The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.  Praise and worship "is the believer's response of all that he/ she is - mind, emotions, will and body - to all that God is and says and does." [Warren W Wiersbe].

PRAISE is an act of worship or acknowledgement by which the virtues/deeds of another are recognised and extolled. It is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as to express approbation of, commend, or glorify.  The word "praise" appears approximately 360 times in the Bible, 220 of these in the Psalms.  The word "worship" appears about 170 times.  We are called by God to praise Him.  He formed us as a people "that they may proclaim my praise" (Isaiah 43:21). God has also predestined us to be "adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will - to the praise of his glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the One He loves" (Ephesians 1:6).  We proclaim His glory and grace by our praises.

The praise and worship of man toward God is also the means by which we express our joy to the Lord.  We are to praise God both for who He is and for what He does.  Psalm 150:2 says "Praise Him for His acts of power; praise Him for His surpassing greatness".  Praising God for who He is is called an act of Adoration.  Praising God for what He does is known as Thanksgiving.  Praise to the Lord may be offered individually or collectively, in song or in prayer, spontaneously or by pre-arrangment, from our emotions or our determined will.

In Psalm 100:4 we are shown that there are two stages to be followed in approaching The Lord God Almighty.  We are to (1) "enter His gates with thanksgiving and (2) His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His Name".  Why do we need to approach God thus?  Surely He can hear us no matter how we call on Him?  Consider a visit to Buckingham Palace to meet HM the Queen.  On arrival would you just shout to her from outside the gates - "hey, Ma'am, I'm here"!  Of course not.  You would proceed towards her throne room, following the required protocols with respect and humility.  And so it is with the King of Kings.  Yes, He hears our prayers wherever we are, but when we choose to enter into His presence in the manner He has laid down in His Word, we are able to come closer to Him. We gain access. With thanksgiving we pass through the gates and with praise we pass through the courts and we come to the foot of His throne.  We cease to pray from a distance.  We draw near to Him.

In Psalm 95:1-7 we read the well-known words that tell us how and why we are to praise God: "Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.  Let us come before Him with thanksgiving and extol Him with music and song.  For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods.  In His hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to Him.  The sea is His, for He made it, and His hands formed the dry land.  Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; for He is our God and we are the people of His pasture, the flock under His care".  Again we see highlighted the stages in which we are to approach God - with praise and thanksgiving, but then we are also shown the next step. We enter into worship. "Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His Name; worship the Lord in the splendour of His Holiness" (Psalm 29:2).

WORSHIP.  Webster's Dictionary defines the meaning of the word worship as to adore, esteem worthy, honour, reverence, pay homage to, venerate.  Sadly, our idea of worship nowadays has fallen far short of the model the Bible describes.  We should worship Almighty God because of who He is in our lives and what He has done for us.  He deserves it.  He desires our worship and it pleases Him.  The Lord isn't on some ego trip - he desires our worship because it's part of His eternal plan;  it is what we were created for.  A W Tozer reminds us that "God is trying to call us back to that for which He created us, to worship Him and to enjoy Him forever".  He uses our worship in order to bring us to Himself.

It is out of our worship that we desire to do God's work.  In his book, "Worship His Majesty", Rev Jack Hayford writes that "God has given us much work to do as a people.  Therefore our most foremost task is to become a people of much worship.  We must precede all, and all must proceed with, worship.  Worship is basic to the most rapid advancement of the Kingdom of God.  It is central because Kingdom power is never generated by the energy of the flesh but is released by the power of the Holy Spirit" .

Worship involves our whole being - our attitude and actions. "True worship of God must be a constant and consistent attitude or state of mind within the believer ... true worship of God is not something we "do" in the hope of appearing to be religious!" (A W Tozer).

The distinguished biblical scholar, the late Dr Derek Prince, carried out an in-depth study on all the main words used in the Bible for worship and he found that every word used for worship actually describes a posture of the body!  These scriptural postures express our devotion, but it is important to recognise that they are not merely 'religious body-language'.  Dr Prince explained that:  "worship is an activity in which the spirit works through the soul to produce the appropriate actions of the body". Unity of spirit, soul and body is essential.  Dr Prince further noted that "worship is not a form of spiritual entertainment.  In worship, we do not focus on ourselves or our experiences, but on God.  Worship is direct, intimate, personal communion with our Creator.  It is the highest activity of which the human spirit is capable ... worship can bring each individual into a higher and deeper awareness of God and His Majesty". You can read more about the postures of worship highlighted by Dr Prince (e.g. head, hands, knees, body) in his excellent teaching series entitled "Free to Worship" - which is available for free download from Derek Prince Ministries website.

As we have already seen, the Lord desires our worship but we must remember that  "... the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him"  (John 4:23).  A W Tozer put it like this:  "Men and women continue to try to persuade themselves that there are many forms and ways that seem right in worship.  But God in His revelation has told us that He is spirit and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.  God takes the matter of worship out of the hands of men and puts it in the hands of the Holy Spirit.  It is impossible for any of us to worship God without the impartation of the Holy Spirit.  It is the operation of the Spirit of God within us that enable us to worship God acceptably through Jesus Christ, who is Himself God.  So worship originates with God and comes back to us and is reflected from us, as a mirror.  God accepts no other kind of worship".  We need not be concerned about where we worship, or when.  We can worship by ourselves; we can worship in a group as the early church did (Acts 2:44-47); we can worship in church - regular times of worship with other Christians are important in order to keep the flame of our devotion burning.  The only requirement for our worship is that it be in line with God's Will through the Holy Spirit and from our hearts.  It isn't a matter of saying the right words or going through the right motions - we must be totally sincere.  Worship is offered, as we are told, "in spirit AND in truth".

We must obey the explicit commands of God because He will not accept wrong worship, as we know from the stories of Cain and Abel (Genesis 4:3-5) and Nadab and Abihu (Leviticus 10:1-4). We should also be aware of the perils of being disobedient to the call of God to worship.  We are warned in Acts 12:23 that because Herod did not give praise to God, he was struck down.  Again in 2 Kings 17:25 we read "When they first lived there, they did not worship the Lord so He sent lions among them and they killed some of the people".  Consider what 'lions' we face today?  There are many obstacles to worship today such as unbelief, wrong attitudes, unconfessed sin, ignorance, laziness, self-consciousness etc.  We know that our enemy, Satan, "prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour".  He wants to stop our worship.  However, in recognising the obstacles Satan places before us in order to hinder our praise and worship, we can, with the help of the Holy Spirit, overcome them.  Praise and worship provides us with protection against attacks of the devil.

So, let us ask ourselves some questions and answer them honestly:
(a)    Is what we offer in our churches and in our personal lives today really
        genuine heart-felt praise and worship?
(b)    Is what we are doing glorifying to Almighty God?
(c)    Is what we offer as worship (1) scriptural and (2) spiritual?
(d)    Is there a link between prayer and praise & worship?
(e)    What is our reaction when we think about the glory of God?
(f)    What signs confirm the trueness of our praise and worship?

Just as rebellion and disobedience bring disaster, so obedience to the Word of God brings blessing as we praise and worship the Almighty God.  God has "provided us His salvation that we might be, individually and personally, vibrant children of God, loving God with all our hearts and worshipping Him in the beauty of holiness" (A W Tozer).

Let us follow the example of the Seraphim in Isaiah's vision and let us make the praise and worship of the Lord our delight today.  "Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is filled with His Glory"  (Isaiah 6:2-3).