The Fear of God and Worship

Why do we worship God? Yes, I am referring to worship in its general sense, where we worship God every minute of every day in our thoughts, attitudes, actions, and character. But that question is also referring to worship on a Sunday morning when we gather with our church families. Why do we worship God? 

Well, we probably (if we have theologically thought about it) worship God for numerous reasons. We worship God because He is holy. We worship God because He is Creator. We worship God because He is our Savior. We worship God because He is full of grace and mercy. We worship God because He is King. We worship God because He loves us. We worship God because He is beautiful and magnificent. We worship God because it is our duty. We worship God because we love Him. We worship God because we want to obey Him. We worship God because we delight and find pleasure in Him. We worship God because....and the list must go on. Simply put, we worship God because of who He is, what He has done, and who we are. 

But we can put every single reason we worship God into one large category; God is transcendent, and we are not. 

The picture of God's transcendence is clearest in Isaiah 6. Isaiah 6 is where Isaiah is standing before the throne of God, watching the angels worship His holiness and fully realizes humanity can't stand before God and survive. Isaiah sees the transcendence of God and falls to the ground in fear. This is a good fear. A reverence, honoring, respecting, worshipful fear. But Isaiah is full of fear because of who God is and who he is as a sinful human. This sacred scene with Isaiah forces us to ask ourselves, do we worship God out of His transcendence, infinite character and fear of Him?

God is no different today. God is still fully transcendent and infinite. We as humans are still sinfully finite. Not even the cross of Jesus Christ or our rebirth in the Spirit, takes away God's infinite transcendence or the realization of who we are as humans. In fact, the Cross of Jesus showcases the transcendence of God even more. Only God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit, could plan, enact, and apply all that took place on the cross to those who believe. God's infinite character is on display the most in the moments of Jesus substitutionary death. 

These facts point us back to the opening question. Why do we worship God? Because of who God is, what He accomplished for/on us, and who we are, the root of every reason we worship God is a fear of God. To fear the Lord is to worship the Lord. To worship God is to fear God. They are two sides to the same coin. To do one, we must do the other. If we do not fear God, we truly are or never were worshiping God. Yet if we fear the Lord, worship is the most natural and dutiful response. 

Why do we worship God?