Worship - Part 3
September 2, 2026
Psalm 95:1-2 (NKJV)
1 Oh come, let us sing to the LORD! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of oursalvation. 2 Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.
Psalm 95:6-7 (NKJV)
6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before the LORD ourMaker. 7 For He [is] our God, And we [are] the people of His pasture, And the sheep of His hand. Today, if you will hear His voice:
How do we worship? One of the things I appreciate about brother Derek Prince is his deep understanding of Biblical language. He was educated in the classical British system at Eaton and Cambridge and was a Greek and Latin scholar. He also could read the Old Testament in the original Hebrew. Therefore, when he comments on the meaning of things, I take notice. In his messages “Worship’, and “Worship and Rest”, Brother Derek commented that when he studied the way that worship was described in the Bible, he was surprised to learn that all of the Hebrew and Greek words used to describe worship refer to posture or actions of the body. True worship is not just some sterile “spiritual” activity, but is an attitude and an action that involves your whole body. So how does the Bible describe worship?
- Bowing the head (Gen 24:26, Ex 4:31)
- Bowing the knee (2 Chron 6:12-13, Eph 3:14, Isa 45:23, Phil 2:9-10)
- Lifting hands, hands outward (Ps 63:1ff, Ps 141:2)
- Spreading out the hands (Ps 143:6, 2 Chron 6:12-13)
- Clapping Hands (Ps 47:1)
- Shouting, Not singing loudly (Ps 100:1)
- Prostrating the whole body (Gen 17:3, 15)
- Dancing before the Lord (2 Sam 6:14)
Falling prostrate, in particular, indicates total dependence on the Lord. This is the most often word used in the Bible for worship. I particularly like the image portrayed by the passage in first Kings of the dedication of Solomon’s temple, where the glory of the Lord was so heavy that the priests could not stand.
1 Kings 8:10-11 (NASB95)
10 It happened that when the priests came from the holy place, the cloud filled thehouse of the LORD, 11 so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD.
I have been blessed to experience something of this in my life. As Derek points out, the Hebrew word for “glory”, and “heavy” are the same. The glory (kabod) of the Lord is heavy and you can feel the weight of it when in the manifest presence of the Lord. Falling down to worship is not only the appropriate response, but is the the only reaction possible when your body is unable to stand!
So let us worship and bow down, Let us kneel before the Lord our maker. For He is our God and we are the sheep of His pasture. Amen.
References: Derek Prince on Worship:
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