you find the children of Israel singing together after seeing God do something miraculous. Let’s go to Hebrews 2:11-12.
For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee.
OK, I told you I would tell a story on myself. We, Les and Des, were visiting a church with a friend. The church was very traditional, and if you know anything about us, you know we are not. The piano was very out of tune which caused challenges for the one playing. Being the “spiritual” (OK, judgmental) person that I am, I just couldn’t worship. I proceeded within myself to explain to God about the struggle I was in. I explained that my heart wanted to worship but did He hear how bad the music sounded? I just knew HE would understand. I went on and on. Finally I finished my prayer, or complaining, with: “Lord, you understand the problem!” That is when, in my spirit, He responded to my spiritual e-mail. “Dear Des...you are the one with the problem!” Ouch!
One other story! There was a man who met an angel and the two of them went to church together. He told the angel he just wanted to know what touched the heart of God. Well, the choir got up and sang this great song, but the man heard nothing. Then a lady, whom the man KNEW was a GREAT singer, got up and was obviously singing, but he heard nothing. Then the preacher got up and moved his mouth for about 30 minutes, but still everything was silent. People prayed, did Offering and other normal things, and still he heard nothing. He kept looking at the angel in confusion. He was wondering if maybe he had suddenly gone deaf, but about that time he heard the little boy behind him pray for his sick bunny rabbit. The point is God hears our hearts!
In our experience, when our hearts are to please God, our worship will follow. Why God wants to hear us squeak and wail in our attempts to sing, I don’t know. I just know we all need to quit being afraid of not measuring up to Simon Cowell’s standards (American Idol) and not sing, but measure up to God’s standards and sing to HIM with our whole hearts.