What is Worship?

Psalm 95:6-7 is an invitation, an encouragement to act. God wants us to do something in response to Him. It shows us the reality of, the reason for and the result of worship.

The Reality of Worship: What is it?
We think of it in terms of what we do in “worship services” – worship through singing, prayer, the Word, the Lord’s Table – great things – but the Bible words translated worship refer to more than we usually refer to when we use the word worship. A look at the three Hebrew words used in Psalm 95:6 helps us come to a definition.

Worship (shachah) means to depress, to prostrate yourself, bow yourself down. It was used for the action of bowing down as an act of respect to a superior being. Joseph in his dream in Gen. 37 saw his sheaves, representing his brothers, bowing down to his sheaf; Ruth bowed before Boaz Ruth 2:10; David bowed before Saul. It was an act of honor done when making a request. Those who practiced this would often fall on the ground flat out on their face and kiss the ground, or fall to their knees and touch the ground with their forehead. It was a way of showing submission, yielding to a greater power. When applied to God it stood for honoring God with prayers. It was a way of saying “You are greater than me and I an dependent on You”.

Bow down (kara) means to bend your knees, kneel. A way of making yourself vulnerable, showing you were weaker. It was a position of humility, showing a humble attitude.

Kneel (barak) means to bend the knee, bow in praise to another, to ask for a blessing. There was a connection in Old Testament times between kneeling and being blessed.

Put together the three words in Psalm 95:6 give the idea of honoring God by submitting to Him humbly and looking to Him to meet our needs. This side of the Cross we need a fuller definition so here are three definitions of worship: one for those who like things simple; one for those who like to think things through; and one for those who like a more emotional connection. (If you are well-balanced, you'll get all three!:))

Simple version: Worship is honoring God. There is urgency in the call to worship Come, let us. It is a privilege, a duty, an awesome undertaking. It is not trivial, frivolous or light. It is weighty, important, necessary. Worship is the most important and most continuous activity that humans engage in. The Westminster confession begins: "The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever". John Piper said "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied with Him." We honor what we value and delight in and enjoy. Worship is man’s highest activity, the noblest pursuit, the highest aim. Worship is actively honoring God who is vastly superior to us in every way.

Thinker version: Worship is the proper response of mankind to God in every area of life, through Jesus Christ, empowered by the Spirit, based on who He is and what He does as revealed in His Word. John Stott said "All true worship is a response to the self-revelation of God in Christ and Scripture, and arise from our reflection on who He is and what He has done…the worship of God is evoked, informed, and inspired by the vision of God…the true knowledge of God will always lead us to worship." A proper response to God is to honor Him as our Creator, Maker, Provider; far bigger and greater than us; who made everything and holds it all together. If worship is a proper response to God we will not be focused primarily on whether we like or enjoy what the church does when it gathers, we will examine ourselves and see whether our lives are in line with what God expects of us all week long.

Feeler version: Worship is the soul’s humble response in all of life to the love of God in Christ. Worship should permeate all of life. Our desire is to be people who are loving God with everything we’ve got! We want to “shout with joy to the Lord,” exalting God for who He is and what He has done! We want to live for God's glory! Col. 3:17 “Whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”

Some important implications:
1. Thomas R. Kelly wrote, in A Testament of Devotion: “Walk and talk and work and laugh with your friends. But behind the scenes, keep up the life of simple prayer and inward worship.” D.A. Carson says, “we cannot imagine that the church gathers for worship on Sunday morning if by this we mean that we engage in something that we have not been engaging in the rest of the week. New-covenant worship terminology prescribes constant worship”. Going to a church service on a Sunday and do something you haven’t been doing all week long is like a man saying I love you to his wife every Sunday for one hour, treating her like a queen, falling over himself doing things for her, trying to build her up and impress her but as soon as the hour is up he flips a switch and becomes a tyrant, demanding, unkind, even cruel – all week long until that one hour every Sunday. Or like a parent who only one time per week treats their child like a gift from God but the other 6 days treats them harshly, critical, unyielding, unfeeling, unaffectionate. If we think we only worship once a week to get recharged for the coming week; if we engage in something here that we haven’t been doing all week long we are in trouble because whatever we are doing all week is our real worship. People who see worship as just what we do when we gather fail to see the bigger picture of what God wants – a life given over to Him fully. Things make sense when we see all of life as worship. We ask not what God can do for us but what does God expect of us?

2. We are natural born worshippers. We will worship – the question is who or what we will give honor, glory and all of our attention to? Mark Driscoll says "worship is a biblically faithful understanding of God combined with a biblically faithful response to Him." Idolatry is just the opposite - it is a biblically unfaithful response to God combined with a biblically unfaithful response to Him. We will worship, the question is who or what are we worshipping? Worship never ceases. We worship the Creator or the creature. Why does it matter? God hates idolatry because it robs Him of glory and ruins us as people made in His image. All of life is really ceaseless worship. Am I worshipping God or someone or something else?

The three definitions given above complement one another. They point to the fact that the only true worship, this side of the Cross, is Christian worship. What are the characteristics of Christian worship? Tune in tomorrow to find out!

Soli Deo Gloria