Worship: God's Inward Necessity

So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.—Genesis 1:27

I believe that He created man out of no external necessity. I believe it was an internal necessity. God, being the God He was and is, and being infinitely perfect and infinitely beautiful and infinitely glorious and infinitely admirable and infinitely loving, out of His own inward necessity had to have some creature that was capable of admiring Him and loving Him and knowing Him. So God made man in His own image; in the image and likeness of God made He him; and He made him as near to being like Himself as it was possible for the creature to be like the Creator. The most godlike thing in the universe is the soul of man.

The reason God made man in His image was that he might appreciate God and admire and adore and worship; so that God might not be a picture, so to speak, hanging in a gallery with nobody looking at Him. He might not be a flower that no one could smell; He might not be a star that no one could see. God made somebody to smell that flower, the lily of the valley. He wanted someone to see that glorious image. He wanted someone to see the star, so He made us and in making us He made us to worship Him. Worship: The Missing Jewel, 3.

"What an incredible thought, Almighty God, that You desire and even in some sense need my worship! Be pleased this morning, Lord, as I do indeed smell the flower and see the star, as I 'admire and adore and worship.' Amen."