Worship God today!

Day 7 of 15 days to give thanks!

By David Kim from the website, http://pursuitbible.com

What is worship?

“To some people, worship is about modern bands with synths or guitars. To others, it’s about hymns or solemn reverence. People have expressed worship in many ways in various denominations, traditions, cultures, and throughout the history of the church. What if biblical worship is not mainly about music or an event? What if it’s not even mainly about the sense of the presence of God, freedom to express emotions, or following a certain form? These can be related to worship, but what is really at the heart of worship?

What is worship according to the Bible? The most common words translated worship in the Bible mean to kneel or lay face down before someone as an act of reverence. Biblical worship is acknowledging that God is the King and results in living lives in light of that truth.

Worship is a beautiful and powerful reality if we understand it from God’s perspective.

How Is Worship Defined in the Bible?

The most common words translated worship in the Bible mean to lay one’s self before God.

In the New Testament, the most common word translated worship in the original Greek is proskuneó (transliterated with English letters). According to Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, the definition of worship is: by kneeling or prostration to do homage (to one) or make obeisance, whether in order to express respect or to make supplication.

What is the word worship in Hebrew, in the Old Testament? The most common word translated worship is shachah. According to A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (Brown-Driver-Briggs), worship means to bow down, prostrate oneself, before a monarch or superior, in homage, etc.

Both of the primary words in Hebrew and Greek for worship in the Bible mean the same thing: to bow down or lay one’s face to the ground. It’s an acknowledgment of God’s glory. There is someone who is transcendent and glorious and He is worthy of our full allegiance and devotion!

The word worship in English means to acknowledge and ascribe worth to someone or something. The Biblical words describe the actual act of worship, that of kneeling, bowing, or lying prostrate on the ground. The English translation describes the reason we would do what the Bible says. Psalm 95:6 describes the act of Biblical worship with two synonyms.

“Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!

Psalm 95:6 (ESV) So worship is to bow down or lay our face before God. This physical act is worship when it reflects the heart’s posture to follow the King.”