Foundations of Faith
WORSHIP, PRAISE, AND THANKSGIVING
Just as there is not a gift of prayer, there are no gifts of worship, praise, and thanksgiving. These are activities for all believers. They are the heart’s response to God for His gifts to us of love and grace.
The Hebrew word translated “worship” in the Old Testament literally means “to bow oneself down.” This word is found in both of the following verses:”He ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground” (Gen. 18:2). “I and the lad will go yonder and worship” (Gen. 22:5). Most of us have seen pictures of Muslims kneeling on their prayer rugs with their faces to the ground. That gives the sense of this Hebrew word.
The word in the New Testament has a similar meaning and is often found in connection with bowing down:”They … fell down and worshiped Him” (Matt. 2:11; 4:9; 28:9; Acts 10:25; 1 Cor. 14:25; Rev. 3:9; 7:11).
Worship, therefore, has to do with the attitude of our soul in the presence of the Lord. Whether or not we are physically on our faces before the Lord may not be of prime importance. But certainly our souls and spirits are to be bowed before Him in humility and lowliness. Thus, we recognize how great and pure God is and how little and sinful we are; we judge our pride, boastfulness, disobedience, willfulness; we are convicted about the times we have pushed God off of His throne, putting ourselves there in His place. This is what is meant by the verse:”O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness” (Psa. 29:2; 96:9). (See Assignment 2)
In the New Testament, Jesus tells us that “God is a Spirit, and they who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). This means that we are not free to create our own image or concept of God. We worship Him according to the revelation that He has given us of Himself and His attributes (see Jul93-Nov94) in His Word, the Holy Bible.
In the New Testament we are not told to worship God. However, the Lord Jesus did tell His disciples to remember Him (Luke 22:19; 1 Cor. 11:23-26). When we remember Him, worship will truly follow.
“Hallelujah! Praise ye the Lord!” Halal is the Hebrew word for “praise,” u is an ending for the pronoun “you” and Jah means “the LORD.” Put them together and you are speaking Hebrew when you exclaim, “Hallelujah!” Psalm 117, the shortest psalm or chapter of the Bible, begins with, “O praise the LORD,” and ends with “Praise ye the LORD.” In other words, the psalmist is saying, “I am praising the LORD; I want you to join me and we will all praise Him together.”
A literal meaning of the word halal, in today’s language, is “to shine a spotlight on.” At a concert a spotlight is put on the soloist, thus marking him/her out. So praise to the Lord is putting the spotlight on Him, marking Him out as One who is very special and worthy. When an entertainer has performed well, or an athlete has played well, what does the audience do? They clap their hands and/or cheer for that person, and in that way put a “spotlight” on him/ her. My son once told me that he cheered himself hoarse while attending a professional baseball game. A couple of years ago when the baseball player, Cal Ripken, broke the record for consecutive games played, there was unbroken cheering for him for 21 minutes. Better than that, the Italian opera singer, Luciano Pavarotti, was applauded for over an hour on at least one occasion. These are examples of giving praise to men. Do we come close to showing such enthusiasm in the presence of the Lord, giving praise to Him?
The same word for “praise” is found in the following verse:”I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked” (Psa. 73:3). Here the word is used in a negative sense:turning the spotlight on oneself-rather than on the Lord-is the ultimate act of foolishness.
The Hebrew word, yadah, for “thanksgiving” is often translated “praise” and is also the primary Old Testament word for “confess.” The next three verses all have this same Hebrew word:”When Thy people Israel … shall turn again to Thee and confess Thy name … then hear Thou in heaven and forgive the sin of Thy people” (1 Ki. 8:33,35). “O that men would praise the LORD for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men! (Psa. 107:8,15,21, 31). “O give thanks unto the LORD, for He is good” (Psa. 136:1-3).
Yadah literally means to stretch out the hand, point one out. John the Baptist had been preparing the people for the coming of One who was greater than he, the Messiah Himself. Then, one day, seeing Jesus coming to him he exclaimed, “There He is! There is the One I have been telling you about! Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). That is what yadah is. Another illustration of yadah is found in this familiar verse:”If you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved” (Rom. 10:9). Confessing the Lord Jesus means not being afraid to tell others about your Saviour.
We conclude from these illustrations that thanksgiving should include telling the Lord-and others-what you think of Him and what He has done for you.
The New Testament word for thanksgiving provides a further insight. The Greek word eucharistia for “thanksgiving” contains within it the word charis or “grace.” Thus thanksgiving is the response of my heart and lips to the recognition of God’s grace or favor to me when I really deserve just the opposite (see Jan94).
Thanksgiving relates to all parts of our lives:”In every thing give thanks” (1 Thess. 5:18). “Giving thanks always for all things” (Eph. 5:20; Phil. 4:6).
When someone gives you a birthday present what do you say? “Thank you, that is just what I wanted, the color is beautiful, it fits perfectly, I enjoy reading books by this author” or some such sentiment. It is not difficult, is it? So why do you find it so difficult publicly to thank God for His many benefits to you? It does not take a special gift to thank the Lord-just love for the One who first loved you (1 John 4:19).
Running the Race
Assignment 2: (a) Write out a verse in 1 Corinthians 11 that shows what can happen if we try to worship when in an unholy state. (b) Write out a verse in Matthew 5 that shows what we must do before we can worship properly.