At the beginning of lockdown, a group of us, frustrated at not being able to meet indoors, started having a time of singing which we called ‘worship in the quarry’. (We were never more than six in number, and we kept socially distanced).

At the time I – for various reasons – struggled to be involved with this ‘worship’, and I decided to do an exhaustive study of the biblical meaning of the term.¹

Worship in the Scriptures

I was very surprised at my findings. In particular, I discovered two key things:

1. The root meaning of the main words for ‘worship’ in both the Old and New Testament is ‘to bow down’, ‘to prostrate oneself’, and
2. Nowhere in the scriptures is worship described as music or singing.

The main OT word for ‘worship’ is shachah², which is clearly defined as a physical act of submission to a superior, usually royalty or God. There is another word, avodah³ (noun form), which occurs around 145 times in the Bible. It is occasionally translated as ‘worship’, but more usually as ‘serve’, which is its root meaning. Again, there is no connection with music.

Nowhere in the scriptures is worship described as music or singing.

Moses’ meetings with God in Exodus 33 & 34 spoke powerfully to me. In 33:9-11, we’re told that Moses would enter the tent of meeting and the Lord spoke to him face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. Then, presumably in one of their talks, Moses said, “Show me your glory” (33:18). The Lord obliged, and “Moses quickly bowed his head towards the earth and worshipped” (Ex 34:8).

It was only after that encounter that his face shone each time when he came out from the presence of the Lord. Did Paul experience something similar when he wrote, “beholding the glory of the Lord, we are being changed from one degree of glory to another”? (2 Cor 3:18) It is as though the Lord ‘turned up the volume’ on His glory in response to Moses’ request.

The Hebrew word for glory is kabod⁴, which has in its richness a sense of weightiness, and in the presence of His glory we feel that weight pushing us down. I received an email recently in which a friend describes it perfectly – “in respect of kabod, the inherent sense of weight and majesty is there. I have personally felt that weight when worshipping on my face, and it is a kind warm but immense weightiness, God’s glory resting on me.”

Worship in the Psalms

It is important to consider the significance of shachah and avodah in the Psalms. Is worship not described as singing there? In actual fact, while there are indeed a few verses in the Psalms where worship is mentioned together with singing praise (e.g. 66:4, 100:2), there are none where it is actually described as singing.

Does it not seem sensible that when we are in the presence of a Holy God that we take time to listen?

Worship is mentioned in association with music elsewhere in the Old Testament, too, notably 2 Chronicles 29:28: “The whole assembly bowed in worship, while the musicians played and the trumpets sounded. All this continued until the sacrifice of the burnt offering was completed”. In this case, however, I imagine the whole assembly bowing down in worship, while at the same time the musicians and the trumpeters are doing their thing to one side, but obviously not in a bowed-down posture.

Psalm 95 is also interesting. Verses 1-2 encourage singing, praise, thanksgiving, and joyful noise. But then we’re invited to “Come let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our maker…. Today if you hear his voice harden not your hearts” (Ps 95:6-7).

Does it not seem sensible that when we are in the presence of a Holy God that we take time to listen?

Mall or Palace?

During the Jubilee celebrations for the late Queen in 2022, and again this year at the Coronation, I sensed the Lord saying to me, “Would you rather be in the Mall or in the Palace?”

I would have loved to be in the Mall, which was thronged with crowds thoroughly enjoying themselves, singing, dancing, waving, cheering, waving flags, etc, while the Monarch could be seen on the balcony of the Palace also enjoying the proceedings.

the Lord saying to me, “Would you rather be in the Mall or in the Palace?”

But to be invited into the Palace is a completely different experience! There is a nervousness, we get dressed up in our finest, we bow when we come into the presence of the king, and we wait to be spoken to. Hebrews 10:19-22 gives me the spiritual equivalent. We have the invitation “by the blood of the Lamb”, and we come “with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water”.

Being silent

The early Quakers understood about being silent in the presence of God. I live in Ulverston, which was the hub of the move of God in which this group was involved in the 1600s, and I have been greatly blessed by what I have learned about them. Quakers today still have a ‘Meeting for Worship’ which largely involves waiting in silence. This is the testimony of Francis Howgill, who was one of the first generation:

“The Lord of Heaven and Earth we found to be near at hand, and as we waited upon Him in pure silence, our minds out of all things, His heavenly presence appeared in our assemblies, when there was no language tongue or speech from any creature….
The Lord appeared daily to us, to our astonishment amazement and great admiration, in so much as we often said one unto another with great joy of heart: ‘What, is the Kingdom of God come to be with men?’”⁵

Another early Quaker, William Penn (of Pennsylvania fame)⁶ gives the reason for them being silent – they didn’t want to offer “strange fire” to the Lord, presumably in the sense of speaking to Him ‘in the flesh’, so they waited for the Spirit to move. (In the Bible, ‘Strange fire’ occurred as King Uzziah and the sons of Korah burned incense before the Lord which they were not permitted to do).

Worship in the New Testament

What about the New Testament? Here, the corresponding Greek word to shachah is proskuneo⁷, which again, when it is not translated as worship, is given as ‘bowed down’, ‘prostrated’, etc. Once again, there is no direct musical connotation. (There is another word, latreia⁸, which appears very occasionally, and which, again has no necessary association with singing or music. The best known example being Romans 12:1, where we “present our bodies as a living sacrifice….. which is your spiritual worship”. The word comes from the word Latris meaning ‘hired servant’.)

Proskuneo is always translated as a physical act of submission, and is used in a variety of contexts; from the wise men worshipping the child Jesus, to Revelation 22, where John falls down to worship an angel and is told to worship God only. Even in the descriptions of heaven in Revelation, where the 24 elders and the four living creatures fall down and worship – they speak, but they don’t sing.

Once again, there is no direct musical connotation.

Proskuneo is an interesting, compound word – the parts meaning ‘kiss towards’ – perhaps suggesting that now we have a love relationship with the One we are worshipping? It’s interesting that there is no noun equivalent to proskuneo in the New Testament. I take it, therefore, that it refers to a single act of submission, not a lifestyle, as some would say. The lifestyle perhaps should be called obedience.

What does Paul have to say about worship and singing? Amazingly, he only uses proskuneo once, in 1 Corinthians 14:25, where he describes how, in the meeting, the secrets of an unbeliever’s heart are disclosed and he falls down and worships, saying “surely God is in this place”.

In Ephesians 5:18-20 we find this: “be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your hearts”. See also Colossians 3:16: “Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.”

Wouldn’t it have been helpful if Paul had used ‘worship’ in those verses? But he doesn’t. As well as “making melody to the Lord”, Paul refers to singing to one another – and, of course, many of the songs we sing are not addressed to the Lord. There are songs of encouragement, joy, thanksgiving, teaching, testimony, prayer, adoration etc.

Evolving worship

Nowadays, they all seem to be included together in a ‘time of worship’, sometimes combined with the waving of flags, dancing etc. I have just read of a church where they do the conga ‘in worship’. I wonder if what the Lord was saying to me about the Mall and the Palace is that much of our ‘worship’ is Mall behaviour, rather than Palace.

I wonder if what the Lord was saying to me about the Mall and the Palace is that much of our ‘worship’ is Mall behaviour, rather than Palace.

I must stress that I consider most of what we call ‘times of worship’ to be good and rightful activities, and I am sure He approves. After all, there are many churches that do ‘worship’ in contemporary forms and which He appears to bless – including the one where they do the conga. Nevertheless, we have come a long way from the biblical meaning.

The doctrine of ‘worship’ seems to have evolved over the years. I am old enough to remember the ‘80s, when we talked about ‘praise and worship’ as two different styles of singing. Graham Kendrick, in the first chapter of his book ‘Worship’⁹, uses that phrase three times before he ever gives a definition of worship. Nowadays, we seem to include together all the musical elements – the praise, thanksgiving, rejoicing and encouraging one another (i.e., all the 4-star Mall type activities) – and call them ‘worship’, whilst leaving out the true 5-star experience of Palace worship.

Worshipping the Father

How has this come about? Two possible reasons. Firstly, nowadays we don’t ‘do’ humbling, bowing etc. Kneeling used to be the normal attitude for prayer, and I attend a church where there are still kneelers in the pews. But secondly and more importantly, as A. W. Tozer puts it,

“With our loss of the sense of majesty has come the further loss of religious awe and consciousness of the divine presence. We have lost our spirit of worship and our ability to withdraw inwardly to meet God in adoring silence”¹⁰.

Does it matter? To quote Jesus, “...the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (Jn 4:23-24).

That is my prayer, that I may truly know the Father of glory, so that I can worship Him as He desires and deserves.

So, we need to know what He meant. Isn’t it great that it is the Father whom we are to worship? We are His children, but He is still “the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy, who dwells in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a lowly and contrite spirit” (Isa 57:15).

Paul prayed for the Ephesians that they might have a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of “the Father of glory” (Eph 1:17). That is my prayer, that I may truly know the Father of glory, so that I can worship Him as He desires and deserves.

Endnotes

1. (Editor’s aside - While seeking a new minister for our church recently, I was editing the first attempt at sketching a picture of what our church is like for prospective pastors. Our lovely church secretary had written "Most services have periods of sun worship..."!)
2. Using my NASB concordance, there are three Hebrew words which are translated worship/worshippers etc.
               a. (4931) mishmereth (used once);
               b. (5647) abad (13 times for worship and derivatives);
               c. (7812) shachah worship (48 times), worshipped (31), worshipping (3), worships (2).
3. Strongs Exhaustive Concordance 5647
4. Strongs Exhaustive Concordance 3519b
5. Quaker Faith and Practice, British Yearly Meeting, 1995, 19.08
6. William Penn and Jason Henderson, Primitive Christianity Revived, MSF Early Quaker Series , 2018, p.85
7. Strongs Exhaustive Concordance 4352
8. Strongs Exhaustive Concordance 2999
9. Worship, Kingsway Publications, 1983
10. Preface of ‘The Knowledge of the Holy’ - A W Tozer (1961) Kindle edition.

David Parratt is a retired Christian bookshop manager based in South Cumbria. He is married to Janet.