MAKING SENSE OF WORSHIP
Ecclesiastes 5:1-7
I was recently rereading one of my favorite books written by Donald Whitney entitled, “The Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life.” In it Whitney describes a painful childhood memory at his birthday party when he was 10 years old.
At this party his parents allowed him to invite 8 friends from school over to the house for games, cake and ice cream. So the eight boys came over after school—they played football and basketball together until dark and then his dad and mom grilled hot dogs and burgers and then they had cake, ice cream and presents. Up to this point, he mentions that this was turning out to be one of his best and most memorable birthdays ever. After they finished with presents, his mom and dad loaded up the boys into the station wagon and took them to the high school gym for a basketball game.
Whitney said shortly after entering the game, his great birthday soon became one of his worst because those eight boys that were with him all went their own way to sit with other friends leaving him all alone to sit in the stands by himself for the rest of the night. There was not a thank you for the food, or for the ticket to the game, not even a happy birthday. They just told him, “We are going to sit somewhere else” and without a word of gratitude—they left without looking back.
Now Whitney tells this story not to gain sympathy from his readers, but to make the point that this is the way we often treat God as we gather together on Sunday Mornings. He says, “(This is) the way we often treat God in worship. Though we come to an event where He is the Guest of Honor, it is possible to give Him a routine gift, sing a few customary songs to Him, and then totally neglect Him…Like my ten-year-old friends; we may leave without any twinge of conscience, without any awareness of our insensitivity, convinced we have fulfilled an obligation.”
Isn’t that true? I mean many of us do this week in and week out Sunday after Sunday. We gather together for an event where God is supposed to be the Guest of Honor and though we might give him some lip service in prayer, sing a few songs about Him and even give Him a monetary gift, other than that He is often the furthest thing from our minds. But we don’t realize that. Each Sunday we leave without looking back thinking we have held up our end of the bargain—thinking we have fulfilled an obligation.
In Ecclesiastes 5:1-7, Solomon helps us make sense of worship. Here is the first principle…
TO WORSHIP GOD EFFECTIVLY…WE MUST APPROACH HIM PROPERLY
5:1 Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil. 2 Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few. 3 For a dream comes with much business, and a fool’s voice with many words.
In the first few verses, Solomon tells us how to prepare for and participate in worship.
First…
WITH CAREFUL STEPS
Solomon says, “Guard your steps when you go to the house of God.” In other words, “Don’t come to God on your terms—don’t come to Him flippantly and carelessly in whatever way you see fit. Approach Him on His terms and as one under His authority.”
God’s message to His people throughout the Bible is this, “When you come into my presence, you better come in the proper way as one under my authority. You are to direct your focus toward me, worship me, revere me, and stand in awe of me.”
When we gather together here on Sunday mornings, our meetings are to be all about Him. Like I said at the beginning, “God is the guest of honor here.” He should not be far removed from our minds, but instead should be at the forefront of our minds.
This should not only be your attitude here but everywhere. Not only is worship a corporate thing, but it’s a private practice as well. Worship is not just a Sunday thing; it’s a Monday-Saturday thing. Guarding your steps, is not just something you do when you walk through those doors, but is something you should be doing throughout the week.
God never intended for us to go at life on our own, but wants us to live as children under His authority—guided and directed by Him. That’s what it means to guard your steps. So that’s how to prepare for worship. In the second part of v. 1 through v. 3, Solomon tells us how to participate in worship.
He says we are to participate…
WITH OPEN HEARTS AND CLOSED MOUTHS
v.1 To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil. 2 Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few. 3 For a dream comes with much business, and a fool’s voice with many words.
In vv. 1-3, Solomon says something here that is counter to the way many think when it comes to worship. He says the key to worship is attentiveness—being attentive. Now some of you are thinking, “I thought worship was all about me singing and shouting praises to God—I thought worship was all about what I say about Him and to Him. Solomon says here, “True god-honoring worship takes place when our hearts are open and our mouths are closed.”
Solomon goes on to say that those who are not approaching God properly with open hearts and closed mouths are offering what he calls “the sacrifice of fools.” Let me explain what this is.
Many in our churches today are offering “the sacrifice of fools” week in and week out because though they get up and go to church every Sunday and participate in the service by giving an offering, singing some songs and bowing for prayer, when it comes time to draw near to God and hear from His word—these people’s hearts are closed. And you know what? They leave church week in and week out unchanged. This happens here and everywhere every Sunday.
Many think that simply taking time to come, giving a check and singing some songs is going to cut it. Solomon says if you are not drawing near to God with an open heart—if you are not listening, if you are not being attentive, if you are not open and ready to receive God’s word and apply it, then God is not pleased with any of your activities. You are just offering “the sacrifice of fools.”
This is challenging for us isn’t it because too often we don’t draw near to Him with open hearts, but with open mouths. Solomon says in v. 3 “A fool is known by his many words.” In other words, the foolish are those who always enter into the presence of God with their gums flapping. They are those who fill all of that time with their own opinions and insights.
Notice Solomon’s humbling statement at the end of v. 2. He basically calls for us to remember who we are and who God is. He says, “For God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few.”
This is a good reality check for us isn’t it? At times, we need to be reminded that God is infinitely greater than any thought of us and we also need to be reminded that we don’t know as much as we think we know so we just need to be quiet before God.
You want your worship to be honoring and glorifying to God? Get quiet before Him. Open His word with this attitude. “God I am coming to your word to hear what you want to say. If there is anything in my thinking—anything in my life that is opposed to you, show me in your word and change me.” And then get quiet and study the Scriptures. If you will draw near to God in this way your life will be forever changed in a good way—in a godhonoring way.
Some of the most spiritually mature people that I have met are the ones who openly admit they don’t know certain things, who are always asking questions and who know how to get quiet before God to receive instruction from Him.
So to worship God effectively, we must approach Him properly with careful steps, open hearts and closed mouths.
TO WORSHIP GOD EFFECTIVLY…WE MUST TAKE HIM SERIOUSLY
First…
BY KEEPING OUR PROMISES TO HIM
4 When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you vow.
In this verse, Solomon is talking about our response after our time of meeting with God. How many times have we told God after a time of worship, “Lord, I promise to pursue you with all I have and am going to commit myself to grow in my knowledge of you through your word?” How many times have we said to God, “God I am going to be a man or woman of purity—a man and woman of integrity.” How many times have you and I made these kinds of promises to God and how often have we failed to keep these commitments?
I wish I could make you happy by saying, “It’s not a big deal—don’t worry about it?” But I can’t. It’s a big deal. God says, “Worry about it because you have made these promises to me.” Though there is nothing we can do about the past commitments that have been broken before God other than seek forgiveness, Solomon does tell us what our actions should be going forward. In vv. 5-6 he says,
5 It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay. 6 Let not your mouth lead you into sin, and do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake.
Now know that Solomon is not saying here that we should not commit ourselves to God in any way, shape or form. His point is that we should choose our words carefully and make sure that we keep the commitments we make because if not, he says it would have been better had we not made them at all. God wants us to avoid making rash decisions without considering the commitment and wants us to “pay what we vow.”
So God takes the commitments you make before Him and to Him seriously and He holds you and me accountable in a big way. Look at what Solomon says at the end of v. 6. He says that if we do not keep our promises, God will destroy the works of our hands.
Now commentators are uncertain of what the actual form of punishment is that Solomon mentions here, but it seems as if he is saying, in light of the book of Ecclesiastes, that if you have committed yourself to God and in turn pursue happiness and lasting satisfaction “under the sun” in things like pleasure, work, wealth and success, God will not let you have rest or fulfillment in that.
We know this to be the case don’t we? God is not going to let us enjoy our life without Him, instead he is going to make a mess of the work of our hands. So we need to keep our promises to Him.
BY STANDING IN AWE OF HIM
7 For when dreams increase and words grow many, there is vanity; but God is the one you must fear.
Basically, Solomon is saying here that instead of offering empty promises, which are foolish, we should have a profound respect for God. I believe one of the main reasons we have problems keeping our commitments to God is because we don’t think rightly about Him—our view of God is way too low.
This is why the study of Theology is so important. Theology is necessary because right thinking about God and the Christian faith necessarily leads to right living. If we have a low view of God, we are not going to take the commitments we make to Him seriously. In fact, we are not going to do any of the things we have discussed. We are not going to “guard our steps,” draw near to Him with open hearts and closed mouths and view Him as infinitely greater than any thought of us and in response get quiet before Him.
Solomon says instead of offering empty worship and promises to a small god, stand in awe of, be astounded by, be amazed at, be captivated by, have a profound respect for the one true God of the Bible. This view of God will lead to god-honoring worship.
CONCLUSION
Let me end with this. In the first several chapters of this book, Solomon talks about the fact that the things of this world that we cherish “under the sun” are hevel—the Hebrew word meaning useless, pointless, aimless, futile, fleeting. And the reason why is because they all end.
And yet we spend the majority of our time and energy thinking about and participating in these temporal, earthly, short-lived activities. They consume our time, flood our thoughts and as a result we neglect to prioritize those things that matter most—that matter for eternity.
The reason it is important to study what worship is and how to worship God properly is because worship is what we were made for. It’s what you and I were created to do and is the one thing that we will be doing forever.
My prayer for you is that you would make worship a priority and that your worship would be honoring and glorifying to God. I pray that you would learn to approach God properly with careful steps, open hearts and closed mouths, and that you would take Him seriously by standing in awe of and keeping your word to Him.
