Our Ultimate Purpose: Worship
The chief end of mankind is to worship (bow in obedience) to the only wise God, Yahweh of the Old and New Testaments.
“But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers” – John 4:23 NASB
How could our Lord God possibly have to seek anything? Here is an amazing revelation: The omnipotent God of creation actually seeks those among His creatures who would freely come to love, obey, and worship Him! Could this be true? Christ says it is! In some inscrutable way, it satisfies the infinite heart of God when we respond to His sacrificial love in gratitude and submissive obedience.
“I will worship toward Your holy temple, and praise Your name for Your loving-kindness and Your truth; for You have magnified Your word above all Your name.” Psalm 138:2
To Worship (Shachah, Sha-Kha) means to physically bow politely or respectfully. Additional meanings are: “to prostrate oneself, to make obeisance, to bend low, to stoop, or to fall down. Worship has a profound physical dimension in Hebrew culture. It emphasizes the way in which an Israelite fittingly thought of his approach to the holy presence of Yahweh God.
To complete the meaning of “worship” the essential accompanying idea is that of making oneself actually do something after bowing in reverence to God. In the Scriptures, this often included giving an offering or some action demonstrating submission in service.
To Scripturally worship, then, is to obey Yahweh who has made Himself known through His son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We also worship through our attempts to follow Christ and the moral law as revealed in the Old and New Testaments.
So let’s summarize.
To worship is to…
Physically bow to the LORD and rise up in obedience to Him.
Another way to say it is:
Worship is bowing in obedience to God and His will.
Please take time this week in your private life to physically get on your knees and bend low with your face on the ground. If you are unable to prostrate yourself on the ground, perhaps you can kneel by your bedside, or kneel by leaning on the seat of a chair. Express your contrition, brokenness and desire to obey Him. Listen to Him and perhaps you will receive a thought or impression of what He might have you do when you get off your knees. If you do this, by the Bible’s definition, you have worshipped the Lord God!
Next Friday I will go further into the topic of worship by specifically looking at “praise” and how it differs from worship. Until then!
In Christ,
Dale
dale@daleebel.org