For me, worship happens only as I join in and actively participate in the worship itself. God is calling us today to return both privately and corporately to real worship. It must become our priority. Next I will outline some biblical teachings on worship and then seek to make some practical suggestions as to how we might revolutionize our own private worship and then be agents of God’s renewal or worship in His corporate body, the church.
Bible Words for Worship
The Bible has a rich vocabulary in regard to worship, probably fuller than that concerning any other concept. English stretches to do it justice. Words include: reverence, glorify, honor, praise (four different Hebrew words), magnify, bow down, fear, bless, extol, adore, give thanks, and we could go on. Human language and concepts find themselves taxed to the limit when the worthiness of God is the subject of expression.
In the Old Testament the most common word for worship is the verb šachah. Used more than 150 times, it has as its basic meaning “to prostrate oneself, bow down deeply, or do homage.” The Greek equivalent is proskuneo, which comes from the word that means literally “to kiss toward.” Often when people sought to show reverence to someone higher, they would stoop and/or prostrate themselves and kiss the ground or a proffered foot or hand, ring or scepter. By the time of the New Testament, the word was used exclusively with its object being or supposedly being divine.11
The significance of this lies in the fact that for the Bible the root meaning of worship is physical action. For the Hebrew, whose worldview closely connected mental processes with physical ones, worship included a mental awe of God and an appropriate physical response. The body and mind go together in worship and each influences the other.
In fact, Scripture (in particular the Psalms) connects many physical actions directly with worship. They include singing, shouting, dancing, uplifted hands, lifting of the head, kneeling, standing, bowing, prostrating, clapping of hands, bringing offerings, and playing musical instruments. Worship is clearly not intended to be a spectator sport that uses the mind only, but is meant to include the whole person in an active response to God.
When I first began to study this topic, it struck me that I had never prostrated myself before anyone in my life. Early one morning alone in my study I fell on my face and stretched out in awe before God. Something inside of me changed. I felt myself break inside in a way that I had never done before. Since then I have never been the same, and almost every morning now at the start of my devotional time I bow to the ground before the King of kings. I find it puts my life in perspective—I somehow sense who God is and simply maintain that bodily position for a while to let my mind begin to grasp what my body is saying about worship and who God is.
What needs to happen for many Christians—especially conservative, doctrinally oriented ones—is for them to move worship out of the purely rational, cognitive realm. Many such individuals approach worship as a doctrine to accept or believe, not an encounter to experience. Certainly the mind must be part of the worship experience, and people need to know who they are worshiping and why they seek God. However, if it stops there, we miss something essential. Feeling, passion, zeal, and emotion are all part of worship because the whole person must be part of the worship. In John 4:22–24, Jesus calls for true worshipers to worship in spirit and in truth. Some Christian traditions are strong on the truth part but seem to lack spirit. Others may have much spirit and emotion but forget or ignore the value of truth. Jesus wants us to find both as we express our love and adoration to Him.
Not only should worship involve the whole person, it must be participatory. Corporate worship oriented toward performance misses the mark. The congregation is not the audience for worship—God is. As such, all people should be a part of worship and actively involved. Worship and music leaders are not so much worship leaders but lead worshipers. To truly be lead worshipers, musicians must have a heart for worshiping God, not simply musical ability. They both model worship and invite the gathered people of God to join fully in their worship.
Recognizing the wholistic nature of worship and its participatory nature clarifies the key place of music. Since music directly touches more parts of us than the spoken word, it is important. Properly done, music is participatory.
Many Christian churches have in recent years been involved in music and worship wars. Congregations have debated the appropriateness of certain types of music with great heat. Often reactions split along generational lines.
I do not claim to have all the answers, but several observations may be helpful. It is tragic when battles over music keep people from worship itself. We should always ask the question: Is real worship taking place here? Are people meeting God? If the answers seem to be ‘yes,’ then the music is playing the role it should.
Musical tastes and preferences are always culturally and generationally influenced. What moves my children may not touch me and vice versa. Or what leads a Chinese toward God may not affect me and vice versa. We must be careful that our judgments do not rest solely on what we believe is the right way. God can use many types of vehicles for His truth. Even our past history influences the way we perceive various types of music. We must learn to be sensitive to how others see music. Discussions over music should never keep us from using this God-given medium as an effective part of true worship. If there is anything that I hope this chapter does, it is to move people back to the centrality of worship both corporately and privately. Corporate worship all too easily slips back into the learning classroom mold when the center of things becomes a teaching sermon. Worship services should be about worship. People must self-consciously worship, and the one in charge of the service must deliberately lead the congregation into worship. Even the result of the sermon should be a worship response—praise to God for what He has done, awe at His works, or repulsion at our waywardness before Him.
On a personal level, for many people their devotional time centers on a reading of inspirational material or Bible study. Nothing is wrong with such a practice, but again the basic mode becomes the homework cognitive learning model. Devotion time should be at its core—worship. Again, even the study must lead to worship. A time of prostration, a time of praise with hands and heart uplifted, a time of listening to music and responding and joining in, a time of singing or playing of musical instruments—such things are all true devotion and worship, not just something preliminary.
Many worship directors cannot truly lead because they have not worshiped personally in preparation beforehand. And many worshipers find corporate worship a challenge because they also have not worshiped personally. A person transformed in their private prayer discovers new life in otherwise unchanged corporate worship. They find something catching, something drawing—yes, even something evangelistic—about corporate worship that takes place in spirit and truth. When you enter a place where people have a heart for God and are reaching out to Him, you sense it. You find yourself drawn to it and want to be a part of it. Many churches are not evangelistic because, lacking true worship, their sense of God’s presence has become only a distant memory, not a present experience.
Practical Steps
How does one begin to understand and experience worship? How can one who lacks true worship find it? I have a few suggestions.
First, reflect on or seek a new experience of the grace, love, and awesomeness of God. All true worship springs from a sense of who God is, which then reveals who we are. Isaiah in his experience recorded in Isaiah 6 offers a model. His vision of the awesomeness and holiness of God drove him to worship and a deep sense of his own uncleanness. This in turn led to a statement of God’s forgiveness and cleansing and a divine commissioning. Such a realization about God is not a doctrine or a theology, but a whole person insight that affects all that we are.
Second, deliberately begin to take time personally to act and react in response to the experience of God. For Westerners that may best be done personally. Kneel and thank Him for His goodness. Sing a song or write a poem as an offering for what He has done for you. Stand in awe and bow your head at a sunrise or sunset. Lift your hands and offer Him all you are. Voice out loud your praise. Do whatever comes naturally as you respond fully to Him. Remember that what you are doing is not some