Is song a critical component of worship or something that we've just borrowed from example?

Allow me to answer this question via an illustration and another question.

Let's say there was someone who had an unhealthy emotional obsession with you. You tell your friends that you are concerned that this other person may even "worship the ground you walk on". Now, in this scenario, which of the following activities would make you more concerned that they worship you?

• They sing you a song about how much they love you
• They sing you a song about how how great you are
• They spend a significant portion of their income, let's say 10%, buying gifts for you
• They buy property on the town-common and erect a giant structure in your honor

That certainly is not an exhaustive list, but you get the idea. Clearly, all of these activities would be concerning, but I suspect some may be more concerning to you than others.

The Bible does not, itself, define what worship is. There are examples in scripture of people worshiping by singing, dancing, bowing, praising, and giving of gifts.

For instance, Genesis 24:26-27 shows an example of bowing and praising as a form of worship:

And the man bowed down his head, and worshipped the Lord. And he said, "Blessed be the Lord God of my master Abraham, who hath not left destitute my master of his mercy and his truth: I being in the way, the Lord led me to the house of my master's brethren."

And Matt. 2:1-2 describes how the wise men traveled to worship Jesus by giving him gifts:

Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, "Where is he that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him."

Often we think of worship as being synonymous with music. Many churches even refer to the people leading the singing as the "worship leaders". Certainly music is a very common form of worship, but it is not the only one. I do not mean, nor intend, to denigrate music, as a form of worship, but we often forget that tithes/offerings and praise are also forms of worship.

From the Reformed Presbyterian perspective, I would say that the basis for all public worship (i.e., worship with the Lord's people on the Sabbath) is found in the Regulative Principle of Public Worship: all elements of pblic worship must have an express warrant in Scripture. Put another way, you can only do those things in public worship that God has expressly set down in Scripture. The basis for the Regulative Principle is the Second Commandment in Exodus 20:4-6 or Deuteronomy 5:8. I'll quote the first:

4 “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

Leviticus 10:1-2 shows how seriously God takes worship of Himself. It must be done His way. Now, I am not arguing, obviously, that God kills people who worship Him in unauthorized ways today. However, if something warranted the death penalty in the OT, I think we may infer that it's a bad idea, even in our time.

Now, contrary to some, I believe that the Regulative Principle does not end the matter, because now it becomes a question of "In Scripture, what has God commanded His people to do in public worship?" There are some (the Covenanters, dear brothers in Christ) who say that you should only sing Psalms in worship, and you should not use instruments (the so-called "exclusive psalmody, no-instruments position"). I am not of this view.

The practice of singing in public worship has express warrant in Scripture. Aside from a myriad of Psalms that command the people of God to sing praises to Him in worship, there are passages such as Colossians 3:16:

16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

The context of the phrase "singing psalms and hymns" is "teaching and admonishing one another", which can only realistically happen in the congregation. And there are other passages which command singing together.

Therefore, singing praises to God is considered an "element" of worship, to use the technical term often used in discussions of the Regulative Principle.