- Worship is a matter of the mind (truth; our thinking & reasoning).
- Worship is a matter of the heart (our affections).
__________________________________
AFFECTIONS EXPRESSED IN BIBLICAL WORSHIP:
1. Stunned silence; awe & wonder; fear & holy dread.
2. Gladness, thanksgiving, joy, praise, exultation!
3. Brokenness & contrition & grief over our sin(s).
4. Groaning, crying, lament, feeling forgotten & forsaken.
5. Expressions of love, faith, trust, hope.
6. Longing, thirsting, desiring, fainting for God.
7. Tasting, feasting, delighting in, being satisfied in God.
_______________________________
1. Stunned silence; awe & wonder; fear & holy dread.
• Ps 33:8; 46:10; Isaiah 66:2; Habakkuk 2:20
33:8 Let all the earth fear the LORD;
Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him!
For he spoke, and [the universe] came to be;
He commanded, and it stood firm.
46:10 “Be still, and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations;
I will be exalted in the earth!”
______________________
2. Gladness, thanksgiving, joy, praise, exultation!
• Ps 4:7; 5:11; 9:1-2; 30:4; 32:11
5:11 Let all who take refuge in you rejoice;
let them ever sing for joy,
and spread your protection over them,
that those who love your name may exult in you.
9:1-2 I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart;
I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.
I will be glad and exult in you;
I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.
32:11 Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, O righteous,
And shout for joy, all you upright in heart!
____________________________
3. Brokenness & contrition & grief over our sin(s).
• 25:6-11; 32:1-5; 34:18; 51:1-12, 17; Isaiah 57:15
51:1-2, 17 Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin!
…The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
_________________________________
4. Groaning, crying, lament, feeling forgotten & forsaken.
• 5:1-2; 6:1-3; 13:1-3; 22:1-2,6-7,16-19
13:1-2 How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I take counsel in my soul
and have sorrow in my heart all the day?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
22:1-2 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?
O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer,
and by night, but I find no rest.
_____________________________________
5. Expressions of love, faith, trust, hope.
• 9:9-10; 18:1; 20:7; 56:3-4; 57:1
9:9-10 The LORD is a stronghold for the oppressed,
a stronghold in times of trouble.
And those who know your name put their trust in you,
for you, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek you.
18:1 I love you, O LORD, my strength.
20:7 Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
But we trust in the name of the LORD our God.
__________________________
6. Longing, thirsting, desiring, fainting for God.
• 27:4; 42-43; 63:1; 73:25-26; 84:1-2,10
27:4 One thing have I asked of the LORD,
that will I seek after:
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD
and to inquire in his temple.
63:1 O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
______________________________________________
84:1-2,10
How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD of hosts!
My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the LORD;
my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God…
For a day in your courts is better
than a thousand elsewhere.
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
than dwell in the tents of wickedness.
___________________________________
7. Tasting, feasting, delighting in, being satisfied in God.
• 16:11; 34:8; 36:7-9; 37:4; 63:5; 90:14
34:8 Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good!
Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!
36:7-8 How precious is your steadfast love, O God!
The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
They feast on the abundance of your house,
and you give them drink from the river of your delights.
63:5 My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food,
and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips.
__________________________________________
“Truth without emotion produces dead orthodoxy and a church full (or half-full) of artificial admirers… On the other hand, emotion without truth produces empty frenzy and cultivates shallow people who refuse the discipline of rigorous thought. But true worship comes from people who are deeply emotional and who love deep and sound doctrine. Strong affections for God rooted in truth are the bone and marrow of biblical worship.” (John Piper, Desiring God, p.76)
__________________________________
Psalm 130
1 Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD!
2 O Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my pleas for mercy!
3 If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities,
O Lord, who could stand?
4 But with you there is forgiveness,
that you may be feared.
5 I wait for the LORD, my soul waits,
and in his word I hope;
6 my soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen for the morning,
more than watchmen for the morning.
7 O Israel, hope in the LORD!
For with the LORD there is steadfast love,
and with him is plentiful redemption.
8 And he will redeem Israel
from all his iniquities.
___________________________________
“Singing is the Christian’s way of saying: God is so great that thinking will not suffice, there must be deep feeling; and talking will not suffice, there must be singing.“
⁃ John Piper
_____________________________________
The worship leader’s and preacher’s duty is “to raise the affections of my hearers as high as I possibly can, provided they are affected with nothing but truth, and with affections that are not disagreeable to the nature of what they are affected with” (Jonathan Edwards, quoted in Desiring God, p.91).
_____________________________________
Bob Kauflin writes: “We must be sure that the music we use for worship does not become the music we worship.”