The Work of the Church is Worship
The Work of the Church is Worship.
[this article is in process, and thus is incomplete at this time. Please don’t read until it is finished]
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).
- 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.
WHAT are the Main Ingredients of Worship? Perhaps we can narrow it down to glorify and 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.
- 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).
Seminary professor Ellen Davis, in her book Getting Involved with God, points out that we need to have a “conversion of fears.” In other words, our human fears need to be converted to a holy fear. She then mentions a powerful example of that conversion in Scripture, at the crossing of the Red Sea. On the western shore, Israel looked up, and “here is Egypt coming after them, and they were really afraid.” (Ex. 14:10). And then, on the far shore, Israel looked again, and this time it saw “Egypt dead, on the edge of the Sea. And Israel saw what the great hand of the Lord had done against Egypt, and the people feared the Lord...” (Ex. 14:31). The Israelites’ very human fear was converted to a holy fear. As we face and experience our fears, ask God to convert them to the fear of the Lord. We may still experience various human fears, we’re only human, but living into a life-changing fear of the Lord will go far in deepening our conversion experience.
Various Thoughts on the Fear-of-the-Lord:
“Aslan a man!” said Mr. Beaver sternly. ‘Certainly not. I tell you he is the king of the wood and the son of the great Emperor-Beyond-the-Sea. Don’t you know who is the King of Beasts? Aslan is a lion –The Lion, the great Lion.” “Ooh!” said Susan. “I’d thought he was a man. Is he — quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.” “That you will, dearie, and make no mistake,” said Mrs. Beaver. “If there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or else just silly.” “Then he isn’t safe?” said Lucy. “Safe?” said Mr. Beaver. “Don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.” “I’m longing to see him,” said Peter, “even if I do feel frightened when it comes to the point.” “That’s right, Son of Adam,” said Mr. Beaver… (from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, by C. S. Lewis).
“I’ve heard all kinds of preachers… but the ones who have helped me most were the ones who were awestruck in the presence of the God about whom they spoke. I believe we ought to have again the old Biblical concept of God which makes God awful and makes men lie face down and cry, ‘Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty.’ When the Holy Ghost shows us God as He is, we admire Him to the point of wonder and delight, struck with astonished wonder at the inconceivable elevation and magnitude and splendor of Almighty God. Adoration is to love God with all the power within us. To love God with fear and wonder and yearning and awe.” (A.W. Tozer).
“To fear God means having a reverent respect for him, because of his greatness and glory. To this is added gratitude for his kindness and mercy, awe at his power, confidence in his wisdom, submission to his will, and delight in the experience of communing in him. Besides all this, the person who fears God has a deep affection for him, such as a child might have for a parent.” (Stuart Olyott, his commentary on Ecclesiastes).
“Fear is a healthy and necessary disposition toward God. In avoiding the word ‘fear’, translations are taking the edge off the point that the Biblical writers are making. The writers are speaking first of all of our proper gut response to God. Fear is an elemental response, the unmistakable feeling in our bodies, in our stomachs and our scalp, when we run up hard against the power of God. If we can experience that power close up and not be gripped in our guts by the disparity between God and ourselves, then we are in a profound state of spiritual slumber. Fear of the Lord is the deeply sane recognition that we are not God.” (Ellen Davis, Getting Involved With God).
“Wisdom is the art of living skillfully, in whatever actual conditions we find ourselves… living well, living in robust sanity. Skilled living gets its start in the Fear-of-God, our insight into life from knowing a holy God.” (Eugene Peterson, from notes in Proverbs).
“We fear God because, even though we know we are secure in His eternal love for us, at the same time we know very well that there are many parts of our lives that are not yet purified and made holy. Until our love for God is perfected, how shall we not continue, in varying degrees, to be afraid of Him? So long as we are humble, this can be a healthy fear, because it will have the effect of continually driving us back into His arms. Jesus is telling us not to waste our fear on anyone less than God Almighty. This is the fear that is the beginning of wisdom. It is not the end of wisdom, for wisdom’s end is perfect love, in which there is no longer any fear.” (Mike Mason, The Gospel According to Job).
“Life makes sense only when it is lived with an eye to God’s final control and authority and in a reverent, trustful relationship with Him.” (T. M. Moore, Ecclesiastes).
Holy fear 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. (Steve Larson).
Joshua Aaron – HalleluYah הללויה on the Sea of Galilee ים כנרת – Mar de Galilea (youtube.com)
“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).
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.
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.
Praise (feat. Brandon Lake, Chris Brown & Chandler Moore) | Elevation Worship (youtube.com)
“Open my lips, O Lord, and my mouth shall proclaim Thy praise (tehillah, see below).” (Psalm 51:15 )
All of Us. 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.”
Inhale, Exhale. 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.
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. The following might be considered the vocabulary of praise:
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).
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).
RTÉ Radio 1 Flash Mob Hallelujah Chorus in Dundrum Town Centre. (youtube.com)
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).
We Fall Down (Live) (youtube.com)
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, includingPsalm 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).
Praise To The Lord, The Almighty (Live) (youtube.com)
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).
TAIZÉ – Stay With Me (youtube.com)
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).
Here I Am To Worship (More Than Life) [feat. Ryan Ofei] | Maverick City Music | TRIBL (youtube.com)
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)
Shachach: To bow down in adoration and praise; to deeply stoop down, possibly falling flat on the ground in reverence; the full “shachach” is to prostrate oneself fully on the ground in submission and humility before God. Two Greek words in the New Testament, “Pipto” and “Proskuneo,” mean much the same thing… falling flat on the ground in reverence and earnest prayer. For example, Jesus “pipto’d” in the Garden of Gethsemane in His Abba prayer. (Psalm 96:7-9; Psalm 95:6; Matthew 17:6; Mark 14: 33-36).
Fiddler on the Roof (10/10) Movie CLIP – The Bottle Dance (1971) HD (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.
Lord Of The Dance Hymn (Contemporary Worship Song) (youtube.com)
As Dr. Ellen Davis said, praise is what the ancient Israelites did best. How about contemporary Christians?
Who do we worship with? “Let all the angels of God worship Him!” (Hebrews 1:6).
“Proskuneo” = The Greek word for worship that combines the actions of bowing down in reverence, lying prostrate in humility, kissing with affection, and paying homage in awe; literally to crouch down low in adoration.
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. We see some glimpses of the angels at work:
- As witnessed by Isaiah in his glimpse of the throne room in heaven, “I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of His robe filled the Temple. Above Him were angel-seraphs, each with six wings: with two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And the angels were calling to each other: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory!’ At the sound of the angels’ voices the doorposts and thresholds shook, and the Temple was filled with smoke.” (Isaiah 6:1-4).
- As revealed to John in his heavenly vision of the angelic beings described in Revelation 4:8-9: “Each of these four living creatures had six wings, and their wings were covered all over with eyes, inside and out. Day after day and night after night they keep on chanting: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty– The One who always was, who is, and who is still to come.”
- As revealed to John again in his vision in Revelation 5:11-14: “Then I looked again, and I heard the voices of thousands and millions of angels around the throne and of the living creatures and the elders. And they sang in a mighty chorus: ‘Worthy is the Lamb who was slaughtered – to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing.’”
- As once again revealed to John in Revelation 7:9-12: “And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. And they fell before the throne with their faces to the ground and worshiped God. They sang, ‘Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and strength belong to our God forever and ever! Amen!‘”
Angels are our Partners in Worship. 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).
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.”
“And when he had taken counsel with the people, Jehoshaphat appointed those who were to sing to Yahweh and praise Him in the splendor of holiness, in holy attire. As they went to the front lines they sang, ‘Give thanks to the Lord, for His steadfast love, His mercy, endures forever!’ And when they began to sing and praise, the Lord set an ambush against the Canaanites who had come against Judah, so that the enemy was routed.” (2 Chronicles 20:22).
King Jehoshaphat. He was one of the most faithful and devoted God-followers in the royal history of Israel. He led a national revival and “brought the people back to the Lord God of their fathers.” (2 Chron. 19:4). At one point he was faced with a threatening coalition of powerful Canaanite forces. It was abundantly clear to everyone that the forces of Judah were vastly outnumbered by this enemy coalition of warriors, that they were helpless against what the Bible called “a multitude, a vast horde” of enemies. Jehoshaphat’s response to this threat was to declare a fast throughout the nation, to seek the help of Yahweh. He stood in the Temple in Jerusalem, and he humbly uttered a prayer that has inspired countless readers ever since. Some of his prayer’s highlights: “O Yahweh God of our fathers, are You not God in heaven, and do You not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations, and in Your hand is there not power and might, so that no one is able to withstand You?… If disaster comes upon us – sword, judgment, pestilence, famine – we will stand before this Temple and in Your presence, and cry out to You in our affliction, and You will hear and save… Oh our God, will You not judge our enemies? For we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us, nor do we know what to do. But our eyes are upon You.” (2 Chronicles 20:6-12). Jehoshaphat offered these memorable words to God in the presence of all the people of Judah. We could all stand to memorize his words… If we meet with affliction, we will cry out to you, Lord, and you will hear us and save us. We don’t know what to do, Father God, but we look to you for help. After a trusted prophet of Yahweh assured him that the battle was the Lord’s and that He would defeat their enemy, King Jehoshaphat gathered the people again and declared, “Believe in Yahweh your God and you will be able to stand firm! Believe in the Lord’s prophets and you will succeed!” (v. 20). At this point we witness in this passage the spiritual genius and faith of King Jehoshaphat, and we become inspired by the three elements that led to his victory: Worship, Music, and Mercy.
WORSHIP: In preparation for battle, Jehoshaphat first appointed a choir, a choir of all things, to approach the battle lines and sing to Yahweh. This choir was to shout their praises and sing in “the beauty of holiness.” (v. 21). That phrase has two different translations, depending on the version of the Bible. One version translates it as meaning to praise the splendor of His holiness, to exalt Him in His beauty, to worship the One majestic in holiness. Or the other translation would be, to worship Him in holy attire, in sacred vestments, in clothing that sets them apart from everyone else in service to God. There is, however, no controversy of the Hebrew word for “praise” in this passage (yadah). To praise Yahweh here means to worship the Lord with hands extended. Setting the stage here in the valley before battle… If you were an enemy of Israel and waiting for the war to begin, what is the first thing you would see on the front lines? Instead of soldiers breathing fire, you would see a marching choir out in front, wearing priestly clothing, with arms extended outward, singing and shouting and praising their God Yahweh! It would seem that the enemies of Judah would be dumbfounded, to say the least.
And the people were astonished beyond measure, saying, ‘Everything He does is beautiful!” (Mark 7:37).
BEAUTIFUL: Greek word for beauty is “kalos,” used in Mark 7:37 above. The word means beautiful, handsome, perfect, excellent, admirable, wonderful. According to the people surrounding Him, everything Jesus did was beautiful. According to the messianic passage in Isaiah 53, Jesus had no outward beauty that would attract people to Him. But Jesus had a different kind of beauty. He had the beauty of holiness.
There is no doubt that Jesus displayed the beauty of holiness in His life and ministry. He was a living magnet, attracting people to His holiness. He led a beautiful life. It’s a wonder why there aren’t more people now attracted to His beauty. Certainly we can overcome the stiff competition from the world. His holiness was attractive when He was on earth. Why is holiness any less desirable now? Jesus is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. Through His Holy Spirit, Jesus can be worthy competition to the spirit of the age once again. It is still true that everything he does is beautiful. His holiness is still attractive. “In that day, the Branch of the Lord will be beautiful and glorious.” (Isaiah 4:2).