“Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness.”
Psalm 29:2
If it be inquired, then, by what things chiefly the Christian religion has a standing existence amongst us, and maintains its truth, it will be found that the following two not only occupy the principal place, but comprehend under them all the other parts, and consequently the whole substance of Christianity, viz., a knowledge, first, of the mode in which God is duly worshipped; and, secondly, of the source from which salvation is to be obtained.
Let us know and be fully persuaded, that wherever the faithful, who worship Him purely and in due form, according to the appointment of His word, are assembled together to engage in the solemn acts of religious worship, He is graciously present, and presides in the midst of them. The restoration of the fellowship between God and His people is expressed most fully in worship. As that fellowship was broken by sin and rebellion, so its restoration must be expressed in obedience to God. Only when we follow what God has commanded us do we truly worship Him, and render obedience to His Word.
“Worship the Lord with reverence, and rejoice with trembling” (Psalm 2:11). To prevent them from supposing that the service to which He calls them is grievous, He teaches them by the word rejoice how pleasant and desirable it is, since it furnishes matter of true gladness. But lest they should, according to their usual way, wax wanton, and, intoxicated with vain pleasures, imagine themselves happy while they are enemies to God, He exhorts them farther by the words with fear to an humble and dutiful submission. There is a great difference between the pleasant and cheerful state of a peaceful conscience, which the faithful enjoy in having the favour of God, whom they fear, and the unbridled insolence to which the wicked are carried, by contempt and forgetfulness of God. The language of the prophet, therefore, implies, that so long as the proud profligately rejoice in the gratification of the lusts of the flesh, they sport with their own destruction, while, on the contrary, the only true and salutary joy is that which arises from resting in the fear and reverence of God.
