For Our Renewing – Abiding Principles from the Ceremonial Laws: The Forms and Elements of Worship (5)

For Our Renewing

Abiding Principles from the Ceremonial Laws: The Forms and Elements of Worship (5)

God intends worship to be an experience of renewal for His people.

“So you shall keep my commandments and do them: I am the LORD. And you shall not profane my holy name, that I may be sanctified among the people of Israel. I am the LORD who sanctifies you, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God: I am the LORD.” Leviticus 22:31-33

There is a logic to the order in which we should give ourselves to the Lord in worship: God calls us to worship. We enter before Him with praise and then bow to confess our sins before Him. Assured of His forgiveness, we proclaim our gratitude and faith in Him by confessions of faith and offerings. Then we offer praise for the work He will do with our offerings. Having emptied ourselves before Him, the Lord now invites our petitions, which He then deigns to answer through the reading and proclamation of His Word and by inviting our participation in Him through the sacrament. Thereafter we affirm our determination to obey Him by declaring our commitment, our voices united as one in song or confession. Then the Lord’s spokesman dismisses us with His blessing as we go forth to be the salt of the earth.

When we follow this order and give to the Lord what He requires, we have the sense that He is pleased with our worship, we experience His delight in us, and we know the joy which He knows within the Godhead. We come, that is, into the very presence of the Lord, where there is fullness of joy and pleasure forevermore (Ps. 16:11). This is the source of our blessing and joy in worship—not that we have been moved or delighted by any forms or style of worship, or any human actions, but that we have met with God, and He has blessed us with His glory. Only God can renew us, and we are not truly renewed until He does so.

We are renewed in God’s Covenant when God Himself renews us. And He renews us—He sanctifies us—as we obey His commandments concerning how we worship and serve Him. Obedience is the context for blessing. Seek blessing, and you will fail of it. Seek to obey the Lord, and you will know the blessings of His Covenant, precisely as He intends.

For a fuller study of the pattern of worship revealed in Scripture, order the book, The Highest Thing, by T. M. Moore, from our online store. These studies and brief essays will help you to see how the pattern of sound worship, which began in the Law of God, comes to complete expression in the rest of Scripture. Pastors, we’re getting ready to start the next season of The Pastors’ Fellowship. Write to me today at tmmoore@ailbe.org for information about how you join in these online discussions. Our theme for the coming series is “The Worldview of God’s Law.” There is no charge for participation, but you must reserve a place for these monthly gatherings. Subscribe to Crosfigell, the devotional newsletter of The Fellowship of Ailbe.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.