Recalling the Hope of Glory

This semester, I am taking a class with Dr. Ian Duguid called "Biblical Theology of Worship."  It's looking to be a incredible, glorious class, and I am really excited about the books we're reading and the lectures we'll be hearing.  Today I started reading our first book, Recalling the Hope of Glory by Allen P. Ross.  I've only read the introduction so far, but it's so tremendous that I'm posting the first two pages here.  Hopefully that doesn't break any copyright laws or anything.  I think Dr. Ross will understand.  I know this will be a long entry, but believe me, it's worth reading:

"The words of worship flow so easily from our lips that we seldom stop to think about them: we casually talk about knowing the Lord; we say we talk to God and in one way or another hear from God.  We attend churches on Sundays to have, as we say, fellowship with God and each other.  There we celebrate the belief that he is our God with songs and hymns, but even these have become so familiar to us that our minds drift to other, more immediate concerns.  And when we approach the Lord's Table, to eat with God as it were, we often do not have enough time to appreciate what it means.  In short, our worship services have become time-bound and routine.  We have been so successful in fitting God into our important schedules that worship is often just another activity.  But it should be anything but routine and ordinary.

After all, this God we say we know is the sovereign Creator and Lord of the whole universe, the eternal and ever-living God, all wise, all powerful, and ever-present.  Our attention to the Lord must not be an ordinary part of our life; our worship of Him should be the most momentous, urgent, and glorious activity in our lives.  But we rarely see the splendor, the beauty, and the glory of worship because we are not drawn out of our world enough to comprehend this God of glory; consequently, our worship is all too frequently unexceptional and at times irrelevant.

If we could grasp the incongruity of speaking so casually about God, we would be overwhelmed and could never again worship comfortably in the same ways.  We would think it too demeaning for God and too flattering for us.  On the one hand, here we are, finite human beings, concerned chiefly with staying healthy and making a comfortable living.  We spend our days in familiar routines with an array of anxieties and uncertainties threatening our sense of security.  We genuinely would like to focus on worship and service, but more immediate concerns occupy our time.

And on the other hand, there is God, the sovereign and ever-living Lord.  He is the inconceivable and incomprehensible source of all existence; He is the invisible majesty who reigns on high.  This God we claim to know is the One before whom thousands upon thousands of angels and archangels stand, never ceasing to laud and praise Him as the holy and glorious majesty.  This Lord merely speaks, as He did at creation, and myriads of angels wait to carry out His will.  He is completely unique, truly glorious and incomparably holy-- there is no one like Him, anywhere, at any time.  And there is no measure of the magnificence and beauty of His holiness, for all His works are amazing, good, and glorious.  And we say we know Him!...

How then can we talk casually of this Lord?  How can we merely slot Him into our fully scheduled lives?  How can we think there might be more important things for us to do in life than to worship Him?  If we even begin to comprehend His glorious nature, we cannot.  We will be caught away from our worldly experience and transported in our spirits to realms of glory.  We will be overwhelmed by the thought of being in His presence, tremble at the thought of hearing what He has to say to us, and be amazed at the thought that we can speak to Him and He will listen!  How can we not desire to transcend the ordinary routine by entering His courts to praise and glorify Him above the profane things we so eagerly value?  Truly, if our worship, if our spiritual life, is going to rise above this earthly existence where our minds are fixed on mundane thoughts and our attention is given to mundane concerns, then we are going to have to begin to focus our hearts and our minds on the holiness and the glory and the beauty of the One we say we know and love."