Eternal worship. Worship forever. Unending praise. Songs that never end. Singing and singing, eyes closed, hands raised, swaying, floating. A swirling spirit drifting endlessly amongst the clouds . . . forever. Singing . . . forever . . . and ever.
I love to sing. But not that much. I don’t want to do it, exclusively - - forever. I want to do lots of things. As soon as I was old enough to know that people could do things - - be something, my list of possibilities became both lengthy and varied. It included but was not limited to: auto mechanic, actress/singer/dancer, forest ranger, politician, teacher, writer, lawyer, Olympic figure skater, Olympic swimmer, botanist, naturalist, firefighter, painter, and on and on. When God made me, He made a whole life; created years of human interactions and opportunities for my participation in His grand scheme.
The first man, though made from the dust, was much more than an animated clay figure. He may have been momentarily wide-eyed after pulling in that first shared breath with God Almighty, but the story doesn’t progress far before we learn he was no innocent, and that an innate and keen intelligence was a part of his make-up. God did not command Adam to bow down, to sing, or fall on his face. He gave Adam work. Adam was placed in the garden to tend it; assigned the colossal task of naming all the animals. Imagine thousands of species; feathered, furred, armored; all scurrying, flying, climbing, swimming, or swinging past you, waiting to be identified. Adam was to have dominion over the whole Earth. He was the start of everything human. Inherent in God’s instruction was that he would be able. The creation of mankind was the creation of exploration, reason, research, organization, dreams, questions. In other words, God created much more than two human beings. He created society and culture, music and art, government, architecture. He created a family, but the intention was clear - - multiply, fill the earth, subdue it; Family became tribe, became nation; garden became city; and cave became palace. The seed was “very good” and was meant to affect the planet. People were meant to do lots of things.
Tiny ideas of what it means to be human, produce tiny ideas of what it is to worship, and as a result we dread eternity. If we are made only to float and sing, then yes, we are in for a long, miserable forever. But we are made capable, creative, and inventive. We come with more than potential; we are guaranteed, made in the image of the Lord of the Universe; equipped to rule with Christ. We have ingenuity and drive, curiosity, and a tendency to think forward. Consider this statement from the introduction to the book, Connections, by James Burke: “A self-educated Scottish mechanic once made a minor adjustment to a steam pump and triggered the whole Industrial Revolution. A nineteenth century weatherman developed a cloud-making device that just happened to reveal to Ernest Rutherford, a physicist he knew, that the atom could be split. Thanks to a guy working on hydraulic pressure in Italian Renaissance water gardens we have the combustion engine.” When God, in Genesis said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth,” He knew Revelation 5:9 and 10 to be, not possibility or probability, but certainty: “And they sang a new song saying, ‘Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.” (ESV) He knew we would keep pressing, keep building. He hid eternity in our hearts; an eternity filled with a kingdom of diverse people from different cultures, with different gifts. People who were made to do lots of things.
A.W. Tozer defines worship this way: “Worship is to feel in your heart and express in some appropriate manner a humbling but delightful sense of admiring awe and astonished wonder and overpowering love in the presence of that most ancient mystery, that majesty which philosophers call the First Cause, but which we call our Father which art in heaven.” Beautiful and accurate definition, but take a look at Psalm 148.
Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord from the heavens! Praise Him from the skies!
Praise Him, all his angels! Praise Him, all the armies of heaven!
Praise Him, sun and moon! Praise him, all you twinkling stars!
Praise Him, skies above! Praise him, vapors high above the clouds!
Let every created thing give praise to the Lord, for He issued His command and they came into being.
He set them in place forever and ever. His decree will never be revoked.
Praise the Lord from the earth, you creatures from the ocean depths,
fire and hail, snow and clouds, wind and weather that obey Him,
mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars,
wild animals and all livestock, small scurrying animals and birds,
kings of the earth and all people, young men and young women, old men and children.
Let them all praise the name of the Lord. For His name is very great; His glory towers over the Earth and Heaven!
He has made His people strong, honoring His faithful ones - - the people of Israel
How do “fruit trees” or the “vapors high above the clouds” express awe, wonder, and love? What is an appropriate manner for all of creation when it comes to praise and worship of God? I read many definitions of worship in preparation for this post, but all of them were in relation to humanity alone. All spoke of a response to God, a celebration, an adoration and awe on the part of believing humans. But according to Psalm 148, worship and praise do not belong to mankind alone. “Every created thing” must give praise to God. The means, or method of praise, as portrayed in this passage, is obedience to God; in doing and being what He created everything and everyone to do and be. You can make a distinction between praise and worship, I suppose, but praise is the expression of worship - - they are inseparable.
How does a fruit tree praise its Maker? From a branch comes a bud then a blossom. A tender flower evolves to a firm, edible fruit. The fruit, uneaten, over-ripens and is pushed to the ground. Further decay leaves behind a seed that settles into the soil. The seed’s hull splits and roots push through the earth drawing up nutrients and water, feeding a green shoot that unfurls, lifting its head toward light. Its trunk extends, sending out shoots, branching in a pattern pre-determined by God. Spring produces buds; summer, leaves. Fall brings a display of rusts, reds, pinks, and golds, signaling leaf-death. The tree again pushes, and dead foliage descends leaving a bare figure standing stark against a steel-white winter sky until spring’s return. For its entire life the tree will not stop growing and will follow the seasonal course decreed by the Maker. In this way a tree obeys - - just like “creatures from the ocean depths, fire and hail, snow and clouds, wind and weather.” In obedience, a fruit tree displays a kind of worship.
As I sit here, my lungs pull in and expel air, ridding my body of carbon dioxide and filling it with oxygen. My heart pumps that oxygen to every cell in my body, feeding my muscles and organs. These actions, not within my control, not by my design, magnify the One who sets and keeps them in motion. In Him I live and move and have my being. In living and moving and being, I am a display of the magnificence of God’s handiwork. My body acts in obeisance to its Sovereign Maker - - it cannot do anything else.
Do we worship in conscious deliberate ways like singing, dancing, lifting our hands? Of course we do and should. That type of worship is unique to humanity. Do we worship in “unconscious” ways? Or, better said, are we “unconscious” of all the ways we worship? I am choosing to write of the glories of God and our eternal home - - I am conscious of my choice to worship in this way. But my ability to move my fingers over these keys, to think and put my thoughts together in a way that is, hopefully, clear is worship also - - a magnification of the brilliant creative power of God. An exhibition that, whether I am aware of it or not, honors and exalts him; proclaims his brilliance and power.
I’ve been told that humanity was made to worship. I looked for Scripture stating this, and thought that I didn’t find any. But I did. Genesis 1:26: “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” Genesis 1:28: “And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’” Genesis 2:15a: “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.” Genesis 2:19: “So out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature that was its name.”
Made in the image of a God who could’ve said, “garden,” and had a garden, but instead planted one. Made in the image of a God who drew up the blueprint for a tabernacle. Made in the image of a God who drew up the blueprint for humanity and made them able to build and beautify. Made in the image of a God who works; who does lots of things. Made to worship in our work because it is amazing that God made us able to live and move and be. How anyone ever came to the conclusion that God would be glorified in transforming His greatest treasures, his children, his bride, his builders, his gardeners from productive, creative, intelligent, strong workers to wispy, ethereal puffs of energy floating around doe-eyed for eternity is beyond me. How would that magnify and exalt the Maker? How does a picture of every tribe, tongue, and nation promised to be a royal priesthood and a kingdom evolve into angels and harps and singing and singing and singing?
We think what we need is to go back in time to a simpler era, a more innocent day. But innocence was lost long before the Puritans or Leave it to Beaver. Going back would not help. It isn’t a more primitive time we long for, but an eternal progress, eternal work, eternal making and doing, building and growing - - that’s what we really want. We were made to affect this globe, but we were also made for an imperishable inheritance - - a forever-Earth in a kingdom of righteousness, a kingdom where all our creativity, intelligence, physical strength and agility, dreams and questions will be unhindered by selfish ambition. Right now, sin holds us back from being all we were made to be. We create and invent out of greed or a desire for praise. We are held back by the corruption of our physical bodies, confined to wheelchairs or beds, maybe unable to speak, unable to work in the traditional sense, or even breathe without a machine’s assistance. But one day, sin will be gone, and we will bloom and progress, uncorrupted and enduring, beyond our wildest imaginings. We will give our bodies to God, not as Old-Covenant animals meant for death, but as living sacrifices. Our physical self, united with our spiritual self - - this is the way to truly worship; with our whole person. (Romans 12:1)
All we will do is worship, and as rulers of a New Earth, worship will mean doing lots of things.
