God’s Word for You
1 Chronicles 16:27-29 The Psalm of the Ark Part 4
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Wednesday, January 17, 2024
27 Honor and majesty are before him;
strength and joy are in his place.
28 Ascribe to the LORD, O families of the peoples,
ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.
29 Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name;
bring an offering and come before him.
Worship the LORD in holy splendor.
In these verses, David does what many people seem unable to do: He describes the life of the church, which is worship. He recalls six or seven things the church should give to God (honor, majesty, strength [twice], joy, glory, holy splendor, and ‘an offering’) and he says: Ascribe, ascribe, ascribe, and bring them. The word “ascribe” in each case is the simple word, “give.” We give God worship when we give him honor, glory, and so on.
An act of worship is anything we do out of faith; therefore even such things as raising our children (Proverbs 22:6), doing our daily work (James 1:11), the studies of a student (Mark 13:28), the care of our animals (Proverbs 12:10) and so on. But when we gather as a church, our worship especially includes the public reading of the Scriptures (1 Timothy 4:13), hymns (Colossians 3:16), a sermon (1 Corinthians 14:26;), and prayer (Acts 1:14).
God has gathered the church from lost sinners. Out of his immense goodness he has brought us together as a special people who will recognize him, worship him, and glorify him, both in this life and in eternal life. Isaiah says: “They (the church) will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting to the Lord to display his beauty” (Isaiah 61:3). And Paul takes us to school: “We were also chosen, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who causes everything to work out according to the plan of his will, so that we would exist for the praise of his glory” (Ephesians 1:11-12). And Peter says the same thing (1 Peter 2:9).
So there are two main purposes for the church. One is to convert human souls from darkness to light, from ignorance and unbelief to knowledge and faith, which means the transfer of those souls from the state of being under God’s holy wrath to the state of grace (“Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?” Matthew 3:7). The main purpose of the church is the glorification of God, for this remains in the life of the world to come as well as this life in the fallen world.
In this life, we “thank and praise, serve and obey him.” While we could say, as the prophets do, a great many things about false worship and idolatry, let us be content with remembering what true Christian worship really is: The prayer, praise, glorification, service to and preaching of God, privately centering around God’s holy Scriptures, and publicly gathering around those very same Scriptures and also properly using the Means of Grace, the gospel in Word and Sacrament, for the forgiveness of our sins and the salvation of our souls.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.