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Printer Friendly VersionRobert Kennedy visited the jungles along the Amazon River and
talked with many of the aborigines of the area. One of the tribesmen had been
a recent convert to Christianity, and through a translator Kennedy asked,
“What do you most like to do?” The young Kennedy expected an answer
like hunting, canoeing, or fishing. He was surprised when the man answered,
“Being occupied by God.” Kennedy said to the translator, “Ask
him again. Something may be lost in the translation.” The truth was the
man knew exactly what he was saying. He gave an authentic definition of true
worship.
The Biblical setting for the text is the occasion of the completion
of the Temple in Jerusalem and bringing the Ark of the Covenant into the Holy
of Holies by the sacred priests of God. The Ark is set directly under the
outstretched wings of the golden creatures as a special place of honor. Both
the King and the people of Israel make a false presupposition about this moment
in their national history. They wrongly believed that this was the guarantee
of God’s presence with them, no matter what they would ever do again.
Walter Brueggeman says that this text is a long, complicated
section of scripture. It is vital to our understanding that worship is not
just a location of geography, but worship resides in the heart of the believer.
Solomon’s prayer of dedication of the sanctuary offers
three thoughts on the God of worship in the sanctuary.
A. Worship is the place the family of God meets.
Robert Couchman wrote, “A true family consists of two or
more people who care unconditionally for one another and share in the collective
health and security of the unit as well as in supporting and helping each
member to secure his/her full potential and achieve personal fulfillment.”
The same can be said of the family of God.
As part of the body of Christ in worship at any given worship
service we assemble as a family in confidence and freedom to become a cohesive
worshipful body. We do so through tolerance, liberty, and unity with one another.
As that develops so does the responsiveness to Christ and fellow believers.
Individuality melts into a spontaneous response of the whole congregation
to the presence and power of God. There must be a longing by the family for
open expression to a loving Jesus. Worship is childlike faith from the congregation
that believes that God is the audience of One and that they are “performing”
for this audience. There is a humble thank you from the congregation to the
Father who gives new life. The family wants a spiritual sensitivity that reaches
out through trust and obedience. We strive for a feeling of “togetherness”
as we worship and adore God.
B. Worship is the place where the life holiness is lived.
As people gather for worship the words “Holy, Holy, Holy”
are spoken concerning God. The sanctuary is the place where the awe of God
inspires, motivates, excites, convicts, redeems, and cleanses the heart of
the people. It stirs the heart of the family to sing the refrain from Lelia
N. Morris’s song “Holiness unto the Lord”:
“’Holiness unto the Lord’ is our watchword and song; ‘Holiness
unto the Lord’ as we’re marching along. Sing it, shout it loud and
long: ‘Holiness unto the Lord’ now and forever.” Holiness of
God leads to holiness in humans.
Chuck Swindoll said that holiness sounds scary to the average
American. To the person on the street holiness is something “for the
cloistered halls of a monastery. It needs organ music, long prayers, and religious-sounding
chants. It hardly seems appropriate for those in the real world of the twentieth
century. Author John White seems to agree with that as he wrote in The Fight
the images that came to his mind when he thought about holiness: thinness,
hollow-eyed gauntness, beards, sandals, long robes, stone cells, no sex, no
jokes, hair shirts, frequent cold baths, fasting, hours of prayer, wild rocky
deserts, getting up at 4 A.M., clean fingernails, stained glass, and self-humiliation.”
Swindoll then asks his readers, “Is that the mental picture you have
when you think of holiness? Most do. It’s almost as though holiness is
the private preserve of an austere group of monks, missionaries, mystics,
and martyrs. But nothing could be further from the truth.” Then he says
that he is in agreement with a Chuck Colson statement: “Holiness is the
everyday business of every Christian. It evidences itself in the decisions
we make and things we do, hour by hour, day by day.” Worship is in the
sanctuary of the heart!
King Solomon reminds his subjects that through the avenue of
prayer the promise of unfailing love persists for all. Four basic promises
arise from this section of the scripture.
A. God’s justice and holiness – He will not deceive
us. God will not mislead us, but he will be honest with us and judge us based
on our relationship with him. As Paul writes, “This righteousness from
God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference,
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified freely
by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented
him as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in his blood. He did this to
demonstrate his justice…” (Romans 3:22-25 NIV).
B. God’s grace and goodness – He will not forget us.
As we enter his sanctuary he remembers us by name. He knows everything about
us. “And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.” (Matthew
10:30 NIV).
C. God’s truth and honesty – He will not be dishonest
with us. We can give him our lives and he will be truthful and honest with
what we give him. Martin Luther said, “Many things I have tried to grasp,
and have lost. That which I have placed in God’s hands I still have.”
D. God’s power and might – He will not fail us. W.J.
Henry wrote the hymn “He Never Has Failed Me Yet” and in the refrain
he says, “I have proven Him true; What He says, He will do. He never
has failed me yet.” I can testify to that truth…God has never failed
me!
God’s love provides so many promises and it leads to the
last point.
“Praise is the best auxiliary to prayer. He who most bears
in mind what has been done for him by God will be most emboldened to ask for
fresh gifts from above.” (Andrew Melville).
A. Praise is reverence. One of the Greek words for “reverence”
is “entrerpo” which means to feel respect for or to show deference
to someone. We have a reverence for God as praise shows our respect towards
him. I am paraphrasing J. H. Morrison’s statement that worship is an
inward reverence as the spirit bows down in the presence of a holy God. It
is an awesome dependence on Him, in a solemn consciousness of the divine in
revelations.
B. Praise in his miraculous demonstrations. God is the God of
the supernatural as well as the natural. The how and what of his miraculous
demonstrations deserves our praise and adoration. He truly is a God of miracles.
C. Praise in respect. God deserves our respect. Stemming from
my respect is my desire to be His, one hundred percent. An unknown author
wrote: “Almighty and eternal God, so draw my heart to You, so guide my
mind, so fill my will, that I may be wholly Yours, utterly dedicated unto
You; and then use me, I pray, as You will and always to Your glory, and the
welfare of Your people; through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. ”
Jack Hayford observed, “…there is a path of praise
that leads to life, and many are moving forward on it with great joy, growth
and renewal. David walked that path and, in childlike abandon, broke into
leaping and dancing. His humility of heart brought a ready response to the
Holy Spirit of joy motivating him, and even though Michal protested, David’s
Tabernacle was built, it housed the Ark and it was filled with praises of
the Lord. I vote to help build it again!”
Praise should be the hallmark of any Christian church. People
need to speak in the sanctuary with words of glory, adoration, reverence,
expectation, and enthusiasm. How does our church speak? What are words of
praise? Can the world see that we are praising the Lord of Lords and the King
of Kings?
At the end of Solomon’s discourse to the people of Israel
the Bible states that he rose from the altar where he had been kneeling with
his hands spread out toward heaven. He stood and in a loud voice declared,
“Praise be to the Lord, who has given rest to his people Israel just
as he promised. Not one word has failed of all the good promises he gave through
his servant Moses. May the Lord our God be with us as he has been with our
fathers; may he never leave or forsake us. May he turn our hearts to him,
to walk in all his ways and to keep the commands, decrees and regulations
he gave our fathers. And may these words of mine, which I have prayed before
the Lord, be near to the Lord our God day and night…so that all peoples
of the earth may know that the Lord is God and that there is no other.”
(I Kings 8:54-60 NIV).
That is worship. As Jack Hayford would say, “I vote for that!”