When we worship, we are building the structure of our souls in a way that is analogous to building a boat. When we worship, we are tuning our hearts to match the manner of our worship. On Sunday, I said that I think this is why the priestly garments of Israel were made for both beauty and for glory (The Hebrew also means “heavy”). (Exodus 28:1, 40) Beauty reflects the holiness of God as perfect and right through symmetry and proportionality, and glory reflects the holiness of God as mighty and righteous through weightiness and substance. Therefore, we must worship God with both beauty and weightiness.
We worship God with beauty because He is beautiful. The God of the universe is the very definition of beauty. Worshiping with beauty trains our hearts to see his beauty and worship Him as beautiful. We dare not worship him out of mere duty. Dour dutiful worship is no testimony to the worth of the one being worshiped. That is the worship that human tyrants get. They get the worship of a people who will mouth the words without anything going on deeper than their lips.
Likewise, we worship God with weightiness because He is glorious. He is weighty. He is not to be taken lightly. If we fill our worship with hollow pleasantries or mushy spirituality, we will train our hearts to take God lightly. We will vacate our souls of the gravity of the holiness of God. We will not keep our boats filled with enough ballast to withstand the heavy winds that are certainly coming or are already upon us.
When a shipbuilder builds a boat, one chief concern is the interaction between weight distribution and buoyancy. If the boat does not have enough weight or if it is not located in the right place, then the buoyancy will cause the boat to be unstable and unsteerable. If the boat does not have ballast down in the bottom of its keel, then the slightest breeze will drive the boat off course or even capsize the boat. Pointing the rudder in the right direction will do nothing if the boat is not floating deeply enough in the water for the rudder to do its job.
Consistently worshiping God as both beautiful and glorious is part of how we keep our little boats from toppling when the winds of suffering and tragedy threaten to undo us. Smiley-faced Christianity will not serve us through the deepest suffering. Worshiping God as both beautiful and glorious will also give us the ability to steer a path in the face of the disastrous currents of our culture that threaten to dash our little souls against the rocks. So, let us adorn our worship with beauty and with glory for the sake of the Name of Christ among the nations and for the sake of our own souls.
In Christ Alone,
Pastor Charles
