Worship: From Silence to SongSample

The End of Worship

Seek his face always. (v. 4 NIV)

When does worship end? Answer: It doesn’t. Our life with God is full of both satisfaction and hunger at the same time. Augustine said that we seek God to enjoy him more than before, and we enjoy God so we can seek him even more passionately. The two—satisfaction and desire—are intertwined. This is not just a spiritual version of going up for seconds at a buffet. This is something deeper, more mysterious. Somehow, when we worship God, we experience both the thrill of desire and the peace of satisfaction at the same time. We hunger for God, to be fed by Word and sacrament, and, tasting his goodness, we seek God all the more.

It’s easy to think that worship ends with the benediction, when we walk out of the church building. But that’s not the truest, deepest ending of worship. The true end of worship is union with Christ, communion through the Holy Spirit, and unending praise of the Father. This is the final worship service to which we are headed, along with all of creation. We hear hints of it at the end of the prophets, in the book of Revelation, and in the Song of Songs. Every Sunday we practice our parts, and peek in to that final worship service through preaching and the Lord’s Supper. The true end of worship is the deep satisfaction of experiencing God always.

As you pray, ask God to satisfy your deepest hungers, so you can seek him all the more passionately.

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Was this plan helpful? We adapted it from the Words of Hope devotional series “Worship: From Silence to Song”. Read the full series and explore other resources from Words of Hope.