What Is Worship?

But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. John 4:23

What does it mean to Worship God?
Growing up in a strict Christian home, I never really thought much about it. I mean... I always thought it meant to love, serve and obey God, go to church, cry and shout like the other people did. Basically, if you told God you loved Him and got emotional about it, you were worshipping Him. As I got a little older, this dictionary.com definition described what I though it was:

wor·ship -n.
1. reverent honor and homage paid to God or a sacred personage, or to any object regarded as sacred.
2. formal or ceremonious rendering of such honor and homage: to attend services of divine worship.
'They attended worship this morning'.
3. adoring reverence or regard: excessive worship of business success. to feel an adoring reverence or regard for (any person or thing). –verb (used without object)
4. to render religious reverence and homage, as to a deity.

And all that is well and good... but dictionary.com doesn't quite tell it all. When you go to the Hebrew or Greek and see what the the word means, it's a little... more... It's not like just standing to say the pledge with your hand over your heart to show that you honor the flag. Too many people just say the words and don't even take time to really think about what they're saying. It's the same in church. We just stand (or even sit) and sing the songs and don't think much about what the words we are saying REALLY mean.

This past Sunday in church, we were singing "Holy is Our King" (written by Rita Springer). The lyrics are:

Angels gather round your throne
and around your throne they bring
Praises to the Living Word
To the awesome One they sing

Crying Holy...Holy...Holy..Is our King.

Elders bowing at your feet
And at your feet, they bend their knees.
All creatures on the earth below
Bow before you now.

Crying Holy...Holy...Holy..Is our King.

I'll be honest and admit... at first I was like most of those around me... just singing and not paying attention to it. But about the time we got to the second verse, Father arrested my attention. Immediately I could 'see' what the song was portraying. The Elders were bowing down on their knees in worship, and the whole earth was bowing down before Him.
So today I went to the Strong's Hebrew & Greek Dictionaries to see what Worship meant before it got translated. In the Old Testament, there are only 3 Hebrew words used that were translated to the English word Worship. The word ‛âtsab (pronounced aw-tsab') means properly to carve, that is, fabricate or fashion; hence (in a bad sense) to worry, pain or anger:—displease, grieve, hurt, make, be sorry, vex, worship, wrest. and was only used 1 time and was in reference to a pagan goddess. (Jeremiah 44:19) And if you notice, the word worship doesn't even seem to fit with the other meanings. In only the book of Daniel, only the word segid (pronounced 'seg-eed') is used, corresponding to H5456: sâgad (pronounced saw-gad') meaning to prostrate oneself (in homage):—fall down. Every other reference in the Old Testament were to the Hebrew word shâchâh (pronounced shaw-khaw') which means to depress, that is, prostrate (especially reflexively in homage to royalty or God):—bow (self) down, crouch, fall down (flat), humbly beseech, do (make) obeisance, do reverence, make to stoop, worship.
There are even more Greek words translated to mean Worship, but I am not going to put them all here. The one that is used most in reference to true worship is proskuneō (pronounced pros-koo-neh'-o) meaning to fawn or crouch to, that is, (literally or figuratively) prostrate oneself in homage (do reverence to, adore):—worship.
Somehow I get the impression that to worship means to bow down in humble reverence to God.
So then why is it that we can so casually talk and sing about worshipping God and yet will so rarely bow down prostrate before Him in reverence and adoration? I understand that there are some who literally cannot physically kneel, much less lay prostrate in the floor, but what of the rest of us? Is it pride? for fear someone might think we're weird? or maybe that we just don't think that is necessary? maybe we don't know what to do while we're laying on our face before God? I don't know... but I do know that, like God said, "If My people, which are called by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." 2 Chronicles 7:14 (Interestingly enough, that word 'humble' is from the Hebrew word kâna‛ (pronounced kaw-nah') meaning, among other things, to bend the knee)

PS. This was as much for me as for anyone, if not more. I need to be on my face before Jehovah way more than I have been. He is Holy, He is Righteous, He inhabits our praise, He lives in our worship!


This is the song that I wrote the lyrics to up there ^... it's not the original, but it will give you an idea of what the tune is. I'd like to have the mp3 of the songwriter, Rita Springer, singing it. I think it would be even better than the one I have by Rick Pino.