Past Posturing to Authenticity

I was struck this morning by Psalm 148:13 – “His name alone is exalted.”  As a Christian, I believe that the God revealed in Christian scripture is alone worthy of worship.  And I don’t think that “worship” (the act of ascribing ultimate worth or value) is unnatural to people.  All people worship, and the essence of Christian conversion is that a person comes to see that their whole life they’ve been worshiping things God made, and are now ready to worship God Himself.  “You turned to God from idols” (1 Thes. 1:10).  “You should turn from these vain things to the living God” (Ac. 14:17).  See also Psalms 115 and 135, and Isaiah 44.

But this leaves me with a dilemma when I read Psalm 148:13.  It says that God alone is exalted.  In other words, He’s the only one who’s truly worshiped.  Scripture is replete (as I just hinted at above) with the claim that all their lives, people worship, whether God or not.  So what is the Psalmist saying by saying that God alone is worshiped?

It seems the answer is found in Jesus’ famous words to the Samaritan woman, recorded in John 4:23-24: “The time is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.  God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth.”  Here Jesus defines true worship as that which is given to the true God by true worshipers.  This assumes that there is such a thing as false worshipers. 

And therein lies the answer.  According to the Bible, it’s true worship if it’s given to God in truth.  But it’s false worship if it’s given to any other idol in life, or even to God as a lie.

This begs two questions: 1. How is it that idolatry is false worship?  And 2. How can one worship God falsely?

1. Idolatry is false worship because a person is ascribing ultimate worth to something merely for what it gives them so that they can be happy on their own terms, and maintain self-sovereignty over their own lives.  In essence, they’re not worshiping the thing, but they’re worshiping themselves.  This was the fatal flaw of Cain: He withheld from God because he thought that he’d flourish if he defined and acted on what he thought he should let go of.  His parents were promised life and happiness if they’d fulfill God’s call on their lives, and the Ancient Serpent convinced them that a) he himself was more trustworthy, and b) their own sense perception was more trustworthy.  Paul says twice in his letters that covetousness is idolatry (Ephesians 5:5, Colossians 3:5).  How so?  It’s making an idol of something one doesn’t have because of what it will give to them so that they can stay happy in their self-sovereignty. 

And it’s no wonder this is so natural to us: Satan is the father of lies, and since all people outside of Christ are under his deception (2 Cor. 4:4, 1 Jn. 5:19), they think they’re authentic but they’re really not. 

2. Worshiping God falsely is what happens when one is worshiping God outwardly, but inwardly is merely using Him for what they really want.  I’m convinced that far more Christians (and religious people in general) are doing this than they realize – perhaps this is why authentic Christianity seems so foreign to us today: Many Christians, whether old-school or progressive, are using God for what really matters to them, whether, for example, using God for a "Christian" America where civil religion is the end, or a world where individuals define reality themselves, so that sexuality and gender is relative to a person's preferred definitions.  This is why God accused Israel of “drawing near with their lips,” while “their hearts were far from” him (Isaiah 29:13).   Simon the magician fell into this trap in Acts 8, when he was converted but then was dazzled by Peter and John’s miracle-working, and said to them, “I have to have this, for my following!”  Peter then rebuked him for his idolatry.

False worship is natural.  True worship is a miracle, because it’s ascribing ultimate worth to God, from seeing His ultimate worth with the eyes of faith, and desiring him to be praised regardless of what it does for you, because it’s just true.  This is why if one loses their faith in God because things get hard, their god wasn’t God, but whatever it is they’ve lost. 

But if one is worshiping God truly, they enjoy praising Him because they know He’s worthy, and they’re not doing it for their enjoyment.  And in not seeking their own joy but seeking His glory, they actually in the end find great joy (see Psalm 63:5).  And this is true worship, because one isn’t self-seeking, but God-seeking.  This is how His name is exalted alone – because only when people are coming to worship him for who He is, with a heart of thanksgiving for what He's done, and receiving with childlike faith what He's said, does true exaltation happen.  Everything else is posturing.