The Quality of Our Worship

The quality of our worship isn’t so much a matter of our performance as it is a matter of displaying the glory of God. Today, Sinclair Ferguson invites us to recalibrate our thinking about what matters most in worship.

We’re talking about worship this week, but let me begin today by asking you a question that might seem to have more to do with idolatry than it does with the worship of God. I wonder if you’ve ever flown on a private jet. It’s the way to beat the crowds lining up at check-in. It’s a breeze through security, and it’s unbelievable just to walk out onto the tarmac and to be greeted by the pilot, and fantastic to be on a small jet with a few friends. I know because it once happened to me in another country far away. What an experience! The only thing is, flying economy never seems to be the same again. Now, you might think I’m telling you this to try to make you jealous, but my motive is actually more spiritual than that. It’s to make this point: Sometimes in life we have experiences so wonderful that our normal experience seems pretty poor by comparison. But we really only see the normal experience in its true light when we’ve had the wonderful experience.

And in many ways, the same is true of our worship of God. I think we’d be surprised to discover how content we can be as worshipers with what actually may be profoundly impoverished worship. But then we experience something different: the presence of God. We find ourselves bowed down before Him in worship and in silence at the end of the service. And then we realize we’ve really been in a service of worship. Sadly, at least in my experience, what people are often talking about when they assess worship is really only whether the singing was enthusiastic or if there was a choir, whether the anthem was good or we liked it, or whether the organist was capable or the band was good or played well, or the person who nowadays seems to be known as the worship leader was outstanding, or whether the liturgy was well-crafted.

I’ve had more than one minister tell me they’ve had expert church analysts into their church who have told them that the worship in their morning service is excellent. And almost before they pronounce the “T,” I’m wishing that the heavens would open and a voice would come from above saying, “Let Me be the assessor of the quality of your worship.” Because at the end of the day, what they are assessing is largely a performance factor. Not a sense of the majesty of God and His glory, a sense of the exaltation of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. That’s why what was important to the Apostle Paul, as he says to the Corinthians, is that when people come among us in our worship, they find themselves bowed down and saying, “Surely God is among you.”

And when that happens, we ourselves are inwardly humbled in heart, filled with a sense of awe before God, and realizing we have had the extraordinary privilege of joining with the angels and archangels led by our exalted Savior Jesus Christ to adore our glorious God. To be, as the hymn says, “Lost in wonder and love and praise,” and wanting it all to go on and not wanting to leave. And I suspect that if you’ve ever tasted that in worship, you feel that much of our worship—our own worship, not just other people’s worship—but much of our worship seems flimsy and horizontal. So, as we reflect on these things, this is a real exhortation to us to recalibrate our thinking about worship. Worship is about Him and how badly we need to hear—at least in our hearts if we no longer hear them in our churches—these great words: “Let us worship God.”