Thank you for joining me on this journey of studying what is true praise and worship. I pray that it has been uplifting and challenging to you – God’s Word is so rich! Today I wanted to wrap up this series with some summary take-away points.

• What is “praise?” Praise is shining a light on who our God is and saying, “Look at our God – there is no one like Him!”

• God is worthy of all praise because of who He is, what He has done, and what He will do.

• True praise is not centered on us and how we feel – true praise springs from knowing who God is and lifting Him up, shining a light on Him, exclaiming publicly, “How great is our God!”

• The Psalms call for all different expressions of praise. Shouting, singing, playing instruments are the most obvious. The Psalms also include as praise: telling of His wonders, praises, salvation; Giving thanks to Him publicly; Declaring His righteousness to the younger generations; Shouting for joy; and Confession of sin and thanking Him for His forgiveness.

• Even in our rejoicing, we should be trembling before Him! True praise and worship must be rooted in Truth, and to behold God for Who He is must compel us to fear Him, even as we praise Him with all that we are.

• What is “worship?” Worship is recognizing and responding to Who God really is. Worship is closely tied to the fear of God and submission to God’s authority as our Maker and Master.

• “Praise and Worship” is not a particular style of music. It is not a genre. True praise and worship are external expressions of internal attitudes toward God.

• It is quite possible to perform external acts of “praise and worship” and be spiritually way out of line. Just as we see in Psalm 50, we might be falling into ritual and failing to bring God the sacrifice of true thanksgiving. Worse yet, we might be blasphemously giving lip service while living in flagrant sin.

After studying this more in-depth for the last couple of weeks, I feel more burdened than ever for our churches today. I am bothered that typically when we discuss praise and worship, we get stuck on styles of music. We equate praise and worship issues with contemporary vs. traditional, praise band vs. organ, powerpoint slides vs. hymnal.

The reality is, Psalms gives us a clear precedent for praise and worship being in a multitude of different expressions! The root issues really are – is it grounded in Truth? Is what we are saying about God true? Are our hearts sincere? Are we lifting God up and shining a light on Him, or are we glorifying ourselves in the name of “praise and worship” services?

I’m sure that people from all kinds of different denominational backgrounds will read this, people of all ages with generational preferences, people with different cultural backgrounds. We might all express praise and worship differently. And you know what? That’s fine! True praise and worship can be expressed while singing the “old hymns” to a pipe organ in a cathedral, while dancing to homemade sheet metal instruments in a mud hut in a third world country, while clapping and singing with a worship band at a concert.

It’s high time we stop fighting over style and start closely examining our hearts. You can bring an insincere and blasphemous “praise” offering to God to the tune of an organ, and you can be following a ritual and going through the motions while you dance to your hip praise band. No matter how we express it, the core issue is the same: is it true? Is it sincere? Does it lift up our God and give Him the honor He is due? It’s not about us!

Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire.
Hebrews 12:28-29