Psalm 95:6 “Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!”

The definition of worship I generally hear is that worship is ascribing worth to something. Worship is honoring, paying homage to or revering God, someone that is considered sacred, or an object considered sacred. So many discussions and conversations surrounding "worship," which typically refers to a portion of a church service devoted to music, is that as we participate we are ascribing worth to our God. Do I think this is wrong? No, but something tugs in my heart as I consider what it means and looks like to ascribe worth to my God and if maybe I don't understand the reality of what that means.

How can I possibly ascribe worth to a God that is self-existing, the Creator of all things, beyond all comprehension, huge, magnificent, glorious, terrifying, and perfectly loving? As I begin to even consider what words to even use to ascribe worth to our Maker, I am left baffled. I am baffled by the fact that I cannot even begin to. I am amazed at His greatness. I am overwhelmed by the mere thought of Him. But, I am also greatly saddened that I rarely sit in this place.

When I think of worship I almost immediately think of how as I enter in, I am entering into the presence of this God. The God who is beyond the best, deepest, most sincere attempt to ascribe worth to, is present. I am before Him. What? Yeah, this is a big deal. Then I wonder, "Have I missed it? Have we missed it? Has the Church missed it or forgotten?"
Now, I'm sitting in a place of disconnect. If this is who I say my God is and I'm in His presence and in attempts to tell Him how worthy He is I am left speechless by His sheer existence, why the heck can I just sit here, listen to what seem like mostly meaningless, emotionless words/songs and remain unaffected? Why am I not breathing in the dust of the carpet as my face is to the ground, wholly unaware of how gross that really is, wholly undone by my God, with my spirit crying out, "You are holy, good, matchless, faithful, freedom, truth, love, worthy, holy, holy, holy..."?

Ascribing worth? If that's what I think worship is then either my worship is far too contained and often times grossly misplaced or my God is not who I, or maybe He, says He is.

Now, these thoughts bring loads of other questions and thoughts to mind. Well, what about my sin? What about songs that seemingly say nothing? What about the fact that "worship is a lifestyle" and not just the music time at church? Why is there musical worship? Am I just a weirdo because I think this is huge? What about pretty much the whole book of Exodus and reading about God's presence and response to His people and their response (Moses was freaking glowing after being with God!)? What about the Temple and alters and sacrifices? What about eternity and what does that mean now? How about Jericho and the musicians involved in that? Or spiritual warfare (David would play for Saul...)? What about physically responding in worship - raising hands, singing, kneeling? Why do it? What if worship always feels like it should be rejoicing and I am so far away from that place? What if I feel like God doesn't show up in any of this? ???? and more...

I love this. I love thinking about it, studying it, talking about it, the times I truly give myself to it, to God... However, not with out the coming and going of frustration.

So, I have decided it is time to study, to write, to talk and seek to know God and what it means to worship Him. Who knows if it will be like a paper I wrote in college or if I'll somehow end up talking about my first childhood pet that was a little rat my mom thought would be really funny to name Kitty - Thanks, Mom. It's hard to say what effect your humor had on little 2nd grade me. I joke...

And! Just to finish by being a bit nerdy - The Hebrew in this Psalm... my minds going...

Psalm 95:6 “Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!”

Worship – Hebrew = Shachah – to depress or prostrate in homage or loyalty to God, bow down flat.
Kneel – Hebrew = barak – to kneel or bow, to give reverence to God as an act of adoration, implies a continual conscious giving place to God, to be attuned to him and his presence.

Come, let us...