Anthropological Wonder

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The wonder of God can be defined as: “inquisitive awe in the pursuit of an understanding of all of the perfections of God that comprise His magnificence.”  Anthropological wonder is the wonder of God as seen in His creation of human beings.  In Ps. 139:14, “…I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”  A human being, created in the image of God, is a cause for inquisitive awe.  What does being created in the image of God tell us about ourselves?  Human beings alone sustain a unique relationship to deity.  We are created “in His image” and “in His likeness” (Gen. 1:26,27).
The Creation of Humanity is Unique.
The divine Godhead is involved in the creation of human beings.  Humans are not the product of blind change and randomness as affirmed by biological evolutionists.  People are not an evolutionary accident.  We are created with divine intent and purpose.  God who is eternal, self-existing,  and infinite in all of His perfections brought into being a human being that is both physical and spiritual in nature and so, created and finite.  The superiority of God and sovereignty of God over His creature–man–is expressed in this relationship between the Creator and the creature.  God is a person and He has created human beings in such a way that they can have a relationship with Him.  Human beings are person too!  Human beings reflect God’s presence in the world and are evidence that God exists by virtue of the fact that they are created in His image.  No other part of God’s creation has this distinction.  This separates human beings from animals and all other forms of life.  God expressly forbids idols made of wood, stone, silver, or gold as the means of bearing His image.  All idolatry is strictly forbidden by God.  Human beings were given dominion over the earth and all other living things.  They are the crown of God’s creation.  God created them male and female.  Both male and female bear the image of God.  Sexual identity/gender identity is God-given and part of the design of God for human reproduction.  This is part of the created order and is being contradicted by those who suffer from gender dysphoria and choose to contradict God’s created design.  Human beings are dualistic in nature and consist of an “outer man” (physical in nature) and an “inner man” (spiritual in nature).  The physical body is a wonder.  The soul of man, intimately bound to the body, is given by God at conception and together, body and soul, make up a human being.  The fact that human beings possess a soul is another reason for the distinction between humans and animals.
In His Image
There are several aspects of humans that indicate that they bear God’s image.  First, humans have intellectual likeness to God.  In Ps. 139:1-6, David affirms that God is all-knowing.  Humans have intelligence (Job. 35:11), but are not infinite in knowledge.  Humans know more than the beasts of the field or the fowls of the air.  The powers of rational thought possessed by humans are part of the image of God.  Animals do not reason.  They function on the basis of instinct.  No animal has ever written a book!  Second, bearing the image of God means that there is a moral likeness to God.  God is holy (Isa. 6:1-3).  God is love (I John 4:8,16).  Humans are moral creatures.  The spirit of a human being is manifested in conscious thought, self-awareness, and self-reflection.  We have a conscience–a moral arbiter or umpire that either approves or disapproves of words and actions taken by us.  Animals are not moral creatures.  Humans are morally responsible to God because God created us.  God through various covenants has expressed His will in laws that He ordains.  This power to make laws is an expression of God’s sovereignty.  Human beings have always been accountable to God according to the covenant that they lived under at the time of their human sojourn on the earth.  God’s laws constitute objective moral laws.  These laws are recognized universally.  For instance, it is universally understood that murder and rape are wrong (sinful because they violate God’s laws).  Third, being created in the image of God means that humans have volition or the power to choose.  Responsibility to God implies the ability to respond by choice to either obey God or disobey Him.  Volitionality is essential to morality.  God possesses free-will.  God chooses and no one tells God what to do (Rom. 11:34).  “Who hath known the mind of the LORD, or who hath been his counsellor?”  Human beings have free-will.  All sin is the result of choice (James 1:14-15).  Love is a matter of choice.  If there is no free-will, there can be no love!  God desires that we obey Him because we love Him (Mt. 22:36-39; John 14:15, 23).  God is love and He has created humans with the power to love Him and others.  Love is the greatest human virtue (I Cor. 13:13).  If love were properly understood and applied, it would solve most, if not all, of the social problems facing humans today (I Cor. 13).
Truly God has created human beings with such distinction that it inspires wonder.  What is man that thou art mindful of him or the son of man that thou visiteth him?  (Ps. 8:4).  We marvel at how God has created us.  He made us in His image.  We have a created order and design that reflects God’s wisdom and power.  Using our minds, hearts and wills, we can established a spiritual and covenantal relationship with God following the terms and conditions of the New Testament (the law of Christ) and enjoy fellowship with God.  We can prepare to live with God eternally which is the reason He created us (Rev. 4:11, “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created”).

Why Worship?

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Our English word worship means worthship and denotes the worthiness of an individual or being to receive special honor in accordance with that worth or value.  The principle Hebrew and Greek words indicate an act of obesience which is divine honors paid to deity.  Since there is only one, true and living God, there is only one deity worthy of worship (Matt. 4:10, “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve”).  No injury to God compares with the denial of His uniqueness and the transfer to another of the recognition that belongs to Him.  Any perversion of worship is Satan’s avid effort to secure to himself what belongs to God alone (Matt. 4:9).  Worship involves praise and prayer directed to God and the offer of sacrificial gifts that honor Him and glorify His name.  Worship is generally an act of God’s people who desire to draw nigh unto Him and honor Him for His uniqueness, greatness, and goodness.
Psalm 95
This effort is clearly present in Psalm 95.  Psalm 95 was written by David (Heb. 4:7).  The Psalm is referenced twice in Hebrews, i.e. 3:7 and 4:7.  In both contexts, the Psalm is referenced to warn and encourage the saints to faithfulness to God by maintaining a close relationship with God through divine acts of worship. That faithfulness to God will result in the heavenly rest.
The Invitation (Psa. 95:1-2).
“O Come….” is an invitation inciting to join heart and lips in praise to God.  This is worship in spirit and in truth (John 4:24).  Without the engagement of the heart, the acts of worship are vain.  The invitation contains an exhortation.  Let us is repeated several times. The phrase indicates unity and it is defining worship that is corporate.  Let us sing unto the LORD. Let us make a joyful noise unto the Rock of our salvation.  Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving.  Let us make a joyful noise unto Him with psalms. Notice that the call to worship also contains the means of accomplishing it.  Worship brings us into the presence of God.  As an act of devotion to Him, it manifests our love for Him.  Worship is one way in which we love God supremely (Matt. 22:36-38).
The Grounds (Psa. 95:3-5).
The LORD is a great God.  He is unsurpassed in all of His perfections.  The greatness of God is seen in His creative power.  The LORD is unique and stands above all other gods.  The idols of man are pure vanity (I Cor. 8:4).  In His hands are: the deep places of the earth, the heights of the hills, the sea and the dry lands.  Truly, God is the creator of all things (Exodus 20:11).  This includes humanity.  Yes, we owe our very existence to Him (Acts 17:28).  As our Creator, He alone is worthy of our worship and devotion.  We worship because of who God is!  I know that worship is something that God desires for His people to do, but we do not worship merely because God has commanded it.  We worship because we know God.  We worship because we love God.  We worship because we cannot restrain our soul from crying out in honor of His name.
The Invitation Repeated (Psa. 95:6).
“O, come…” is repeated.  Let us worship and bow down.  This defines worship as an act of great humility.  In worship to God, we have a sense of our own unworthiness.  Let us kneel before our Maker.  Only from a position of deep humility would we even think of approaching God.
The Grounds Continued (Psa. 95:7).
For He is our God and we our His people.  This phrase indicates covenant relationship with God brought about by His lovingkindness.  Only God can save.  In the act of saving us, God redeems us to Himself and consequently, we belong to Him.  He is our God and we our His people.  We worship God because we are in covenant relationship with God.  David wrote while under the covenant God made with Israel through Moses.  However, we live under a better covenant that Jesus has made possible through the power of His blood (Heb. 9:14-15; Heb. 8:1-13).  The covenant of Christ reveals both grace and truth that is available to all people.  Only those who respond to God’s love by loving Him back participate in the blessings and promises of the New Covenant (John 14:23).  If those who have been redeemed by the blood of Christ do not worship God, then, who?  Any substitution for God is an act of unbelief and this unbelief will keep us from the heavenly rest.
An Admonition (Psa. 95:8-11).
David warned against hardening one’s heart against God.  The writer of Hebrews quotes from Psa. 95 in Heb. 3:7 and 4:7 in order to emphasize this warning to his readers.  The human heart is hardened through the deceitfulness of sin (Heb. 3:11-12).  The author makes a historical comparison.  Remember the provocation in the wilderness!  The period of Wilderness Wanderings lasted forty years.  During this period of time, God’s people tested Him and provoked Him.  They saw His works but did not believe.  As a result, they faced His wrath.  God was grieved with them forty years.  He said it is a people that do err in their hearts.  He said they have not known my ways.  He swore in His wrath that they should not enter into His rest.  They missed the promised land because of unbelief.  Likewise, the saints of God today, can manifest unfaithfulness to God by worshiping idols and fail to enter into the heavenly rest.  We worship God as a manifestation of our faithfulness to Him because of who He is and what He has done for us in giving us physical life as our Creator and saving us through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Summary:
Worship brings God and His people into oneness.  Worship flows from a heart that is fully aware of who God is and what He has done in creative and redemptive acts.  Worship is manifested in human hearts who are in covenant relationship with God and who love God deeply.  Worship is expressed in praise and prayer directed to God.  Worship involves the whole person, body and soul, in devotion to God.  Worship enhances faithfulness to God.  Worship binds us to the heart of God and is an expression of the wonder we experience in His presence and the value that we ascribe to Him that is worthy.

Wonderers To Worshipers

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What inspires worship to God?  There may be many answers, but one of the best is wonder, awe, and excitement when contemplating God and His marvelous works.  Wonder is the antidote to boredom in worship.  Boredom in worship is an insult to the soul and may be due to a loss of wonder in the power and presence of God.
Wonder is lost when God is forgotten.  Wonder is lost when God is not loved supremely and we attempt to serve more than one Master.  Wonder is lost when the cares of the world extinguish desire for God.  Wonder is lost when sin invades the soul.  Wonder is lost when spiritual growth is neglected.  When wonder is lost, worship dies.
David possessed a sense of wonder that ignites worship.  Consider his thought in Psa. 139:14-16, “I will praise thee: for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.  My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.  Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.”
David Possessed a Sense of Wonder at God’s Marvelous Works.
He considers his own development in the womb and his own body which is due to the creative power of God.  He declares, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”  Fearfully refers to that property in an object the contemplation of which excites fear in the beholder.  As he examines his own body, mind and spirit, he is filled with fear of the One who designed it and created it.  The word wonderfully indicates the skill and wisdom used to create.  The human body is a work of art produced by the hand of an all-wise and all-powerful God.  Proper reflection upon these facts create wonder in us.
David Desired to Worship God as a Result of the Wonder in His Heart.
“I will praise thee.”  God is to be praised for His marvelous works.  When we contemplate God’s work in creation and God’s work in redemption, we are thrilled by His wisdom, power, love and goodness.  God’s glory is manifested in all of these aspects of His being.  Worship is homage paid to deity.  In our worship, we glorify our maker and our redeemer.  The doctrine of creation has a direct bearing upon our adoration, praise and devotion to God.  We are humbled in the presence of God.  By humility we surrender to Him.  We are purged of our pride.  We feel our own unworthiness.  God knows us in minute detail.  Before His scrutiny we shrink back.  We cannot hide from His presence.  Let us enter into His holy presence with fear and wonder.
When we truly know God and understand the wonders He has wrought, we will be filled with awe and  we will desire to come before Him in worship. What about boredom?  It vanishes when we enter into the presence of God’s glory with wonder!