When we gather together as believers on the First Day, we often say things like, “We are meeting with God.” Indeed, worship is commonly defined as a meeting with God. In worship, God and His people meet in the bond of the covenant. Between God and His people, there is a flow of mutual love. God speaks to His people. He addresses them, challenges them, comforts them, warns them and blesses them. His people respond by listening and with adoration and thanksgiving. They confess the worth and glory of their Heavenly Lord – Creator and Redeemer.

Worship, then, brings us into the presence of God. When we say this, however, some questions arise. Is God not everywhere present? Is our God not the Creator of heaven and earth? Is His glorious presence therefore not equally accessible in my living room as in the church building? And can I not enjoy the presence of my God in the forest or on the mountain top just as well if not better than in a hot and stuffy church auditorium?

Of course, our omnipresent God is accessible from any place in creation. He is our everywhere present Lord! That is part of His glory as our God. Yet, we don’t go wrong if we say that God is indeed present in a special way in the gathering together of His people.

Perhaps we can say that while God is always present in our world and in our lives, His presence is intensified in worship. The glory of worship is that we then experience God’s nearness in a magnified, concentrated form. To show the nature of worship, one writer uses the analogy of a servant working in the palace of a king. ¹ Let us suppose that this servant is a floor-scrubber in this palace. He lives in the king’s palace. He is loyal to the king. He works for the king each and every day. We could say that the whole palace is saturated with the presence of the king. Yet, there are those moments of special contact with the king. Then the servant draws near. He draws near for a face-to-face meeting with the king. He is in the king’s presence and glory.

Similarly, we can say about believers that they always live in their Father’s world. God is everywhere present. His presence stamps our whole existence. All of life is service to God. Yet, there are those moments! Yes, there are those special moments laden with the glory of God. God says, “Seek ye my face,” and we say, “Thy face, LORD, do I seek” (Psalm 27:8). Worship is face-to-face contact with the living God.

In Old Testament times, the people were called to seek the face of God in the places where “He made His Name to dwell.” These were the places in which His glory was found. In those holy places of worship – tabernacle and temple – God showed Himself in His redemptive love. To enjoy the presence of God in this special way, a person would have to go to the holy place. In the holy place, God localized Himself for communion with His people. Therefore, the biblical poets express their desire for God in terms of a longing to be in God’s holy place, His house where he dwelt among His people (see, e.g. Psalm 84).

In the New Testament era, we have no holy places anymore. There is no sacred real estate where Christians can find God in a special way. No longer does the Lord of the covenant tie His holy presence to Jerusalem or to a physical temple or to a single people. There is no physical “house of God” anymore, despite the fact that many people pray for a blessing when “they go up to God’s house.” In fact, for roughly the first 350 years of the New Testament church, the believers had no special church buildings in which to worship God.

However, the lack of a special holy place or holy house does not mean that God no longer dwells among His people in a special way when they worship Him. On the contrary, God now dwells among His people as in a temple. His glory is not revealed in Jerusalem, but among His people. The congregation is the temple. When the congregation gathers on the Lord’s Day, then the temple goes up, stone by living stone (cf. 1 Peter 2:5). There, in the gathering of the believers, God is localized. There Jesus Christ is present in His Word, His sacrament, His Spirit and power and authority (cf. Matthew 18:20).

Thus, worship is truly a special moment in the life of a church. It is true, of course, that we live each day before the face of a loving Father in heaven. Each day and moment, we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Always, at every second, Jesus is our High Priest who indeed intercedes for us and who sustains us as our sympathetic Saviour (Romans 8:34; Hebrews 7:25). Yet, the meeting of the congregation with God is a supernatural event in which we enjoy God in a unique manner. To needlessly stay away from worship is to despise the special presence of God. It is to disdain His glory and to make light of His grace.

The supernatural character of the worship event is also seen in the fact that angels are present in worship. Yes, when we worship God, angels are present! The presence of angels is the norm for Biblical worship. There were angels at Sinai (Deuteronomy 33:2) and a multitude of angels filled the holy place of the temple (Psalm 68:17). Today, angels in their heavenly hosts are present when we enter the presence of God in public worship. Actually, it is not the case that the angels join us in worship. Rather, it is the case that we join them! The angels worship God around His localized presence on His throne. In worship, we draw near to that same throne.

We enter the sanctuary of heaven “by the new and living way which He (Jesus) opened for us through the curtain, that is, through His flesh” (Hebrews 10:20). So we come to Mt. Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering and to the assembly of the first born who are enrolled in heaven (Hebrews 12:22-23).

Worship, then, is the assembly of God’s people together with God’s holy angels around His throne. As another writer states:

There is more happening in the worship service than meets the eye. Worship is a supernatural event. As you assemble to lift up praise to God, you are joined by the invisible angelic hosts. Worship is a truly supernatural event. It is a heavenly event. ²

This Scriptural understanding of worship ought to heighten our appreciation for the privilege and joy of worship. Who would want to miss out on the glorious presence of God? What sane Christian would stay away when there is opportunity to “sit under the same roof with the angels?”³ Should believers not be filled with longing to gather together with their God and with the “ministering spirits” (Hebrews 1:14)? If that longing is missing, it is time to examine oneself to see if he really is in the faith.

Sometimes it is said today that “all of life is worship.” People say this, for example, to oppose unbiblical dualism which separates the service of God from daily life in all spheres. We know what people mean when they say that life is worship and the thought is a good, Biblical thought. They mean to say that in all of life we are busy for the Lord and His glory. Yet, would it not be better to say that “all of life is service,” or, “all of life is religion,” while in that total life of service and religion there are also times of explicit “worship?” It would seem that a distinction along these lines would better represent the Biblical view of life and worship.

Finally, the supernatural character of the worship event should also put a stamp on our dress and demeanor. Both should demonstrate that we are in the presence of a holy God. Let us “thus offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:28-29).