This morning I want us to begin to see what worship demands of us on Sunday morning. That is to say, I want us to see what all the things I have said to this point over the past several weeks mean for what we do on Sunday morning when we gather for “corporate worship.” Therefore, though I have been looking at what our hearts must be like in treasuring and valuing God exalting himself, this week I want us to get a bit more narrow and look at what is the nature of worship, and then I want to leave us with a few thoughts on what this means we should do on Sunday mornings when we gather.
In order to see all of this, we turn to Nehemiah 8:1-12, for I think this is one of the clearest texts of a group of people gathered together and truly worshiping God. In fact, when I read this text, it is so rich and provides such an astounding picture, it makes me want to read on, wishing I was there.
At this point in the book of Nehemiah, the people have gathered and have rebuilt the wall of Jerusalem, that had surrounded the city. It was a great day in Israel’s history and truly a time for worship. Therefore, in chapter 8, the people are gathered, Ezra opens the Law of Moses, and they worship the Lord in that place; it is a beautiful sight.
But what does this text teach us? I believe this can be answered in saying that in these verses we get a glimpse at what is the nature of true worship. Therefore, let’s see what it is. I will point out four (quite important) things that I see.
First and foremost, the Bible tells us who God is and what he has done. And it is the reading of the Word of God that produces worship among these people. Verses 1-5 tell us: “And all the people gathered as one man at the square which was in the front of the Water Gate, and they asked Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses which the Lord had given to Israel. Then Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly of men, women, and all who could listen with understanding … And he read from it before the Square … from early morning until midday … and all the people were attentive to the book of the law … And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people … [and] all the people stood up.”
Literally, verse 1 tells us that they commanded Ezra to bring the law of Moses. They hungered for it; they longed for it. They wanted to know who God was and what he had done. They knew the Bible was from God, and so they treasured what it said.
If we are to worship, we must understand that it is a response to who God is and what he has done, and that that is communicated to us in the Scripture. That is where worship begins.
Isn’t it convicting to read of their response in light of the fact that they just had the law of Moses and we have the entire Bible?
Our response to God and who he is is worship, but it may take a number of different forms. For example, in this text, some raised their hands and said, “Amen” (v. 6), some bowed their head with their faces to the ground (v.6), some helped others understand the Word (v. 7-8), some wept (v. 9), and they made great rejoicing (v. 12).
Our responses can and will be different, but all of worship is responsive in nature. It is a response to who God is and what he has done.
Before I elaborate on this, let me show you this in the text. Their emotions ran deep as verse 9 tells us they were weeping and mourning when they heard the words of the law, and verse 12 tells us that they made great rejoicing because they understood the words of the law.
They had emotion. And emotion is a good thing. For a while it was commonplace in the church to teach that emotion is bad, but it isn’t, it is good. In fact, worship demands emotion. Or to say it another way, God commands emotion of us when we worship. For example, he tells us in the Psalms, “Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth. Serve him with gladness” (100:1). He tells us that he loves a cheerful giver (2 Corinthians 9:7). He tells us that those who are elders should shepherd the flock not under compulsion but with eagerness (1 Peter 5:2). He tells us to love him and fear him. All of these are emotions. And all of them are commanded.
Therefore, it matters to God not just what we do but how we do it, even as he says in Isaiah, “This people draw near with their words and honor Me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts far from Me” (29:13). Worship requires genuine emotion.
We see this quite clearly in our text. We read in verses 9 and 12 that “the people were weeping when they heard the words of the law … made great rejoicing because they understood the words which had been made known to them.”
Worship must have a combination of head and heart, truth and emotion, deep doctrine and deep affection. For just as Isaiah 29:13 warns against people honoring God with their lips while their hearts are far from him, Jeremiah 12:2 tells us we must engage our minds as Jeremiah prays, “You are near to their lips but far from their mind.”
The way that we are made is that the mind is the channel to our hearts. Therefore, what comes into our minds should descend to our hearts and produce affections – whether fear, joy, sadness, etc. And this is the path that worship must take for us. Truth should enter into our minds, descend to our hearts and produce affections. And we should grow in our knowledge of truth and in our affections for God and what he has done.
Therefore, worshipers should be people who have deep doctrine and deep emotion. And deep doctrine should produce deep emotion. For, again, this is the channel through which we were made to work. It is as Jonathan Edwards once said, “I should think myself in the way of my duty, to raise the affections of my hearers as high as I possibly can, provided they are affected with nothing but truth, and with affections that are not disagreeable to the nature of what they are affected with.”1
The problem is that we often fall short in this process or try to bypass a part of it. That is we often receive truth without it falling into our hearts and creating affections so that we have cold, dead orthodoxy, or we bypass our minds and try to produce affection, resulting in a shallow frenzy.
But the diagnosis for this has often been heard wrong, I believe. Many people say, “We need to have a balance.” And I understand what they’re saying, but I think it’s the wrong word choice. For “balance” conjures up in my mind the notion that you need to give one or the other. That is to say, if you are not affectionate enough, you need to lay off of the Word a bit or if you are not filled with enough truth, you need to try to stop your emotions. But do you see why that is wrong? For if you get rid of the Word to have emotion you’ve dismissed your very reason for it, and if you try to stop emotion by going to the Word you’ve tried to deny the very thing that the Word produces and, in fact, commands.
Therefore, the affections of worship are prompted and sustained by truth. For if this is seen clearly, you will always have a basis for affection – whether joy, fear, brokenness, etc., for justification by faith is a constant (as is the nature of God, as is the cross, etc.). Therefore, I encourage us to build and sustain our emotion on something constant – the truth of the Word. But don’t allow the Word to remain in your mind only but to descend into your heart.
This is a point that I made last week, but I want to remind us again from this text, for it is present here as well. In verse 1 they are calling for the Word to be read. That is to say, they wanted to know God and what he has done. And in verse 12 they are told as they have worshiped God, “Go, eat of the fat, drink of the sweet, and send portions to him who has nothing prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord.”
We should follow this progression on Sunday morning. In the words of John Piper, “Come on the lookout for God and leave on the lookout for people.”2
Therefore, what does this mean that we should do on Sunday mornings? What does seeing the nature of worship demand for us? I’ll list five things to close.
1. Meditate on the Word and pray so as to prepare your heart for corporate worship.
This will help ensure genuine worship and go against hypocrisy and idolatry. Thus, one of the things we might try is providing a verse or passage for meditation and allow time in a prelude to reflect, meditate, and pray so as to prepare your heart.
2. Give special attention to the reading of the Word of God.
I think this text teaches us that we are too casual with the Word of God. Jonathan mentioned when we were in Minneapolis that we could have someone specifically come and read the Scripture text for the sermon. I think this might be a good idea, for it allows others to participate, others to focus on the importance of that task, and allows special attention to be drawn to the reading of the Word as opposed to seeing it simply as a preliminary to preaching.
3. Make sure our songs are filled with Scriptural truth and that there’s an outlet for “simple” praise.
That is to say, make sure there’s a channel for our minds to be filled and our hearts to cry out as they are affected accordingly.
I think much here of a husband and wife. There are times when you just want to say, “I love you.” And then there are times when you sit and have a deep discussion on the couch, which ends with you talking about how much you love each other. We need both these kinds of things in the songs we sing.
We need some songs that remind us of deep things as to who God is and what he has done, and we need to rejoice and delight and love God in those songs. But we also need songs that allow a simple praise when you just can’t say anything else because you’ve beheld his majesty. Just as a husband and wife need both of these kinds of conversations, we need both of these kinds of songs in corporate worship of our Lord.
4. We need to individually battle as well to ensure our mind sees truth and our heart is delighting in it as we are gathered together on Sunday morning for corporate worship.
That is to say, if you find your heart seeing truth but not delighting in it or emotionally singing but not realizing a thing you are doing, then stop, repent, meditate, pray that God will fill your mind and heart so as to produce true affection, and then trust he will as you pray, preach, sing, etc.
5. Leave with your eyes open for ministry.
We should leave on Sunday mornings aware that if we have truly worshiped God, it should produce in us an overflowing joy for others. So leave asking God how you might minister.
May he produce true worship among his people here at Cornerstone. Amen.