“Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. For He is our God…” Psalm 95:6-7
There are several Hebrew words that are translated into the word “praise,” showing us that there are several different ways that we can demonstrate our love for our God. There is a Hebrew word for praise, barak, that means “to kneel before the Lord, to bless, to bow.” There are times when we lift our hands, times when we clap, times when we shout, times when we dance and times when we play an instrument. The Hebrew word barak shows us that there are also times to bow, or to kneel, before God.
There are times when we want to show God our heart to surrender to His love for us. Taking the knee before God is a demonstration of a humble heart, giving ourselves to the authority of a gracious and compassionate Father. Bowing is an outward action that conveys an inward posture of someone who is fully submitted to the Lord. There are times when we want to do something that shows God our deep reverence for Him, when we experience the awe of who He is and want to yield to His greatness. Kneeling can be an expression of our praise.
Our praise in a church worship service is merely an expression of the position our heart is in every day of the week. Worship isn’t just a time of singing before the message when we come together in church. Worship is also how we live our lives. Not only can we bow in a worship service, but we can live everyday life with our heart postured in humility. We can live a bowed life, not bent over because of lack or shame, but as surrender to Jesus Christ as Lord. We bow to Him by the way we live our life – surrendered, yielded, submitted to our loving Lord.
If we aren’t living a life of worship, then our words and are actions are meaningless to the Lord. He is looking at the heart that are in the words and the actions we do. Jesus quoted Isaiah in Mark 7:6 “…This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.” When we kneel before the Lord, we don’t want it just to be just an outward expression, but we want it to be an expression of the genuine posture of our heart.
Application: In Philippians 2:9-11 we read that one day every knee will bow at the name of Jesus. Is He your Savior – have you received His salvation? Is He your Lord – do you surrendered every part of your life to His loving authority and care? If there is an area that isn’t surrendered, I encourage you to bless the Lord by giving it to Him today.