WORSHIP
WORSHIP
The subject before me at present is worship. I think and feel that there is a great lack of worship, even when we are very happy in our place and portion in Christ; doubtless this is the first thing, to know the fulness of our portion in Him. How He fills us, through His love which passeth knowledge, with all the fulness of God. The vessel filled has no room for any more. This is the true satiety which a soul finds in Christ, and which is elementary in John 4, as the well springing up unto everlasting life. But there is beyond this a sense of adoration occupying the soul with regard to God, who is now made known to us. There is the ready ascribing all honour and glory to Him; there is: “Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name!” (Psalm 29: 2) The profound greatness and goodness of God, made known to us in His Son, comes before us and engages our hearts, and we worship.
We feel our hearts detained by Him who entirely, worthily, and deservedly controls them, and therefore demands it of us. It is not worship while we are recipients, though in the worship the portion received and also the sense of our place with God is intensified. But we do not worship in order to receive; we have received before we worship. We are filled into His fulness, and now it is, “Unto him be glory in the church .. . throughout all ages”. (Ephesians 3: 21)
[p. 151] What is so interesting to me to see is the juncture at which worship begins and the character of it. It may spring up at the most ordinary blessing, provided your soul has drunk so deeply of it that self is lost sight of in it and therefore God in Himself comes before you. See David (1 Chronicles 29) all things being ready for the temple which typified what we are. Again - the angels in announcing the birth of Christ - “Glory to God in the highest!” (Luke 2: 14) God commanded their adoration at the moment, though their adoration can never reach the depth and tenderness of ours, simply because we know more of His heart; and the worship must always be the deeper, according as the Object of it is known. Paul at the end of Romans 11 surveys the wisdom of the counsels of God. In Galatians 1: 5 he worships again, when recounting the reach and purpose of the gospel; in Philippians 2: 11 in stating the full elevation of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in chapter 4, where he apprehends how God can supply all the need of the saints. Again, 1 Timothy 1: 17, when he has detailed the grace of God in the gospel; as in chapter 6, when he alludes to Christ’s appearing; in Hebrews 13, when he has gone over the keeping of God respecting us in this world.
In the Apocalypse you get it fully; for then there is no need, there is no waiting to be filled first. There is ever a readiness to worship and even now I think we know in ourselves, feebly no doubt, how the soul is carried up to bow down and adore God as He is made known apart from and beyond the very blessedness which one needs; the blessedness is enjoyed, and the heart passes its engagements to Another outside itself, and this One is God! He worthily and duly claims this adoration from us, because He has made known His heart to us, and called us into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. In worship, God is our occupation, and this is very different from what the highest blessings can confer.