Why Does God Care If I Worship?

Have you ever wondered why we worship? I mean, if God is the greatest (which He is) and He knows it (which He does), why does it matter if we sing about His greatness? 

This is a common question and one of the most important questions that we truly need to understand, even if we don’t realize how truly important it is. 

So, let’s roll up our sleeves and see this from God’s vantage point.

When God’s Word talks about worship – both why we worship and how we worship – we read a repeat command. 

“Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name; bring an offering, and come before Him; worship the Lord in holy array.” — (New American Standard Bible, 1995, 1 Chron. 16:29)

“Ascribe to the Lord the glory due to His name; worship the Lord in holy array.” — (New American Standard Bible, 1995, Ps. 29:2)

“Ascribe to the Lord the glory of His name; bring an offering and come into His courts.” — (New American Standard Bible, 1995, Ps. 96:8)

Our understanding of why God cares if we worship starts with the words ascribe and due.

This word ascribe is from the Hebrew root word of “give.”

But, some hear the word “give” and think of a hand-out, something we are taking from our possession and transferring to that of another; and if it is ours, then it follows that we have a right to extend or we have a right to withhold. We are owners after all.

When we say “give God your worship,” that is quite misleading and leaves us confused as to why we would be expected to worship, as it redefines worship as giving God something that is mine.

But, giving is very different then ascribing!

Ascribing is not taking something that is mine and transferring it to another. Ascribing is giving what belongs to another, not giving what belongs to you to another.

That is why the word ascribe and due go hand in hand. 

Ascribing is giving credit where it is due.

Why does this matter?

Have you ever had someone fail to give you credit or worse, take credit for what you have done?

That is something that really miffs people. Frankly, it bothers you when they ignore what you’ve done or when they fail to acknowledge it. But, worse than that is actually taking credit for it! Nobody likes that.

If we are concerned about justice, we must be concerned about worship. Because, what is injustice? Injustice is the gap between what one was due and what one received. 

The greatest injustice on earth truly is the gap between the praise God is due and the praise God receives. 

God cares about justice and not unlike us, cares when he is being robbed of what He is due  – more specifically, the “glory” He is due. 

Understanding a bit more about the meaning of “glory” will help us understand why. 

The Hebrew word for glory is “kabod.” It’s the word for weight, for heaviness.

You have to remember the connection between scales and money in the ancient world. We still have it today. For example, when you buy produce, you pay by the pound. In truth, you pay for almost everything based on its weight (in ounces), but even more so then the connection to worth and weight was very high.  

We’ve all heard the phrase “worth its weight in gold” and this is the idea of it.

That is why the word “kabod” means worth and weight simultaneously. To ascribe worth to something, you’re assigning weight/value to something.

For the original audience, when they heard, “Ascribe to Yahweh the kabod that He is due,” they were picturing a scale of what God is worth, what God weighs, and assigning word weight of praise to the other side.