What Is Worship?
I ’ve been leading a worship service for almost 6 years in our small congregation. And as a lead worshipper, it’s very important for me, to know what praising and worshipping God means. Usually, before we start to sing praise and worship during our Friday services, we make a short worship exhortation. Most of our verses came from the book of Psalms. And after that we will start the worship proper. Though this just a mere opinion of mine, sometimes, I thought of, that maybe with that, we might lead others to an impression that singing songs of praise or dancing for joy to the Lord during our service is the only time and way we can worship God . But worship is not all that. And for someone who leads a worship service, our knowledge shouldn’t be limited to that concept.
WORSHIP DEFINED
I look thru the meaning of worship in the dictonary and this are some meanings I’ve found;Merriam Webster’s Online Dictionary defined it asWORSHIP: (noun) Etymology: Middle English worshipe worthiness, respect, reverence paid to a divine being, from Old English weorthscipe worthiness, respect, from weorth worthy, worth + -scipe –ship 1: reverence offered to a divine being or supernatural power ; also : an act of expressing such reverence
2. a form of religious practice with its creed and ritual
3 extravagant respect or admiration for or devotion to an object of esteem.
In Encarta Dictionary;
- transitive and intransitive verb treat somebody or something as deity: treat somebody or something as divine as to show respect by engaging in acts of prayer or devotion.
- intransitive verb take part in religious service: to take part in religious service
- transitive verb to love somebody deeply: to love, admire, or respect somebody or something greatly and perhaps excessively or unquestioningly.
From my New Open Bible Study Editon, it was defined as:
an act of reverence, a supreme honor or veneration given either in thought or deed to a person or thing.
Jesus Christ said in John 4: 20-24
Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship." Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father.You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.".
We can find a lot of meaning of worship, but one thing is consistent that worship is an action word and it is to be done faithfully to a supreme being we call God. If we will take the definitions seriously like the third meaning in Merriam Webster’s Dictionary; an extravagant respect or admiration for or devotion to an object of esteem, or to love somebody deeply: to love, admire, or respect somebody or something greatly and perhaps excessively or unquestioningly. I think our worship will not even qualify. But we will go thru that as we journey thru worship in my second post regarding this topic.
