What’s the purpose of the religious laws of the Old Testament?

“So you shall keep my commandments and do them: I am the LORD. And you shall not profane my holy name, that I may be sanctified among the people of Israel. I am the LORDwho sanctifies you, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God: I am the LORD.” Leviticus 22.31-33

There is a logic to the orderin which we should give ourselves to the Lord in worship.

God calls us to worship.

We enter before Him with praise and then bow to confess our sins before Him.

Assured of His forgiveness, we proclaim our gratitude and faith in Him by confessions of faith and offerings.

Then we offer praise for the work He will do with our offerings.

Having emptied ourselves before Him, the Lord now invites our petitions, which He then deigns to answer through the reading and proclamation of His Word and by inviting our participation in Him through the sacrament.

Thereafter we affirm our determination to obey Him by declaring our commitment, our voices united as one in song or confession.

Then the Lord’s spokesman dismisses us with His blessing as we go forth to be the salt of the earth.

When we follow this order and give to the Lord what He requires, we have the sense that He is pleased with our worship, we experience His delight in us, and we know the joy He knows within the Godhead.

Through worship we come into the very presence of the Lord, where there is fullness of joy and pleasure forevermore (Ps. 16.11). This is the source of our blessing and joy in worship – not that we have been moved or delighted by any forms or style of worship, or any human actions, but that we have met with God, and He has blessed us with His glory.

Only God can renew us, and we are not truly renewed until He does so.

We are renewed in God’s covenant when God Himself renews us. And He renews us – He sanctifies us – as we obey His commandments concerning how we worship and serve Him. Obedience is the context for blessing. Seek blessing, and you will fail of it. Seek to obey the Lord, and you will know the blessings of His covenant, precisely as He intends.

For a fuller study of the pattern of worship revealed in Scripture, order the book, The Highest Thing, by T. M. Moore, from our online store. These studies and brief essays will help you to see how the pattern of sound worship, which began in the Law of God, comes to complete expression in the rest of Scripture. Subscribe to Crosfigell, the devotional newsletter of The Fellowship of Ailbe.