To believe in God is to worship him. To do otherwise is impossible.
That’s not because it’s some rule he set up, like “If you’re going to move with the basketball you have to dribble it.” It’s more like, “If you add 2 and 2 you have to get 4.” If you really see who God is, there is no avoiding the response of worship. Consider these passages from the 89th Psalm:
Psalm 89:1-4
I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord, forever;
with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations.
For I said, “Steadfast love will be built up forever;
in the heavens you will establish your faithfulness.”
You have said, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one;
I have sworn to David my servant:
‘I will establish your offspring forever,
and build your throne for all generations.’”
Psalm 89:8-11
O Lord God of hosts,
who is mighty as you are, O Lord,
with your faithfulness all around you?
9 You rule the raging of the sea;
when its waves rise, you still them.
You crushed Rahab [Egypt] like a carcass;
you scattered your enemies with your mighty arm.The heavens are yours; the earth also is yours;
the world and all that is in it, you have founded them.
God rules the earth. He sets up thrones. He founded the heavens and the earth, and they are his. He is mighty over the seas and the nations. He rules over the “hosts,” the angels of heaven. He is full of steadfast love and faithfulness. He has enemies — those who stand against his sovereign purposes — and he will rise up against them.
We, on the other hand, are his subjects. He rules over us. His kingship is one of goodness, love, and faithfulness, but it is decidedly his kingship and not ours. To see him in that position is to recognize that, though we have freedom to choose our steps, we are not in charge of our destinies. We are his creatures, created by him, in many ways the smallest of the small, in an unimaginably huge cosmos. And next to his holiness, we in our imperfection and sin are smaller yet.
To believe this is to see that he is a God of immense goodness, power, and worth. It is to see oneself as very small next to him. Psalm 8 recognizes this, yet adds a twist:
O Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
Out of the mouth of babies and infants,
you have established strength because of your foes,
to still the enemy and the avenger.When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under his feet,
all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
The birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.O Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
We are small, yet not contemptible in his sight. We are flawed, yet he loves us. We rebel against him, yet he died for us.
Who can see this and not worship? The rebellious: those who rise up against a ruler they cannot manage, who hate that there is another who determines their destinies; whose view of the good is dark and twisted. Every one of us, in other words; for we have all risen up against God, we have all hated him, we have all had darkened hearts. But in that condition we do not see all of the truth of God; we do not see that it is both true and good that God is who he is, and that we are who we are.
God offers light and sight to those who will embrace what it reveals. It is a gift of his grace, not of their worthiness. Yet for those who see, to see is to worship.
See the movie No Greater Love… now.
Hi Tom,
This is a great article- and \right on\ for the time we are living in- keep up the good works- (The James kind). God bless, Bob
Holo,
Put it in my Netflix que….now 😉