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Now what Saint Augustine says is true, that no one is able to sing things worthy of God unless he has received them from him. Wherefore, when we have looked thoroughly everywhere and searched high and low, we shall find no better songs nor more appropriate for the purpose than the Psalms of David, which the Holy Spirit made and spoke through him. And furthermore, when we sing them, we are certain that God puts the words in our mouths, as if he himself were singing in us to exalt his glory. — John Calvin, Preface to the 1542 Genevan Psalter, quoting Augustine on Psalm 35
If you are seeking a succinct, Biblical definition of worship, look no further. The first sentence of John McNaugher’s The Psalms in Worship (1907), which is a compilation of essays from the two 1905 United Presbyterian conferences on the place of Psalms in worship, is like a home run in the first at-bat.
It comes from William Harrison McMillan, who served as the 1883 moderator of the General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church of North America (UPCNA). His essay was titled “The Idea of Worship,” and it was intended to present a general introduction to the principle of worship, as understood by Reformed Christians.
Worship is right conceptions of the character and works of God suitably expressed. It is seeing Him, and expressing our thoughts and feelings concerning Him. It is an act of the soul. There are forms of expression used in worship, but forms and words and attitudes are not in themselves worship. That is essentially an act of the soul. We are called upon to pour out our hearts to the Lord. God is a spirit, and they who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. The most reverent genuflections, the divinest strains of music, and the most devotional words are nothing and worse than nothing unless the soul of the worshiper is going out to God in them.
After explaining that worship is only acceptable to God through our Mediator, Jesus Christ — “There is but one way, and Christ is that way. There is but one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. We must come by way of the Cross when we approach God to worship Him.” — McMillan continues:
Worship is an intelligent act. It is what we think about God that prompts it. Thought sweeps the whole field of knowledge concerning God, and from it all gathers material for worship. In Him are seen all power and majesty and dominion. Out into His infinite domain thought travels fast and far. Our solar system, with all its planets, and moons, and rings, we find, after all, to be but a mere speck in the immeasurable reaches of the kingdom of God. With souls awed and almost bewildered by the evidence of the infinite power and dominion of our King we bow and adore. We, in our conscious littleness, worship Him Who “hath measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance.”
And how the mercy of God compels us to adore Him!
…we who are guilty by nature and lost under sin find reasons for adoring, eager, and soulful worship in contemplating the mercy of God in Christ. “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Surely the Scriptures write the truth when they declare that the souls are dead which do not worship Him for that.
McMillan emphasizes the natural response of the worshiper to the awesome goodness and mercy of God is to sing His praises.
Hallelujah! praise Jehovah.
O my soul, Jehovah praise.
While I live I’ll praise Jehovah,
To my God sing all my days. [Ps. 146]
The Psalms indeed provide matter for praise. They are given for that very purpose.
Every true Christian is a seer. He has seen the invisible, and heard things not written down in any of the philosophies of men. He has become acquainted in some measure with God, and there are great thoughts surging through his mind, and tidal waves of religious emotion swelling within him. He must speak the praises of his Lord. But he is there met by a difficulty. His words fail him. His words cannot put into expression all, or the half, of what is in his heart to say to God. His thoughts are too big for utterance. He is conscious of the need of divine aid to speak in sufficient and right terms the great themes of his worship. It is then that he turns with deepest satisfaction to the songs which the Spirit of God has written for the people of God as the expression of their devotion to Him. There the great things of God are unfolded as only the divine penman can unfold them, and there the petitions which we need to offer, and are allowed to offer, to God with assurance of being heard are framed for us. We are told that the Spirit makes intercession for the saints with groanings which cannot be uttered. This is nowhere more true than when the believer attempts to tell God what is in his heart of love, adoration, and trust. We began with the thought that worship is right conceptions of the character and works of God suitably expressed. We find, do we not, that such conceptions are taught and adequately expressed in the Psalms of the Bible as they cannot be in any words which the pens of uninspired men have written.
These are remarks concerning the fundamental principles of worship worth contemplating. Read McMillan’s full essay here.
