Worship in a self-centered and lost world

Written by Christopher Hlongwane, FRCSA Soshanguve F4

A girl was in a car with her mother driving, when she asked, “Mom, you say that God is everywhere. Is He in the car right now?”

“Yes, honey. God is always with us”, said the mother. In her innocence the little girl then took the candy she was sucking on and asked if she could share it with Him. This is just a beautiful little story that shows us how we are to live our lives: in the face of God. We should always realize that our lives are lived in His presence. When we understand this, our lives will not be the same. Everything we do will be done to please God and our worship will be more meaningful. But in today’s day and age, worship has become a thing that even Christians don’t really understand. It has been reduced to an activity. When you talk about “worship”, people think you are referring to singing Christian Hymns at Church. How did we get here? Worldview!

A worldview is a person’s framework for seeing the world around them and their place in it. It must answer some basic but important questions of life: Is there a God? What are human beings? What is the nature of the world? What happens to us when we die? And so forth. Everyone has it, because life demands that we answer these fundamental questions. Our worldview influences how we live, both as individuals and as societies. There are two prominent worldviews: postmodernism and existentialism. Yes, some of the other worldviews seem to be gaining prevalence these days like atheism, naturalism, humanism, etc., but postmodernism and existentialism are the dominant ones. Let us investigate them, shall we? In doing so, we will be laying some groundwork for how these came to influence our understanding of worship.

In the 20^th century major shifts in perspective have occurred. During this time, humanism (the belief that science and technology were going to bring peace and prosperity for humanity) was the commonly held belief. But the very things that people had faith in, brought war, not peace. This led to a time of chaos and mass confusion. People were starting to doubt if the modern world was even going to survive. There was disillusionment and loss of faith in the science and technology “gods”. With this, there was the development of a new way of seeing the world: postmodernism. This is a worldview that holds that there are no absolutes. It is very dangerous because it takes some basic truths to the extreme. For example, it holds the view that no culture is better than the other (which is not a bad thing at all) but takes it to the extreme by rejecting anyone who claims to have the truth, especially concerning issues of faith. This means that Christianity is completely rejected. Christ is rejected because of His claim of truth (John 14:6). Postmodernists believe that truth is just a social construct, therefore it is subjective. In other words, truth has been reduced to the personal story that every person tells themselves and others. This worldview not only affects our thinking, but all of our life: including our worship. The other prominent worldview of our culture is existentialism. Its primary focus is on finding personal fulfillment in oneness, free will, and personal responsibility. Every person gets to choose who they want to be and should be searching for what can help them get closer to become their best self. It is of the view that life has no inherent meaning, but if we look deep enough, we can find meaning in the meaninglessness of life. Whether we see it or not, these two worldviews: postmodernism and existentialism, have a huge impact on us as Christians. We live in a world that says that there is no truth and all that matters is finding what makes us happy as individuals.

But how exactly do these worldviews affect our worship? Postmodernism affects Christians with regards to biblical interpretation. Since there is no absolute truth, the interpreter decides what a specific passage means to them. That is why the Bible is so misunderstood today. People are becoming more and more subjective in their interpretation and care less and less about the intended meaning of the Biblical author and how the original audience received and understood the passage. They go with their emotions and experiences and then decide the meaning of the text for themselves. In today’s world, people do all kinds of things, because the Bible has lost authority over their lives - since truth has been removed. Existentialism on the other hand, makes us see worship as an activity that is just meant to be conducted according to our emotions since this worldview’s primary concern is the “self” and personal experience. People want to sing only the songs that make them feel closer to God and read those texts that bring them to tears. The heart dictates the worship. There is a sense in which there must be a balance of the two. We are to worship God from our hearts, but then also not do so entirely based on how we feel, but we should worship according to Scripture.

Considering all this, let us now consider what true worship is. We must first know the nature and purpose of worship if we are to know the “how”. Why should we worship God? Does it make a difference to Him whether we do or do not worship Him? No! God does not need us to worship Him because He is self-sufficient. All He could ever need, He has in Him. We worship God because it is our duty: it is exactly what we were made for. The Heidelberg Catechism teaches this by stating that, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever” (WSC 1). It is all the marvelous grace of God. The fact that we can praise and worship God is all grace. 

Let us explore worship in Psalm 100. In verse 1, we get the “how” and “who” of true worship. “Make a joyful noise” or “shout for joy”, as found in Psalm 66:1, is a call to shout out joyfully in praising God. Singing can be an expression of this, and verse 2 makes it clear: “come into His presence with singing”. “All the earth”, not just Israel but literally all the nations on the Earth. Every person from every tribe or nation is charged with the duty of worshiping God. The call to worship is universal.

In verse 2, we find the word “serve”, which is a term that relates to specific acts of worship. The psalmist reminds us that worship is hard work. This is something that we need to hear daily because in a lot of ways worship has become a passive thing. People are not actively participating in the act. This is not true worship. Every member in the church is to actively “shout for joy” and “serve” God. When we go to work, we go prepared, having all the required skills and knowledge. It must be the same with worship. Most importantly, we should remember that this “work” is a service to God.

 In verse 4, we find the place of worship. The psalmist tells us that we should enter God’s “gates”/ “courts” to praise Him. Worship is done in the presence of God. In the Old Testament it was the temple, but for us today, it is the local church building where we meet corporately to praise God. Even better, our temple, our place of worship is Jesus Christ (John 2:19). Some of us do not have the privilege of worshiping God in spectacular places like what was seen in Solomon’s temple. We have places that are not that glorious but we are still able to worship God, however, because our worship is not tied to a specific place but is in Jesus Christ. How exactly this happens is too lofty for us to grasp. As Christians gather with the sole purpose of praising God, God meets with them.

The main aim is to ascribe nothing but beauty to the name of the Lord. It should be an exciting and joyful experience, filled with joyous emotions. In our Reformed Churches this is not always the case. We must avoid the two common mistakes: having no emotion in our worship, being unmoved by being in the presence of God, and on the other hand having our emotions dictate our worship. We should rekindle the joy in our hearts for the worship service. When we worship God, we not only serve Him, but we come to have communion with Him. We come into God’s presence to know Him more, to spend time with Him, as His children. It is an opportunity for God to speak to us, through the public reading and preaching of His Word, through singing biblically rich hymns and songs, and through having conversations with Godly people in the Church. This brings the believers closer to God. Everything we do, from eating to working, should be done for the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31). We are to worship in every facet of our lives. There can’t be a separation of our “religious life” and our “secular life”. The Gospel should penetrate us in every area of our lives.

If we adopt the postmodern worldview, we will not be able to truly worship God. We will pick and choose, serving God half-heartedly or at worst, openly disobeying Him. Jesus Christ, while talking to the Samaritan woman, said that we are to worship the Father in truth and in Spirit (John 4:23). That idea is lost in the postmodern world because there is no ‘truth’ and belief in the “spirit” is foreign and sometimes imprudent. Again, if we adopt the existentialist worldview, mainly being concerned with what is best for self, we will be people who “worship” God for their own benefit. Worship then merely becomes a means to an end. God becomes a means to an end. We see a growing number of people coming to church with the hopes of getting the job, the spouse, the wealth that they have been dreaming about. God becomes nothing more than a genie that is expected to satisfy all the sinful lusts of their hearts. This is sad. In such a world, with such a worldview how can we worship God?

Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind (Romans 12:2). That is the only hope for us, as Christians today. We should make sure that we establish a solid Biblical worldview, to avoid being swayed by the winds of doctrine in the world (Ephesians 4:14). If we do not have a Biblical worldview, we will not be able to live the life that God desires from His people. We will not be able to offer the worship that our God requires and delights in.

References

• Johnson, T. L. 2005. Worship from the heart. In Godfrey, S. R. et al. The worship of God: reformed concepts of biblical worship. Ross-shire: Christian Focus Publications.
• Old, O. H. 2002. Worship: reformed according to scripture. Kentucky: Westminster John Knox.
• Pipa, J. A. 2005. The purpose of worship. In Johnson, T. L. & Godfrey, S. R. et al. The worship of God: reformed concepts of biblical worship. Ross-shire: Christian Focus Publications.
• Ryken, P. G. 2013. Christian worldview: a student’s guide. Illinois: Crossway.
• Sire, W. J. 1976. The universe next door: a basic worldview catalogue. Nottingham: Inter-Varsity Press.
• Sunshine, G. S. 1958. Why you think the way you do: a story of Western worldviews from Rome to home. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
• Williams, G. 2024. Christian Worldview. 2^nd ed. KwaMhlanga: Mukhanyo Theological College. (Study Guide BBT3).

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