18 Bible Verses About Worship, and What the Word Means Before It Means Music



  • The Hebrew verb most often translated worship, shachah, means to bow down or prostrate oneself, so in Scripture worship begins as something the body does.
  • Exodus 20 and Matthew 4 both guard where that posture is spent; Jesus answers the wilderness temptation by quoting the command to worship God only.
  • 1 Samuel 15:22 and Micah 6:8 warn that a ceremony can be performed beautifully and still not be what God asked for.
  • Romans 12:1 calls a living body the sacrifice, and Hebrews 13:16 files sharing what you have under the same word.
  • Acts 16:25 shows worship offered from a prison at midnight, with the other prisoners listening.

The Bible describes worship as bowing before God alone, obeying him, offering him a whole life, and praising him together with other believers. The Hebrew verb most often translated worship, shachah, means to bow down, and it occurs more than 170 times in the Old Testament. Several of the verses below use it, or its New Testament equivalent, for a physical act: bowing, kneeling, or falling down before God. Worship begins with the body Psalm 95:6 “Oh come, let us…

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