How Has the Church Developed It’s Ascribing?
In the book, How Shall We Worship? each chapter has focused a verse of Psalm 96. This chapter’s verses are 7-8a:
Ascribe to the Lord, O families of nations
Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength
Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name
The first question you may ask is “What does it mean to ascribe?” The King James says, “Give to the Lord…” This is not a physical act of giving, but one of giving worth, of giving worship to.
When we look through history, we see a number of changes of how the church worshipped. The first century church, the church of Acts, had a lot of Jewish converts. They borrowed a lot of their worship from the Jewish synagogue. Prayers and scripture readings were the main items borrowed from Jewish services. However, there was a major change in that Christians brought in the communion table as the primary focus of the service. Today, the focus is either on the sermon or the music. But we should ask the question, “Isn’t Jesus’ act of dying on the cross the reason why we are worshipping? Shouldn’t that be the focus of why we are gathering together?”
Throughout the centuries, worship went from participatory to spectator. The congregation played an active role in the services, from the communion table to the reading of scripture. Around the middle ages, there was a pull away from that to where the congregation watched the clergy perform everything. We have now switched back to a more active role with singing songs, but wouldn’t it be an awesome time of worship to be active worshippers?
Our roles as worshippers are not as observers but as people with such a deep indebtedness to the grace and mercy and love God has shown us that we have no choice but to lift our arms up to God, actively and physically praising Him for eternity.
