February 1 — Disciplined Worship

Wiley Richards is a retired professor of theology and philosophy at The Baptist College of Florida in Graceville.

We often think of worship as a more or less spontaneous feeling of awe or respect for God which sometimes overwhelms us at unpredictable moments. We cherish those events, but worship usually is more predictable. Take the word "disciplined." One dictionary defines it as a training that develops self-control, character, or orderliness and efficiency, such as patterns learned in military training. What are some of the principles of disciplined worship?

• At its most fundamental level, it is corporate (Psa. 95:1—7a). Although we would never lessen the significance of private devotions, those who never "attend church" miss out on one of our chief joys. The psalmist understood the value of group worship. The psalm builds in the plural pronouns throughout, such as "let us sing," "let us make," "let us come" (vv. 1-2). You can sense the rising excitement as the worshipers have offered the sin offering on the brazen altar, and, assured of God’s forgiveness, they turned their faces toward the temple.

Joyfulness and thanksgiving resounded throughout the worship service. Those not gifted in music are called to make a "joyful noise to the rock of our salvation." The worshipers were equally emphatic about the reasons for the songs of thanksgiving. Our God is the great King above all gods (v. 3), the Maker and Sustainer of the hills (v. 4), oceans (v. 5), and us (v. 7). Even more personally, we are the sheep in His pasture (v. 7).

• This wonderful scene invokes in us another vital principle of disciplined worship, that it is dynamic (Heb. 10:19-21). The Hebrew worshipers came to the door of the temple, and stopped. The priests, not the people, could enter the holy place. Beyond the view resided the ark of the covenant. Only the high priest entered that sacred place, once a year.

Those who were in Jerusalem the day Jesus died could have gazed upon that forbidden scene. At the moment of His death, the veil "of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom" (Matt. 27:51). As His flesh was torn, the ripped covering for the Holy of Holies symbolized the opening of the new way to God. His blood is the blood of the atoning sacrifice. Further, because Jesus is a high priest after the order of Melchidzedek, He is therefore "over the house of God" (v. 21), and not just a minister in it as was Moses (Heb. 3:5-6).

• A disciplined worship is also a confident worship (vv. 22- 23). The words "draw near" carry the same idea as that of the Hebrew worshipers on their way toward the temple, but they approached with hope embedded in dread. Not so with the followers of Christ. The Jewish high priest took the blood of the lamb on the Day of Atonement and sprinkled it fearfully on the Ark of the Covenant. We, however, have been sprinkled with the blood of Calvary’s Lamb and thereby cleansed once and for all.

We now "hold fast" the profession of our faith. Paul reminded Timothy he had proclaimed a good profession before many witnesses (1 Tim. 6:12), a probable allusion to his baptism. So have we. We hold fast without wavering.

• We conclude with the spirit described in Psalm 95, noting that disciplined worship is regular, public worship (vv. 24-25). As members of the Body of Christ, the church which He loved and for which He died, we regularly assemble for mutual encouragement and exhortations. We may not gather much new information in the Sunday School studies or even the preaching service, but, so what? As the day of our Lord’s return comes closer, we urge each other forward in the excitement of holy anticipation.