One
of my wife's favorite movies is The
Princess Bride. I confess to enjoying it myself. It has such tremendous
number of often applicable lines. One of those lines came to mind as I thought
about the subject of this new blog series. "You keep using that word. I do
not think it means what you think it means." The word I mean is "worship".
American Christianity has probably
never spent more time and emphasis on worship with so little equivalent
understanding. People go to church to worship. When they get there they walk
into a scheduled worship service. During this service they sing praise and
worship. These song sets are directed by a worship leader. They keep using that
word. I do not think it means what they think it means.
For the next six weeks we are going to
delve into the subject of worship. We are going to define worship. We are going
to examine a number of things that are often found in conjunction with worship.
We are going to talk about the shift in worship between Israel and the Church.
We are going to explain why the church service is not a worship service.
Finally, we are going to show you the compounding errors that come to a church
when it wrongly aims its service at worship.
Are you mad at me yet? Hang on, it is
probably going to get worse before it's over…
Some form of the word
"worship" is used one hundred ninety times in the King James Version.
In the Old Testament the vast majority of those (99) come from the Hebrew word
"shachah" which literally means to bow down. This original language
word is also translated in the KJV Old Testament as bow, bow down, obeisance,
reverence, fall down, stoop, and crouch. Additionally, Daniel, which is not
written in Hebrew but in Aramaic uses "worship" twelve times. The
Aramaic word Daniel used, "segeed" means to prostrate oneself.
In the New Testament the vast majority
of the usages (60) come from the Greek word "proskuneo" which means
kneeling or prostration. The root word underlying it implies a dog kissing his
master's hand. There are a few other usages translated as "worship"
but they are much rarer. We will look at some of them in the context of what
worship includes rather than as what worship is defined as.
What I gather out of my examination of
these definitions and out of the predominance of the word usages is that
worship is bowing myself before God when I enter into His presence. Worship
strongly implies a whole heart and body attitude of an inferior humbly
notifying his superior that he understands and believes in the validity of
their arrangement. For instance, in the context of a promised answer to prayer
in battle II Chronicles 20.18 records
And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his
face to the ground: and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell before the Lord, worshipping the Lord. Satan
exhibited a similar understanding in the New Testament when he said to Christ
during the temptations All these things
will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and
worship me. (Matthew 4.9)
With that as a basic understanding of
the word itself let us look at some examples in Scripture of this kind of
behavior.
Moses
Exodus 34.6-8 And
the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful
and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy
for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by
no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the
children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth
generation. And Moses made haste, and bowed his
head toward the earth, and worshipped.
Joshua
Joshua 5.14 And he
said, Nay; but as captain of the host of the LORD am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship,
and said unto him, What saith my lord unto his servant?
the people at
Solomon's Temple dedication
II Chronicles
7:3 And when all the children of Israel
saw how the fire came down, and the glory of the LORD upon the house, they bowed themselves with their faces to the ground upon
the pavement, and worshipped, and praised the LORD, saying, For he is
good; for his mercy endureth for ever.
the Wise Men
Matthew 2:11 And
when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his
mother, and fell down, and worshipped him:
and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold,
and frankincense, and myrrh.
the
women after the Resurrection
Matthew 28:9 And
as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped
him.
the 24 elders in heaven (repeated two more
times in Revelation 11.16 and 19.4)
Revelation 5:14
And the four beasts said, Amen. And the four and
twenty elders fell down and worshipped him that liveth for ever and
ever.
the
angels in heaven
Revelation 7:11 And
all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four
beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces,
and worshipped God,
In each of the nine cases I have cited
so far we see specific instances of people meeting God and responding in deep
humility by physically bowing down and worshipping. After noticing this pattern
as I studied the word "worship" in the Bible I decided to examine
every case I could find of a human being seeing God. I wanted to determine if I
could find the same reaction. In other words I wanted to see if humans
prostrate themselves in God's presence whether or not the Scripture actually
uses the word "worship." Not surprisingly this is exactly what I
found. Here are some illustrations of what I believe to be worship even though
the word is never used:
Abraham
Genesis
17.1-3 And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me,
and be thou perfect. And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will
multiply thee exceedingly. And
Abram fell on his face: and
God talked with him, saying,
Moses and Aaron
Numbers 20:6 And
Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly unto the door of the
tabernacle of the congregation, and they fell upon
their faces: and the glory of the LORD appeared unto them.
The priests at Solomon's Temple dedication
(repeated II Chronicles 5.14)
1Kings 8:11 So that the priests could not stand to minister
because of the cloud: for the glory of the LORD had
filled the house of the LORD.
the
crowd at Elijah's battle with the prophets of Baal
1Kings 18:39 And
when all the people saw it, they fell on their
faces: and they said, The LORD, he is the God; the LORD, he is the God.
Ezekiel
(repeated six times in Ezekiel)
Ezekiel 1:28 As
the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance
of the brightness round about. This was the
appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw it, I fell
upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spake.
Peter, after Jesus
filled the net with fish
Luke 5.8 When
Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees,
saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.
the Apostles at
the Transfiguration
Matthew 17:6 And
when the disciples heard it, they fell on their
face, and were sore afraid.
Paul's conversion
Acts 9.3-4 And as
he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly
there shined round about him a light from heaven: And he fell to the earth,
and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
John
the Revelator
Revelation 1:17 And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead.
And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first
and the last:
To me the definition of worship is
relatively simple: worship is our response when we see
God. It is what happens in our heart and soul when we enter into His
presence, in awe of His greatness, conscious of His holiness and our own
sinfulness, when in humility and amazement we fall at His feet and esteem Him
rightfully in every way our superior.
Jehoshaphat did it. Moses did it. Joshua
did it. The people and the priests at Solomon's Temple's dedication did it. Abraham
did it. Aaron did it. The crowd at Elijah's battle with the prophets of Baal
did it. Ezekiel did it. The Wise Men did it. The women who met Jesus after His
Resurrection did it. Peter did it. The Apostles at the Transfiguration did it.
Paul did it. John did it. The twenty four elders will do it in Heaven. The
angels do it.
Do you do it? Do you worship God? Do
you ever meet with Him? Did you meet with Him this morning? When you did, did
you worship Him? Did you, in your heart, throw yourself at His feet and
proclaim Him in every way your superior? Did you worship Him today?
It is not too late. The day is not
over. If you have not done it yet today steal away from your screen, find a
quiet place, throw yourself at His feet, and worship Him, beloved. He is most
deserving.
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