Shaun Groves
With one set of wings they covered their feet. Even beings made with the stuff of Heaven know they’re too dirty to bump up against the train of God’s robe.
Folks with Phd’s, and other letters behind their names I just don’t have, say the robe of God symbolizes His purity, perfection, holiness. And the train of God’s robe filled the temple the day Isaiah saw the Lord seated on the throne. He watched as these angelic beings covered their feet, the filthiest part of themselves, so they wouldn’t soil blemishless God. It was a confession of sorts: We’re not worthy to be here!
And with the third set of wings they flew, constantly circling the throne of God and roaring, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty!.”
Confessing their filth with hidden feet. Peaking through the cracks in their wings at the totality of God. And belting, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty!”
Never crossing their arms or yawning. Not dependent upon a cheerleader behind a microphone to inspire. They shout, “”Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty!”
Throughout all eternity there’s always more of God to take in, and with it, always more reason to cry out. “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty! The whole earth is full of His glory!”
RevJeff says:
I was totally captured by that text about 20 years ago in college and tried to use it as I shared one Sunday evening with my home church… After the service an older gentleman “informed” me that – “some of the images we have of heaven from the Bible are not really accurate – they are just the best way the author had at the time of illustrating what they realy saw…. so don’t take it too literally” !
I wish I had your line back then – SHUT UP AND WORSHIP! I am convinced he will be surprised if he does get witness heaven first hand. It probably does look a lot like SCRIPTURE says it does.
angie says:
Glory! I can’t wait! To experience the complete prenses of God and worship at his feet as his child, what a privilege!
Ichabod's Fortune says:
Thank you for this series, Shaun! I’m a worship leader and I often forget that worship does not mean music.
I imagine a world where God chose not to give us music, would he still require worship? Of course! We would worship with just words!
What about a world where God chose not to give us words, would he still require worship? Of course! We would worship with our actions!
I really appreciated Part 2 about the word “glory.” In church we sing about glory so often that it’s reduced to colloquial christianese. I’d rather just ask God to “Give me everything!” than use a word that has lost it’s meaning to a great majority of those who use it.
Brant says:
Thanks for the posts, Shaun.
Question for you, and anyone else, borne of my lack of knowledge:
Is there a place in the N.T. where the church gathers for corporate, vertically-focused worship? I know there’s the times of gathering for mutual edification, clearly. But what about vertical worship, done corporately?
This probably goes in the “Questions Not to Ask”, file, for fear that people will read into it too much. I’m a musician and have led worship at mega-church-type places. But I’m honestly asking.
Shawn Bashor says:
Hey Brant and Shaun,
I am going to sit back over here, out of the way of the bombs, and watch the match…ding ding ding
Jim Porterfield says:
Guess it depends on what you mean by worship. Is prayer worship? What about singing “songs, hymns and spiritual songs” and “giving thanks” Acts 1:14 – 2:1 an extended prayer gathering culminates with the arrival of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
Paul commands corporate worship: (quoted from NASB)
Eph 5:19 – 18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; 20 always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father; 21 and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.
Col 3:16 – Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
These passages would be a good place to start in your research of corporate worship in the NT. There are other instances besides the obvious corporate worship that occurs in Heaven…
BTW – see also the Last supper – a structured worship service (John 13…)
May true worship flourish in the body of Christ with which you meet.
Jim
Jim Porterfield says:
Couple more thoughts –
1) if worship is not vertical, it is idolatry.
2) a true body of Christ can’t not worship – those who are joined to Christ will naturally worship
3) Everyone worships something – man was created by God to worship, so when a congregation gathers, either vertical worship must occur or #1 above applies.
Shaun Groves says:
Jim and Brant, it’s not called “worship.” Splitting hairs? Maybe. Stick with me a little longer and we’ll see.
Yea, Jim, Christians in the bible got together and sang. There’s some debate though about whether they got together TO sing…and that’s a potentially big difference between us and them. It may only be an important one because our methods inherent carry with them a message. In other words, when we set aside a day and time to gather to sing and hear someone speak we’re communicating a message about what is essential, what God wants from us on His Sabbath, what is best and needed for our spirits and community. Singing, I’d argue, isn’t as important as our methods make it out to be.
Cynthia says:
I’m certainly not a scholar on this. In my studies on this subject I have found singing can be a form of praise, but that is not to be confused with worship. And while I think true biblical worship could be done corporately it boils down to the attitude of one’s heart. I think it starts with our humility and knowing our position with God, and that has nothing to do with music.
Jim Porterfield says:
As a worship leader, it is good to occasionally go back and review what worship really is. Thanks for inspiring me to do just that. Based on my review I could write you a multi-page thesis, but I will spare you that. Here is the crux of what I found:
WORSHIP (per MirriamWebster.com) among other things is “to regard with great or extravagant respect, honor, or devotion.” Per Scripture it is (OT) “to prostrate oneself,” “to bow down,” “to serve,” and (NT) to “render homage,” “reverence,” “hold in awe” (per International Standard Bible Encyclopedia).
PRAISE is (per MirriamWebster.com) “to esteem,” “to express a favorable judgment of,” “to glorify (a god or saint) …” In Scripture the Hebrew and Greek words translated as “praise” include “psalm,” “praise,” “confession,” “thanksgiving,” “to praise,” “glorify,” “confess”…
The simplest way I know to say it is this: Praise is an outward expression of the inward attitude of worship – that is, praise is physical action, e.g. bowing, singing, serving, praying, etc. that is motivated by a heart that is sold out to God, that places God as authority above all and that values Him as greater than all. In other words, true praise cannot exist without worship. By the same token, true worship always leads to praise (sung, spoken, or acts of service) – even in heaven, see Rev. 4:8-11 and 5:8-14. (BTW, the latter is an example of corporate, accompanied singing as an act of worship.)
I agree that singing is not necessarily praise. My experience indicates that most singing that occurs under the guise of praise in churches and religious gatherings is neither praise nor worship—well, at least it isn’t praise and worship of God. In many cases our music is about as close to praise as is a secular Saturday night jam session powered by a few beers. Singing (or any other action) becomes praise when it is an expression of an attitude of worship and becomes holy when the object of that worship is God.
I totally agree with Shaun that, as a regular practice, we need to “Shut up and worship” before we open our mouths to sing, speak, pray, or preach, but once we have “shut up and worshiped”, we need to “open up and praise”.
Finally, whether the people “got together and sang” or “got together TO sing” is not nearly as important as is the question, “did they do whatever they did when they got together to the glory of God?” No matter how you split that hair, scripture indicates that the singing of songs, hymns, and spiritual songs was an important part of the corporate worship (yes, they worshiped together) of the New Testament church and is commanded by Paul in both Col 3:16 and Eph. 5:19
So I say it again, “shut up and worship Him,” then “open up and praise Him.” Only when you do the latter will there be any evidence you did the former.
Cynthia says:
Jim, I want to respectfully ask, are you defending your title as “worship leader” and trying to rationalize it? Can you actually lead a group in biblical worship (not webster’s) if it is an individual attitude? Now I do believe you can lead praise when singing is involved, but even still praise can be done without music.
I view them as seperate things, and somehow they’ve been combined to mean the same. Think of it as a jello salad. You have your jello, it’s plain and simple, we’ll call that worship. Then you have your fruit, whip cream etc., we’ll call that praise. They are separate things, but when you blend the two you get a homologous bowl called jello salad. And where is the jello? It has blended into the salad and only traces can be seen, yet we still call it jello salad. It still looks and tastes good, but I personally prefer my jello by itself, with the fruit on the side. This may not be the best analogy, but do you get what I mean?
I don’t believe Col 3:16 or Eph 5:19 are referring to worship, but rather praise. Even in Rev. 4 or 5 it appeared as a seperate act. Please don’t misunderstand, I love music. I’m a songwriter. I do believe it has it’s place in the church I just can’t call it worship.