Is God Full of Himself? The relationship with my wife suggests otherwise.

I watched and was enthralled with authentic worship. A divine whisper that crescendos into fresh, spontaneous joy as Steffany Gretzinger leads the congregation through an intimate and unguided encounter with God. I first saw the video (embedded below) when it surfaced back in March of last year. Since then, it has over 1 million views. Last night, someone shared it on Facebook. It brought me back to a question I’ve had for a while now:

Is God full of himself?

I think this question comes understandably from His commandments in Exodus:

And God spoke all these words, saying,

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. — Exodus 20:1–7

Then throughout the remainder of scripture He commands us over and over to worship him or else. From the outside looking in, from the perspective of those who have not experienced authentic worship and I daresay, those who have never been in love, this feels like petty, whiny, temper-tantrum inducing narcissism.

But take a step back and look at the relationship between two lovers. They express what they’ve found within the relationship through physical touch and audible adoration. Those feelings of joy inside are not truly realized until they’ve been expressed. It does the relationship and the lovers no good kept inside. It must be released. The world must know that this amazing girl is mine and I would go to the ends of the earth to let everyone who would listen know.

Our commandment to worship is not the object of misguided narcissism or the abuse of power. Rather, our incredibly wise Father knows that our relationship with Him is intensified through our worship of Him. The expression of our love, through authentic praise beckons us to a richer experience that abandons foolish idols. We are commanded to worship in the pursuit of liberty.

May they all see it from the tips of my toes to the top of my head!