The Work of the Church is Worship
The Work of the Church is Worship.
“Lord God, heavenly King, Almighty God and Father, we worship You for Your holiness, we give You thanks for Your goodness, we praise You for Your glory!”
Here I Am To Worship (More Than Life) [feat. Ryan Ofei] | Maverick City Music | TRIBL
The Christian Church is first and foremost a community of worshippers. Corporate worship is Job #1 in the local Body of Christ as well as the global Church. Worship is a vital way to “seek first the Kingdom of God,” because it empowers believers to go out and be a light to the world. That’s why every church has some form in which it worships, some set way to order their worship service. The very term “liturgy” literally means “work for the people,” or “work of the people,” or better yet, “public work.” But in order to understand the truth of that claim, let’s define our terms…
WHAT is Worship? To worship is to lose oneself in adoration of almighty God in response to His worthiness, to celebrate the Lord for being supremely worthy of all reverence and praise. Worship is the weaving together of praise, thanksgiving and adoration. The English word “worship” comes from an old Anglo-Saxon word, “worth-ship.” Worthy is the Lord. “Worship is the delightful sense of admiring awe, empowering love, and astonished wonder in the presence of that most ancient mystery, that majesty we call our Father who art in heaven.” (A. W. Tozer). Worship strengthens our faith in God and empowers us to live the life of a saint who loves and serves the Lord.
- Hebrew Bible – The Hebrew term most frequently used in the Old Testament for “worship” is “shachach” It means to bow down low, to adore out of submission and humility; to stoop down; to prostrate oneself; to fall down flat on the ground; to do reverence; to pay homage to a superior being, like the King; to make what is known as a “profound bow.” The Jewish version of worship has its roots in physical action that reflects a heart that is willing to submit to God in adoration and humility. To worship is to do reverence to the Lord, to make oneself lower in order to raise the Lord higher in honor.
- The New Testament – There are two primary Greek words for worship in the New Testament: “Proskuneo” and “Pipto.” They mean pretty much the same thing, and since “pipto” is used more often, we’ll focus on that word. The root Greek word means to fall down, and is used over 90 times in the New Testament. It is the starter word for dozens of terms involving falling downward from a higher place to a lower place. Pipto is the biblical term for prostration, falling onto one’s face on the ground, to collapse to the ground; to fall flat down in worship, reverence, allegiance, or submission; to drop down to the earth as if dead. In the Christian tradition, to fully prostrate oneself often includes confession and gratitude, as well as to pray from a low place before God’s greatness and awesome mystery. To prostrate oneself before the Lord is to assume a humble, servile position before our Master, the almighty God. When a defeated soldier is brought to a conquering king, the captured foe lays his body out, face down, fully on the ground. That physical act acknowledges the fact that he is in subjection to the king, that he submits to his power and authority. To lie prostrate in worship is to acknowledge much the same thing, that the worshiper is humbly in full submission to God the King. To lie prostrate in prayerful worship is done out of reverence and a healthy fear of God’s might and authority over us.
“Open my lips, O Lord, and my mouth shall proclaim Thy praise (Tehilla, see below).” (Psalm 51:15 )
WHAT are the Main Ingredients of Worship? Perhaps we can narrow it down to this: to glorify and to praise:
- Glorifying God is to acknowledge and applaud the awesome reality of God’s presence in the world; to make His presence heavier and more obvious; to magnify Him by enlarging His name and reputation in the world; to live in a way that strengthens God’s credibility; to honor God in a way that reveals His truth and makes Him less hidden; to live in a way that preserves God’s glorious Name and Personhood; to follow God in a way that helps others to recognize God as the ultimate Person of Substance; to publicize and promote His glorious name by demonstrating His character; to be a guardian of God’s goodness and spiritual power in the world; to recognize the true and eternal status of God in a life-changing way. The biblical meaning of God’s glory tends to emphasize the weighty splendor of God’s personal Presence; God’s supreme worthiness to be honored and praised; the overwhelming greatness of God’s beauty and power; the eternal weight of God’s substance; the heaviness of God’s inherent majesty. The weight of God’s presence outweighs the world; His presence is more substantive and heavier than the universe. His eternal glory remains constant, whether or not He decides to reveal Himself to us. God’s essential glory is forever Real in the heavens, whether or not we experience Him here with our senses on earth. When God’s glory makes an appearance, we can get everything from angels and trumpets and fire and earthquakes, to lightning and clouds and wind and thunder, to smoke and voices and blinding lights and foreign languages, to open graves and resurrected bodies and torn curtains and noontime darkness, to miracles galore.
“I will raise You up high, Elohim, Lord King; And I will bless Your name on bended knee forever and ever. Every day I will kneel down in adoration, and I will rave about Your name forever and ever, celebrating You to the point of looking foolish! Great is the Lord Yahweh, and highly to be praised, raising our arms with loud jubilation! His greatness is unsearchable, beyond discovery. One generation shall loudly exult You in praise to another, and shall boldly stand in the front of the line to declare Your mighty acts. On the glorious splendor of Your majesty, and on Your wonderful works, I will quietly utter my meditations.” (Psalm 145:1-4, Praise-Words by David).
2. Praising God. “The area of ancient Israel’s greatest creativity, and so what they did best, was the praise of God.” (Ellen Davis, Getting Involved with God).
Describing Praise. Scripture doesn’t define the word “praise,” but it offers plenty of descriptions and numerous praise-words. Praise can be described as an outward expression of gratitude for all that God has done for oneself, for the community, for the world. Praise is a recounting of the many blessings that God has provided in His grace and mercy. Praise is a grateful appreciation of God’s mighty works. Praise is an expression of thanksgiving to the Lord, an acknowledgement of God’s righteous deeds. To praise God is to thank God and celebrate His presence in the world.
Every Part of Each Person. Praising God involves all of us, not just our intellect to think with or our bottoms to sit on. Praise and worship in the Jewish tradition is a physical experience as well as spiritual, with lots of meaningful postures and gestures, singing, multisensory, thoughtful yet expressive. Praise and worship in the Hebrew Bible invariably incorporated music, dance, melody and instrumentation. Praise is not a spectator sport, but one that asks for full participation. As Dwight Pryor once said, “Praise is not afraid of feelings, but they are not based on feelings. If praise were a train, the engine that needs to constantly be stoked is God-focus and self-forgetfulness, and the emotional feelings are basically the caboose… still a part of things, but not what’s running the train.”
Being Physical with Praise. The spiritual and the physical belong together, and are in fact inseparable. We were created as whole beings with a mysterious fusion of body and spirit and soul and body and everything else that constitutes our personhood. Not only that, the Incarnation reveals how important the body is to Creator God. In a sense, the idea, the reality, of God taking on a physical body was actually a spiritual act. We need to make sure we incarnate our worship. So worship of our Creator needs to include the body if we want to worship with our whole selves. Physical acts of worship become meaningless if it is done thoughtlessly, without its intention of worshipping God. But worship is not limited to the nonphysical, the so-called spiritual ether, or one is not truly involved fully in the act of worship. As Rev. Josef Ratzinger once wrote in his excellent article, The Theology of Kneeling, “The bodily gesture itself is the bearer of the spiritual meaning, which is worship. Without the heart of worship, the bodily gesture would be meaningless, while the spiritual act itself must of its very nature express itself in the bodily gestures.” So physical gestures are invaluable in the act of worship. They can point to spiritual truths, they can stimulate worshipful acts, and they can enable a fuller expression of awe, lament, adoration and worship. Using the body helps us to put the Gospel message into motion. The movement of one’s body can be a sign that communicates a message… Do you want to signal to God that you submit to Him, that you want to confess to Him, that you adore Him, that you intend to follow Him in trust? There are gestures and postures and movements that can express what is on your heart without any use of words. Body language is vital to spiritual life and expression. In this blog series entitled “Physical Worship,” I will focus on the worshipful use of the body through such gestures and movements as: prostration before God; sitting at the feet of Jesus; standing in respect and oneness; kneeling in submission; walking in order to follow; running the good race; jumping for joy; lifting up the heart and hands; offering the kiss of peace; and the act of crossing oneself with the sign of the Cross. This is important: Physical postures and actions during worship reflect the attitudes of the heart, but they can also help produce the attitudes of the heart.
Inhale, Exhale. There is a solid reason why the writer of Hebrews advises believers… “Do not neglect gathering together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other and spurring each other on.” (Heb. 10:25). Praise is our exhale of gratitude and devotion after our inhale of God’s inspired presence. God initiates, we respond. So praising God is like our respiratory system, and unless we are breathing in God and then breathing out praise, we will spiritually expire. If we don’t learn how to respond to God’s goodness with heartfelt praise, our faith will soon become lifeless. Consider the following word-study to be my meager attempt to polish each facet on this sparkling diamond of praise. Each Hebrew word in this expanded vocabulary of praise will convey a different aspect of praise, and is intended to help us be more creative in our praise, more expressive, more biblical.
The Diamond of Praise. Praise is what we were created to do, it is the chief of our ultimate satisfactions, and we won’t find personal fulfillment unless we develop the habit of forgetting ourselves and praising God. Most of us Christian believers are not following in the footsteps of our Jewish brethren and praising God with an inspired creativity. The fact is, the Hebrew Bible reveals a vocabulary of praise that will help us in our bid to be more expressive of our praise, more imaginative, more creative. The Hebrew Bible reveals praise to be a diamond with an almost uncountable number of facets. There are many words in Scripture that may translate as praise, but the reality is praise has an abundance of angles and facets and dimensions that we need to learn if we want to mature in our praise of God. The Hebrew language is loaded with words that contain the element of praise but with added qualities that expands our view of what praise could mean to us in our walk of faith. Knowing these words will help us to participate more fully and deeply in praising our God, in expressing our thanksgiving to Him in every way humanly possible.
Various Facets of the Diamond of Biblical Praise:
Machol: To dance in praise and worship; used especially in a liturgical circle dance with other worshipers. The shortened form is “hul,” which means to dance with much physical movement and exuberance, such as twirling, whirling, jumping; a holy movement with the worshiper’s body as a physical expression of joy and celebration, even reverence. (Psalms 30:11, 150:4, 149:1-3; Jermiah 31:4, 13).
Praise To The Lord, The Almighty (Live) (youtube.com)
Hallel (halal): Exuberant praise; praise that raves about God; exclaiming wonderful words about God with raised arms; to celebrate wildly; to sing out with loud jubilation; to express praise almost to the point of looking foolish; an invitation to a more uninhibited style of worship, such as dancing, jumping and twirling. The root word for “hallelujah” is hallel, and it means “Praise the Lord!” Hallelujah tends to be a more spontaneous outburst of praise and exultation. (is used 165 times in Hebrew Bible, including Ps. 150).
Tehillah: From the root word hallel, meaning exuberant singing of a new song, a spontaneous melody of praise and thanksgiving. It is often used for the formal name of a psalm. (Psalm 51:15).
Hosannah: Both a petition and a praise… “Save us now! And we praise you for saving us!” “Please help us, and thank you for helping us!” “Save us from a narrow and confined existence, and we praise you for delivering us into a wide-open space!” The early Hebrew root is Hoshiana, which means salvation. It evolved into a praise and petition before the time of Jesus.(Psalm 118:25-27; Matthew 21:9).
Hosanna(Live) | Old City Jerusalem [Hebrew Worship Sessions]@SOLUIsrael (youtube.com)
Ruwa: To shout joyfully; to make a joyful noise in praise; to split the ears with shouts of praise; to praise God at the top of our lungs; to shout a battle cry, as in Joshua’s army while marching around Jericho (Josh. 6:2); to raise one’s voice in loud celebration of God’s goodness. The ruwa shout was often used in the prophet’s announcements of the redemption experienced in the coming of the messianic age. (Psalm 100:1-2; Isaiah 44:23; Zeph. 3:14-15).
Yadah: Praising God with one’s hands up in the air; literally to give to God your hands in praise. A related term is “towdah,” which means to reach out in praise to God much like a child reaching out to his parents. Yadah is usually with full choir in worship. The name Judah is another form of Yadah, and means Praise. Jesus comes from the line of Judah, and so was a Lion of Praise.(Genesis 29:35; 1 Chron. 16:34; Psalm 50:14; Isaiah 51:3).
Nasah: To lift up one’s whole being before the Lord in praise, such as lifting up one’s heart, hands, voice, eyes and soul. (Psalm 25:1).
Giyl: To spin around in joyful praise; to greatly rejoice; to be exceedingly glad; to jump for joy. (Is used 45 times in the Hebrew Bible, including Psalm 9:13-14; 2:11; 13:5-6; 1 Chron. 16:30-33).
Shabach: To very loudly exult in praise; to laud and honor the Lord in full voice; as one writer put it, to “raise a holy roar.” This term was also used to give a victory shout in triumph over an enemy. (Psalm 117:1-2; 63:3; 147:11-13).
Barakh: To bless on bended knee; to kneel down while blessing and adoring God; kneeling down low to raise God high; literally, to “knee God.” The related term “kara” means to sink down on our knees in reverence and awe. (is used 330 times in Hebrew Bible, including Psalm 103; 100:4-5; 95;6; Isaiah 45:22-33).
Dumiyah: To offer a speechless reverence; to thoughtfully praise God in and with silence; a quiet submission to God, silently praising Him without words.(Psalm 65:1).
Gadol and Kabod: Hebrew synonyms that mean to magnify, to praise, to glorify; to enlarge God’s presence in the world through praise and thanksgiving; to promote God and make Him greater in His worthiness; to reveal His weighty substance, His spiritual girth, and His glorious essence. (Psalm 40:16; 69:30; Psalm 22:23; 86:12-13).
Macha: To invite nature, all of God’s creation, to clap their hands, to strike their hands together in praise of their Maker. (only in Ps. 98:8 and Isaiah 55:12).
Zamar: A call to praise God with stringed instruments; to celebrate God’s presence and goodness with music; to express adoration of God through music, particularly with voice accompanied by stringed instruments. (is used 45 times in Hebrew Bible, including Psalm 7:17; 9:2 and 11; 18:49)
Psalm 150 (Praise the Lord) LIVE – Matt Boswell, Matt Papa (youtube.com)
Niggun: A distinctive of Hebrew worship in which a non-lingual song with a melody is sung to express the heart of the singer; a form of wordless vocal praise and worship that repeats “nonsense” syllables to a melody. A niggun has been described as “a musical path to God that transcends the limitations of language.” Early Christian worshipers continued the niggun, calling it “jubilus.” For the Christians it was spontaneous praise without lyrics, using repetitive nonwords, primarily focusing on the last syllable of a praise word like “hallelujah.” (in modern era, is a central part of Hasidic worship).
With the Hebrews, Praise was an Art Form: exuberant with raised arms; exultation accompanied by holy dance; spontaneous songs sung during worship; combining a petition with a praise in the same breath; making a joyful noise with a loud shout of celebration; praise with hands lifted up high in the air and arms extended; bowing low in adoration; lifting up one’s whole being to God in praise, including heart, hands, voice, eyes, soul; spin around in joy and praise; jump for joy; to declare praise very loudly like a roaring lion; bless God on bended knee, praising Him humbly while kneeling; to allow silence itself to praise God, blessing Him in reverence without exclamations but with soft murmuring; magnify and glorify God in praise by raving about His greatness and spiritual weight; to invite all of nature to join you in praise and worship; praise with music, celebrating in song with voice and/or stringed instruments; to enjoy a circle dance with other worshipers, as well as the more spontaneous whirling and twirling in the spirit.
WHY Do We Worship? Every human being was and is custom-made to worship Creator God. “… the people I formed for Myself so that they would proclaim My praise.” (Isaiah 43:21). We were created in order to worship God, to bring Him honor and praise. God-worship is every person’s ultimate purpose. In other words, we can spend our entire life trying to find what makes life meaningful, and we will simply not find anything more fulfilling, more satisfying at the deepest level, more profoundly meaningful, than glorifying and praising the Lord. We were all created with worship in our DNA, in our spiritual genetic framework, and so making use of that worship-gene leads to the ultimate fulfilling experience for each of us. Nothing can bring us true joy at the deepest level like worship.
O Worship the King (Grace Community Church)
WHERE Can We Worship? “Wherever two or three gather together in My name, I am there among them.” (Mattthew 18:20). Worship can happen when believers come together in the name of Jesus, in a home, at a river, in a back-alley, in the middle of nowhere or in an astounding cathedral. In the life-changing conversation Jesus had with the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4, Jesus made the point that the place of worship doesn’t matter. It didn’t matter that the Samaritans were worshipping on a different mountain in Samaria than the Jews in Jerusalem. She wondered with Jesus about the fact that they worshiped on different mountains. What does He think about that? Jesus directly addresses her question, and says that God is a Spirit. He is not limited by time or physical space. He is not in just one place. So it’s not where we worship, but how and why. Since God is Spirit, Jesus told her, we must “worship Him in spirit and truth,” worship the True and Ultimate Reality with our very own true self in the power of the Holy Spirit. The Father is worshipped through the Holy Spirit, and He is worshipped through the revelation of the Truth, Jesus Christ Himself. Regardless of location, worship is when a believer engages his spirit with the Holy Spirit in a Christ-centered pursuit of the truth.
WHAT Does Worship Look like in Church? The elements of worship in the Body of Christ has varied wildly through the ages. In the Hebrew tradition, there were such aspects of corporate worship as Scripture readings accompanied by teachings, prayers, singing the Psalms, forgiveness through ritual sacrifices, celebrations through holy feasts and festivals, and praise music everywhere one looked. The early church honored their Jewish roots to worship by developing a liturgy of Scripture, preaching/teaching, prayers and moments of silence, celebration of holy days, and a heavy dose of worship music. St. Paul gave us a glimpse of what that looked like in Ephesians 5:19… “Be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your hearts, giving thanks (“eucharist”) always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Paul’s term of “spiritual songs” probably referred to those songs inspired by the Holy Spirit during worship, spontaneous and improvised in the midst of the worship service. Spiritual songs might also include a style of music that was less doctrinal and aimed for the head, and more meditational and aimed for the heart, such the lyrics often found in worshipful choruses. But we shouldn’t forget that from the start of the church in the apostolic era, celebrating Communion together as a body of believers was also a vital part of worship. Notice Paul’s use of “eucharist” that he connected with worship in song. The Greek word eucharist literally means “thanksgiving,” and so celebrating the Lord’s Supper as a key element of worship was central to their devoted expression of gratitude to Christ for His sacrifice and their salvation.
WITH WHOM Do We Worship? “Let all the angels of God worship Him!” (Hebrews 1:6). When we sing our praises, when we worship our Lord with each other, we are not alone. All heaven comes alongside us in our praises, or maybe we could say we come alongside them. We join with the heavenly host around the Throne when we worship together. The words which introduce the Holy Communion service in the Anglican liturgy says it all: “Therefore with Angels and Archangels and all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify your glorious Name, evermore praising you and saying, ‘’Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of the Angelic Host, heaven and earth are full of your glory! Glory be to You, O Lord Most High.” (BCP). We partner with our heavenly buddies when we worship here on earth.
Hark, the Herald Angels Sing (Tune: Mendelssohn – 3vv) [with lyrics for congregations]
The Joyful Duty of the Angels. Angels enjoy a primary job that is the hub of the wheel for them, the resource for all their other duties and responsibilities… eternally worshipping Him without ceasing. Angels have free will, so they choose to reverently adore God and rejoice over Him with singing and praise. They are sinless, pure spiritual beings, undefiled servants of the Lord who are privileged to be constantly in God’s presence in glory. Angels never cease to behold God’s face and offer their praises to the only Being in the universe Who is worthy of such worship.
Entering Heaven in Worship. The Eastern Orthodox Church believes that earthly worship is the faithful act of participating with heavenly worship. The Divine Liturgy, the central act of Orthodox worship, is seen as an “entrance, passage, and ascension to the Throne of God where the faithful join with angels in praise and worship.” Specific prayers, like the “Prayer of Entrance,” explicitly acknowledge the presence and participation of angels in worship: “Master, Lord our God, Who has established the orders and hosts of angels and archangels in heaven to minister to Your glory, grant that holy angels may enter with us, that together we may celebrate and glorify Your goodness.” After their Trisagion Hymn, “Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us”, the Orthodox worshipers then acknowledge the presence of the angelic powers through the priest’s prayers, “O Holy God, Who is resting among the holy ones, praised by the Seraphim with the thrice-holy voice, glorified by the Cherubim, and worshiped by every celestial power… We thank You for this Liturgy, which You have deigned to receive from our hands, even though thousands of archangels and tens of thousands of angels stand around You, the Cherubim and Seraphim, six-winged, many-eyed, soaring aloft upon their wings.” And finally, the priest’s emphasizes that the entire church is declaring the holiness of God “together with these blessed powers” of the angelic hosts. As the Orthodox priests like to say, “We’re constantly being reminded throughout the liturgy of our overlapping role and unity with the angelic powers in their worship of and obedience to God in ministry.”
TAIZÉ – Stay With Me (youtube.com)
“Worship the Lord in the Beauty of Holiness.” That phrase has two different translations, depending on the version of the Bible. One version points to the act of praising the splendor of His holiness, to exalt Him in His beauty, to worship the One majestic in holiness. The other translation refers to the act of worshipping God in holy attire, in sacred vestments, in clothing that sets them apart from everyone else in service to God. We Christians might update that idea by being clothed in Christ, putting on Christ who is our sacred clothing. There are some translators, such as Dr. Brian Simmons, who try to combine both meanings into their version of these passages: “Be in awe before the majesty of the Almighty God! Be in awe before such power and might! Come worship wonderful Yahweh, arrayed in all His splendor, bowing in worship as He appears in the beauty of His holiness. Give Him honor due his name. Worship Him wearing the glory-garments of your holy priestly calling!” (Psalm 29:2); “Come worship the Lord God wearing the splendor and beauty of holiness! Let everyone wait in wonder as they tremble in awe before Him!” (Psalm 96:9). The New Jerusalem Bible offers this wonderful translation of that same extended passage: “It was Yahweh who made the heavens; in His presence are splendor and majesty, in His sanctuary are power and beauty. Give to Yahweh, families of nations, give to Yahweh glory and power, give to Yahweh the glory due His name! Adore Yahweh in the splendor of His holiness. Tremble in fear before Him, all the earth!” (Psalms 96:6-9). The holy fear mentioned here and throughout Scripture as a vital aspect of worship involves the raised hands of adoration; the knocking knees of apprehension; the bare feet of awe; the dry mouth of uncertainty; the quickened heartbeat of anticipation; the bowed head of reverence; the humbled spirit of devotion; the straight posture of respect; the closed mouth of deference; the open mind of discovery; the tender heart of gratitude; the open ears of full attention.
O Worship the Lord in the Beauty of Holiness (Tune: Was Lebet Was – 5vv) [lyrics for congregations]