God is the fountain of all our joy. He is the One who gives us the capacity to enjoy the good gifts He has given. We should experience both gladness and gravity in His presence, both joy and awe. But coming into His presence is a dangerous thing. It is dangerous to think that we can use God to get more gifts or get more joy. It is dangerous to be in His presence and think what we have to say is more important than what He has to say. Brian Borgman
Ecclesiastes 5:1-7
The lesson so far has been if we are going to enjoy this short life, we must see all its various elements and aspects as the gifts of God. Joy in living comes from a God-centered, God-ordered life. Qoheleth tackled those parts of life that threaten to deplete our joy. He then relentlessly pointed us to God. His audience, ancient and contemporary, may conclude that what we really need then, to round out our lives, is some religion.
After all, if we can’t enjoy life without God, maybe we need a little more God in our lives. This is dangerous logic because God is not to be trifled with. Yes, life revolves around Him, and our response to Him in worship is vital in our short lives. But worship is also dangerous because we are dealing with God. The God to whom we must give account, is not the cosmic grandpa, nor the divine Santa Claus. He is God, the Lord of heaven and earth. Qoheleth would have probably nodded in agreement with Gordon Dahl’s famous statement: “We worship our work, work at our play, and play at our worship.” Playing at worship is a half-hearted, shallow effort to curry favor with the Most High. Playing at worship uses vows to manipulate the Creator for one’s own ends. This is trifling with the God who alone can empower us to enjoy the gift. When we use worship as a means to an end, we are playing with a “consuming fire” (Heb. 12:29). As my fellow pastor, Daniel Corey, has said, “Worship is the most dangerous thing you do in the course of a week.”
Going to church? Guard your steps! This is a word of caution to the careless. When you go to worship God, be prepared, be intentional, have a sense of both gravity and gladness. As you enter the doors, realize that what you have to say pales compared to what God has to say. Draw near to listen and listen with care (Luke 8:18). An acute awareness of His holiness will cause us to come before Him in reverence and awe. Our God is worthy of our undivided hearts, undivided worship, and listening with all our heart, with a determination to obey.
We must be intentional and careful as we pray, sing, and respond to the Word. Being hasty in word and impulsive in thought is a clear demonstration that we are not thinking about the glorious One we have come to worship. When Qoheleth says, “For God is in heaven and you are on earth,” this should not be construed to mean that God is distant but simply that He is God. We are dust, we are mere human beings, we are sinners. God is God, exalted and transcendent. The fool pours out words in worship; the wise man ponders what he hears. The wise man is there is to listen, not to blab. The wisdom of James 1:19 certainly applies: we should be quick to hear and slow to speak. This is not a call to walk silently into church with some kind of pious quietude, but it is a call to take worship seriously and prepare one’s heart and mind. It is a call to stand in awe of the Creator/creature distinction.
David Gibson remarks, “When I live with the reality of God, the God in heaven who has my heart open before him like an open book, I stand in awe of him, and this takes concrete form in the kind of words that do and do not leave my mouth.” One of the many banes of our contemporary church culture is that worship has been turned into entertainment and God is belittled.
God is the fountain of all our joy. He is the One who gives us the capacity to enjoy the good gifts He has given. We should experience both gladness and gravity in His presence, both joy and awe. But coming into His presence is a dangerous thing. It is dangerous to think that we can use God to get more gifts or get more joy. It is dangerous to be in His presence and think what we have to say is more important than what He has to say. We should prepare our steps that bring us into His presence. We should be prepared to listen. Playing at our worship will not only fail to satisfy our souls, but it will also endanger our souls. As we prepare our hearts for worship, let us remember we are coming to the living God, who is a consuming fire (Heb. 12:29). Let us remember we are coming to hear the living Word of God (4:12). – Brian Borgman
Soli Deo Gloria!