Preparing for Worship

Preparation is a part of our lives. We prepare for going to work and class, we prepare for vacations and exams, we prepare to have people in our homes, we prepare for relationships and for carrying out responsibilities in those relationships. We prepare because it will be easier to carry out our duties and experience the goodness of those duties. But do we prepare for our highest calling, the fulfilling of our duties in worshiping the LORD God Almighty?

Maybe you do not consider the worship of God a duty, and so you are uncomfortable with the thought of preparing for worship as a duty. The Scriptures command us everywhere to worship God as responsible creatures of our Creator (Psalm 95:6; 96:9; Romans 12:1; Hebrews 12:28-29; Revelation 15:4). And they tell us that the wrath of God is being revealed against all those in the earth who will not carry out their responsibility to worship Him (Romans 1:18-32). But this duty to Worship God is turned into a delight as it allows us to come into his presence to be satisfied in who God is, what he has done, and who and what he promises to be for us in Christ (Psalm 37:4; 73:25-26). But the duty of preparation is necessary for the duty of worship in God’s presence being a delight.

God has set his own apart from the world for himself by his grace. Those who are dead to sin and alive in Christ have become a kingdom of priests to himself, and these honored sons and daughters then must live in this grace by preparing for the privilege and duty in his presence on the Lord’s Day. The Psalmist Asaph tells us that those who are far from God will perish. Therefore he can say, “it is good for me to be near God” (Psalm 73:27-28). How is that they are far from God? They have been “unfaithful”(v.27b) to God. They are like a wife who in marriage has been well provided for and served in love by her husband, but she goes away and gives herself to her neighbor’s husband in unfaithfulness. If we have been separated unto God through his covenant love for the glory of his name in worship then we must not let anything hinder us from the goodness of being near to God. But if it is good for us to be near to God in worship on the Lord’s Day then it is necessary that we prepare to find that goodness. How should we make these due preparations as we anticipate corporate worship?

First, we must labor to get our minds and hearts into a proper frame. We need to be rightly thinking on the majesty and mercy of him who we worship, so that our hearts will rightly apprehend him who calls us into his presence. We should spend time meditating upon who God is as revealed in his Word. You might take a Psalm, one of the prophets or a New Testament passage like Ephesians 1 or Colossians 1 and read with thought and pause thinking about who God is. You could also take the Westminster Confession of Faith Chapter 2, the Larger Catechism questions 6-12 or the Shorter Catechism questions 4-12 and read with thought looking up the Scripture that corresponds to each description or answer.

Second, we must labor to put off sin from our minds and hearts. We must make it our aim to come to the living God with our gaze of love upon him and not as those who pretend faithfulness while we are committing spiritual adultery in our hearts by entertaining known sin. Coming to worship on the Lord’s Day is a process of sanctifying or setting ourselves apart unto God. Therefore we must set ourselves apart from sin and stretch out our hearts and hands to the Lord in worship in cleanliness. Come near to Christ and be washed by him who is the advocate of the children of God and find mercy and grace and God’s faithfulness to forgive you of your sins as you confess them to him (1John2:1-2; 1:9).

Third, we must labor to set our lives apart from our common callings for the extraordinary privilege and duty of worshiping God. All week God calls you into the common for the glory of his name in the earth. But on the Lord’s Day, which he sets apart, he calls you to the glory of the uncommon. And we must with all our efforts strive to put off all the common so that we can come unhindered to his throne. There will be works of necessity and mercy to participate in, but we must strive to put all else aside. I will prepare for my wife’s and mine anniversary by putting away the everyday to experience the delight of celebrating our covenantal union on this special occasion. If this covenantal union points to Christ and his church then how much more every week should I prepare by setting aside the common to participate unhindered in the worship of the only true and living God.

Fourth, we must labor to prepare for worship in prayer. God calls us to the holy duty of prayer as worship. Worship on the Lord’s Day is a service of prayer where we dwell continually in his heavenly presence by faith through a heart of prayer. But if our hearts are not tuned for this time of prayer in preparation we forfeit the delight of his presence. In preparation by prayer we become as nothing and God becomes all to us. And our minds and hearts are then fit for the worship of God. If my daughters sit down to delight us with a piece of music played on their strings, and have not made due preparations by tuning those strings we will miss the goodness and beauty of their playing. We must wait on the Lord in prayer as we prepare to come into his presence in worship.

Fifth, we must labor for a ready expectation of being in the presence of God’s majesty and mercy. In Acts 1 the disciples were charged by Jesus to go to Jerusalem and wait for the promised Holy Spirit so that they would be his witnesses. They waited with expectation in prayer and fasting for the promise to be fulfilled and the result was that they became witnesses. God promises us his presence in worship when we come by faith (Hebrews 12:22-29). Therefore, we must make ourselves ready with an expectation that he will fulfill his promise and give us the privilege of his glorious presence here on the earth. We must tune our hearts to this expectation by looking to God’s promises in his Word.

Preparation for worship on the Lord’s Day is a necessity for those who are called to set themselves apart for the glory of God’s name in his ordained worship. As you begin to do this on Saturday night and Sunday morning you will find yourself saying with the Psalmist, “But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of your works.” (Psalm 73:28). These are reflections taken from Gospel Worship by Jeremiah Burroughs.