The Foundation of Worship Is Found in the First Two Verses of the Bible

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Volumes upon volumes can and have been written about this one verse and its incalculable implications for, well, everything. But while we can get caught up in all the philosophical and theological ruminations following from the realities presented to us by these seven words (in the original Hebrew), we must not forget one of the most, if not the most important lesson: Genesis 1:1 provides the foundation of our worship. It provides the reason for our worship. It reveals the Person we are to worship, exclusively. It provides the basis of our duty to worship. What is it that Genesis 1:1 teaches us about worship that is so profound? Simply this: God is God and we exist because and for Him. It really is that simple.

The Scriptures abound with references to this prerogative of the Creator, “for whom and by whom all things exist” (Heb. 2:10). Two truths stand out, one familiar, the other less so. God as Creator is the reason “all things” exist: “You created all things and by your will they existed and were created” (Rev. 4:11). Or this: “All things were made through him (Jesus), and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:3). All things were made through him. Nothing has been made that was not made by him. God as Creator brought all things into existence. “Before” God created (there was no “before” the beginning as time itself was created; but while we cannot accurately use the word “before” in the sense of chronology, we can in terms of logical priority), there was the triune God and there was nothing else. God exists from all eternity. Everything else had a beginning – at one “time” it did not exist.

But there’s another truth in that Hebrews 2:10 passage that must be grasped. Not only is God as Creator the one “by whom all things exist,” He is the one “for whom all things exist.” God created all things with a purpose, and that purpose is ultimately found in the will of the Creator to magnify His glory through all creation. Through the prophet Isaiah, the God of creation said this: “everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory” (Isa 43:7). That is it in a nutshell: everything was created by God and for God.

Once we begin to grasp that we, as creatures of the living God, were created (and redeemed) for the praise of His glory, then and only then are we ready to begin grasping the meaning of the word “worship.” Worship is not a warm fuzzy feeling we get while we sing songs during an hour long “worship service.” Worship is not for us to “get something out of.” Worship certainly benefits us – especially as we realize we are fulfilling our ultimate purpose in existing by the act of worship. But worship is never about us.

Worship is a celebration of God (often in song, but not exhausted by song). One author wrote that, I paraphrase, “worship is the cognitive awe and reverence for God that is focused on him.” Cognitive awe. That means our minds must be engaged. Too often we eschew doctrine and theology as if they were little more than necessary evils – a way to distinguish one denomination from another, but nothing more. We love to (mis)quote the Apostle Paul: “Knowledge puffs up but love edifies.” And on the basis of that out of context misquotation, we bifurcate so-called “head knowledge” from so-called “heart knowledge.” The Bible recognizes no such distinction. We are to love God with our minds as well as our hearts. We cannot love what we don’t know. And we cannot increase in our love for God without at the same time increasing in our knowledge of who God is. We are, in fact, commanded to grow in knowledge. It is non-optional for the disciple of Christ (2 Pet. 3:18).

So worship is a cognitive awe of God as God. It is the creature blessing and praising the Creator. It is the creature recognizing the ultimate and infinite worth of the Creator. Worship is a preoccupation with God in all of life. Worship is a preoccupation with loving the things God loves. It is a preoccupation with ordering our lives in accordance with God’s word (this is the real test of worship – obedience). Worship is the preoccupation with joining God in His work. It is the preoccupation with the beauty of God’s creation (without confusing the creation for the Creator). But above all, worship is a preoccupation with God Himself. And here’s the cool part: the Father is seeking such to worship Him! (John 4:23)

Divine Transcendence

And it all starts with Genesis 1:1-2. There we see the transcendence of the Creator. Transcendence means that God is “above and beyond” His creation. That much is clearly implied by the fact that God created the heavens and the earth. Transcendence was understood by King Solomon, who, in dedicating Israel’s first temple in the 10th century B.C. humbly and truthfully declared, “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built!” (1 Kings 8:27) God’s transcendence struck the prophet Isaiah with the most profound awe a human can ever experience: “I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up.” (Isa. 6:1). Isaiah would later describe God as “the high and lofty one” (57:15). The transcendence of the Creator makes him worthy of our unreserved worship.

Divine Immanence

But if God were transcendent alone, He would be distant, remote, foreign to us. We would have no basis for relationship with Him. We wouldn’t even know how we were to properly worship Him (there are, in fact, both prescriptions and proscriptions for worship given in the Scriptures). But God is not just transcendent; He is also immanent, which means to be “near” or “within.” We get our first hint of this in the second verse of the Bible: “And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”

The word translated “hovering” is a rare word in the Bible. One other prominent use of the word is found in Deuteronomy 32:11 where God likened to an eagle that “hovers” (flutters) over its young. In Deuteronomy, the imagery describes God’s care and provision for His people in the midst of a wasteland (wilderness) that could not by itself support life. In Genesis 1:2 it describes God’s care and provision for the earth that could not yet provide habitation for man without divine intervention. At this point, the earth was yet “formless and void,” a “hodgepodge.” Apart from God’s loving “construction” the earth would not be suitable for human habitation. Thus, the Spirit of God “hovered” over the face of the deep. Then God “formed” and “filled” the earth over the six creation days. All of this describes God’s immanence – He was and is intimately involved in every single detail of His creation.

That God, as Creator, is both transcendent and immanent provides the foundation of our worship. We are duty bound to worship our Creator. Our duty is not contingent upon God’s “doing something” for us. It is inherent in the Creator/creature distinction revealed from the very first verse of the Bible. Thus, let us render our Creator His due. Not just for one hour of the week, but in all of life. That, after all, was His purpose in creating us in the first place.