The Weightiness of Worship

The weightiness of worship. Have you ever heard this expression? Where in the Bible have you heard this topic discussed? Allen Ross states, “For worship to be as glorious as it should be, for it to lift people out of their mundane cares and fill them with adoration and praise, for it to be the life-changing experience it was designed to be, it must be inspired by a vision so great and so glorious that what we call worship will be transformed from a routine gathering into a transcendent meeting with the living God.”1 Let that thought soak in for a moment. A transcendent meeting with the living God. That’s a pretty high desire. The only way this can happen is by worshiping God in his glory and holiness.

Because our God is holy, He is actively hostile to sin.
God can only burn on and on against sin forever.

A. W. Tozer

To understand the term “holy,” let’s first examine its antonym, “profane.” Ross defines “profane” as that “which refers to anything that is common, ordinary, or secular – not set apart.”2 The term “holy,” however, means to be set apart, distinct, and unique. When we set the terms “profane” and “holy” against each other, we can understand God’s holiness a little more clearly. Because God is holy, he cannot abide sin in his presence. Thus, when we enter his presence in corporate worship, it is important to confess our sins to God and repent, knowing that he will grant us assurance and forgiveness.

God’s holiness is seen clearly in Isaiah’s vision recorded in Isaiah 6, when Isaiah states, “‘Woe to me!’ I cried. ‘I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.’” Isaiah, having been in the presence of God, realized the depth of his sin in light of God’s holiness. A.W. Tozer states, “It should help us to be concerned about the quality of our worship when we consider that Isaiah’s reaction was a feeling of absolute profaneness in the presence of the moral purity of the divine Being.”3

Isaiah 6 holds so many wonderful depths concerning worship, but if we focus solely on the holiness of God in this passage, we see that Isaiah was completely and utterly undone in God’s presence. The glory of God weighed so heavily upon Isaiah that he felt his unworthiness and sinfulness in his worship. According to Ross, when the Bible uses the term “glory” in reference to God, it means “he is the most important or preeminent person in this or any other universe.”4 Ross further states that “worship” refers to “the appropriate response to the revelation of the holy God of glory.”5

So let me pause and ask, do you worship God in his holiness each week? Is there a weightiness in your worship in which you realize the depth of your sin in contrast to the holiness of God? Do you take the time to confess your sin before the God of glory? The challenge to us as believers is to recognize the depth and weightiness of worship each week, and spend time preparing our hearts and minds before we enter into worship. When we gather with other believers to sing in worship each week, we must remember that God has initiated our worship by inviting us into his presence. When we keep this in perspective, the focus shifts from a selfish, inward concern, and moves to our holy God.

I encourage you to take time to examine how you approach worship, and how you worship each week. Take time to read Isaiah 6:1-8 and meditate on God’s holiness. As Tozer preached, “May God show us a vision of ourselves that will disvalue us to the point of total devaluation. From there He can raise us up to worship Him and to praise Him and to witness.”6

For further reading from Acceptable Worship, read my Philosophy of Worship.

For additional reading, read The Eternal Weight of Glory from Ligonier Ministries.

1 Allen P. Ross, Recalling the Hope of Glory: Biblical Worship from the Garden to the New Creation (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel, 2006), 39.

2 Ross, Recalling, 43.

3 A.W. Tozer, Worship: The Reason We Were Created (Chicago: Moody, 2017), 80.

4 Ross, Recalling, 47.

5 Ross, Recalling, 50.

6 Tozer, Worship, 85.