Worship and Missions

I recently had the privilege of preaching at our former sending church from Psalm 96 on "Worship and Missions."

Psalm 96 highlights those two important activities, and I wanted to consider “How are those two things, worship and mission, connected?”

That's an important question, because I think we often think of those two activities separately. Worship is something we do inside the church; mission is what we do outside of the church. If we aren’t careful, we might begin to see worship and missions as two separate silos of activity in the Christian life. But there is an important connection between the two. And I believe grasping the connection will enhance our participation in both.

Before thinking through the connection of worship and missions, take a moment and read through Psalm 96:

Psalm 96:1-13
1 Oh, sing to the Lord a new song! Sing to the Lord, all the earth. 2 Sing to the Lord, bless His name; Proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day. 3 Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all peoples. 4 For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared above all gods. 5 For all the gods of the peoples are idols, But the Lord made the heavens. 6 Honor and majesty are before Him; Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary. 7 Give to the Lord, O families of the peoples, Give to the Lord glory and strength. 8 Give to the Lord the glory due His name; Bring an offering, and come into His courts. 9 Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness! Tremble before Him, all the earth. 10 Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns; The world also is firmly established, It shall not be moved; He shall judge the peoples righteously.” 11 Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; Let the sea roar, and all its fullness; 12 Let the field be joyful, and all that is in it. Then all the trees of the woods will rejoice 13 before the Lord. For He is coming, for He is coming to judge the earth. He shall judge the world with righteousness, And the peoples with His truth.

Much could be said about this psalm, but I want to point out at least 3 ways that worship and missions are connected.

1. Worship is the goal of missions.

Many of you have probably read Let the Nations Be Glad by John Piper. It is a tremendous book on missions, but listen to how he starts the book:

“Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity. But worship abides forever.

Worship, therefore, is the...goal of missions. It’s the goal of missions because in missions we simply aim to bring the nations into the white-hot enjoyment of God’s glory...” (17)

The psalmist in Psalm 96 and many other places in the psalms is doing this very thing. He is inviting the nations to worship (v. 7-9).

There are a lot of misconceptions about missions, even sometimes among Christians. Understand that the work of missions is not the effort of one person imposing their cultural preferences onto another. Missions is not a message of politics. Missions is not conducted in an attitude of superiority, looking down on another culture and society, hoping that they will change and be more like our home culture.

No, missions is about seeing God, who is worthy of all praise and glory of all peoples of the earth, but does not have it yet, receive that praise and glory. Missions is about seeing those who are lost, chasing after false gods and idols, find real life in a relationship with their Creator through Jesus Christ.

The goal of missions is the worship of God. Therefore, the message of missions is God. Look to him. Find life in him. This is the message of the psalmist and ours as we engage the nations.

2. Worship is the fuel of missions.

Notice again in Psalm 96 how the act of worship and posture toward the nations go hand in hand. For example, verses 2 and 3 plainly make the connection:

Psalm 96:2-3
2 Sing to the Lord, bless His name; Proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day. 3 Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all peoples.

We are to sing to the Lord and tell others of the Lord. We have our eyes on the people of the world while our hearts are set on him.

Piper, again, speaks of this:
“Passion for God in worship precedes the offer of God in preaching. You can’t commend what you don’t cherish.” (17)

And, “Where passion for God is weak, zeal for missions will be weak. Churches that are not centered on the exaltation of the majesty and beauty of God will scarcely kindle a fervent desire to ‘declare his glory among the nations’ (Psalm 96:3). Even outsiders feel the disparity between the boldness of our claim upon the nations and the blandness of our engagement with God.” (18)

The point he makes is that if our worship of God is weak, our desire to see him worshipped by others will be weak. If our view of God is low, then the effort we put into telling others about him will be low. However, as our hearts are stirred by the majesty and glory of our Sovereign, Creator King, our drive to see him enjoyed and revered by the nations will be stirred as well.

Or as Daniel Hames and Michael Reeves put it, “Happy Christians make for happy missionaries.” (God Shines Forth)

This is important to understand because we have an urgent task. And this urgency reminds us that we should be doing more. It reminds me that I should be doing more in the area of evangelism and participation in global missions. However, if I’m not careful, my motivation to speak more of Christ can be driven by guilt and obligation rather than joy. If you struggle with a desire or drive to share the gospel more, or to even care about the needs of people groups around the world or what our missionaries are up to, the solution to your apathy is not guilt; the solution is worship. If you give yourself to knowing God, his greatness, his holiness, his incredible work of grace in the gospel, your love for him will grow, your speech about him will grow as well, and your concern for others to hear about the good news of the gospel will grow as well.

If we are not speaking of Christ with others, more often than not, it is not because we don’t have the answers to questions from unbelievers. It is not because we don’t know certain methods of evangelism. It could be because we are not worshipping God as he deserves. If our mouths are not speaking of Jesus, it is likely that our hearts are not worshipping him either. Of course, we need to cultivate intentionality to speak of Jesus, but even intention is driven by worship.

3. Worship can be the means of mission.

In fact, what is interesting about Psalm 96 is that we have a record of it being sung outside of the book of Psalms. We see the people of Israel singing this song in 1 Chronicles 16. There, the ark of the covenant is brought and put in a tent for the nation of Israel. This was an incredibly significant moment as God’s presence was with God’s people as a light to the world around them.

And as they experienced this reality—God’s people enjoying God’s presence—they sang. And as they did, they sang with the nations, or with unbelievers in mind. They sang the glories of the Lord and invited others to join them in worship.

Now, we do the same thing today…

1 Peter 2:9
But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light

As we gather, we sing the praises of the God who now dwells not in a tent or tabernacle, but in us, the Church, the new temple of God. And every time we gather, we can assume that some are with us who don’t yet know him, but as they join us and we lift our voices in corporate worship of our Savior, they get to see and hear God’s people “declare the praises of him who has called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

When we served in Italy, we often said that people become interested in the Christian message after being exposed to the Christian community. They needed to see a people who were serious about their faith; they needed to see real worship.

And so we gather and worship through singing and the reading of God’s Word, and then we go. We scatter during the week, and worship him through our words and deeds. In doing so, we declare his praises to those around us.

But when we gather and we sing, it is more than just tradition. It is more than just routine. It is an act of a people formed by the gospel coming together to give the praises that God deserves, and it is also an act that supports the mission of the church.

Are you worshipping with the nations in view?

Psalm 96 reorients us to the connection between worship and missions. As we evaluate our own lives, the first question we should ask ourselves is not “Am I sharing the gospel?” The first question should be, “Am I worshipping the Lord?” If you are, if you delight in Christ, talking about him will come naturally. Concern for and intentional participation in the task of global missions will come naturally.

We continue to practice this missional worship as a means of seeing the world rejoice in the salvation that is found in Christ until the consummation of redemptive history. There, the goal of missions will be realized, and the nations will worship with us around the throne of Christ:

Revelation 5:9-10
9 And they sang a new song, saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll, And to open its seals; For You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, 10 And have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth.”

That day is coming, but it is not yet. So in the meantime, we sing. We worship with music. We worship with all our lives. We look to Christ. We sing to Christ. And we invite others to join us as we do.

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