Post 2/10 in my series to discover a deeper meaning behind the word worship in the Bible.
Many of you might not know this, but I am kind of a geek! I love obscure information, history, and even some sci-fi. But most of all I love learning and numbers. I love numbers so much that "back in the day" I was on the UIL mental math team for my school. (What a nerd, I know). So, if you are not into numbers, this post might be a bit dry for you, but I will do my best to make it as fascinating and enjoyable for you as it has been for me.
A basic word search in the ESV Bible translation reveals the following information about the word worship.
Worship occurs 110 times in 104 verses
Worships occurs 5 times in 5 verses
Worshiped occurs 55 times in 54 verses
Worshiper occurs 4 times in 4 verses
Worshipers occurs 11 times in 9 verses
Worshiping occurs 7 times in 7 verses
81 times in the New Testament and 111 times in the Old Testament
That brings us to a total of 192 occurrences of the of the English word worship in 183 (180 unduplicated) verses of the Bible.
Click here to check out my spreadsheet!
Please note that I might have missed some but you can get the general idea that worship is "kinda" a big deal in the Bible.
Now I want to repose a question I asked in my last post: When you think about the term worship, what is the first thing that comes to mind?
For some, it might be music, either traditional piano or organ music with a robed choir singing. For others, it might look more like a dimly light modern sanctuary with a full praise band on stage singing a song that emotionally transports them to a place where they can worship God. Still, others might think about spontaneous song and dance. There are so many different ideas that come to mind when we think about worship.
But it might catch you by surprise if I said that worship is none of the above.......at least not wholly defined by the above statements.
Worship is a peculiar or odd term that is a bit unclear in today's understanding of English, or at least it has been for me. The term worship is not a word used in everyday conversation unless we are using a trite expression like, "worshiping the ground she (or he) walks on."
So my question of the day is, what is the definition of worship?
Merriam-Webster's online dictionary defines worship this way:
Chiefly British: a person of importance — used as a title for various officials (such as magistrates and some mayors)
Reverence offered a divine being or supernatural power; also: an act of expressing such reverence
A form of religious practice with its creed and ritual
Extravagant respect or admiration for or devotion to an object of esteem e.g. "worship of the dollar"
The dictionary still doesn't entirely paint the full understanding of worship as described in the Bible, which leads us back to worship by the numbers.
Fortunately, I didn't set down for two years and count all of the words for worship in my Bible at home. I did, however, conduct a reverse word search to find out how many times the term worship is used in the ESV. Since the Bible we read today is a translation from original texts in Hebrew and Greek we continue to develop a deeper meaning of modern terms used through understanding the underlying original version.
Word cloud of the biblical definition of worship. The human praying on the right is made out of the english definition of worship. The cross is a compilation of Hebrew and greek terms used and translated to worship. With the exception of the word God!
So when I look at the original words that are translated to worship I find that there are 21 different terms.
With the 21 terms, we can derive a more biblical definition of the term worship.
Render sacred service, to minister in an official (technical, authorized) capacity, especially on behalf of the community.
To kiss the ground when prostrating before a superior; to worship, ready "to fall down/prostrate oneself to adore on one's knees" suggests the willingness to make all necessary physical gestures of obeisance
Bow, bow ourselves down, bow yourselves down, bow down, bowed in worship, bowed down, bowing, bowing down, bows down, did homage, down in homage, prostrate, weighs it down
"God" "revere" – reverence (towards God); true piety shown by devout worshipers, i.e. God-fearing people who venerate the things of God, showing the reverence or awe (veneration) of someone who is devout
To serve, work or be a servant both skilled and unskilled
To revere; be in awe by one's own twisted definition of what deserves reverence
To fear
When we compare our compiled Bible definition to the standard Webster definition, worship starts to take on a much deeper meaning. Biblical worship goes beyond a title given to man. Biblical worship is more than a mere act of reverence, paying homage, respect, or admiration.
Biblical worship requires more than just showing up or singing once a week. It requires us to have an accurate definition of who and what we are worshiping. It requires us to move out of our comfort zone and bow down (humble ourselves) in awe of the creator of the Universe. And to my surprise, there should be a sense of fear (reverence) in the God we are worshiping.
I desire to continue to help unpack what Biblical worship looks like and how having a deep understanding of what worship means. How understanding worship can fully transform our lives. And ultimately change how we ceremonially worship (Sunday service) our God. And how we worship God with our everyday lives.
In the next post, we take a more in-depth look at ceremonial worship (Aka, Sunday service).
God,
I thank you for your amazing love you have shown for us. That while we struggle to understand the vastness of you and the richness of your love, you still care and listen to our cries. I pray that as we continue to dive deep into worship that you will guide our hearts and minds to understand what it means to be worshipers of the living God. Thank you for the blessing of numbers, and crazy geekiness that can help draw us closer to you. It is in your name I pray.
~Aman
We Fall Down - Chris Tomlin
We fall down
We lay our crowns
At the feet of Jesus
The greatness of
Mercy and love
At the feet of Jesus
And we cry holy, holy, holy
We cry holy, holy, holy
We cry holy, holy, holy
Is the lamb
Precious Name - UMH 536
Verse 4:
At the Name of Jesus bowing,
Falling prostrate at His feet,
King of kings in heav’n we’ll crown Him,
When our journey is complete.