9  Give to the Lord, O families of the peoples,
     Give to the Lord glory and strength.
10 Give to the Lord the glory due His name;
     Bring an offering, and come into His courts.
11 Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness!
     Tremble before Him, all the earth.
(Psalm 96:7–9, NKJV)

Psalm 96 has been a favorite of mine for several years. Recently, as I was prayerfully reflecting on it, verses 7–9 really stood out to me. What I noticed was that, quite literally in the heart of the Psalm (this middle of five stanzas), the Psalmist has poetically captured a sense of God’s heart in our worship. Here, I’d like to mention three details the Lord has impressed upon my heart from these three verses.

Worship is inherently relational. This idea took my by surprise the first time the Spirit brought it to my attention. Worship? Relational? Yes! Worship is not a thing or idea that stands alone. Worship must be given by someone or something. It must also be directed toward someone or something. Grammatically, worship always includes a subject and an object—a worshipper and the recipient of worship—whether explicit or implied.

A question that flows naturally is, what is the nature of a worship-filled relationship? Well, it depends on several factors: the identity of the worshipper, the identity of the recipient of worship, any historical interactions between the worshipper and the recipient, and so forth.

But here’s what we certainly can glean from these verses—God desires us to live in worship-filled relationship with Him. He is not a far-off, uninvolved Sovereign as some might imagine. Yes, He is sovereign—but our sovereign, triune God made us and invites us to live in ongoing, worship-filled relationship with Him.

Worship is inherently participatory. This idea is challenging, because it runs counter to the way many modern Christians speak about worship. We use “worship” as a stand-in for many activities and ideas, such as congregational singing, specific styles of music, the weekly church gathering, feelings of affection and devotion, etc. All of these can be worship-adjacent, but none of these are worship in the proper sense.

Of the 197 occurrences of “worship” throughout the Bible (NKJV), every time (with the exception of a handful of occurrences of “worshipper”) refers to some kind of active engagement. What can we glean from this? Worship proper is not a place, a feeling, or an event. Even more so, worship is not something passive we watch or attend. True worship requires personal participation.

What does that mean? Must we raise our hands, jump and dance around, or kneel to the ground? Not necessarily—although, when the Lord moves our hearts to do such things, and in the right setting, they certainly might be appropriate. What it most certainly does mean is that worship requires the heart, mind, and body actively focusing our affections and actions toward the Lord.

Worship is inherently sacrificial. This idea is also challenging, but for different reasons. Sacrifice is hard. Sacrifice requires loss—especially of time, energy, talent, and resources. Sacrificial worship also often requires sacrificing fun, and, sometimes, even friendships. Sacrifice is hard because we have to give up at least a part of ourselves in the process.

Worship requires us to commit ourselves to a way of thinking, feeling, and living before the Lord. It might mean giving up watching a sporting event to gather with the church. Or giving up an overtime shift with extra income to serve before the Lord in your home or community. Or giving up sleep in the morning or evening (or both?) to begin and/or end the day with the Lord.

Worship that doesn’t cost us something isn’t true worship. It might make us feel excited or happy, but feelings aren’t necessarily an accurate gauge of true worship. The important thing here is that whatever we bring before the Lord in worship, we bring prayerfully, in obedient surrender, with intent in our hearts and alignment in our forms to praise and glorify the Lord.

Takeaway. God has communicated to us about His heart in worship. True worship is inherently relational, participatory, and sacrificial. (It has many other aspects as well.) But if I might suggest one action step from the three aspects of worship mentioned above, it would be this: draw near to the Lord today, in both your affections and actions, by prayerfully and actively seeking to yield your whole heart and life to Him.