When I was a child, one year for Mothers’ Day I chose to get a child’s wading pool for my mom as her gift. Behind all of this, however, was the fact that I actually wanted the pool and it wasn't so much for my mom. Now my mom was gracious enough to be thankful for the pool and even use it with me. The point remains though that the “gift” I brought was aimed at my own pleasure and not that of my mom.
I wonder how much Christians have started to do the same thing in worship. Worship certainly is an offering we bring to God to bless Him. It strikes me though how often we talk about how much WE like the worship at a particular church. I hear very little discussion about how much we think God would enjoy the worship at our church. I have to ask if this means that we have started to think our worship is actually more about us than it is about God. Is it that we think worship is for “filling out tanks” more than honoring the Lord? Or is it that we think there is no way God could be displeased by anything we do?
My thinking is that we should give much more effort to thinking about what we do in worship that we think God would enjoy more than asking what are all the things we can do. In other words, what does God ask us to do in worship to honor Him? We should look to do the things He has commanded for our worship services, not try to do all the things that He has not forbidden.
At the heart, what I am talking about is simply reorienting the way we think about how we celebrate worship. I would hope we all enjoy parties that celebrate our loved ones. When we go to celebrate our grandparents 50th anniversary, I would think we would not play lots of Taylor Swift, or whatever other contemporary artist you'd prefer. I'd think we would work to pick music, décor, and speeches that THEY would prefer. The same should apply (perhaps, more so?) when we come to worship God. We should select things we do in worship based on what He has told us He enjoys.
I'm not sure of any place in Scripture that says God likes fog machines. I don't know of any place where God says He wants to see skits, videos, dances, or ballet. We do see the Scriptures say preach the Word (2 Tim. 4:1-12), take an offering (1 Corinthians 16:1-2), pray (James 5:14-16; notice this happens in conjunction with the duties of elders), and to sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs (Colossians 3:16; Ephesians 5:18).. Yet most people seem to think doing just these things is simply a “traditional” worship service that is likely behind the times.
One last note on singing. I've heard it often that psalms, hymns and spiritual songs leaves it open for us to have all types of music in our services. This, however, is an assumption, not an exegetical conclusion. Psalms refers to the Psalter, which few would dispute. At nothing else, we should reincorporate psalms into our worship because God said sing them. What about hymns? Is that referring to our hymnals? Well, when Matthew 26:30 states “after they sang a hymn,” it is most likely they were singing Psalms 113-116, which would fit their setting. When we read in our English translations in 1 Corinthians 14:26 that we can bring a “hymn,” it is translating the word “psalmos,” you guessed it psalm. This shows a corresponding idea between psalms and hymns, and it is not likely that other non-canonical songs were counted as psalms. In fact in the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament), at 2 Chronicles 7:6, we see the same word for “hymn” from Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16, but it refers to the “hymns of David.” Hop this does show up in most English versions because they follow the Hebrew, but the point is that the word “hymn” to biblical Greek speakers easily referred to the Psalms.
Lastly, spiritual songs. Most argue this is a song about spiritual things or with spiritual meaning. But at Ephesians 1:3, would we say a spiritual blessing is a blessing made by a spiritual person or made with a spiritual idea? No, it is a blessing from the Holy Spirit. So maybe also a spiritual song is a song for the Holy Spirit, that is, one written by Him. This would be a song also found in the canon of scripture.
Perhaps like the young me should have thought about how to bring a pleasing gift to my mom, we should think about what gift of worship would please our God. Worship is not about our preference. Things we do in worship are not just our preference, they are about what God enjoys from His Assembly. Many things that honor Him in daily life are not for our corporate worship. This should not stifle our joy but make us exceedingly happy that our worship is as God desires.
Harrison