Hebrews 10:25 instructs, “Not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together….” The word assembling in this passage is translated from a Greek word meaning Christian meeting for worship (Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible). God is here instructing us to gather regularly for worship. Matthew 4:10 states, “Thou shalt worship the LORD thy God….”
What is worship? To kiss (like a dog licking his master’s hand), to fawn to, to crouch to, to prostrate oneself in homage (do reverence to), adore, worship. So, basically we go to church to obey God and show Him how much He is worth to us–to worship Him. Do you worship at church?
We have Christ’s example in Luke 4:16, “…as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.” Christ was God, yet he was in the habit of going to church, not for what he could get out of it; but to participate in worship. He stood up to read. Do you participate? At the age of 12 Jesus spent 3 days in the temple listening to the doctors and asking them questions. He was 12. He was a young man. He was putting away childish things. He wasn’t instructing. He was 12. He was hearing and asking. He wasn’t sitting under someones’s grandma. He was sitting with the doctors. He was 12–a young man. He demonstrated understanding and responded wisely.
How do you worship? Psalm 100 informs us we are to “serve the LORD with gladness; come before His presence with singing.” Do you participate in the singing in a manner that demonstrates God’s worth to you? Do you worship? “Enter into his courts with praise: Be thankful unto him and bless his name.” When you enter God’s house do you thank and praise him? I Chronicles 16:28-36 teaches, “Give unto the LORD, ye kindreds of the people, give unto the LORD glory and strength. Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name: Bring an offering, and come before him: worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness. Fear before him all the earth: the world also shall be stable, that it be not moved. Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice: and let men say among the nations, the LORD reigneth. Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof: let the fields rejoice, and all that is therein. Then shall the trees of the wood sing out at the presence of the LORD, because he cometh to judge the earth. O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good; for his mercy endureth forever. And say ye, Save us, O God of our salvation, and gather us together, and deliver us from the heathen, that we may give thanks to thy holy name, and glory in thy praise. Blessed be the LORD God of Israel forever and ever. And all the people said, Amen, and praised the LORD.” This is greatly repeated in Psalm 96.
I Corinthians 14:34 says, “Let your women keep silence in the churches; for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience; as also saith the law. And if they will learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church.” Do women speak in your services? There is definitely a place for women to speak, but according to the scripture, church is not the place.
Psalm 107:32 states, “Let them exalt him also in the congregation of the people and praise him in the assembly of the elders.” Psalm 111:1 says, “Praise ye the LORD. I will praise the LORD with my whole heart, in the assembly of the upright, and in the congregation.” Psalm 149:1 instructs, “Praise ye the LORD. Sing unto the LORD a new song, and his praise in the congregation of saints. The temple singers were male Levites. (I Chronicles 9:33; 15:16,19; II Chronicles 5:12,13; 23:13; 29:30; 35:15; Nehemiah 10:28.) What a novel idea–free up women to care for their babies and children–their highest calling–nurturing a family. I asked a friend of mine to check this for me and she sent the following:
Mrs. Corbett! You asked me to look into the temple singers being male. I remember doing a similar study back when I was 17 or 18, and I remembered one passage in 1 Chron. 25, starting in verse 5: “And God gave to Heman fourteen sons and three daughters. All these were under the hands of their father for song in the house of the LORD, with cymbals, psalteries, and harps, for the service of the house of God, according to the king’s order to Asaph, Jeduthun, and Heman.” I remember thinking that was interesting because this was the only place I found where women were involved in the temple music. It seems from the information given that they just played instruments. And I think it’s safe to assume that these were unmarried daughters who didn’t have a family to care for…so I think what you said still applies!
-Anna Smith, age 22
John 4:23, 24, “But the hour cometh and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. Do you worship God in your spirit or do you just do the program? Do you worship God in truth–scripturally–or just routine?
Psalm 95, “O come let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also. The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land. O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker. For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if you will hear his voice, harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation, in the wilderness; when your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work. Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, it is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways: unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.
Psalm 29:2b “Worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness. Some religions worship in the ugliness of sin (cutting self, human sacrifice, sexual perversion, etc.) God wants us to live holy lives, be cleansed with Christ’s blood and worship God in the beauty of holiness.
The following scriptures mention falling on our face to worship God: Genesis 17:3; Numbers 22:31; Joshua 5:14; Matthew 26:39; Luke 5:12; 17:16; I Corinthians 14:25. We find references where people bowed their heads to worship, bowed themselves with their faces to the pavement and praised the LORD, prophets speak, warn, etc.
In I Corinthians 14 men in the congregation may speak up, one at a time. We also find scriptures where all of the congregation worshiped, singers sang, trumpeters sounded, offerings were given,cymbals were sounded, psalteries and harps were played. I found that some musicians were appointed because they were skillful. Interesting to me was that these musicians were paid (this was their livelihood) Levites and would have had to meet the same requirements for holiness that any other temple worker was to meet.
We have scratched the surface of the subject of worship. Is church a waste of time? Not if you are simply wanting to obey God and worship Him. We could always look at our worship and see if it could be done more scripturally. But based on the Word of God worship is not a waste of time for the Christian.
2 Responses
Very compelling, thought-provoking, and helpful info! I would really like to see more of this! The thoughts on the male temple singers were quite intriguing!
I know this took an incredible amount of time. Thank you so much!
Wow, this is very good! You have made so many good points. Even thinking in your head that Church is a waste of time is scarey. I think you would have to have no respect for God or his authority.
I never knew the greek meaning of assembling. I know the verse, and I know that it meant that we should go to church, but I didn’t know that it means a Christian meeting for worship. That is awesome. I love to learn knew things.
I really thought it was interessting to learn about the temple singers being male. Oh how far our society has come…..and not in a Godly way. Not just church….either…society makes it easy for women not to even entertain nurturing a family. I wonder at what point that even in the church this changed?
In mentioning, I Corinthians 14:34, some people I have talked to about this verse think that this is only during the preaching, but the verse doesn’t say just during the preaching. I am glad that you mentioned this in this blog. So many women think that it is spiritual to yell Amen. Some of them do not even know that you are not suppose to do this. I mentioned this to a friend of mine, and she said are you serious? I do this all the time. Most of time the women are yelling amen lounder than the men.
Sometimes I wonder how far away we are from worshipping God the true way. I have never seen someone falling on on thier face to worship God. Sure at the alter we pray that way but this sounds like these men were doing it during the service.
I agree with Steven I would like to read more on this….could there be a second part of this blog?