Re-Ordering Worship [3]: God is King

In the first post on this subject I looked at the confusion around the word ‘worship’, and proposed emptying ourselves of all of those competing ideas around that word, and instead ask a different question:

If God is who he says he is, and has done what he says he has done, and has created us to be what he said he has created us to be, how should we respond?

I then considered how that response could be viewed as one of realignment, of choosing the way of life: re-establishing God’s kingship over us, and re-establishing our dominion (delegated rulership) over creation. Thirdly, I considered how such a response restores our true humanity: the invitation to respond to God as King in this way is an invitation to be fully human.

In this section I want to dig deeper into what it means for God to be King.

I don’t know if you have ever been told, normally with reference to Revelation, and often after a particularly long time of singing, that ‘when we get to heaven we will be singing constantly for the rest of eternity so we better get used to it now’?

If you are like me, this causes a deep anxiety.

Really? Is that what it will end up being like?

Just lots and lots of singing?

And not only this, but in a massive crowd?

Heaven will be like a Worship Arena on steroids?

*Shudders*

Others suggest that worship (= liturgy, gathered worship, singing) is the purpose of the church. When we worship (= liturgy, gathered worship, singing) we are becoming what we were made to be (see for example Edith Humphries Grand Entrance p3). Mission finds its end in worship (= liturgy, gathered worship, singing).

Really?

Is that what my purpose is?

So my ultimate aim is to get people into church to sing?

And our ultimate purpose as a church is bigger gatherings?

It’s not hard to see how, for some churches, success = larger services.

OK, I’m being a little harsh, and possibly getting a little distracted, but we also sing songs that could be interpreted this way.

For example, I love the song by Israel Houghton:

Away, away from the noise alone with you away, away to hear your voice and meet with you. Nothing else matters. My one desire is to worship You, I live to worship You, I live, I live To worship You

I love it because the chorus seems to say that to live is to worship and to worship is to live.

Now I realise that many songs we sing are poetic, using language to stress importance and value in a way that goes deeper than the actual words, and this is probably what the song is doing.

I get that.

Yet it’s not hard to see how this song could be interpreted differently.

If ‘to live is to worship’ and this means ‘nothing else matters’ than ‘time with God’, ‘away from the noise’ where we express devotion to Him then I think we have missed the mark (and probably mis-understood the song).

If we mean that to live is to sing (liturgy, personal devotions etc), or to sing (liturgy, personal devotions etc) is to live, then I think we are pushing the boundaries of the poetry into the realm of untruth.

So in this article, I am going to look briefly at the biblical language that surrounds Kingship in order to shed a few rays of light on this subject.

In order to get our bearings, this concept actually runs through the entire scripture: in the Old Testament that narrative is basically this: Pharaoh is not king, Yahweh is King; and in the New Testament the narrative is this: Caesar is not King, Jesus is King.

So,

If God is who he says he is (He is King), he has done what he says he has done (he has rescued us from the kings of this world), he has created us to be truly human (as sons/daughters with delegated authority — kingship — dominion — over creation). How should we respond?

In many cultures, to bow down before a King, or to bow down to a statue of a King would be the ultimate sign of devotion to the king, of submission to the rule of that King. It is a posture that, as Daniel Block says, states the equivalent of ‘long live the king’ (For the Glory of God p12)

For those of us who witnessed the fall of Saddam Hussain will probably remember the defining moment when the statue of Saddam was pulled down. This historic event didn’t just signify the pulling down of a statue that people would have previously literally bowed before, it represented a complete tearing down of Saddam ‘kingship’ over that land.

In the same way, when men and women are required to bow down before the statue of North Korea’s rulers, they do so as a sign of complete allegiance to that ruler in the whole of life.

In Biblical history Abraham took Isaac up to the mountain to bow down (way·yiš·ta·ḥū) to Yahweh.

At the reading of the Torah in Neh 8:6 the people not only raise their hands, but bow down before Yahweh with their faces to the ground. Yet this wasn’t purely a momentary response, it was a response that signified their total allegiance to Yahweh.

As if to re-inforce this, ‘bowing down’ (way·yiš·ta·ḥū) in the Hebrew is often accompanied with ‘serving’ (ā·ḇaḏ) in the same way that proskyneo (bow down) and latreuó (serve) are used together in the New Testament — for example when Jesus was tested in the desert (Matthew 4:10).

To bow down to Yahweh as King is to submit to Yahweh as King in the whole of life.

To bow down to Jesus as King is to serve the agenda of Jesus as King in all of our lives.

Such use of language in both the Hebrew and the Greek is echoed in other words often associated with ‘worship’: whereas there may be a focus in cultic/liturgical contexts, the use of the language always widens to include all of life.

We bow down in the presence of the king as evidence of the submission to the king in our whole lives; we serve God in our liturgy (Num 3:7–8) as evidence of our service or work in the whole of life (2 Chr 34:13, Gen 2:5); we fear (=reverent awe) God in the gathered place (Ps 22:25), but that same fear motivates us to good moral behavior (Lev 19:4).

When Mary falls at Jesus’ feet and anoints him with oil, it is a wonderful, extravagant act of devotion. As she poured out her perfume she spent her entire life savings, her entire means of future income as a prostitute. Her devotion to Jesus in that moment signified a total change in the way she would now have to live her life, earn her wages and live alongside other people.

So, the biblical language associated with responding to a King means that it is impossible to have a response in the moment, in the worship service, in the singing, that doesn’t also signify a widening of devotion to include the whole of life.

In the same way, it is not particularly helpful to use the language ‘worship as a way of life’ to mean that we should sing more (although that may be the case) or go to church more (although that may be the case).

No, our ultimate purpose in life is not liturgical. Our ultimate purpose in life is to live out what it means for God to be King.

Ultimately, every knee will bow (Philippians 2:10), not because liturgy is our destination, but because God’s Kingship will finally be universally recognised.

I’m giving you my heart and all that is within. I’m laying down my life for the sake of you my king….I surrender all to you. (Marc James)