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Created to Worship
newly expanded and revised. Author Hughes Old presents an historical study of the worship of Israel and the early church and traces the development of worship through the period of the Reformation and beyond. These are the first words of chapter one. CREATED TO WORSHIP We worship God because God created us to worship him. Worship is at the center of our existence, at the heart of our reason for being. God created us to be his image—an image that would reflect his glory. In fact, the whole creation was brought into existence to reflect the divine glory. The psalmist tells us that "the heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork" (Psalm 19:1). The apostle Paul in the prayer with which he begins the epistle to the Ephesians makes it clear that God created us to praise him. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. He destined us in love to be his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace . . . (Eph. 1:3-6) This prayer says much about the worship of the earliest Christians. It shows the consciousness that the first Christians had of the ultimate significance of their worship. They understood themselves to have bee destined and appointed to live to the praise of God’s glory (Eph. 1:12). — Hughes Oliphant Old, WORSHIP: REFORMED ACCORDING TO SCRIPTURE, Revised and Expanded Edition, Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2002, p. 1. ISBN 0-664-22579-9. Have a great day! Chip Stam Director, Institute for Christian Worship School of Church Music and Worship Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Louisville, Kentucky www.carlstam.org www.sbts.educ |