Worship
Worship
First, worship. Worship is impossible without a knowledge of the truth. I grant that Paul found an altar in Athens which was inscribed “to an unknown God.” But it is ludicrous to try to worship a deity we do not know, for if we do not know him we do not know what kind of worship he desires. Conversely, as soon as we have begun to know the living and true God, we must worship him. And the more we come to know him, the more we shall realize that he is worthy of our devotion. For to worship is to praise God’s name, to glory in who and what he is in the splendor of his being and his works:
Let them praise the name of the LORD,
for his name alone is exalted;
his splendor is above the earth and the heavens. (Ps. 148:13)
Since worship is always a response to the truth of God we perceive, it is supremely the Word of God (his self-revelation) which evokes the worship of God. Therefore the Bible has an indispensable place in both public and private worship. In all public worship there should be a reading (or readings) of Scripture, and an exhortation or instruction based on it (cf. Neh. 8:8; 1 Tim. 4:13). Far from being an intrusion into the service, both are essential to worship. So those who have the privilege of reading lessons in church should take pains to understand the passage, and those who are called to preach should be conscientious in studying both God’s Word and man’s world in order to relate the one to the other. Only when God speaks through his Word, making himself known in the greatness of his glory and grace, do the congregation truly bow down and worship.
The same principle applies to private devotion. Apart from a humble prayer for illumination, we should worship and pray after our Bible reading. For it is from Scripture that we shall learn whom to worship and how to pray according to God’s will (1 John 5:14; John 15:7).