If I asked you the question, “What is worship?”, what would your answer be? Go ahead, think about it….would it be singing? Dancing? Praying? Meditation? Serving the poor and needy? Loving one another? I’m aware, it’s a loaded question, but so are the answers. Because, you see, worship is ALL those things and so much more. I call that, the heartbeat of God for all of life!

Our entire life is sacred to God as are all of our actions, motives and heart attitudes. We can’t sing songs to God on Sunday and then go home and treat our families with cruelty. We can pray for hours every day and then turn our hearts away from those in need. This is not worship, but these are the things we call worship.

We sing songs in our church services on Sunday and call that worship. We play worship music and call that worship. Our prayer time or Bible reading time is called worship. When the demon possessed man in Mark 5:6 bowed before Jesus, the term used in the passage is worship.

If we are going to understand worship, we have to do so based on the way the Bible uses the term. The word for worship in the Hebrew (OT) has many uses. Here are a few: shachah: to bow down [Gen. 18, 22, 23; segid: to do homage [Daniel 3] ; sagad: to prostrate oneself (in worship) [Isaiah 44]; polchan: service, worship [Ezra 7:19]. These are just a few.

The word worship in Greek (NT):sebó: to worship [Matt. 15:9, Mark 7:7]; proskuneó: to do reverence to [Matt. 2:2, 8, 11]

The New Testament was written in Greek and the most common Greek word translated as worship is “proskuneo.” According to Strong’s Concordance “proskuneo” means “to kiss” as in to kiss the hand of a superior. It is commonly associated with bowing down or lying prostrate on the ground with the idea of kissing the ground before someone. Some scholars believe the word actually is derived from the idea of a dog licking its masters hand.  The idea is to show profound reverence and submission to someone.

[https://www.worshiparts.net/what-is-worship-proskuneo/ ]

Profound reverence and submission to someone! What an image that statement invokes! Biblical worship is not singing, although singing is an expression of worship. The LORD even said in Ps. 100:

Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands!
² Serve the Lord with gladness;
Come before His presence with singing.
³ Know that the Lord, He is God;
It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

⁴ Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,
And into His courts with praise.
Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.
⁵ For the Lord is good;
His mercy is everlasting,
And His truth endures to all generations.

Singing and music is involved in praise and communion with God, according to this and other Psalms, no question, but, singing is not the do all and be all of our worship. The most powerful act of worship is our submission to the will of God, to His prominence in the universe and over our individual lives.

Jesus is the One Who modeled perfect worship to us and, in my opinion, that worship is most clearly demonstrated in these scriptures and others that represent the same actions:

I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.

JOHN 5;30 (Emphasis added)

He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”

MATT. 26:39 (Emphasis added)

Jesus demonstrated His worship of the Father in looking only to Him for direction and following those directions exactly. Moses demonstrated worship to God when he laid down his life to deliver God’s people from Egypt and journeying with them in the wilderness. His love and reverence for God and Who He was is what caused him to continue on when things got hard.

Whatever it is you call worship, does it include submission to God’s will? Whatever you call worship, does it involve doing His will when your own will wants to do something else? Whatever you call worship, does it honor and reverence God’s Word, His Will and His Presence?

These are a few of the questions we must ask ourselves as we journey in following Jesus and worshiping God in spirit and truth!

Let Christ be glorified in all!