Worship, but no Word!

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"I will worship toward Your holy temple...for You have magnified Your Word above all Your Name" (Psa 138:2)

Undeniably these are days of restoration of praise and worship. New songs and choruses are composed and set to contemporary music. The worship time is getting more and more lively, and people are excited about it even in the non-charismatic churches. This is welcome as we are preparing to meet our Bridegroom in the mid-air. The ceaseless activity of saints of all ages in Heaven would be worship!

But the worrisome fact is that praise and worship take too much of time in the services leaving very little for the exposition of God's Word. Eventhough worship can be a time of preparation for the congregation to listen to the sermon, it is commonly observed that in emotionally-charged meetings people get physically exhausted and are not fresh enough to hear the message. In this situation the speakers move into extempore preaching and as a result the people don't get solid food.

When we go to the House of God, it must be to "hear" Him rather than to "speak" to Him, eventhough both are important. There must be a balance. The admonition however is, "Let your words be few" (Eccl 5:1,2). It is the meditation of the Word that leads us to meaningful worship. The primary source of revelation of God to us is the Holy Bible (Jn 5:39; Lk 24:27). More the knowledge of God the better the worship will be (Rom 10:14). That's why the early believers spent maximum time in their gatherings for the study of the Word of God. We talk about all-night prayer; they had all-night preaching—even in a breadbreaking service! (Acts 20:7-11).

Singing will be empty if the Word of Christ does not dwell in us "richly" (Col 3:16). The hymnologists of yesteryears made their hymns rich with scriptural content. In fact one could learn theology from these hymns alone. Deplorably most of the modern songs are anaemic though attractive. No wonder depthlessness is the badge of Christianity today. Pastors must take a serious note of this condition and spare no labour to bring to their congregations messages pregnant with life-giving truths.

The memory text of today sets the balance between "Worship" and "Word" when we gather in God's House. If it is only worship, we will blow up. If it is only Word, we will dry up. Worship must prepare the hearts to hear the Word; and the preaching of the Word should give us deeper revelations of God leading to more meaningful worship.

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