One of Derek Thomas’ first posts on worship can be found here. Good stuff!

The reason why we do not worship God as we should is because, as Jeremiah Burroughs once wrote, we ‘do not see God in His glory.’ If Joshua fell on his face before God, Isaiah publicly bemoaned his wretchedness, Job abhorred himself, and John fell prostrate as though he were dead, our own response is entirely different. It begins differently! Too often worship is hindered by a lack of preparation. Saturday evenings have gained a social importance that affects our worship on the Lord’s Day. The cure for sleepy heads on Sunday morning is to get to bed earlier on Saturday nights! A diet of late nights watching television is hardly the best way to prepare for meeting with God!

I needed to read this. But I wonder if Thomas is assuming a Presbyterian background here that hardly anyone, even Presbyterians, acknowledge.

When we go to worship we are going to visit God.

He is really there in a distinctive way. If not, none of the texts about what Joshua, Isaiah, or John did in the presence of God and Christ has any real bearing on worship.

For the average American Evangelical believer, I think this is exactly the case. As far as he or she is concerned, one is always in the presence of God, which means practically one is never in the presence of God in any distinct way from normal life. Thus, if it is impossible to act like Isaiah declaring woe upon himself 24/7, then it is not appropriate to do it at any time. Certainly not in Church. As such, all the texts in the OT about the glory of the Lord in the pillar of cloud and fire, about drawing near to Mount Sinai, about behavior in the Tabernacle, and then the Temple, about songs of Ascent up to Jerusalem, and–in the NT– about going to Jesus who was the Word made felsh tabernacled among us are all rendered irrelevant to the Christian life. Other than perhaps in one’s conversion or one’s death (and hopefully in one’s resurrection) there is no way to go to be with God for Christians.

But this is impossible to reconcile to Scripture. Jesus said that wherever two or three are gathered in his name that he would be present with them. It would be absurd to say this is simply the omnipresence of deity and that Jesus is also equally presenter where one is, none are, or a group is gathered in the name of Satan.

While it is true we no longer have a single central sanctuary, we still form sanctuaries when we gather as a church. We are living stones in the Temple, after all. Both Moses’ and Solomon’ altars in the forecourt of their respective sanctuaries were lit by God’s own presence (causing the priests to withdraw from the area). At Pentecost, God’s fire fell again, designating his new santuary. This time no one had to leave because they couldn’t stand the heat. We are God’s sanctuary.

But the point here is that we are not all God’s sanctuary in the same way at all times and all places. When we gather in Jesus name for corporate worship we are doing something that corresponds to priests serving in the Tabernacle. This comparison gives us some interesting contrasts. Priests serving in the Temple had no place to sit and were not permitted to drink wine. We get to sit and drink wine.

This means that when we think about what we should do before or in worship, we have good reason to look in the Bible for stories about what people did when they were in God’s special presence. In a kingdom, one can be a loyal subject by acting in various ways. But, when one is given an audience with one’s kings, there is a protocol for how one should act. We learn throneroom etiquette by considering what others do in the throneroom. Burroughts was absolutely right to think that Joshua, Isaiah, Job, and John were relevant to worship.

The author of Hebrews had some rather intense things to say (with interesting comparisons with the OT) about the need to approach God in worship rather than abandon worship:

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has spurned the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God….

For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.” But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.