The True Worshiper

Part OneThe True Worshiper Who Has Died to Self

The word Jesus used for worship is proskuneō, and those who read the Greek give it as to bow down, to prostrate, to do reverence. Now the picture I carry with it is a man coming near and kissing the King’s hand, and the lexicons put that picture in the root of the word, so take the bowing as the meaning and the kissing as my picture. Worship was never meant to be only a sound from the mouth. It was always the bowing of a whole life. And the word true is alēthinos, meaning real, not a copy. So the Father is not seeking a performance, He is seeking the real thing.

He Is Looking for True Worshipers

Notice that God is not simply looking for worship, He is looking for true worshipers.

A true worshiper is not someone who merely sings songs or lifts hands. And here is how I have come to hold it, and John 4:23 does not stop to define it for me. A true worshiper is one whose life has been laid on the altar, and the lips come after the heart.

We tend to center our worship on a song, yet we worship God in all aspects of our life, simply put.

Worship Begins Where Self Ends

To die to self means saying, “Lord, not my will, but Yours be done.” It is choosing God’s desires above our own ambitions, pride, reputation, and comfort. Self wants recognition; worship gives God the glory, self wants control; worship yields to God’s authority. Self wants its own way; worship delights in God’s way. Jesus Himself revealed this principle before going to the cross.

A grain of wheat can remain safe in the farmer’s hand, but it will never fulfill its purpose there. It must be buried. To the natural eye burial looks like loss. Unless the seed dies it remains alone, and when it dies the life hidden in it is released, producing fruit far beyond the single seed that was planted.

And here is what I take from the seed, and it is a taking. Where self stays in control, I do not see much of God’s life coming through. But when we surrender our own will, our pride, and our ambitions to God, His life begins to produce fruit in and through us. Death to self is not God’s way of diminishing us, it is His way of multiplying His life in us.

Jesus then became the perfect example of His own teaching. In the Garden of Gethsemane He prayed it Himself.

Before there was the cross, there was surrender. Before there was resurrection, there was sacrifice, His worship was expressed through complete obedience to the Father. The apostle Paul echoed the same truth.

Paul says he is crucified with Christ, and that Christ lives in him. That the one had to happen before the other is my reading of his sentence.

A Sacrifice That Keeps Getting Up

A sacrifice that stays alive on the altar. Paul does not say how often, and daily is my way of holding it. What he does say is present your bodies. That a presented body stays on the altar is my picture too, drawn from the sacrifice and not from the verb.

God is still seeking true worshipers today, He is looking for people who worship Him not only with their mouths but with their lives, people whose hearts are surrendered, whose wills are yielded, and whose lives declare, “Lord, You are worthy.”

My Heart

When Worship Had No Song

Some years ago someone who did not like me came to our church. The pastor had married them, though they were not members, and they came back that day only to say thank you. But when I turned around and saw them, something rose up in me, and it began to affect my worship. The pastor preached his sermon, yet to this day I could not tell you one word he said, for I was busy plotting how I would slip out the back when church was over and go straight home. Now I know it was not the enemy preaching a sermon to me that morning, it was the Lord. He took me through some scriptures and preached them to my heart. Still I was adamant, I would not be the one to greet her. Yet when the service ended, my feet were not obeying my mind, and all I heard in my spirit on the way to her was that the embarrassment would only last a moment. So I went, and I greeted her, and I was happy within.

That was worship, no song was playing, yet I bowed. Self wanted its own way, and worship delighted in God’s way.

True worship begins where self ends, when self is crucified, Christ is glorified. When the seed dies, the harvest begins.

So today, before you sing one word, let your heart bow. Wherever self is still holding on, let it fall into the ground like the seed, and tell Him, Lord, not my will but Yours, You are worthy.

And there is more to this worshiper than dying to self, for the same God who asks us to die is the God who draws us near, and that is where we go next.

Part TwoThe True Worshiper Drawn Near to the King

There is a case to be made for the true worshiper, and this verse carries it further. In Part One we saw that a true worshiper is one who has died to self. Now we see another mark of the same person. The true worshiper does not draw near on his own.

The Hebrew word for approach here is qarab, and it carries the idea of coming near. And the lexicons give the same root in the bringing of offerings, though it is not one identical word in every place. So the drawing near carries the altar in it, and that joining is mine. The true worshiper does not come near empty and casual, he comes as one bringing something to lay down.

Now look closely at what David says, for it is easy to read past it. He does not say blessed is the man who approaches. He says blessed is the man whom God chooses and causes to approach. The nearness begins on God’s side, not ours, He chooses first, He draws first, and then we come. Now David is speaking of one blessed man in this verse, and I am the one carrying it wider. So let me bring the verse that says it outright.

No man can come except the Father draw him. Jesus says it, and now the nearness beginning on God’s side is not my inference. So the true worshiper never boasts in his coming, for his part is only to say yes and come.

And there is another man who knew this from the inside, and he wrote it down.

That is Asaph, and read what he says about himself earlier in the same psalm.

My feet were almost gone. Until I went into the sanctuary. He says both himself, and he does not hide the first one. So when he finally says it is good to draw near, he is not speaking from the mountaintop, he is speaking as a man who came close and found that nearness was the good thing all along. That too is the true worshiper, not one who never wavered, but one who came back and drew near.

Come Near the King

What It Takes to Come Near a King

Picture what it means for the true worshiper to draw near to a king.

A king is not someone you rush up to. You cannot stroll over and slap a king on the shoulder. To come near a king, you must be allowed near. So the first thing hidden in worship is this. Nobody stands before a king he was not granted access to. Nearness is a mercy and not a right, and He let us come.

Then there is the bowing, you cannot bow and stay tall at the same time. To go down, self must go down with you. Now a proud man can bend his back easily enough, and Scripture has plenty of bowing that never reached the heart. So the posture is not the proof. What I am after is the going down inside, and the bowing is the picture I hold for it. This is the true worshiper, the one whose self has gone down so that he may go near.

And there is the kissing of the King’s hand. That hand you kiss is the very hand that holds all power over you. It could lift you or it could remove you, yet you come near and you kiss it, not only in fear but in love. And here is my picture, and not a definition. Fear alone would keep its distance. Love alone might grow too familiar. What I am reaching for is a man who trembles and adores in one motion.

And here is the thing to carry home. You cannot bow to the King and watch the back door at the same time. Worship turns you all the way around, and the true worshiper has no eye on the door.

We may never stand before an earthly king, Yet the King of heaven has already chosen us, and caused us to approach, and opened the way near. He is not asking for a song from across the room. He is asking us to come close, to bend low, to take His hand in fear and in love, and to turn our whole face toward Him.

The Yes of a True Worshiper

And the Yes Is Only the Beginning

When the King draws us near, the yes of a true worshiper is not the end, it is the beginning. And here the case is finished, for the true worshiper’s yes does not carry one weight, it carries two, and the two verses lay them both upon him.

Psalm 65:4 does not stop at causest to approach. It goes on, that he may dwell in thy courts. There is the first weight, He does not bring us close to visit and leave, He brings us close that we may dwell. Dwelling is not a moment, it is a manner of living. So the first weight upon the true worshiper is to stay.

And Asaph does not stop at it is good for me to draw near either. The same verse goes on, that I may declare all thy works. There is the second weight, and it is a different one. His nearness turned him into a mouth for God. The one who is drawn near becomes the one who tells. So the second weight upon the true worshiper is to declare.

And hear the word he uses. All thy works. Not some of them, and Asaph does not sort them into the pleasant and the hard. So what I take from ALL is that a yes which will only tell the comfortable half has not carried the full weight of the word he chose.

The two weights sing together. One says dwell. The other says declare. And that is my way of holding them, because the psalms do not set them against each other. I want both. He draws us near to keep us, and He keeps us near to send us.

This is the true worshiper, then, not the one known by his song, but the one whom God has drawn near, who bows with self laid down, who keeps no eye on the door, who stays in the courts of the King, and who declares His works. Blessed is the man whom He causes to approach, that he may dwell. It is good for me to draw near to God, that I may declare all thy works.