Would it surprise you if I said no? I hope that you are a bit shocked at this point, but hear me out. Worship isn't anything in and of itself. The way we practice worship is not sacred or meaningful in a vacuum. There is a difference between worshipping God and worshipping worship. And we, as God followers, must be on the proper side of that fence.
The Bible has a lot to say about worship. It is full of instruction and exhortation. In the Old Testament there are rules and regulations for the sacrificial system as in the first seven chapters of Leviticus. There are descriptions on how King David centralized and organized Israel's practice of worship as in 1 Chronicles 15. In 2 Kings 23 we can see how King Josiah completely reformed Israel's practices of worship after rediscovering the book of the Law. The New Testament contains some descriptions (Acts 2) and admonishments (1 corinthians 11), but unlike the Old Testament, has few rules and prescriptions.
There are a two main principles that I would like to highlight that come from both Old and New Testaments. First, God's worship is meant to bring everyone together. Unity is the biggest prescription in the New Testament for worship. Read 1 Corinthians 11:17ff and you get a strong sense of the need for unity and the distraction of division. But the more important principle that is absolutely essential when it comes to worship is this: God is the most important aspect of worship! Maybe that sounds like a no-brainer, but I don't believe that we can take Him for granted in this way. Far too often when we gather we worry about the music, how we dress, what time it is, how long things are, where things happen, what the room looks like, who we are sitting by, what we're doing after church, how loud or soft it is, what temperature the room is, I think we get the point. When we gather, we gather in the name of God, His son Jesus Christ, and His Spirit.
Consider this, the word "worship" is a shortening of the Old English word "worthship." We gather because of His worthship, because He is worthy of praise. We gather for worthship because He has invited and initiated it. We gather for worthship because de desires it of us. It is not our worship. It is not our worthship. We are not worthy. We cannot possess worship. When we try to, we make it about everything else other than God, the immortal invisible. We make it about us. When we say "our worship" we make the most important thing us. Maybe it is semantics, but we must see it in the light that scripture sees it.
Worship isn't worth it. God is worth it, and He is worthy, and he deserves the praise of His people. In fact, he inhabits the praise of His people (Psalm 22:3). If there is a difference between worshipping worship and worshipping God, let us worship God. "Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker; for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care." (Psalm 95:6-7)
Humbly,
Dave
