“Sing forth the honour of His name: make His praise glorious.” (Psalms 66:2)
Although it’s not known who wrote this psalm, there is every indication that it was written by David. The psalmist calls for a celebration to be made to God’s Name and for the adulation to be made grand and majestic.
There is a difference in the Old Testament and New Testament praise to God. In the Old Testament people had to be encouraged to praise God. Time and again we read in the psalms where the psalmist commands and calls the people to worship God. And so, the people worshipped God because it was commanded that they do so. Their idea of God was that He commanded, and they obeyed under the threat of punishment. This Old Testament image of God has been carried into the New Testament by legalistic religious denominations that are unknowledgeable about the freedom and life in the Spirit of the New Covenant of Jesus. The people are living under the written Law and the commandments.
Whereas in the New Testament, the command to worship God is so infrequent it can be counted on one hand. The difference is that we have a new covenant with God because of Jesus. Paul wrote about it. This New Covenant begins with the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus and is completely fulfilled in the reign of Jesus when Israel will be saved. “But now hath He obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also He is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. For finding fault with them, He saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in My covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put My laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to Me a people: And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know Me, from the least to the greatest.” (Hebrews 8:6-11) There are two big things in these Scriptures written by Paul. The law is written in our hearts, and all will know God.
In this New Covenant that Jesus has obtained for us, there is no need for the law of God to be written down and observed because the law is written in our hearts. We don’t have to be commanded to worship God. We have the Holy Spirit indwelling us Who leads us in God’s perfect Will and to His perfect purposes. “Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.” (2Corinthians 3:3) And again he writes, referring to Jeremiah’s prophecy, “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;” (Hebrews 10:16, Jeremiah 31:33-34)
Does God command worship in the New Testament? All worship is due Him and only Him. But God doesn’t have to command worship from us because our human spirits that are influenced by the Holy Spirit bursts from the inside of us with adoration. We don’t have to be commanded to worship. It flows out of us. “He that believeth on Me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” (John 7:38) Jesus told the Samaritan woman, “But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” (John 4:23-24) In the New Covenant we worship God without a commandment written for us. Our worship pours out of our spirit. “And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” (Romans 5:5) It’s God Himself filling us with His love that pours out worship for Him.
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