Worship Study #1 - April 6, 2010

The purpose for our worship study is threefold.

1. To help us gain a clear revelation of God's desire for worshipers.

2. To give us a biblical foundation of how to worship.

3. To encourage us to increase our expressions of worship.


The following scripture passage reveals the Lord's desire for worshipers.

But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." (John 4:23-24) NASV

The primary reason that we gather together as the Body of Christ is to worship the Lord. It has been said that authentic worship is simply a genuine expression of praise, adoration, celebration, and thanksgiving to God in response to who He is and what He has done in our lives. We can also add to this the expectation of what He desires to do and is going to do as well. Our main goal as children of God is to become worshipers of our Father and to develop a lifestyle of worship.

As we increase in our understanding of who God really is, and what He has done in our lives, worship will spontaneously flow in response to Him. As a result of our worship, God will inhabit our praises.

God's promise to inhabit our praises is found in the following verse:

"But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel." (Psalms 22:3)KJV

The word inhabitest means "to dwell...", "to remain...", "to settle...", or "to feel at home...."

In the New American Standard Version it says, "Thou who art enthroned upon the praises of Israel." The word enthroned means "one who is exalted and placed on a throne."

We can picture from both definitions that God desires for us, you might say, to offer Him the best chair we have within the dwelling place of our minds and hearts. He yearns for us to invite Him to take His rightful position as the Head of our inner dwelling place.

The last phrase of Psalms 22:3 refers to the praises of Israel. In the Hebrew language there are eight different words that define various expressions of praise. Here in this passage, the word praises in Hebrew is tehillah, which means "laudation; a hymn." The word laud means "to applaud."

It is a common practice for citizens of a country to stand and applaud their president, prime minister or king as he walks into a room to take His position of honor. We are not only citizens of an earthly realm, but we are foremost citizens of the kingdom of God. How much more should we stand and applause our King as He comes to take His seat among us as we corporately create a place for Him to sit through our worship?

Not only is the Lord Jesus to have a prominent place within us and among us that makes Him feel at home, but the Scriptures tell us that what He says should also have a prominent place inside of us.

"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord." (Colossians 3:16) KJV

The Amplified Version states:

"Let the word [spoken by] the Christ, the Messiah, have its home (in your hearts and minds) and dwell in you in [all its] richness, as you teach and admonish and train one another in all insight and intelligence and wisdom [in spiritual things, and sing] psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, making melody to God with [His] grace in your hearts." (Colossians 3:16) AMP

Here we have the word of God and the praise to God connected.

To recap, we first need to focus our attention on giving glory to God by welcoming Him with our applause and offering Him the best and highest position within our lives. Second, we must encounter God in a life-changing way through His word taking up residence within our minds and hearts. And finally, this will lead us to join with God as He works in the world.