Does God Care How We Worship? By Ligon Duncan 

The book is Does God Care How We Worship? by Ligon Duncan. It was originally published in 2020 by P&R Publishing. I read the paperback edition. I read it in June of 2024.  

The title is the thesis of the book. Duncan is considering whether or not God has commanded us to worship him in a certain way. It’s a good question especially in our current culture that’s obsessed with individual self-expression. 

I read this because there is a new couple that goes to our church and he mentioned that they’ve had disagreements about how The Well does music worship service. She’s coming from a more charismatic environment and we’re just not that way at all. So I read this book hoping it might shed some light on how I can speak to their disagreement. This wouldn’t be the first time I’ve had the discussion about how toned down or subdued the music service is at our church.  

The main takeaway from this book was that how we worship God has become too much of an openhanded issue. It’s not only the object of our worship which is God, but also the means.  

Duncan points to several examples in scripture of God’s people worshiping him in the wrong way. There’s Cain who brings inferior offerings to God. There’s Nadab and Abihu with their “strange fire.” The Hebrews with their golden calf. But the main point is that it’s scripture that determines what is acceptable as true worship to God. It’s not about our feelings or psychology, or our emotional experiences. It’s about God’s Word. We have so emotionalized and psychologized our Christianity in our day, that it seeps into how we view everything.  

“God— not man—is the supreme authority for how corporate worship is to be conducted, by assuring that the Bible, God’s own special revelation (and not our own opinions, tastes, likes, and theories), is the prime factor in our conduct of and approach to corporate worship.” (p16) 

This book did make me think about how we conduct worship at our church. Not just with music but in all ways of worship. I would say our church does a good job about teaching people to worship God in all that we do from a biblical standard.  

 I thought this book would be more about music service. I’m glad that it was not, even though that’s what initially prompted me to read it.  

I had never read Ligon Duncan before. He seems okay. This book was biblically sound. I’d recommend it to anyone struggling with how to approach worshiping God rightly. It’s a super small book. Easy and benificial read.  

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Notable  

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True Christian worship is by the book. It is according to Scripture. The Bible alone ultimately directs the form and content of Christian worship. (p11) 

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God— not man—is the supreme authority for how corporate worship is to be conducted, by assuring that the Bible, God’s own special revelation (and not our own opinions, tastes, likes, and theories), is the prime factor in our conduct of and approach to corporate worship. (p16) 

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Cain failed to worship in either spirit or truth or both. The how of worship was lacking in either its standard or motivation, and so God rejected his worship. (p22) 

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how we worship in turn impacts our concept of God. Put another way: how we worship determines whom we worship. That is why both the medium and the message, both the means and the object, must be attended to in true worship. So, the Bible (God’s own revelation regarding himself and his worship)—and not our own innovations, imaginations, experiences, opinions, and representations—is to determine how we worship God. (p29) 

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Israel, impatient at Moses’s long delay, comes to Aaron not only looking for a visible representation of deity or of the divine presence, but essentially looking for a new mediator (there is a sense in which the golden calf and Aaron serve as their chosen replacements for Moses). The people’s request seems to be not a request for a different god, a god other than Yahweh, but rather a representation of him (or of the mediator). (p33) 

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There is no more easily observable example of the widespread rejection of the authority of Scripture in the worship of the church than in the ever-growing number of female preachers (however sincere, dedicated, talented, and otherwise orthodox they may be), even in ostensibly evangelical circles. Paul’s directive, however, is unmistakable. God’s Word alone determines who may or may not preach in public worship. (p51) 

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The means of worship influences the worshipers’ apprehension of God. So, Christian corporate worship both requires and shapes our understanding of the Bible’s teaching about God. The doctrine of God informs our corporate worship, and, in turn, our corporate worship refines our practical comprehension and embrace of the doctrine of God. (p59) 

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true worship is characterized by self-effacement without self-consciousness. That is, in biblical worship we so focus upon God himself and are so intent to acknowledge his inherent and unique worthiness that we are transfixed by him, and thus worship is not about what we want or like (nor do his appointed means divert our eyes from him, but rather it is about meeting with God and delighting in his delights. Praise decentralizes self. (p76) 

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the Psalms provide the model for Christian hymnody. If the songs we sing in worship look like Psalms, they will develop themes over many lines with minimal repetition. They will be rich in theological and ‘experiential content. They will tell us much about God, man, sin, salvation, and the Christian life. (p81)