What is Biblical Worship Like?
by Ed Nelson
Are you aware that in our English Bibles, the Book of Revelation exceeds the Book of Psalms with specific references to the word worship? After all, isn’t the Psalms “the worship book of the Bible”? What should we make of this preponderance of the word worship in the last book of the Bible? The answer is worth considering.
The Book of Revelation is the revelation of Messiah Jesus (Yeshua) glorified in heaven. In doing so, the book distills the whole story of the Bible, of human history and its future, into just 22 chapters.
In this distilled literary form, words are compressed tightly into allusions, codes and metaphors to show the preeminence of the Messiah. Nevertheless, when it comes to the matter of worship, no coding is done. Worship is a magnet word. Whereas the Psalms describes who and how we worship, the Revelation addresses only who we worship. Who we worship is the driving question of the book from entry to exit.
Since Revelation is a distillation of the Bible, of human history and its future as told by Yahweh, how much more, then, is the subject of worship expanded in the whole Bible and in the ultimate purpose and role of mankind.
The actual English word worship with its variations (worshiped, worships) is found in the Bible about 170 times.
We would expect the Book of Psalms to overflow with expressions and practices of worship of Yahweh, the God of Israel and our universe. And, of course, it does. In fact, the Book of Psalms is true to its description as “the worship book of the Bible.”
Of course, our purpose is not to merely consider the English word for worship, but to review the biblical Hebraic concept of worship in the Bible. When we do this, the 170 words in the Bible rendered by the English word worship pale in comparison to the huge variety of Hebrew words describing this fundamental act.
The Hebrew Bible, we discover, teems with a rich variety of expressions describing worship. The fact of the matter, we can fairly say that biblical Hebrew, for worship, is the language of languages.
For a very long time, Zephaniah 3:8-9 has been held to refer to biblical Hebrew as the language of worship. From the pen of the prophet we read:
“Therefore wait for me,” declares Yahweh, “for the day when
I rise up as a witness. Indeed, my decision is to gather nations, to
assemble kingdoms, to pour out on them my indignation, all my
burning anger. For all the earth will be devoured by the fire of
my zeal. For then I will make the peoples pure of speech, so that
they all invoke the name of Yahweh and serve Him with one accord.”
The reference to “pure of speech” traditionally is held to refer to biblical Hebrew as the pure language of worship.
Yet Jesus [Yeshua] taught that out of the mouth the heart speaks. Purified hearts, for sure, is required for pure worship, regardless of the language used. One may know biblical Hebrew, yet live without a clean heart. The language itself does not make the worshiper pure before God. A worshiper becomes pure before God for an entirely different reason, and it is our Father’s doing.
Nevertheless, the traditional view of this passage of Scripture reminds us that Hebrew is the language Yahweh chose to reveal Himself in to the world. It is the language of his Word, and, indeed, the language of languages for pure worship.
With this in mind we shall examine the five-fold movement or process that a true worshiper followed in biblical times in worship of Yahweh. A study of several Hebrew words will explain.
Hebrew is a concrete, practical, even physical language. Abstract words, indeed, are rare, if they even exist in ancient Hebrew.
Words were formed out of the aleph-bet to illustrate concrete life experiences. All Hebrew words have pictorial, illustrated origins in pictograms, or word pictures. Each pictogram tells a stand-alone story or shows reality by adapting and combining pictorial signs and gestures found in the aleph-bet.
No letter of the Hebrew alphabet is absent a pictographic portrait of a physical reality. The first letter aleph, for example, was originally a drawn picture of the head of an ox. This physical sign of the ox’s head allowed abstract concepts to be communicated by the letter such as strength, might, and power. Thus, physical signs of words and physically derived letter combinations as words permitted abstract meanings to be expressed.
Such was the physical basis of the Hebrew language.
In the same way, the biblical Hebrew worldview was action-packed. For example, if you said you had faith, an abstract concept, but were absent the physical demonstration of faith in your daily walk, your faith was considered dead. James, the half-brother of Jesus (Yeshua), wrote: “Faith alone, if not accompanied by action, is dead” (cf. James 2:17).
Worship is a Series of Five Actions Plus One
So when we approach the abstract concept of worship in the ancient Hebrew world, a series of concrete, physical expressions and gestures are essential to describing this reality. Physical action precedes and anticipates the abstract reality.
From physical pictures of action-based reality in ancient Hebrew pictograms we are able to illustrate the concept, meaning and value of worship of God.
Our English word “worship” is an abstract word, of course. Our alphabet is not image-driven like Hebrew. We did not learn the word “worship” by observing a short sequence of alphabet pictures combined together to form the word. Instead, we learned the word through hearing it used, being told what it meant, and by seeing it applied in sentences. We simply memorized it through repetition. English, because it is an abstract language for the greater part, is a much harder language to learn than the concrete, action-driven Hebrew language.
In the Hebrew world of the Bible, worship was a series of five separate, physical actions. These five gestures are self-explanatory. When combined together, they show a movement in worship. Worship becomes a five-step process of entering in to God’s presence.
The five physical gestures are: (1) bowing low to the ground, then (2) prostrating oneself on the ground facedown, then (3) rising to a kneeling position to speak a blessing, followed by (5) standing position in prayer and praise to draw near, and, finally, (5) serving God as his voluntary, freewill servant. Service, or work, is characterized by our walking before Him.
After the physical ascension of the Messiah Jesus (Yeshua) to heaven where He sat down with God the Father on his throne, a sixth physical component of worship was made possible never done before: sitting in heavenly places in the Messiah.
The First Movement in Worship
In ancient Israel the first step to worship Yahweh was to step down to bow low, even to touch the head to the earth to express utter humility before Him. The word to show this expression is qadad, literally, “to bow low.”
If the physical sign is bowing low to the earth, the bending of our bodies before Yahweh, what then is the abstract meaning that is corollary to the action?
The word qadad was a general term not only used of approaching Yahweh but also a king or recognized authority. In itself, it does not mean “to worship,” nor is it translated as such in the Bible. Rather, it signifies humility before an authority. It may or may not be a worshipful act. To bow low was to pay homage to a superior authority. Thus, it was a beginning act in worship as much as it was the beginning act to approach a king or superior.
For example, when David was pursued by King Saul of Israel to take his life, David happened upon the king in a cave, found him asleep and cut off the corner of this robe. He had an opportunity to kill the king and was urged to do so by his warriors. But David refused to harm him because he respected and honored the king as the anointed of God. Instead, David awakened Saul, saying, “My lord the king!” The Bible text reads: “And when Saul looked behind him, David bowed [qadad] with his face to the ground and prostrated himself” (1 Samuel 24:8).
The custom of the times, still practiced in some cultures today, is to bow during a greeting. The lower the bow, the greater the admiration and honor accorded. The less the extent of the bow, the less the relationship or duty of devotion. In David’s case with King Saul, because Saul was the anointed king, though the king was evil towards David, David bowed to the ground in humility before him.
The same word qadad is found earlier in the Bible in Genesis 24. Abraham sent his oldest servant to find a wife for his son, Isaac. When, without doubt he had found her, the Bible says: “Then the man bowed low [qadad] and worshiped Yahweh” (24:26).
Again, when Yahweh called Moses to deliver Israel from Egyptian bondage, the story described in the book of Exodus, Moses asked that his brother Aaron be the one to speak to the people of Israel in Moses’ stead. Aaron, of course, was fluent in the Hebrew tongue and could speak to the Hebrew people better than Moses. Moses, rather, was fluent in Egyptian, though a Hebrew, because he was raised in the house of Pharaoh since a small child. Thus, he was more qualified to speak to Pharaoh.
At the announcement to the sons of Israel made by Aaron that Yahweh would deliver them from slavery soon, “the people believed. And when they heard that Yahweh was concerned about the sons of Israel and that He had seen their affliction, then they bowed low [qadad] and worshiped” (Exodus 4:31).
The Second Movement in Worship
The next step in the worship process is almost simultaneous with the first step (qadad). One follows the other, but in a deeper way. The second Hebrew word, then, is shachah, which, like qadad, also means to bow down in humility to show honor and respect.
On some occasions you find in the Hebrew Bible the one-two combination of qadad followed immediately by shachah (e.g., Genesis 24:26; Exodus 12:27; 34:8; Numbers 22:31; 1 Samuel 24:9; 28:14; 2 Chronicles 20:18).
Usually the Hebrew Bible does not write out the first step of bowing down (qadad) since the second step—shachah—embodies everything meant by qadad, but more.
The word shachah describes the physical movement of the worshiper to the lowest possible physical gesture in regard to the earth through bowing low (qadad) to stretching out prostrate (shachah) on one’s face before God. Beyond honor and respect, beyond humility and self-abasement, it indicates total submission to obey God.
Thus, often the Bible writer skips the use of the first word qadad to go directly to the word shachah since it embodies both movements.
We get a one-two effect in these first two steps in the act of worship. First, we humble ourselves before God by bowing low (qadad), then, by continuing the physical movement to lying prostrate, an indication that we submit completely to Him to obey Him (shachah) fully. This is the strength of this word—total submission to obey. The word may be rendered as obeisance as easily as worship.
This second move in worship shows total devotion to Yahweh with no reservations about what He may ask of us or do to us. In this second act of worship, we cast our fears and anxieties upon Him. Any vestiges of self preservation are lost.
Remember when David awakened King Saul in the cave when David could have taken the king’s life, but would not? David honored the king as the anointed of God. David called to Saul with these recorded words in the Bible, “My lord the king!” Then the text reads: “And when Saul looked behind him, David bowed [qadad] with his face to the ground and prostrated [shachah] himself” (1 Samuel 24:8).
The word shachah tells us that David submitted himself to the will of his king as his dutiful subject ready to carry out his will. He bowed down in humility (qadad) and prostrated himself (shachah) as an obedient servant.
Often in the Bible the word shachah is rendered by the English word worship. But this is only according to context. In such cases where a king is honored by lying prostrate before him, the subject is not worshiping the king but is formally offering himself in humility and obedience for the king’s will to be done.
Recall Abraham’s servant who was sent to find a wife for his master’s son, Isaac. When he found God’s choice in the young woman named Rebekah, the Bible says, “Then the man bowed low [qadad] and worshiped [shachah] Yahweh” (24:26). In this case, again, we see the one-two combination of bowing low [qadad] in humility and submitting to Yahweh in full obedience [shachah].
Let’s revisit the announcement made by Aaron to Israel in Egypt that Yahweh had spoken to Moses that they would be delivered from slavery. What was their response? “The people believed. And when they heard that Yahweh was concerned about the sons of Israel and that He had seen their affliction, then they bowed low [qadad] and worshiped [shachah]” (Exodus 4:31).
In Revelation 4:10 we observe that “…the twenty-four elders fall down [shachah] before him who sits on the throne, and worship [shachah] him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say, “11 Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power. For You created all things, and because of your will they existed, and were created.”
In this case, as in many others, the word qadad is dropped, going directly to the word shachah. The twenty-four elders are immediately at the disposal of Yahweh, having fallen down before Him in humility and obedience in one swift movement.
The Third Movement in Worship
This leads us to the third act in worship, introducing us to the Hebrew word barak. After bowing down and lying prostrate on the ground, we come to a word rooted in the action “to kneel.” The word barak means to bless. Assuming a movement to a kneeling posture, having arisen from a prostrate position, a blessing is expressed to God, much like that found in a complimentary greeting, an offer of thanks, or a salute (or salutation).
The blessing follows the worshipful act of prostrating oneself (shachah) in full submission and obedience to Yahweh.
Again, let’s revisit the story of Abraham’s servant who found Rebekah to be a wife for his son, Isaac. Of course, the servant had to do more than whisk the young woman away to Abraham. He had to explain himself to her father and uncle. In so doing, listen to the words of Abraham’s servant as he explains to Bethuel and Laban: “And I bowed low [qadad] and worshiped [shachah] Yahweh, and blessed [barak] Yahweh, the God of my master Abraham, who had guided me in the right way to take the daughter of my master’s kinsman for his son.”
When Moses instructed Israel as to how they were to act when they settled in the land of Canaan, he said: “When you have eaten and are satisfied, you shall bless [barak] Yahweh your God for the good land which He has given you” (Deuteronomy 8:10).
This was the Hebrew custom in approaching a king of Israel as well. Remember David meeting Saul in the cave? We already learned that David bowed low in humility before King Saul, and that he prostrated himself as his servant in total submission to obey the king. But the third stage was that David saluted King Saul, speaking to him a blessing of life, and not of death, of his pledged support and not his disobedience. Such is the character of the third stage in greeting a monarch.
Likewise, when Queen Bathsheba was concerned for son Solomon, notice how she approached King David and spoke a blessing to him:
Then Bathsheba bowed [qadad] with her face to the
ground in humility, then prostrated [shachah] herself
before the king in total submission to obey him, and then said,
“May my lord King David live forever” (1 Kings 1:31).
In these human accounts of bowing, submitting and blessing a master or king, we see the same three parts in the process of worshiping Almighty God. First, is qadad (bowing low, the supreme act of humility), the shachah (prostrating oneself in total submission and obedience), then barak (kneeling before Him to speaking unto Him a blessing).
In worship, the third act in the worship process is to speak to Yahweh a blessing that recounts his Name (cf. Exodus 34:6-7), to give praise and adoration worthy of his Name, to proclaim honor unto Him and to speak, even to shout, sing and make music unto his majesty (cf. Psalm 145; 150).
Notice how the twenty-four elders in the Book of Revelation, having fallen down in full submission [shachah], immediately begin to bless (barak) the Lord God:
“Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power. For You created all things, and because of your will they existed, and were created” (Revelation 4:11).
The Fourth Movement in Worship
We come to the fourth step of the worship process. Here is a key transition in the worship offered to God. It is the rising from the knees to draw near to the One and Only True God.
The Book of Psalms is replete with examples of entering in the presence of Yahweh. Through shouts, singing, clapping, leaping and dancing, worshipers enter into the fourth movement of worship in delightful praise. They rise up from their knees and stand before the King of kings and Lord of lords to draw near (qarav) to Him. Prayer is offered, songs sung, music played with ascending praises as the worshipers are invited to draw near (qarav) to God.
To this point in the worship process, the expressed desire is to draw near to Him on his terms according to his lovingkindness appropriate to his Holy Name (cf. Exodus 34:6-7). Of course, to draw near to Him requires his permission, something that cannot be taken for granted.
The Hebrew word for draw near is qarav, a common word in the Bible that lends great weight to the purpose of worship.
In order to draw near to God, the worshiper is required to be holy. But we are sinners. “For all have sinned and fall short of God’s glory” (Romans 3:10).
How, then, can we draw near to Him?
Since in ourselves, even with our best efforts, we are not holy, this requires for us to be made holy in God’s sight. Otherwise God is unapproachable. Death is the penalty for our sinful state in life. To draw near to Him in an unholy and unclean state is undesirable.
In a king’s presence, the first three movements to show humility, submission and blessing to him is done with a great sense of awe and fear. The king can be capricious. He may reject us, cast us out, or even kill us. It’s awesome to approach a king in ancient times.
What the subject of the king wishes to hear after rising from the floor to the knee to salute and bless the king is the king’s voice saying, “Arise, come, draw near.” Such an invitation removes the fear of banishment or death.
When Esther approached her husband, King Achashverosh, to ask for clemency for the Jewish people and justice regarding the evil Haman, she entered his court with awareness she could die. The king, instead, extended favor to her and held out to her his golden scepter. “So Esther drew near [qarav], and touched the top of his scepter” (Esther 5:2). To draw near was the result of the king’s invitation. The invitation was her salvation and the salvation of her people who were in a desperate life and death situation.
Such is the invitation from Yahweh to draw near to Him. He extends to true worshipers his golden scepter of salvation. Access is granted without fear of recrimination.
In this context, Yahweh invites the worshiper, “Come.”
Such was the hope of the suffering servant of God named Job who sought access to Yahweh’s throne:
“Though He slay me, I will hope in Him. Nevertheless I will
argue my ways before Him. This also will be my salvation, for
a godless man may not come before his presence. (Job 13:15-16)
The Psalmist advocated to those desiring to worship: “Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms” (Psalm 95:2; cf. Psalm 100).
The prophet Zephaniah bewailed the corruption of the city of Jerusalem. The Holy City was unholy. True worship of God was compromised by the willfully sinful acts of the general population and its leaders. The citizens of the city failed to comply with the process of worship illustrated in the Hebrew words qadad, shachah and barak. Listen to the prophet speak:
Woe to her who is rebellious and defiled, the tyrannical city!
She heeded no voice, she accepted no instruction. She did not
trust in Yahweh, she did not draw near [qarav] to
her God. (Zephaniah 3:1-2)
Jerusalem showed that the people of Jerusalem had no humility through bowing down, no obedience through prostration, no blessing of God from bended knees, and, therefore, no desire to draw near to Him. The city had lost its desire to worship Yahweh.
The wisdom expressed by King Solomon in the Book of Ecclesiastes 5:1-7 gives a solemn warning to those who attempt to draw near to God unprepared.
Guard your feet as you walk to the house of God. And draw
near [qarav] to hear [obey] rather than give the
sacrifice of fools. For they do not know they do evil.
The same lesson is found in the writings of the prophet Isaiah. People seek to approach God with their lips when their lives are far from Him. Isaiah says:
Then the Lord said, “… this people draw near [qarav] with
their words and honor Me with their lip service, but they remove
.
their hearts far from Me, and their reverence for Me consists of
tradition learned [by rote]… (Isaiah 29:13)
The blessing a worshiper should bring to God in drawing near to Him is not one of lip service, nor one of flattery, or one of attempted manipulation of his will, but one in deepest awe of his Name, one full of reverence of his glory. To draw near to God there must be a heart change from self interests to God’s interests and purposes.
Even in the ancient Hebrew culture, as is today in modern culture, some worshipers worship for personal interests and gain. This is too common the corruption brought to the act of worship. Such worship seeks to create an atmosphere of praise of God in order to gain God’s attention to our personal desires and needs. In this way, He is seen as the fulfiller of our needs, the satisfier of our wants, an accomplice to our personal goals of self-fulfillment, and the guarantor of our happiness, prosperity and peace.
True, our Father supplies our needs according to his riches in glory. True, our Father is generous in showing Himself in the midst of our troubles, and, true, He rescues us from the penalty of sin. Likewise, He is the author and finisher of our salvation. He is not too busy to hear us, never turning a deaf ear to his children. He opens his hand to provide the daily sustenance of life.
But He is much more than our Source, our Supplier, our Means of life. If worship is to win a warehouse of supplies for our happiness, we do err in our highest purpose in life.
Such a view where our Father is only seen as the Source and Supplier, the Rescuer and Deliver, the Savior and the Hero, is to see Him with an inferior and weak understanding of our purpose as people of God.
We are affected by our culture in how we worship. Even so was it true in the ancient days where Israel sought to be like the Gentiles, to be like the pagan nations surrounding their little nation.
In our Western culture particularly, the primary worldview is that the purpose of man is to pursue life, liberty and happiness. Another way of saying it is that we are taught from the crib to the coffin that the primary purpose of man is to seek his own way through life. The famous Frank Sinatra song, also sung by Elvis Presley, was “I did it my way.” This is the driving force in philosophies of our times. Everything is personal, everything is self-directed, and everything is centered about one’s own person.
Our philosophies teach that the only truth is the truth we believe, that our truth is valid for us, but not for someone else. Why? Because as long as we are the source of our own truth, and we respect another’s truth, then we can all achieve personal happiness according to our own way. Absolute truth cannot exist, for it threatens too many people’s personal happiness.
The problem with this fourth act of worship called “drawing near” is that we cannot approach God on our terms. Our personal happiness, our personal health and prosperity, our goals and dreams are hindrances to this approach. When we approach Him for our end goals, we are finding God useful as the means for us to live the way we desire.
As long as we can approach God in some self-effacing form of humility, and in some semblance of respect with particular emphasis on praising Him, on blessing his Name with words, songs, music and dance, we may feel some level of confidence that we are getting through to Him on our terms with our agenda and for our prayers and wishes to be accomplished. This wrong kind of worship ultimately is about us, that is, it is useful for us to gain favor with God in praising Him so He can help us achieve our goals in life.
The problem with this view is that God is not about our goals, but his. He is the Creator of the universe, and the Creator of mankind. Just as all creation is to serve his purposes, so is mankind made for worship of God.
Our perversion of worship started immediately after sin entered the world with the sacrifices of Cain that were unacceptable to God. Cain took the first and best that was intended for God’s purposes and kept it for himself. He couldn’t understand why God couldn’t accept something less than the best. After all, Cain felt the first and best should be his. For Cain, God was to be worshiped as the means for his personal gain and happiness.
The biblical Hebrew view of worship is the view of the prophets. We are to approach Him in awe, falling down on our faces, humbling ourselves in his sight, bending completely our will to his in full, unreserved submission, blessing and praising Him so we may draw near to Him according to his terms for his purposes.
Worship, in this very Hebraic sense, is to see Yahweh not only as our means to sustain and provide for us through life and hereafter, but that He is the end goal of our lives. We are his, we belong to Him, we are his bond-servants, yes, his slaves. We were bought with the price of his only Son’s blood, the Messiah Jesus [Yeshua], that we may serve Him for his glory and Name sake. Nothing is about us. Suffering does not stop us. Fears do not deter us. For we are not our own. We were made to worship God for eternity.
When this Hebraic view is held, even cherished, worship changes us. Drawing near to God, the fourth stage in worship, makes everything fade away in his Presence but Him. In drawing near to Him, we become what we were created to be—true worshipers. He is not only our means, He is the end goal of our lives.
Listen to how the prophet Ezekiel describes the purpose of the priests drawing near to God. In Ezekiel 43:19, we read the prophet’s instruction:
‘You shall give to the Levitical priests who are from the offspring
of Zadok, who draw near [qarav] to Me to minister
[sharath] to Me,’ declares Adonai Yahweh, ‘a young bull
for a sin offering…’
The whole purpose of drawing near to God in worship is to move to the next step, to minister, or serve Him. He is the end and goal of human purpose.
Drawing near to God is not to manipulate Yahweh, but to perfect us in his sight. Listen to the writer of Hebrews. In chapter 4:14-16, the writer summarized the purpose of drawing near to God:
Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed
through the heavens, Jesus [Yeshua] the Son of God, let us
hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who
cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been
tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us
draw near [qarav] with confidence to the throne of loving-
kindness, so that we may receive mercy and find lovingkindness
to help in time of need.
In Hebrews 7:23-28 we read:
The [former] priests, on the one hand, existed in greater
numbers because they were prevented by death from continuing,
but Jesus [Yeshua], on the other hand, because He continues forever,
holds his priesthood permanently.
Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near
[qarav] to God through Him, since He always lives to
make intercession for them. For it was fitting for us to have such
a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners
and exalted above the heavens who does not need daily, like those
high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for his own sins and then
for the sins of the people, because this He did once for all when He
offered up Himself. For the Torah appoints men as high priests who
are weak, but the word of the oath, which came after the Torah,
appoints a Son, made perfect forever.
Again, in Hebrews 10:1, 21-22 we find this instruction:
For the Torah, since it has only a shadow of the good things to
come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same
sacrifices [qorban] which they offer continually year
by year, make perfect those who draw near [qarav]…
And since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us
draw near [qarav] with a sincere heart in full assurance
of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience
and our bodies washed with pure water.
In the same vein, James [Ya’acov], the half-brother of Jesus [Yeshua] wrote in chapter 4:6-10.
Therefore it [the Scriptures] says, “God is opposed to the
proud, but gives lovingkindness to the humble.” Submit, there-
fore, to God.
Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Draw near [qarav] to God, and He will draw near
to you.
Cleanse your hands, you sinners. And purify your hearts, you
double-minded. Be miserable and mourn and weep. Let your
laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble
yourselves in the presence of Yahweh, and He will exalt you.
Fifth in Five-fold process in the Biblical Hebrew Concept of True Worship
The fifth aspect of worship, that which all the other aspects lead up to, is found in the Hebrew word ‘avad. It means “to work” (but not for hire as an employed person, and not under coercion as a forced slave, but for God’s purposes as a bond-servant). It is often rendered to serve (again, as bond-servants). Often it is translated as the English word worship.
The fifth act of worship is the result of the approach to God and the drawing near to Him. When we worship Him in this biblical sense, the worship continues when we get up from the dust, when we arise from kneeling and carries over into our walk. But this is no ordinary walk. It is to be sent out by Yahweh on mission to serve Him in his service. Thus, the act of work for God’s will in the world, for his purposes in heaven and earth, is the fullness of worship.
In Exodus 3:12, the story is told of how Yahweh spoke to Moses at the burning bush incident where Moses was called into God’s service. And He said:
“Certainly I will be with you, and this shall be the sign to
you that it is I who have sent you: when you have brought
the people out of Egypt, you shall worship [‘avad] God
at this mountain.”
Again, in this final step in the process of biblical worship, worship is clearly not to be seen as the means of man to obtain from God what man desires and seeks. Like the fourth step in drawing near to God [qarav], this step shows worship of God not as a means to a desired human end, i.e., man’s happiness, man’s glory, man’s shalom, but as the very end-goal of life as worship of God in everything we are and do.
True worship of God moves from humility, to obedience, to blessing and praise, to drawing near to God to service in his kingdom.
For those who were priests, their service to God was called sharath. It means to serve, to minister in terms of priests of serving in the Temple.
Deuteronomy 10:8 – At that time Yahweh set apart the
tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, to
stand before Yahweh to serve [sharath] Him and to bless
in His name until this day.
Deuteronomy 21:5 -Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall
come near, for Yahweh your God has chosen them to serve Him
and to bless in the name of Yahweh; and every dispute and
every assault shall be settled by them.
Ezekiel 43:19 - “You shall give to the Levitical priests
who are from the offspring of Zadok, who draw near [qarav]
to Me to minister [sharath] to Me,” declares Adonai
Yahweh, “a young bull for a sin offering…”
The priests and other Levites were a smaller population in Israel with a specific Hebrew expression to describe their type of service (sharath), but all of Israel was called to serve [‘avad] God in their daily activities of life.
The Sixth Movement in Worship—or is It?
While the Hebrew Bible shows five distinct movements in the act of worship represented by five physical gestures, a sixth physical expression is found in the New Testament that relates to worship—sitting (yashav) in heavenly places in Messiah Yeshua [Jesus] (cf. Ephesians 2:4-6).
The text reads as follows:
But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with
which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trans-
gressions, made us alive together with Messiah (by loving-
kindness you have been saved), and raised us up with Him,
and seated [yashav] us with Him in the heavenly
places in Messiah Yeshua [Jesus], so that in the ages to come
He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness
toward us in Messiah Yeshua [Jesus].
The Hebrew word yashav throughout the Bible remains consistent in meaning—“to sit, remain, dwell.”
To dwell among his people is the mission of Yahweh. In Exodus 29:44-46 we find the institution of the Tent of Meeting, often called the Tabernacle, which the Hebrews call the mishkan. Notice the purpose of it all as spoken by Yahweh to Moses:
“I will consecrate the tent of meeting and the altar. I will also
consecrate Aaron and his sons to minister as priests to Me. I
will dwell among the sons of Israel and will be their God.
They shall know that I am Yahweh their Elohim who brought
them out of the land of Egypt that I might dwell among them.
I am Yahweh their Elohim.”
Our objective in worship eventuates in us drawing near to Him in praise to serve Him. But his desire is that we sit with Him, to dwell and remain with Him forever. This is accomplished through faith in his Son Yeshua (Jesus) who allows us now, by faith, to sit on his throne in fellowship with the Father and the Son.
In his message to the seven assemblies in Asia, Yeshua (Jesus) said to the assembly in Laodicea:
“He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down [yashav]
with Me on my throne, as I also overcame and sat down with
my Father on his throne.” (Revelation 3:21).
Rightfully, we may say that sitting is not one of the processes of worship, but is the abode of the worshiper. This physical gesture is probably not an aspect of worship at all, but the beginning and end of worship—sitting in the heavenlies on Messiah’s throne, joined to Him in intimate belonging.
Consider the heads of the priestly order in heaven, those called elders:
Around the throne were twenty-four thrones. And upon
the thrones I saw twenty-four elders [of the priestly houses]
sitting [yashav], clothed in white garments, and golden
crowns on their heads. (Revelation 4:4)
In Revelation 11:16-17 we see them move from their sitting places to begin the five steps in the worship process:
And the twenty-four elders [of the priestly houses], who sit
on their thrones before God, fell [naphal] on their faces prostrate
[shachah] before God, saying, “We give You thanks, Yahweh
Elohey Tzava’oth who are and who were, because You have
taken your great power and have begun to reign.
The word naphal means “to fall” and is used here as a synonym for qadad (bow down low).
The Psalms and Revelation
Two words are most often translated as worship in our English Bible—shachah and ‘avad. The other words that are part of the worship process are generally not rendered as the word “worship” though they are important to worship occurring.
When we find the English word worship in the Psalms and the Book of Revelation, shachah is the dominant word.
In Revelation, the issue comes down to who we bow down to in submission and obedience. The beast described in the Book of Revelation is set out to deceive the whole world to receive not only adulation, but worship. The bowing down and submitting to the beast is the world condition described in the Book of Revelation as opposed to worshiping God. This is the test of the ages, and no book of the Bible draws this contest down better than the Book of Revelation.
The question that the Book of Revelation leaves the reader is this: who do you worship?
Everyone worships someone, even if themselves in this self-indulgent age. Anyone, anything being worshiped other than God is idolatry.
The commanding theme of the Book of Revelation is summed up in Revelation 22:9—“Worship [shachah] God.”
So what have we learned about worship of God?
1. We identified five steps in the process of life-changing worship: qadad, shachah, barak, karav and ‘avad (with special mention of sharath).
2. True worship is not about oneself, but is about the glory of God for his Name’s sake.
3. Worship is not a means to an end for human happiness, peace and prosperity.
4. Worship is the means of approaching and drawing near to God according to his terms as the end-goal of human purpose to dwell with Him forever.
5. Our Father’s desire is to give us access to Him through his Son Yeshua (Jesus) that we may dwell with Him forever, evidenced in our sitting down in heavenly places now through faith in his Son.
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