Maula, Maula.... and Worshipping the True God

Delhi 6 ( the movie that is, not the PIN CODE!), my wife remarked about the Sufi song “Maula, Maula”( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McYnZj-EvL4). Although she didn’t get the full meaning of the Urdu lyrics, she remarked at the intensity of what was essentially a Sufi worship song, and remarked at the intensity of the lyrics, melody and the rendering of the singer expressing a very deep yearning to get closer to God, which is in its essence what Sufism is all about. On the way back home, we passed the neighborhood temple, where a gaggle of toothless women were clanging cymbals in what could only be described as a listless enactment of a ritual.

Since then I have been about the object called “Christian worship”. I have been meeting people lately who introduce themselves as “worship leaders” or who “lead worship”. Subsequently observing them in their work place, I find what they actually do is strum a guitar and lead in the singing of a few songs.

Worship of course is a private act as well as a public one, I suppose for public events, some kind of coordination is needed, but the self adulating title of “worship leader”, perhaps deflects more glory on to the person than to the function, which is to lead the people of god in adoration. John Piper says this in his book, Desiring God, "Worship is a way of gladly reflecting back to God, the radiance of his worth." Let me say that again. "Worship is a way of gladly reflecting back to God the radiance of his worth." As our heart is captured by who God is, what he has created, how he works, that his purposes are always good. What he sacrificed for me and you and how he pursues us in love even at this moment, it moves me. It makes me grateful, happy, joyful, and glad and I want to reflect that back to him in worship. My heart spontaneously overflows in joy.

Joy is what was oozing through every clap and beat of the Sufi Quawali, thought the tenor was nasal and rustic. Perhaps the voice was not trained enough bit the heart was well in tune and was able to draw the attention of even a casual movie goers to thought of God for a time. Of course on special occasions like Christmas and Easter, even our churches parade out our best choirs and chorales and the rendering of them is often truly angelic, but can we worship “in spirit and in truth” and in day to day life and our routine Sunday services ?

The purpose of worship after all is to provide an atmosphere in which people bring their everyday, busy, confusing, frustrating lives and leave the cares and concerns at the altar trusting God through faith to speak to them in the midst of their lives. Music is a means to do that but not the only means to do this. May be the Psalms provide a good context as well as a framework for worship. In the Psalms we often read about the psalmists' enemies, but they are almost always spoken of in very unspecific terms. We're not told who they are, or what they are trying to achieve, but only that they have set themselves up against the man of God, and therefore against God himself.

The world we live in often provides our equivalent of the psalmist's enemies. Our world has set itself up against God, and therefore against us. The world is not neutral, it is opposed to us, so it is no wonder we experience its hostility from time to time as God allows. Things happen to us over which we have no control. What is it that is overwhelming you at the moment? Are you riding the wave, or is it all crashing around you that true worship is startlingly honest. It's easy to overlook, but the Psalms, with all their questions and accusations, are worship! To pour out your soul in all honesty before God, is worship, and the psalmist shows us how to worship God, in this Psalm just as much in the "praise him on the trumpet" types of Psalm. In fact the psalmist has discovered what we've all experienced: that it is impossible for us to whip up worship in ourselves. If our souls are downcast and disturbed within us then no matter how great the music, no matter how much we close our eyes and raise our hands, no matter how fervent the leader, we will ultimately never find the presence of God that we long for.

There can be no doubt that what is going on in contemporary worship services has some very positive social dynamics. There is an opportunity for interaction, sharing, emotional release, and all the rest. We must not think that drums, keyboards, or any technique--be it mystical, ecstatic or esthetic--is what worship is all about. Worship is about the heart of a man, woman or child. It is not contrived, induced, or concocted. It is the result of the working of the Holy Spirit in the heart. The Lord is not in the wind, nor in the fire, but He is in the still, small voice. Worship in the Bible is after all a lifestyle of sacrifice not an event !