Why Worship God?

Some people don’t worship God because they don’t like God.  I too dislike the caricatures of God we so often read about in the media.  Who wants a God who is a “moral bully?”  Why have a God who is just another “therapist” intent on helping us feel good about ourselves.  So often God is portrayed as a cosmic butler or genie.  These “gods” aren’t worthy of worship—they’re simply to be used.

I would like to suggest two reasons why we should worship God.  First we should worship God—because He is God.  The argument sounds circular but when you think about it who else is there to trust?  What we have at our fingertips seems to be sufficient to answer our questions.  We have science.  We have our philosophies.  But are they really adequate to give us the big picture?  Perhaps Shakespeare would also raise such questions.  He wrote in Hamlet:

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,

than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

There are many things we don’t know and simply can’t know.  In the book Proverbs we read, “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth” (Proverbs 27:1).   One attribute that makes God God is omniscience.   He knows all things.  That is one very good reason to trust Him and worship Him.

A second reason why we should worship God is because He gives us what no one else can.  What we need is righteousness.  We need to be right with God and do always what is right in His sight.  We’ve messed that up pretty badly.  We have fallen short.  “There is none righteous, no not one,” says the apostle Paul (Romans 3:10).  But the scriptures also teach that God “is rich in mercy” (Ephesians 2:4).  And in His mercy He imputes to us the Righteousness of another; the only human being who IS righteous; Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God.  He has always done the Father’s will.   By faith in Him, [in the benefits of his life, death, and resurrection] we are declared and treated by God as righteous.   Now, that’s a God to know, love and worship.  Amen.