First of all: "Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi". The law of worship mirrors the law of belief.
As far back as I can remember, the setting of music and worship that I experienced had always been in a Catholic Mass settings. My first thought of it, was that it's 'boring' and 'out of touch'.
As years gone by, I realized that it wasn't because the music, that makes worship boring, it's my attitude to it. I'd always see worship as something that is done on Sunday, Monday through Saturday would be a different realm.
Not until I was introduced with the charismatic prayer meeting that my attitude to it changed over time.
First of all, our attitude to worship. Worship is based in the love of creation to its creator. All over the bible, there is only one person that is called by God, "a man after My own heart", and that is David.
David works as a shepherd. While he was working, he would compose songs that praises God. Psalms composed mostly of David's praise to his God. It's a complete love song. How we all still remember Psalm 23, "The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall want."
Surely, his fluency in playing harps was known throughout Israel and Saul asked David to play for Saul. 1 Sam 16:14-23.
The spirit of the LORD had departed from Saul, and he was tormented by an evil spirit sent by the LORD. So the servants of Saul said to him: "Please! An evil spirit from God is tormenting you. If your lordship will order it, we, your servants here in attendance on you, will look for a man skilled in playing the harp. When the evil spirit from God comes over you, he will play and you will feel better." Saul then told his servants, "Find me a skillful harpist and bring him to me." A servant spoke up to say: "I have observed that one of the sons of Jesse of Bethlehem is a skillful harpist. He is also a stalwart soldier, besides being an able speaker, and handsome. Moreover, the LORD is with him." Accordingly, Saul dispatched messengers to ask Jesse to send him his son David, who was with the flock. Then Jesse took five loaves of bread, a skin of wine, and a kid, and sent them to Saul by his son David. Thus David came to Saul and entered his service. Saul became very fond of him, made him his armor-bearer, and sent Jesse the message, "Allow David to remain in my service, for he meets with my approval." Whenever the spirit from God seized Saul, David would take the harp and play, and Saul would be relieved and feel better, for the evil spirit would leave him. Until Saul called David to come and sing for Saul, since David's song calmed Saul's soul.
Fast forward when David became the king of Israel. The ark of the covenant, the place where the glory of God dwells, was brought down to Jerusalem, and David was dancing. In 2 Sam 6:20-23. (read the whole 2 Sam chapter 6 to understand more of the context)
When David returned to bless his own family, Saul's daughter Michal came out to meet him and said, "How the king of Israel has honored himself today, exposing himself to the view of the slave girls of his followers, as a commoner might do!" But David replied to Michal: "I was dancing before the LORD. As the LORD lives, who preferred me to your father and his whole family when he appointed me commander of the LORD'S people, Israel, not only will I make merry before the LORD, but I will demean myself even more. I will be lowly in your esteem, but in the esteem of the slave girls you spoke of I will be honored." And so Saul's daughter Michal was childless to the day of her death.
One translation (I believe it's NIV), David says, "and I become, even more undignified than these." He leaped and dance for joy, for the coming of the ark of the covenant. One tangent note: this verses cannot be justified as the "aha! moment" to judge those who are barren, seeing them as someone who doesn't value their husband.
These two excerpts, along with the fact that the messiah is called "the son of David" along also with the prophet that James evoked during his speech on the first council of Jerusalem, "After this I shall return and rebuild the fallen hut of David; from its ruins I shall rebuild it and raise it up again, so that the rest of humanity may seek out the Lord, even all the Gentiles on whom my name is invoked. Thus says the Lord who accomplishes these things, known from of old." (Acts 15:16-18) Provided the basis why is it important to understand the idea of worship in the conjunction of understanding who David is, and what role does he provide in our salvation history.
One may ask, why "the fallen hut of David" and not the Solomon, with all its glory and gold that was poured into building the temple of the Lord? It's because the ark of David was filled with the Levites who would day and night give their time to worship the Lord. (cf.1 Chronicles 16:39-40)
But the priest Zadok and his priestly brethren he left before the Dwelling of the LORD on the high place at Gibeon, to offer holocausts to the LORD on the altar of holocausts regularly, morning and evening, and to do all that is written in the law of the LORD which he has decreed for Israel.
The main idea is in worship, it's not enough to just check God out in your box once a week at mass. Romans 12:1-2 says,
I urge you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship. Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect.
To offer up our body as a living sacrifice. That is what we are designed to do. Does that mean that we have to go to church all day long? No. It is in doing our daily, mundane task, that we offer that up as a living sacrifice. It is simply by understanding that our office space, our daily room for studying, is our own "altar", for each one of us are called to be a priest, prophet, and king (cf. CCC 897).
"The term 'laity' is here understood to mean all the faithful except those in Holy Orders and those who belong to a religious state approved by the Church. That is, the faithful, who by Baptism are incorporated into Christ and integrated into the People of God, are made sharers in their particular way in the priestly, prophetic, and kingly office of Christ, and have their own part to play in the mission of the whole Christian people in the Church and in the World.
Back to the idea of worship. Worship is not something that we do on a weekly basis, worship is a life style that we adopt and incorporate into our own life.
Let's explore the analogy between work and worship. If we work, it is necessary for us to learn more and more. A one year old engineer would be in a different level than a 10 years old engineer. This is due to the continuation of learning, experience on the job, and maturity of making decisions in one's own scope of work. Similarly to us, in our worship, we need to learn continually on how to be a better "worshipper", to experience in a more deeper level of intimacy between the creator and the creation, and maturity in the level of worship.
So, I hope this tackle all the reflections that I have made for the past months or so in the topic that is so dear to me: worship. For we are a creation that is made to know, to love, and to serve our creator. And one way to know, to love, and to serve Him is no other than to worship Him with all our hearts, all our minds, all our strength, and all our souls.
¡Viva Cristo Rey!
Long live Christ the King! (Spanish). This was the battle cry of those who fought to defend Catholic culture against Communism in the Spanish Civil War, and of the Mexican "Cristeros" who fought for the same cause during the Mexican Revolution, the Masonic-Bolshevik takeover of their country which led to the suppression of Catholicism and the massacre of priests, religious and laymen. The Spanish upside-down exclamation mark is made by holding the ALT KEY while typing 0161 on your number pad.
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