For the last decade or so, I’ve become fascinated with understanding the original language of the Scriptures.
Particularly in ancient Hebrew narrative and poetry, the meanings of names and words carry significant value in the way we should interpret the big idea of the text. This fascination has led me to many great resources including The Bible Project (podcast and videos), numerous books and authors, as well as different translations of the Bible that help provide deeper understanding for me.
Much of what I will cover in these next 2 posts are things I’ve collected from other resources as I’ve studied the Bible and especially what it has to say about praise and worship. There is so much to glean from the word choices of the original authors and their intent for their original readers, and by extension, us as followers of Christ. Most of these words are intended to describe an expression or a posture (either literal or of the heart) used by the people of God in worship.
This weeks Hebrew words used for worship will touch on some of the more generic words used for worship.
Shachah – to bow down or to bow to the ground; to prostrate oneself, pay homage, or humbly beseech someone
Shachah is the primary word used for worship in the Old Testament. It is often used when someone is in the physical presence of royalty, angelic beings, or God himself. For instance, when the 3 men came to visit Abraham in Genesis 18, the word Shachah is used to describe how Abraham bowed to the ground fully prostrate in honor and reverence of them. Later, when Abraham was taking his son Isaac to the mountain to offer him as a sacrifice he told his son “… we must go up to the mountain and shachah…” In one instance the word was used to describe the physical posture of Abraham, and in the other instance it’s more about paying homage to God, while perhaps it may have included physical prostration. Regardless, the physical description of bowing to the ground when describing worship is helpful for us to understand what our physical posture and the posture of our hearts can and should be when we worship God.
Abodah – work, worship, service; labor or service of god
Abodah is a central concept in Judaism. Work or service is very much seen as a form of worship to practicing Jews. Abodah is used scripturally to describe doing chores, farming, construction, teaching, studying or any other type of physical or mental labor. However, Abodah is also the name of the primary worship service that takes place in the Temple and the name of the benediction used at the end of said worship service. We can more readily understand and apply this concept when we look at what Paul says to the Colossian church “whatever you do, do it heartily, as unto the Lord…” This is Abodah. Seeing everything we do as an opportunity to give God glory through how we serve him and others in our work. There is an aspect of effort and hard work that should go into how we worship.
Tehilah – praise, song, hymn of praise; feminine Hebrew name meaning “glory”
Tehilah is explicitly about our use of music as a vehicle that carries our worship. The use of Tehilah in the naming of the book of Psalms is actually part of how we know that the Psalms were intended to be a song book. The Hebrew name for the book of Psalms is Tehillim (songs of praise). It is clear and common that music is used to worship God, but, especially to the ancient Hebrews, music is just a part of worship. Our current traditions of Christianity often sadly reduce worship to just music, where we should be able to see worship as so much more of life than just the songs we sing to or about God. But, make no mistake, Tehilah (songs of praise) are a vital and necessary part of worship.
Zamar – to make music, to sing, to play a musical instrument
Zamar is very much the counterpart of Tehilah. While Tehilah refers to the vehicle the praise rides in, Zamar is the act of singing or playing the song itself. Throughout the Psalms, Zamar is used when describing instruments being played or songs being sung in praise. Throughout history, singing and making music has been a way to pay homage or to celebrate something or someone. The ability and desire to do this though comes from God and thus, the use of it should be unto or for God.
We’ve scratched the surface of worship as described in the Hebrew Old Testament this week. In my next post, you’ll see some words that help describe physical expressions and postures that are used in conjunction with these words we’ve looked at today. The goal ultimately will be to help us better understand what God expects and/or permits us to physically do when we are doing our work (abodah), or singing (zamar) our songs (tehilah) as we humbly pay homage (shachah) to God. I believe when we understand and apply the words we will cover in the next post, the engagement of our teams and our congregations can be lifted to new heights!
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