Does God need our worship?
This was the crux of a conversation I engage in via facebook not long ago.
My first response was an hearty LOL. The notion that GOD “needs” anything is an amusement. God being God needs nothing. God is complete within God’s self. God enjoys the love relationship that exists within God’s self as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. A keey theological insight coming from Trinitarian theology is that God is whole and complete in every way apart from His creation. Humanity, the cosmos, and everything in it have been created out of the outflow of God’s love, not out of a sense of bringing fulfillment or wholeness to God.
It has been said that you can’t read the Christian Bible without coming to the conclusion that God wants or needs or expects to be worshipped.
Actually, that is not a Christian reading of the Bible. I submit it is very much the opposite. God does not NEED or demand or expect worship (as though that somehow completes God). That is anti-Christian.
WORSHIP is the human beings natural response to an encounter with the goodness of Divine. Even those who reject or deny Christianity know this is true, if they would be honest with themselves.
Have you ever looked at a night sky—far away from city lights—and seen the millions of stars. Or a mountain range…or the magnificent color of fall foliage…or a vast shoreline near a great ocean…or a new born baby…or your wife on your wedding day — and seeing all this said: “Beautiful!”
That is worship. That’s what the Psalmist said: “The heavens delare the glory of God…” Worship is a byproduct of experiencing the Divine…and even those who deny the Divine worship.
I choose as a matter of faith to name the source as God and give honor to that with songs, words, etc. That’s the one thing on planet earth that human being do better than any other creature. We can put into words our experiences. We can given praise on behalf of all creation…not because God needs it, but because we need it.
Worship, Community and the Triune God of Grace
by: James B. Torrance
publisher: IVP Academic, published: 1997-07-02
ASIN: 0830818952
EAN: 9780830818952
sales rank: 84924
price: $9.22 (new), $2.19 (used)
Here is a book that sets our worship, sacraments, communion and language of God back on track. In a day when refinement of method and quality of experience are the guiding lights for many Christians, James Torrance points us to the indispensable who of worship, the triune God of grace. Worship is the gift of participating through the Spirit in the incarnate Son’s communion with the Father, writes Torrance. This book explodes the notion that the doctrine of the Trinity may be indispensable for the creed but remote from life and worship. Firmly rooted in Scripture and theology, alive with pastoral counsel and anecdote, Torrance’s work shows us just why real trinitarian theology is the very fiber of Christian confession.
