Sensible Worship

Meaning of Worship | Concordance of Worship | Bible Encyclopedia for Worship | Greek and Hebrew Words for Worship | Bible Verses for Worship | Bible Commentaries for Worship

Overview

Worship is found in the King James Verse of the Bible three hundred thirty-two (332) times, and in one hundred eighty-eight (188) verses in many forms:

Old Testament (115 times) and New Testament (73)

Worship is an act of reverence towards something (idols, ideas, power), or to someone (men, angels, especially God). This is something you pay attention to with honor and great respect. All Christians are “the circumcision [of the heart (see Romans 2:29)], which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh (Philippians 3:3).”

Below is a listing for your discovery on the beloved word called “PRAISE.”

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Meaning for Worship

1. (a.) Excellence of character; dignity; worth; worthiness.
2. (a.) Honor; respect; civil deference.
3. (a.) Hence, a title of honor, used in addresses to certain magistrates and others of rank or station.
4. (n.) The act of paying divine honors to the Supreme Being; religious reverence and homage; adoration, or acts of reverence, paid to God, or a being viewed as God.
5. (a.) Obsequious or submissive respect; extravagant admiration; adoration.
6. (n.) An object of worship.
7. (v. t.) To respect; to honor; to treat with civil reverence.
8. (v. t.) To pay divine honors to; to reverence with supreme respect and veneration; to perform religious exercises in honor of; to adore; to venerate.
9. (v. t.) To honor with extravagant love and extreme submission, as a lover; to adore; to idolize.
10. (v. i.) To perform acts of homage or adoration; esp., to perform religious service.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1888 edition) is a public domain dictionary. This dictionary was published by G. & C. Merriam Company. Release to public in 1913.

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Concordance for Worship

–To be rendered only to God Exodus 20:3; Deuteronomy 5:7; 6:13; Matthew 4:10; Luke 4:8; Acts 10:26; 14:15; Colossians 2:18; Revelation 19:10; 22:8
–Of Jesus

.See JESUS, WORSHIP OF

–Acceptable to God Genesis 4:4; 8:21
–Of the wicked rejected Genesis 4:5,7
–See PRAYER, OF THE WICKED
–“Iniquity of the holy things,” Exodus 28:38
–Public, in the temple Jeremiah 26:2; Luke 18:10; 24:53
–David’ s ordinances for 1 Chronicles 23; 24; 25; 26
–Family Deuteronomy 16:11,14
–Of Abraham Genesis 12:7,8; 13:4,18
–Of Jacob Genesis 35:2,3
–Of Job Job 1:5
–Of the Philippian jailer Acts 16:34
–In private homes Acts 1:1,3,14; 5:42; 12:12; 20:7-9; Romans 16:5; 1 Corinthians 16:19; Colossians 4:15; Philemon 1:2
–In the night Isa 30:29; Acts 16:25
–Jesus prays all night long Luke 6:12
–Postures in

.Bowing Exodus 34:8; 2 Chronicles 20:18

–Prostration Genesis 17:3; Mark 3:11
–See PRAYER, ATTITUDES IN
–Prayer in

.See PRAYER

–God’ s presence in Leviticus 19:30; Psalm 77:13; 84:4; Isaiah 56:7; Hebrews 10:25
–Loved by his people Psalm 27:4; 84:1-3,10; Zechariah 8:21
–Benedictions pronounced

.See BENEDICTIONS

–The whole nation required to assemble for, including men, women, children, servants,
and foreigners Deuteronomy 16:11; 31:11-13
–On Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal Josiah 8:32-35
–The word of God read in public assemblies Exodus 24:7; Deuteronomy 27:12-26; 31:11-13; Josiah 8:33-35; 2 Kings 23:1-3; Nehemiah 8:1-8,13-18; Matthew 21:23; Luke 4:16,17; 1 Timothy 4:13
–Of angels, forbidden Revelation 19:10; 22:8,9
–See AFFLICTIONS, PRAYER IN
–See BLASPHEMY
–See CHILDREN
–See CHURCH
–See CONSECRATION
–See DEDICATION
–See IDOLATRY
–See INSTRUCTION, IN RELIGION
–See LEVITES
–See MINISTER
–See MUSIC
–See OFFERING
–See PRAISE
–See PRAYER
–See PREACHING
–See PRIEST
–See PSALMS
–See RELIGION
–See SACRILEGE
–See SERVANT
–See STRANGER
–See TABERNACLE
–See TEMPLE
–See THANKSGIVING
–See WOMEN
–See WORD OF GOD
–See YOUNG MEN
–UNCLASSIFIED SCRIPTURES RELATING TO

Genesis 35:2,3; Exodus 3:5,6; 5:1; 15:2; 19:10-13,21-24; 20:24-26; 24:1,2; 25:8,22; 28:34,35; 29:43; 30:19-21; 34:8; 40:34,35; Leviticus 10:3; 16:2; Numbers 17:4; Joshua 5:15; 1 Kings 8:3-11; 2 Kings 17:36; 1 Chronicles 16:29; 2 Chronicles 5:13,14; 7:1; 30:27; Ezra 3:10-13; Nehemiah 10:39; Psalm 5:7; 22:22; 24:3-6; 26:6-8; 27:4; 29:2; 35:18; 36:8; 42:4; 48:9; 51:19; 55:14; 63:1,2; 65:4; 66:4,13,14; 77:13; 84:1-4,10; 89:7; 92:13,14; 93:5; 95:6; 98:2,3; 100:1-4; 103:1-4; 107:6-8,32; 116:12-14,17; 118:18,19; 119:108; 122:1; 126:1-3; 132:7,13,14; 138:2; 149:1; Ecclesiastes 5:1,2; Isaiah 1:11-15; 2:3; 4:5; 12:5,6; 25:9; 29:13-16; 30:29; 38:20; 40:31; 43:22-24; 49:13; 52:9; 56:6,7; 66:1,2; Jeremiah 31:11,12; Ezekiel 22:8; Hosea 6:6; Amos 5:21-24; Micah 4:2; Habakkuk 2:20; Zephaniah 3:18; Zechariah 8:21,22; Malachi 3:3,4; Matthew 18:19,20; Luke 4:8; John 4:23,24; Acts 2:1-4; 17:24,25; 1 Corinthians 11:13,20-22; 14:15-17; Philippians 3:3; 1 Timothy 2:8; Hebrews 10:25; 12:28; 1 Peter 2:5; Revelation 11:1; 14:6,7; 15:4

.See PRAISE

.See PRAYER

.See THANKFULNESS

–COMMANDED

Genesis 35:1; Exodus 23:17,18; 34:23; Deuteronomy 12:5-7,11,12; 16:6-8; 31:11-13; 33:19; 2 Kings 17:36; Psalms 45:11; 76:11; 96:8,9; 97:7; 99:5; Joel 1:14,15; 2:15-17; Nahum 1:15; Haggai 1:8; Zechariah 14:16-18; Matthew 8:4; Mark 1:44; Luke 5:14; Hebrews 10:25; Revelation 14:7; 19:10

Free Copy of this Completed Version of Nave’s Topical Bible

Nave’s Topical (1897) is in the public domain and may be freely used and distributed.

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Bible Encyclopedia for Worship

wur’-ship (Anglo-Saxon: weorthscipe, wyrthscype, “honor,” from weorth, wurth, “worthy,” “honorable,” and scipe, “ship”):

1. Terms

2. Old Testament Worship

3. New Testament Worship

4. Public Christian Worship

LITERATURE

Honor, reverence, homage, in thought, feeling, or act, paid to men, angels, or other “spiritual” beings, and figuratively to other entities, ideas, powers or qualities, but specifically and supremely to Deity.

1. Terms:

The principal Old Testament word is shachah, “depress,” “bow down,” “prostrate” (Hithpael), as in Exodus 4:31, “bowed their heads and worshipped”; so in 94 other places. The context determines more or less clearly whether the physical act or the volitional and emotional idea is intended. The word is applied to acts of reverence to human superiors as well as supernatural. the Revised Version (British and American) renders it according to its physical aspect, as indicated by the context, “bowed himself down” (the King James Version “worshipped,” Genesis 24:52; compare 23:7; 27:29, etc.).

Other words are: caghadh, “prostrate,” occurring in Isaiah 44:15, 17, 19; Isaiah 46:6, but rendered (English Versions of the Bible) “fall down.” In Daniel 2:46; Daniel 3:5, 6, 7, 10, 15, 18, 28, it (Aramaic ceghidh) is “worship” (English Versions of the Bible), 7 times associated with “falling down” and 5 times with “serve.” `abhadh, “work,” “labor,” “serve,” is rendered “worship” by English Versions of the Bible in 2 Kings 10:19, 21;: “the worshippers (servants) of Baal.” In Isaiah 19:21 the Revised Version (British and American) has “worship with sacrifice and oblation” (the King James Version “do sacrifice”). Isaiah 19:23 the King James Version has “served,” the Revised Version (British and American) “worship.” `atsabh, “carve,” “fabricate,” “fashion,” is once given “worship,” i.e. “make (an object of) worship” (Jeremiah 44:19, the American Revised Version margin “portray”).

The Old Testament idea is therefore the reverential attitude of mind or body or both, combined with the more generic notions of religions adoration, obedience, service.

The principal New Testament word (59 times) is proskuneo, “kiss (the hand or the ground) toward,” hence, often in the oriental fashion bowing prostrate upon the ground; accordingly, Septuagint uses it for the Hithpael of shachah (hishtachawah), “prostrate oneself.” It is to render homage to men, angels, demons, the Devil, the “beast,” idols, or to God. It is rendered 16 times to Jesus as a beneficent superior; at least 24 times to God or to Jesus as God. The root idea of bodily prostration is much less prominent than in the Old Testament. It is always translated “worship.”

Next in frequency is sebomai, “venerate,” and its various cognates, sebazomai, eusebeo, theosebes, sebasma. Its root is sebas, “fear,” but this primitive meaning is completely merged into “reverence,” “hold in awe”: “In vain do they worship me” (Matthew 15:9, etc.). latreuo, is “serve” (religiously), or “worship publicly,” “perform sacred services,” “offer gifts,” “worship God in the observance of the rites instituted for His worship.” It is translated “worship” in Acts 7:42; Acts 24:14 the King James Version, but “serve,” American Standard Revised Version: “serve the host of heaven,” “serve I the God of our fathers”; but both the King James Version and the American Standard Revised Version render Philippians 3:3, “worship by the Spirit of God,” and Hebrews 10:2, “the worshippers,” the context in the first two being general, in the second two specific. In 2 Timothy 1:3 and many other cases both the King James Version and the Revised Version (British and American) give “serve,” the meaning not being confined to worship; but compare Luke 2:37 Revised Version: “worshipping (the King James Version “served”) with fastings and supplications.” Romans 1:25 gives both sebazomai and latreuo in their specific meanings: “worshipped (venerated) and served (religiously,) the creature.” doxa, “glory” (Luke 14:10, King James Version: “Thou shalt have worship,” is a survival of an old English use, rightly discarded in the Revised Version (British and American)). threskeia (Colossians 2:18), “a voluntary humility and worshipping of the angels” (the American Revised Version margin “an act of reverence”), has the root idea of trembling or fear. therapeuo, “serve,” “heal,” “tend” (Acts 17:25, King James Version: “neither is worshipped by men’s hands”), is “served” in the Revised Version (British and American), perhaps properly, but its close connection with “temples made with hands” makes this questionable. neokoros, “temple-sweepers,” “temple-keeper” (Acts 19:35), has its true meaning in the Revised Version (British and American), but “worshipper” is needed to complete the idea, in our modern idiom.

In the Apocrypha the usage is the same as in the New Testament, the verbs used being, in the order of their frequency, proskuneo, sebomai, threskeuo, and latreuo.

The New Testament idea of worship is a combination of the reverential attitude of mind and body, the general ceremonial and religious service of God, the feeling of awe, veneration, adoration; with the outward and ceremonial aspects approaching, but not reaching, the vanishing point. The total idea of worship, however, both in the Old Testament and New Testament, must be built up, not from the words specifically so translated, but also, and chiefly, from the whole body of description of worshipful feeling and action, whether of individuals singly and privately, or of larger bodies engaged in the public services of sanctuary, tabernacle, temple, synagogue, upper room or meeting-place.

Space permits no discussion of the universality of worship in some form, ranging from superstitious fear or fetishism to the highest spiritual exercise of which man is capable; nor of the primary motive of worship, whether from a desire to placate, ingratiate, or propitiate some higher power, or to commune and share with him or it, or express instinctive or purposed devotion to him. On the face of the Bible narratives, the instinct of communion, praise, adoring gratitude would seem to be the earliest moving force (compare Genesis 4:3, 4, Cain, Abel; Romans 1:18-25, the primitive knowledge of God as perverted to creature-worship; Genesis 8:20, Noah’s altar; and Genesis 12:7, Abram’s altar). That propitiation was an early element is indicated probably by Abel’s offering from the flock, certainly by the whole system of sacrifice. Whatever its origin, worship as developed in the Old Testament is the expression of the religious instinct in penitence, prostration, adoration, and the uplift of holy joy before the Creator.

2. Old Testament Worship:

In detail, Old Testament worship was individual and private, though not necessarily secret, as with Eliezer (Genesis 24:26 f), the expression of personal gratitude for the success of a mission, or with Moses (Exodus 34:8), seeking God’s favor in intercessory prayer; it was sometimes, again, though private, in closest association with others, perhaps with a family significance (Genesis 8:20, Noah; Genesis 12:7; 22:5, Abraham: “I and the lad will go yonder; and…. worship”); it was in company with the “great congregation,” perhaps partly an individual matter, but gaining blessing and force from the presence of others (Psalm 42:4: “I went with the throng…. keeping holyday”); and it was, as the national spirit developed, the expression of the national devotion (1 Chronicles 29:20: “And all the assembly…. worshipped Yahweh, and the king”). In this public national worship the truly devout Jew took his greatest delight, for in it were inextricably interwoven together, his patriotism, his sense of brotherhood, his feeling of solidarity, his personal pride and his personal piety.

The general public worship, especially as developed in the Temple services, consisted of:

(1) Sacrificial acts, either on extraordinary occasions, as at the dedication of the Temple, etc., when the blood of the offerings flowed in lavish profusion (2 Chronicles 7:5), or in the regular morning and evening sacrifices, or on the great annual days, like the Day of Atonement.

(2) Ceremonial acts and posture of reverence or of adoration, or symbolizing the seeking and receiving of the divine favor, as when the high priest returned from presenting incense offering in the holy place, and the people received his benediction with bowed heads, reverently standing (2 Chronicles 7:6), or the worshippers prostrated themselves as the priests sounded the silver trumpets at the conclusion of each section of the Levites’ chant.

(3) Praise by the official ministrants of the people or both together, the second probably to a very limited extent. This service of praise was either instrumental, silver “trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music,” or it might be in vocal song, the chant of the Levites (very likely the congregation took part in some of the antiphonal psalms); or it might be both vocal and instrumental, as in the magnificent dedicatory service of Solomon (2 Chronicles 5:13), when “the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking Yahweh.” Or it might be simply spoken: “And all the people said, Amen, and praised Yahweh” (1 Chronicles 16:36). How fully and splendidly this musical element of worship was developed among the Hebrews the Book of Psalms gives witness, as well as the many notices in Chronicles (1 Chronicles 15; 16; 25; 2 Chronicles 5; 29; 30, etc.). It is a pity that our actual knowledge of Hebrew music should be so limited.

(4) Public prayer, such as is described in Deuteronomy 26, at the dedication of the Temple (2 Chronicles 6, etc.), or like Psalms 60; 79; 80. Shorter forms, half praise, half prayer, formed a part of the service in Christ’s time.

(5) The annual feasts, with their characteristic ceremonies.

SeePASSOVER; TABERNACLE; etc. Places of worship are discussed under ALTAR; HIGH PLACE; SANCTUARY; TABERNACLE; TEMPLE, etc.

3. New Testament Worship:

In the New Testament we find three sorts of public worship, the temple-worship upon Old Testament lines, the synagogue-worship, and the worship which grew up in the Christian church out of the characteristic life of the new faith. The synagogue-worship, developed by and after the exile, largely substituted the book for the symbol, and thought for the sensuous or object appeal; it was also essentially popular, homelike, familiar, escaping from the exclusiveness of the priestly service. It had four principal parts:

(1) the recitation of the shema`, composed of Deuteronomy 6:4-9; Deuteronomy 11:13-21, and Numbers 15:37-41, and beginning, “Hear (shema`), O Israel: Yahweh our God is one Yahweh”;

(2) prayers, possibly following some set form, perhaps repeating some psalm;

(3) the reading by male individuals of extracts from the Law and the Prophets selected by the “ruler of the synagogue,” in later years following the fixed order of a lectionary, as may have been the case when Jesus “found the place”;

(4) the targum or condensed explanation in the vernacular of the Scriptures read.

It is questioned whether singing formed a part of the service, but, considering the place of music in Jewish religious life, and its subsequent large place in Christian worship, it is hard to think of it as absent from the synagogue.

4. Public Christian Worship:

Public Christian worship necessarily developed along the lines of the synagogue and not the temple, since the whole sacrificial and ceremonial system terminated for Christianity with the life and death of Jesus. The perception of this, however, was gradual, as was the break of Jewish Christians with both synagogue and temple. Jesus Himself held the temple in high honor, loved to frequent it as His Father’s house, reverently observed the feasts, and exhibited the characteristic attitude of the devout but un-Pharisaic Israelite toward the temple and its worship. Yet by speaking of Himself as “greater than the temple” (Matthew 12:6) and by quoting, Hosea 6:6, “I desire goodness and not sacrifice,” He indicated the relative subordinateness of the temple and its whole system of worship, and in His utterance to the woman of Samaria He intimated the abolition both of the whole idea of the central sanctuary and of the entire ceremonial worship: “Neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall ye worship the Father”; “They that worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:21, 24). His chief interest in the temple seems to have been as a “house of prayer” and an opportunity to reach and touch the people. We cannot help feeling that with all His love for the holy precincts, He must have turned with relief from the stately, formal, distant ceremonial of the temple, partly relieved though it was by the genuine religious passion of many worshippers, to the freer, more vital, closer heart-worship of the synagogue, loaded though that also was with form, tradition, ritual and error. Here He was a regular and reverent attendant and participant (Mark 1:21, 39; Mark 3:1; Mark 6:2 Luke 6:6). Jesus did not Himself prescribe public worship for His disciples, no doubt assuming that instinct and practice, and His own spirit and example, would bring it about spontaneously, but He did seek to guard their worship from the merely outward and spectacular, and laid great emphasis on privacy and real “innerness” in it (Matthew 6:1-18, etc.). Synagogue-worship was probably not abandoned with Pentecost, but private brotherhood meetings, like that in the upper chamber, and from house to house, were added. The young church could hardly have “grown in favor with the people,” if it had completely withdrawn from the popular worship, either in temple or synagogue, although no attendance on the latter is ever mentioned. Possibly the Christians drew themselves together in a synagogue of their own, as did the different nationalities. The reference in James: “if there come unto your synagogue” (2:2), while not conclusive, since “synagogue” may have gained a Christian significance by this time, nevertheless, joined with the traditions concerning James’s ascetic zeal and popular repute, argues against such a complete separation early. Necessarily with the development into clearness of the Christian ideas, and with the heightening persecution, together with the hard industrial struggle of life, the observance of the Jewish Sabbath in temple or synagogue, and of the Christian’s Lord’s Day, grew incompatible. Yet the full development of this must have been rather late in Paul’s life. Compare his missionary tactics of beginning his work at the synagogue, and his custom of observing as far as possible the Jewish feasts (Acts 20:16 1 Corinthians 16:8). Our notions of the worship of the early church must be constructed out of the scattered notices descriptive of different stages in the history, and different churches present different phases of development. The time was clearly the Lord’s Day, both by the Jewish churches (John 20:19, 26) and by the Greek (Acts 20:7 1 Corinthians 16:2) The daily meeting of Acts 2:46 was probably not continued, no mention occurring later.

There are no references to yearly Christian festivals, though the wide observance in the sub-apostolic period of the Jewish Passover, with references to the death and resurrection of Jesus, and of Pentecost to commemorate the gift of the Holy Spirit, argues for their early use. The place was of course at first in private houses, and the earliest form of Christian church architecture developed from this model rather than the later one of the basilica. 1 Corinthians gives rather full data for the worship in this free and enthusiastic church. It appears that there were two meetings, a public and a private. The public worship was open, informal and missionary, as well as edificatory. The unconverted, inquirers and others, were expected to be present, and were frequently converted in the meeting (1 Corinthians 14:24). It resembled much more closely, an evangelical “prayer and conference meeting” of today than our own formal church services. There is no mention of official ministrants, though the meeting seems to have been under some loose guidance. Any male member was free to take part as the Spirit might prompt, especially in the line of his particular “spiritual gift” from God, although one individual might have several, as Paul himself. Largely developed on synagogue lines, but with a freedom and spirit the latter must have greatly lacked, it was composed of:

(1) Prayer by several, each followed by the congregational “Amen.”

(2) Praise, consisting of hymns composed by one or another of the brethren, or coming down from the earlier days of Christian, perhaps Jewish, history, like the Benedictus, the Magnificat, the Nunc dimittis, etc. Portions of these newer hymns seem to be embedded here and there in the New Testament, as at Revelation 5:9-13: “Worthy art thou,” etc. (compare Revelation 15:3; Revelation 11:17, etc.); also: “He who was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the spirit, Seen of angels, Preached among the nations, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory” (1 Timothy 3:16). Praise also might take the form of individual testimony, not in metrical form (1 Corinthians 14:16).

(3) Reading of the Scripture must have followed, according to the synagogue model. Paul presupposes an acquaintance with the Old Testament Scriptures and the facts of Jesus’ life, death, resurrection. Instructions to read certain epistles in the churches indicate the same.

(4) Instruction, as in 1 Corinthians 2:7; 1 Corinthians 6:5, teaching for edification. (These passages, however, may not have this specific reference.)

(5) Prophesying, when men, believed by themselves and by the church to be specially taught by the Holy Spirit, gave utterance to His message. At Corinth these crowded on one another, so that Paul had to command them to speak one at a time.

(6) Following this, as some believe, came the “speaking with tongues,” perhaps fervent and ejaculatory prayers “so rugged and disjointed that the audience for the most part could not understand” until someone interpreted. The speaking with tongues, however, comprised praise as well as prayer (1 Corinthians 14:16), and the whole subject is enshrouded in mystery. See TONGUES, GIFT OF.

(7) The meeting closed with the benediction and with the “kiss of peace.”

The “private service” may have followed the other, but seems more likely to have been in the evening, the other in the morning. The disciples met in one place and ate together a meal of their own providing, the agape, or love feast, symbolizing their union and fellowship, preceded or followed by prayers (Didache x), and perhaps interspersed by hymns. Then the “Lord’s Supper” itself followed, according to the directions of the apostle (1 Corinthians 11:23-28).

How far “Christian worship” was “Christian” in the sense of being directly addressed to Christ, is not easily answered. We must not read into their mental content the fully developed Christology of later centuries, but it is hard to believe that those who had before them Thomas’ adoring exclamation, “My Lord and my God!” the saying of the first martyr, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit,” the dictum of the great apostle, “Who, existing in the form of God,” the utterances of He, “And let all the angels of God worship him,” “Thy throne, O God, is forever and forever,” and, later, the prologue of Jn, and the ascriptions of praise in the Apocalypse, could have failed to bow down in spirit before Jesus Christ, to make known their requests through Him, and to lift up their adoration in song to Him, as according to Pliny’s witness, 112 A.D., “they sing a hymn to Christ as God.” The absolutely interchangeable way in which Paul, for instance, applies “Lord” in one breath to the Father, to the Old Testament Yahweh, and to Jesus Christ (Romans 10:11, 13; Romans 14:4, 6, 8, 11, 12, etc.) clearly indicates that while God the Father was, as He must be, the ultimate and principal object of worship, the heart and thought of God’s New Testament people also rested with adoring love on Him who is “worthy…. to receive the power and riches and wisdom, and might, and glory, and honor and blessing.” The angel of the Apocalypse would not permit the adoration of the seer (Revelation 22:9), but Jesus accepts the homage of Thomas, and in the Fourth Gospel declares it the duty of all to “honor the Son, even as they honor the Father” (John 5:23).

The classical passages for Christian worship are John 4:23, 24, culminating in (margin): “God is spirit: and they that worship him must worship in spirit and truth,” and Philippians 3:3, “who worship by the Spirit of God.” These define its inner essence, and bar out all ceremonial or deputed worship whatever, except as the former is, what the latter can never be, the genuine and vital expression of inner love and devotion. Anything that really stimulates and expresses the worshipful spirit is so far forth a legitimate aid to worship, but never a substitute for it, and is harmful if it displaces it. Much, perhaps most, stately public worship is as significant to God and man as the clack of a Thibetan prayer-mill. The texts cited also make of worship something far deeper than the human emotion or surrender of will; it is the response of God’s Spirit in us to that Spirit in Him, whereby we answer “Abba, Father,” deep calling unto deep. Its object is not ingratiation, which is unnecessary, nor propitiation, which has been made “once for all,” nor in any way “serving” the God who `needeth not to be worshipped with men’s hands’ (Acts 17:25), but it is the loving attempt to pay our unpayable debt of love, the expression of devoted hearts, “render(ing) as bullocks the offering of our lips” (Hosea 14:2). For detail it is not a physical act or material offering, but an attitude of mind: “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit”; “sacrifices of praise, with which God is well pleased”; not the service of form in an outward sanctuary, the presentation of slain animals, but the service of love in a life: “Present your bodies a living sacrifice”; not material sacrifices, but spiritual: your rational “service”; not the service about an altar of stone or wood, but about the sanctuary of human life and need; for this is true religion (“service,” “worship,” threskeia), “to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction”; not the splendor of shining robes or the sounding music of trumpets or organs, but the worshipping glory of holy lives; in real fact, “hallowing Thy name,” “and keeping oneself unspotted from the world.” The public worship of God in the presence of His people is a necessity of the Christian life, but in spiritual Christianity the ceremonial and outward approaches, if it does not quite reach, the vanishing point.

LITERATURE.

BDB; Thayer’s New Testament Lexicon under the word; arts; on “Praise,” “Worship,” “Temple,” “Church,” “Prayer,” in HDB, DB, New Sch-Herz, DCG; Commentaries on Psalms, Chronicles, Corinthians; Weizsacker, The Apostolic Age of the Church, II; Pfleiderer, Das Urchristenthum (English translation); Leoning, Gemeindeverfassung des Urchristenthums; Edersheim, The Temple, Its Ministry and Service, as They Were at the Time of Jesus Christ, and Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah; Hort, The Christian Ecclesia; Lindsay, Church and the Ministry in the Early Centuries; McGiffert, A History of Christianity in the Apostolic Age.

Philip Wendell Crannell

WORSHIP, IMAGE

See IMAGES.

The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915 edition) is a public domain biblical encyclopedia. This encyclopedia was published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.

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Greek and Hebrew for Worship

This is not an exhausted completed listing, but these words are here for your learning.

Copy of the Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance by Hope in Jesus

Dictionaries of Hebrew and Greek Words taken from Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance
by James Strong, S.T.D., LL.D. 1890 Public Domain

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Bible Verses for Worship

All of the Bible Verses for Praise found from the Old and New Testament of the Bible. Meditate upon the Scripture. Get them in your heart. Memorize them. Learn them.

Genesis 22:5 And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.

Genesis 24:26 And the man bowed down his head, and worshipped the Lord.

Genesis 24:48 And I bowed down my head, and worshipped the Lord, and blessed the Lord God of my master Abraham, which had led me in the right way to take my master’s brother’s daughter unto his son.

Genesis 24:52 And it came to pass, that, when Abraham’s servant heard their words, he worshipped the Lord, bowing himself to the earth.

Exodus 4:31 And the people believed: and when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel, and that he had looked upon their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshipped.

Exodus 12:27 That ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses. And the people bowed the head and worshipped.

Exodus 24:1 And he said unto Moses, Come up unto the Lord, thou, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; and worship ye afar off.

Exodus 32:8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

Exodus 33:10 And all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle door: and all the people rose up and worshipped, every man in his tent door.

Exodus 34:8 And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped.

Exodus 34:14 For thou shalt worship no other god: for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:

Deuteronomy 4:19 And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the Lord thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven.

Deuteronomy 8:19 And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the Lord thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish.

Deuteronomy 11:16 Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them;

Deuteronomy 17:3 And hath gone and served other gods, and worshipped them, either the sun, or moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded;

Deuteronomy 26:10 And now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land, which thou, O Lord, hast given me. And thou shalt set it before the Lord thy God, and worship before the Lord thy God:

Deuteronomy 29:26 For they went and served other gods, and worshipped them, gods whom they knew not, and whom he had not given unto them:

Deuteronomy 30:17 But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them;

Joshua 5:14 And he said, Nay; but as captain of the host of the Lord am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my Lord unto his servant?

Judges 7:15 And it was so, when Gideon heard the telling of the dream, and the interpretation thereof, that he worshipped, and returned into the host of Israel, and said, Arise; for the Lord hath delivered into your hand the host of Midian.

1 Samuel 1:3 And this man went up out of his city yearly to worship and to sacrifice unto the Lord of hosts in Shiloh. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, the priests of the Lord, were there.

1 Samuel 1:19 And they rose up in the morning early, and worshipped before the Lord, and returned, and came to their house to Ramah: and Elkanah knew Hannah his wife; and the Lord remembered her.

1 Samuel 1:28 Therefore also I have lent him to the Lord; as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the Lord. And he worshipped the Lord there.

1 Samuel 15:25 Now therefore, I pray thee, pardon my sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship the Lord.

1 Samuel 15:30 Then he said, I have sinned: yet honour me now, I pray thee, before the elders of my people, and before Israel, and turn again with me, that I may worship the Lord thy God.

1 Samuel 15:31 So Samuel turned again after Saul; and Saul worshipped the Lord.

2 Samuel 12:20 Then David arose from the earth, and washed, and anointed himself, and changed his apparel, and came into the house of the Lord, and worshipped: then he came to his own house; and when he required, they set bread before him, and he did eat.

2 Samuel 15:32 And it came to pass, that when David was come to the top of the mount, where he worshipped God, behold, Hushai the Archite came to meet him with his coat rent, and earth upon his head:

1 Kings 9:6 But if ye shall at all turn from following me, ye or your children, and will not keep my commandments and my statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods, and worship them:

1 Kings 9:9 And they shall answer, Because they forsook the Lord their God, who brought forth their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and have taken hold upon other gods, and have worshipped them, and served them: therefore hath the Lord brought upon them all this evil.

1 Kings 11:33 Because that they have forsaken me, and have worshipped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Milcom the god of the children of Ammon, and have not walked in my ways, to do that which is right in mine eyes, and to keep my statutes and my judgments, as did David his father.

1 Kings 12:30 And this thing became a sin: for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan.

1 Kings 16:31 And it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshipped him.

1 Kings 22:53 For he served Baal, and worshipped him, and provoked to anger the Lord God of Israel, according to all that his father had done.

2 Kings 5:18 In this thing the Lord pardon thy servant, that when my master goeth into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leaneth on my hand, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon: when I bow down myself in the house of Rimmon, the Lord pardon thy servant in this thing.

2 Kings 10:19 Now therefore call unto me all the prophets of Baal, all his servants, and all his priests; let none be wanting: for I have a great sacrifice to do to Baal; whosoever shall be wanting, he shall not live. But Jehu did it in subtilty, to the intent that he might destroy the worshippers of Baal.

2 Kings 10:21 And Jehu sent through all Israel: and all the worshippers of Baal came, so that there was not a man left that came not. And they came into the house of Baal; and the house of Baal was full from one end to another.

2 Kings 10:22 And he said unto him that was over the vestry, Bring forth vestments for all the worshippers of Baal. And he brought them forth vestments.

2 Kings 10:23 And Jehu went, and Jehonadab the son of Rechab, into the house of Baal, and said unto the worshippers of Baal, Search, and look that there be here with you none of the servants of the Lord, but the worshippers of Baal only.

2 Kings 17:16 And they left all the commandments of the Lord their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made a grove, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal.

2 Kings 17:36 But the Lord, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and a stretched out arm, him shall ye fear, and him shall ye worship, and to him shall ye do sacrifice.

2 Kings 18:22 But if ye say unto me, We trust in the Lord our God: is not that he, whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah hath taken away, and hath said to Judah and Jerusalem, Ye shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem?

2 Kings 19:37 And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword: and they escaped into the land of Armenia. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.

2 Kings 21:3 For he built up again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he reared up altars for Baal, and made a grove, as did Ahab king of Israel; and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them.

2 Kings 21:21 And he walked in all the way that his father walked in, and served the idols that his father served, and worshipped them:

1 Chronicles 16:29 Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come before him: worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.

1 Chronicles 29:20 And David said to all the congregation, Now bless the Lord your God. And all the congregation blessed the Lord God of their fathers, and bowed down their heads, and worshipped the Lord, and the king.

2 Chronicles 7:3 And when all the children of Israel saw how the fire came down, and the glory of the Lord upon the house, they bowed themselves with their faces to the ground upon the pavement, and worshipped, and praised the Lord, saying, For he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever.

2 Chronicles 7:19 But if ye turn away, and forsake my statutes and my commandments, which I have set before you, and shall go and serve other gods, and worship them;

2 Chronicles 7:22 And it shall be answered, Because they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, which brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold on other gods, and worshipped them, and served them: therefore hath he brought all this evil upon them.

2 Chronicles 20:18 And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground: and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell before the Lord, worshipping the Lord.

2 Chronicles 29:28 And all the congregation worshipped, and the singers sang, and the trumpeters sounded: and all this continued until the burnt offering was finished.

2 Chronicles 29:29 And when they had made an end of offering, the king and all that were present with him bowed themselves, and worshipped.

2 Chronicles 29:30 Moreover Hezekiah the king and the princes commanded the Levites to sing praise unto the Lord with the words of David, and of Asaph the seer. And they sang praises with gladness, and they bowed their heads and worshipped.

2 Chronicles 32:12 Hath not the same Hezekiah taken away his high places and his altars, and commanded Judah and Jerusalem, saying, Ye shall worship before one altar, and burn incense upon it?

2 Chronicles 33:3 For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down, and he reared up altars for Baalim, and made groves, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them.

Nehemiah 8:6 And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God. And all the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands: and they bowed their heads, and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground.

Nehemiah 9:3 And they stood up in their place, and read in the book of the law of the Lord their God one fourth part of the day; and another fourth part they confessed, and worshipped the Lord their God.

Nehemiah 9:6 Thou, even thou, art Lord alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee.

Job 1:20 Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped,

Psalm 5:7 But as for me, I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy: and in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple.

Psalm 22:27 All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.

Psalm 22:29 All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him: and none can keep alive his own soul.

Psalm 29:2 Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.

Psalm 45:11 So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty: for he is thy Lord; and worship thou him.

Psalm 66:4 All the earth shall worship thee, and shall sing unto thee; they shall sing to thy name. Selah.

Psalm 81:9 There shall no strange god be in thee; neither shalt thou worship any strange god.

Psalm 86:9 All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord; and shall glorify thy name.

Psalm 95:6 O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker.

Psalm 96:9 O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness: fear before him, all the earth.

Psalm 97:7 Confounded be all they that serve graven images, that boast themselves of idols: worship him, all ye gods.

Psalm 99:5 Exalt ye the Lord our God, and worship at his footstool; for he is holy.

Psalm 99:9 Exalt the Lord our God, and worship at his holy hill; for the Lord our God is holy.

Psalm 106:19 They made a calf in Horeb, and worshipped the molten image.

Psalm 132:7 We will go into his tabernacles: we will worship at his footstool.

Psalm 138:2 I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.

Isaiah 2:8 Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made:

Isaiah 2:20 In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats;

Isaiah 27:13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem.

Isaiah 36:7 But if thou say to me, We trust in the Lord our God: is it not he, whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah hath taken away, and said to Judah and to Jerusalem, Ye shall worship before this altar?

Isaiah 37:38 And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Armenia: and Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.

Isaiah 44:15 Then shall it be for a man to burn: for he will take thereof, and warm himself; yea, he kindleth it, and baketh bread; yea, he maketh a god, and worshippeth it; he maketh it a graven image, and falleth down thereto.

Isaiah 44:17 And the residue thereof he maketh a god, even his graven image: he falleth down unto it, and worshippeth it, and prayeth unto it, and saith, Deliver me; for thou art my god.

Isaiah 46:6 They lavish gold out of the bag, and weigh silver in the balance, and hire a goldsmith; and he maketh it a god: they fall down, yea, they worship.

Isaiah 49:7 Thus saith the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One, to him whom man despiseth, to him whom the nation abhorreth, to a servant of rulers, Kings shall see and arise, princes also shall worship, because of the Lord that is faithful, and the Holy One of Israel, and he shall choose thee.

Isaiah 66:23 And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord.

Jeremiah 1:16 And I will utter my judgments against them touching all their wickedness, who have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands.

Jeremiah 7:2 Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the Lord.

Jeremiah 8:2 And they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they have served, and after whom they have walked, and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshipped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried; they shall be for dung upon the face of the earth.

Jeremiah 13:10 This evil people, which refuse to hear my words, which walk in the imagination of their heart, and walk after other gods, to serve them, and to worship them, shall even be as this girdle, which is good for nothing.

Jeremiah 16:11 Then shalt thou say unto them, Because your fathers have forsaken me, saith the Lord, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshipped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law;

Jeremiah 22:9 Then they shall answer, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God, and worshipped other gods, and served them.

Jeremiah 25:6 And go not after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, and provoke me not to anger with the works of your hands; and I will do you no hurt.

Jeremiah 26:2 Thus saith the Lord; Stand in the court of the Lord’s house, and speak unto all the cities of Judah, which come to worship in the Lord’s house, all the words that I command thee to speak unto them; diminish not a word:

Jeremiah 44:19 And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven, and poured out drink offerings unto her, did we make her cakes to worship her, and pour out drink offerings unto her, without our men?

Ezekiel 8:16 And he brought me into the inner court of the Lord’s house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east.

Ezekiel 46:2 And the prince shall enter by the way of the porch of that gate without, and shall stand by the post of the gate, and the priests shall prepare his burnt offering and his peace offerings, and he shall worship at the threshold of the gate: then he shall go forth; but the gate shall not be shut until the evening.

Ezekiel 46:3 Likewise the people of the land shall worship at the door of this gate before the Lord in the sabbaths and in the new moons.

Ezekiel 46:9 But when the people of the land shall come before the Lord in the solemn feasts, he that entereth in by the way of the north gate to worship shall go out by the way of the south gate; and he that entereth by the way of the south gate shall go forth by the way of the north gate: he shall not return by the way of the gate whereby he came in, but shall go forth over against it.

Daniel 2:46 Then the king Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face, and worshipped Daniel, and commanded that they should offer an oblation and sweet odours unto him.

Daniel 3:5 That at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, ye fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king hath set up:

Daniel 3:6 And whoso falleth not down and worshippeth shall the same hour be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace.

Daniel 3:7 Therefore at that time, when all the people heard the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and all kinds of musick, all the people, the nations, and the languages, fell down and worshipped the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.

Daniel 3:10 Thou, O king, hast made a decree, that every man that shall hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, shall fall down and worship the golden image:

Daniel 3:11 And whoso falleth not down and worshippeth, that he should be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace.

Daniel 3:12 There are certain Jews whom thou hast set over the affairs of the province of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego; these men, O king, have not regarded thee: they serve not thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.

Daniel 3:14 Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, do not ye serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up?

Daniel 3:15 Now if ye be ready that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, ye fall down and worship the image which I have made; well: but if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?

Daniel 3:18 But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.

Daniel 3:28 Then Nebuchadnezzar spake, and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and have changed the king’s word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God.

Micah 5:13 Thy graven images also will I cut off, and thy standing images out of the midst of thee; and thou shalt no more worship the work of thine hands.

Zephaniah 1:5 And them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops; and them that worship and that swear by the Lord, and that swear by Malcham;

Zephaniah 2:11 The Lord will be terrible unto them: for he will famish all the gods of the earth; and men shall worship him, every one from his place, even all the isles of the heathen.

Zechariah 14:16 And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.

Zechariah 14:17 And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain.

Matthew 2:2 Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.

Matthew 2:8 And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also.

Matthew 2:11 And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense and myrrh.

Matthew 4:9 And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.

Matthew 4:10 Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

Matthew 8:2 And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.

Matthew 9:18 While he spake these things unto them, behold, there came a certain ruler, and worshipped him, saying, My daughter is even now dead: but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live.

Matthew 14:33 Then they that were in the ship came and worshipped him, saying, Of a truth thou art the Son of God.

Matthew 15:9 But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

Matthew 15:25 Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me.

Matthew 18:26 The servant therefore fell down, and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.

Matthew 20:20 Then came to him the mother of Zebedees children with her sons, worshipping him, and desiring a certain thing of him.

Matthew 28:9 And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him.

Matthew 28:17 And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted.

Mark 5:6 But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him,

Mark 7:7 Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

Mark 15:19 And they smote him on the head with a reed, and did spit upon him, and bowing their knees worshipped him.

Luke 4:7 If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.

Luke 4:8 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

Luke 14:10 But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee.

Luke 24:52 And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy:

John 4:20 Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.

John 4:21 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.

John 4:22 Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.

John 4:23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.

John 4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

John 9:31 Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth.

John 9:38 And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him.

John 12:20 And there were certain Greeks among them that came up to worship at the feast:

Acts 7:42 Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness?

Acts 7:43 Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them: and I will carry you away beyond Babylon.

Acts 8:27 And he arose and went: and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship,

Acts 10:25 And as Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him, and fell down at his feet, and worshipped him.

Acts 16:14 And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us: whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul.

Acts 17:23 For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, To The Unknown God. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.

Acts 17:25 Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;

Acts 18:7 And he departed thence, and entered into a certain man’s house, named Justus, one that worshipped God, whose house joined hard to the synagogue.

Acts 18:13 Saying, This fellow persuadeth men to worship God contrary to the law.

Acts 19:27 So that not only this our craft is in danger to be set at nought; but also that the temple of the great goddess Diana should be despised, and her magnificence should be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worshippeth.

Acts 19:35 And when the townclerk had appeased the people, he said, Ye men of Ephesus, what man is there that knoweth not how that the city of the Ephesians is a worshipper of the great goddess Diana, and of the image which fell down from Jupiter?

Acts 24:11 Because that thou mayest understand, that there are yet but twelve days since I went up to Jerusalem for to worship.

Acts 24:14 But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets:

Romans 1:25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

1 Corinthians 14:25 And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth.

Philippians 3:3 For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.

Colossians 2:18 Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,

Colossians 2:23 Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body: not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh.

2 Thessalonians 2:4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

Hebrews 1:6 And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him.

Hebrews 10:2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.

Hebrews 11:21 By faith Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph; and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff.

Revelation 3:9 Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.

Revelation 4:10 The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying,

Revelation 5:14 And the four beasts said, Amen. And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped him that liveth for ever and ever.

Revelation 7:11 And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God,

Revelation 9:20 And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:

Revelation 11:1 And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein.

Revelation 11:16 And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God,

Revelation 13:4 And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

Revelation 13:8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

King James Version of the Holy Bible. Public Domain

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Bible Commentary for Worship

Useful explanation of bible praise and worship scriptures from well-known scholars from Pulpit commentary. One of the oldest bible study tools used for old and new bible verses.

“For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:” – Exodus 34:14	Verse 14. – For thou shalt worship no other God. This is a reference to the Second Commandment (Exodus 20:5). The meaning is – “Thou shalt not spare the idolatrous emblems of the Canaanite nations, for thou couldst only do so to worship them, and thou art already forbidden to worship any other god beside me.” The existence of the Decalogue and its binding nature, is assumed throughout this chapter.
“Then Nebuchadnezzar spake, and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and have changed the king’s word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God.” – Daniel 3:28	Verse 28. – Then Nebuchadnezzar spake, and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and have changed the king’s word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God. The Septuagint and Peshitta, instead of “changed the king’s word,” have “despised the king’s word,” reading, שׁוּט, “to despise,” instead of שְׁנָא, “to change.” Theodotion agrees with the Massoretic, as otherwise do the other two versions. We may regard this as the beginning of the royal decree revoking practically that previously promulgated, omitting only the statement of the titles of the monarch. The wording is somewhat peculiar, “Blessed be their God – of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.” It may indicate that some words in the immediate context have been omitted; in other words, that the editor, in quoting the decree, has endeavoured, as far as possible, to condense without changing the words of the document. Bertholdt is mistaken in maintaining that this declaration is that the God of the three Hebrews is worthy of being blessed. All that Nebuchadnezzar acknowledges in this verse is that Jehovah really exists – that he is powerful, and the Hebrews did right to continue in the worship of their national God. We find that the bar-eloheen of ver. 25 is now regarded by Nebuchadnezzar as an angel, or, as we ought rather to translate it, “messenger.” We have no need to import Hebrew ideas into the declaration of the Babylonian monarch. It was quite in accordance with his mythological notions that a great God like the God of the Hebrews might have a messenger, who was his instrument in the deliverance of his servants. The reading of the Massoretes, “changed,” is to be preferred to “despised.” To one like Nebuchadnezzar, stiff to obstinacy in his opinions, for anything to compel him to change not only his opinions, but more, to alter a decree, was a strange thing, and a thing that he would think worthy of chronicling. At the same time, he might feel it needed a justification. On the other hand, such a one as Nebuchadnezzar would not advertise the fact that any one had “despised” his “word.” It is to be observed that Nebuchadnezzar recognizes not only the deliverance as an evidence of the truth of Jehovah’s Divinity, but also the willingness with which his servants were ready to offer their bodies to be burnt. The evidence that compelled Nebuchadnezzar to acknowledge the might of Jehovah was the same in essence as that which converted the Roman Empire. Still, we must again repeat Nebuchadnezzar recognized in Jehovah only the God of the Jews, and in the faithfulness of the three Hebrews only a species of religious patriotism, which he could at once understand and respect without having the slightest belief in monotheism, or even comprehension of such a ‘notion.
“Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.” – Matthew 4:10	Verse 10. – Get thee hence, Satan. “Avaunt, Satan” (Rheims). Christ does not address him directly till this climax. The two previous temptations were, comparatively speaking, ordinary and limited. This temptation calls out a passionate utterance of a personality stirred, because touched, in its depths. Only once again do we find our Lord so moved, in Matthew 16:23 (the “Western” and “Syrian” addition here of ὀπίσω μου from that passage emphasizes the feeling common to the two cases), when a similar representation is made to him that he ought to escape the troubles which his Messianic position, in fact, brought upon him. For it is written (Deuteronomy 6:13); from the LXX., which differs from the Hebrew by (1) translating תירא, “fear,” by προσκυνήσεις (but B has φοβηθήσῃ); and (2) the paraphrastic insertion of “only.” Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Worship; προσκυνέω) , as in ver. 9. Serve; λατρεύω, “in perfect subjection to a sovereign power” (Bishop Westcott on Hebrews 8:2, Add. Note). Our Lord’s reply cuts up the devil’s solicitation by the root. “I do not enter,” he means, “into the question of thy authority over these things, and of thy power concerning them. I acknowledge thee not. The command which I willingly obey excludes all homage and service to any other over-lord than God alone. I accept not thy orders and thy methods. I take my commands direct from God.” Observe that our Lord does not say how he is to gain the kingdoms for his own; this would be the care of him whose command he follows. But before ascending, the Lord proclaimed (Matthew 28:18) that he had received (i.e. gained through suffering, Hebrews 2:10: Philippians 2:9) more than (note “in heaven”) what the devil would have given him as a reward of obedience to false principles.
“But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” – Matthew 15:9	Verse 9. – But in vain, etc. The Hebrew gives, “And their fear of me is a commandment of men which hath been taught them,” or “learned by rote” (Revised Version). Septuagint, “In vain do they worship me, teaching men’s commandments and doctrines.” Their worship is vitiated at its very root. Commandments of men. This is Christ’s designation of rabbinical traditions (comp. Colossians 2:22).
“Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” – Mark 7:7	Verse 7. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible Howbeit, in vain do they worship me,…. This is the continuation of the citation out of Isaiah, as is also what follows: teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. As all these traditions mentioned were such; as washing their hands before they ate bread, and their whole bodies, when they came from the market, or from any court of judicature, or concourse of men, where they had been touched by the common people, and the washing of cups, pots, brazen vessels, and tables, or beds; these they taught the people, and enjoined them the observance of them: instead of instructing them in the doctrines of the Bible, respecting the Messiah, and salvation by him, the right fear, and true worship of God, his ordinances and statutes; wherefore their worship of him, though attended with a great show of sanctity and religion, was a vain thing, a mere empty thing, devoid of life, power, and spirituality, unacceptable to God, and of no real use, profit, and advantage to themselves: it neither issued in the glory of God, nor brought any true pleasure, or solid peace to themselves; and they would find, by sad experience, that their hope of being in the favour of God, and of enjoying eternal happiness on account of it, would prove a vain hope;
“Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.” – John 4:21	Verses 21-24. – (d) The spiritual nature of God and his worship. Verse 21. – Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me – a unique expression of Jesus, answering to the Ἀμὴν ἀμὴν, of many other passages, where the acknowledgment of his Divine commission had been virtually ceded; this expression is peculiarly suitable to the occasion – that an hour is coming. He does not add, as in ver. 23, “and now is.” The Divine order which links the events of God’s providence together, has not made it possible as yet in its fullness, as it will do when the revelation is complete, but the hour is drawing near, when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, will ye worship the Father. Christ did not say that either Samaritans or Jews were exclusively right in their preference for one local shrine or place of sacrificial worship; but he declared the sublime truth that the worship of the Father would soon prove itself to be independent of both alike and of all the limitations of place and ceremony. Every place would be as sacred and as hallowed as these notable shrines, when the full character and real nature of the object of worship became fully known. The Father was a name for God not unknown to Jew or Gentile; but so overlaid, suspected, defamed, forgotten, that the emphasis which Jesus laid upon it came with the force of a new revelation of God’s relation to man. Man is born in the image of God, and partakes of the nature and essence of the Supreme Being, and it is in God’s true nature and veritable relations with men that he will be eventually adored. When Christ speaks of “my Father” he refers to the specialty of revelation of the fatherhood in his own incarnation. The Father was only partially known in and by all the dispensations of nature and grace, but he was especially revealed in the whole of the prolonged series of facts and symbols and prophetic teachings which constituted the religion of Israel; and Christ will not allow this great revelation of the Father to pass unaccredited or to be ignored by one whom he essays to teach.
“But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeks such to worship him.” – John 4:23	Verse 23. – But the hour cometh, and now is – already the day has dawned, the new conception is breaking like “awful rose of dawn” upon the minds of some – when the veritable worshippers – those who answer to the idea of worshippers, those who actually draw near to the Father in living fellowship and affectionate appreciation of his eternal Name – shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. An old misreading of this text, accepted by some Fathers, and based upon the idea expressed in John 16:13, has found expression in the Sinaitic Codex, “in the spirit of the truth.” But “spirit” here does not refer to the Holy Spirit, but to the spirit of man – that part of man’s constitution through which he most especially bears the image of God, and with which the Divine Spirit deals, and in which he dwells (Romans 8:26). The worship in spirit is worship contrasted with all mere carnal concomitants, all mere shadows of the good things to come, all mere ritual, all specialties of place, or time, or sacrament, or order. It need not be in despite of a genuine reverence for days, or seasons, or postures, or washings, but in absolute independence of them, and they, without this, will be actually valueless. And in truth; i.e. as dealing with reality, the adequate and veracious expression of genuine desires and veritable emotions; καὶ γὰρ, nam et (ver. 9). For indeed also the Father seeketh such to be his worshippers. Luthardt and Meyer differ as to the emphasis. Meyer insists that the καὶ γάρ lays stress on the word which immediately follows, and he refers to 1 Corinthians 14:8 as not contradicting the rule. He would render, “For the Father also on his part seeketh,” etc. Luthardt says that the new thought is to be found in ζητεῖ, and therefore upon this the emphasis is laid. Westcott, by many passages, such as Matthew 8:9; Matthew 26:73; Mark 10:45; Luke 6:32, etc., urges that καὶ γὰρ “alleges a reason which is assumed to be conclusive from the nature of the case.” The whole sentence is therefore covered by the expression, “For the Father also on his part seeketh those as worshippers of him who worship him in spirit and in truth.” A slight contrast is felt between the regimen of προσκυνεῖν with accusative, here again introduced, following upon that with dative in the first clause. Moulton would render the first clause, “offer worship to the Father,” and the second by “worship him.” The Father is now seeking, by the ministry of his Son, by the gift of his Spirit, for those who approach him with deeply felt need and true affection, in spirit, not in ceremony, in truth, not in hypocritical or heartless profession. This is another indication of the high truth taught in the prologue (John 1:4, 9; John 3:21; John 18:38, see notes) that there are vast differences among men, even anterior to their reception of the perfect revelation of the Father’s heart in Christ Jesus. “The life is the light of men.” There are those who “do the truth” and are “of the truth,” who “worship God in spirit and in truth.” The whole gospel dispensation is a search for these.
“For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.” – Acts 17:23	Verse 23. – Passed along for passed by, A.V.; observed the objects of your worship for beheld your devotions, A.V. (τασ` σεβάσματα υμῶν: see 2 Thessalonians 2:4); also an altar for an altar, A.V.; an for the, A.V.; what for whom, A.V. and T.R.; worship in ignorance for ignorantly worship, A.V.; this for him, A.V. and T.R.; set forth for declare, A.V. AN UNKNOWN GOD. There is no direct and explicit testimony in ancient writers to the existence of any one such altar at Athens, but Pausanias and others speak of altars to “unknown gods,” as to be seen in Athens, which may well be understood of several such altars, each dedicated to an unknown god. One of these was seen by St. Paul, and, with inimitable tact, made the text of his sermon. He was not preaching a foreign god to them, but making known to them one whom they had already included in their devotions without knowing him.
“And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth.” – 1 Corinthians 14:25	Verse 25. – The secrets of his heart. “The Word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword,.., and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). Falling down on his face. An Oriental. mode of showing humility and deep conviction (Isaiah 45:14; 1 Samuel 19:24). It does not furnish the shadow of an excuse for the encouragement of catalepsy by the mechanical excitement of revivalism. That God is in you of a truth. St. Paul is probably thinking both of Isaiah 45:14 and Zechariah 8:23, where similar phrases are used.
“For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.” – Philippians 3:3	Verse 3. – For we are the circumcision. We: the apostle of the Gentiles identifies himself with the Gentiles (1 Corinthians 9:2l); himself circumcised, he recognizes the great truth that they only are the true circumcision whose hearts are mortified from all worldly and carnal lusts. Which worship God in the spirit; read, with the best manuscripts,which worship by the Spirit of God. The word λατρεία, worship, is used specially of the Jewish ceremonial service (comp. Romans 9:4; Luke 2:37; Acts 26:7). We Christians, St. Paul means, have not only the true circumcision, but the only true worship: the temple service prefigured the spiritual worship of the Christian Church. By the Spirit; by his assistance, inspiration: “We know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us” (Romans 8:26). And rejoice in Christ Jesus; rather, glory καυχώμενοι). “He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord,” through whom alone we can obtain salvation, not in any external privileges. And have no confidence in the flesh. Neither in circumcision nor in any other outward rites.
“And again, when he [God] bringeth in the first begotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him [Jesus].” – Hebrew 1:6	Verse 6. – And again, when he bringeth in the first-begotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him. The most obvious translation of the Greek here seems at first sight to be, “But whenever he [i.e. God] shall again bring [or, ‘bring back’] the Firstborn into the inhabited world, he saith;”ὅταν εἰσαγάῃ denoting the indefiniteness of future time, and the position of πάλιν connecting it most naturally with εἰσαγάγῃ. If such be the force of πάλιν, the reference must be to the second advent; which, however, is not suggested by the context, in which there has been no mention of a first advent, but only of the assignation to the Messiah of the name of Son. This supposed reference to a second advent may be avoided by disconnecting πάλιν in sense fromεἰσαγάγῃ, and taking it (as in the verse immediately preceding, and elsewhere in the Epistle) as only introducing a new quotation. And the Greek will bear this interpretation, though the order of the words, taken by themselves, is against it. The “Firstborn” (πρωτότοκος) is evidently the Son previously spoken of; the word is so applied (Psalm 89:27) in a passage undoubtedly founded on the text last quoted. The same word is applied in the New Testament to Christ, as “the Firstborn among many brethren,” “the Firstborn of every creature,” “the Firstborn from the dead” (Romans 8:29; Colossians 1:15, Colossians 1:18). And the idea conveyed by these passages may have been in the writer’s mind, and intended to be understood by his Christian readers. But for the immediate purpose of his argument he may be supposed to refer only to this designation as applied in the Old Testament to the SON already spoken cf. Thus the meaning may be, “But, again, with reference to the time when he shall introduce this SON, the Firstborn, into our inhabited world, he speaks thus of the angels.” Or it may be, “But whenever he shall bring a second time into the world the Firstborn who has already once appeared, he speaks thus of the angels.” But the first meaning seems more suitable to the general context. The force of the writer’s argument is the same, whichever view we take; the point being that, at the time of the advent of the So, whatever advent may be meant, the angels appear only as attendant worshippers. As to the understood nominative to “saith,” we may suppose it to be “God,” as in ver. 5. But it is to be observed that λέγει, without an expressed nominative, is a usual formula for introducing a scriptural quotation. The question remains – What is the text quoted, and how can it be understood as bearing the meaning here assigned to it? In the Hebrew Bible we find nothing like it, except in Psalm 97:7, “Worship him, all ye gods,” A.V.; where the LXX. hasπροσκυνήσατε αὐτῷ πάντες οἱ ἄγγελοι Θεοῦ. But in Deuteronomy 32:43 we find in the LXX., though not in the Masoretic text, καὶπροσκυνησάτωσαν αὐτῷ πάντες ἄγγελοι Θεοῦ: the very words, including the introductoryκαὶ, which are quoted. Hence, the quotations in this Epistle being mainly from the LXX., we may conclude that this is the text referred to. It occurs towards the end of the Song of Moses, in connection with its concluding picture of the LORD’S final triumph, in which the nations are called upon to rejoice with his people, when he would avenge the blood of his servants, and render vengeance to his adversaries, and make atonement for (Greek, ἐκκαθαριεῖ) his land and for his people. Viewed in the light of later prophecy, this triumph is identified with that of the Messiah’s kingdom, and is therefore that of the time of bringing “the Firstborn into the world.” cf. Romans 15:10, where “Rejoice, ye Gentiles,” etc., from the same passage, is applied to the time of Christ. It is no objection to the quotation that, as it stands in the Epistle, “the Firstborn,” though not mentioned in the original, seems to be regarded as the object of the angels’ worship. The passage is simply cited as it stands, the reader being left to draw his own inference; and the main point of it is that the angels in “that day” are not, like the Son, sharers of the throne, but only worshippers.
“Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” – Revelation 14:7	Verse 7. – Saying with a loud voice. Λέγων, “saying,” in nominative, though agreeing with the accusative ἄγγελον,” angel.” The “great voice” is characteristic of all the heavenly utterances (ver. 2; Revelation 11:12, 15, etc.). Fear God, and give glory to him. Thus the angel proclaims the gospel in opposition to the second beast, who bids those that dwell on the earth to make an image to the first beast (cf.Revelation 13:14). Compare the effect of the coming judgment, described in Revelation 11:13. For the hour of his judgment is come. This is the reason given for the fear mentioned. That it has effect is seen by Revelation 11:13. Is come; that is to say, is at hand. And worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters. As remarked above, the angel thus directly opposes the invitation of the second beast to pay homage to the first beast. Again we have the fourfold enumeration of objects of creation, denoting the universal nature of the assertion (cf. on ver. 6).
“And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus:worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” – Revelation 19:10	Verse 10. And I fell at his feet to worship him. The same thing happens again in Revelation 20:7, 8, and this makes it improbable that St. John imagined the angel to be Christ himself, as some think. More probably (as Alford, Bengel, Vitringa, Wordsworth, and others) St. John was so overwhelmed with the tremendous character of the revelation just made to him, that in his humility he pays undue reverence to the angel who had communicated it to him. This reverence may not have been exactly of the nature of that which he would render to God; but it is evident, from the reproof of the angel, that it was more than could be becomingly and safely paid to a created being. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus; saith… I am a fellow servant with thee and with thy brethren, etc. So the apostles styled themselves (Romans 1:1; 2 Peter 1:1, etc.). (On “hold the testimony of Jesus,” see Revelation 1:2, 9; Revelation 12:17.) Worship God. Such also is the command of our Lord (Matthew 4:10). For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Like the words of ver. 8, these words are probably an explanation added by St. John. To prophesy is to understand and proclaim the truth concerning God, especially in the face of prevalent ignorance or opposition; this is also what is meant by holding “the testimony of Jesus.” The angel in revealing these visions, the martyrs in openly professing Christ, St. John in receiving and handing on the Apocalypse, were prophesying. Thus it was that the angel announces himself to be the fellow servant of St. John, and a fellow servant with the prophets, and with those “who keep the sayings of this book” (Revelation 22:9).
“Then said he to me, See you do it not: for I am your fellow servant, and of your brothers the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God.” – Revelation 22:9	Verse 9. – Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God; and he saith, etc. (cf. the words of Revelation 19:10). Here we have “the prophets;” in the former passage we have the “spirit of prophecy,” in much the same sense; here, again, we have “them which keep the sayings of this book,” in place of “that have the testimony of Jesus,” in Revelation 19:10. In the latter case, also, there is little difference of meaning, since the “sayings of this book” are exhortations to a faithful bearing of “the testimony of Jesus;” those, therefore, “who keep” (that is, carry out) “the sayings” are those who “hold the testimony of Jesus.” “The prophets” need not be restricted in meaning to either Old or New Testament prophets, but may include both. The direct inspiration of the message which St. John has to deliver is here asserted. In unison with the teaching of the Mosaic covenant, the angel commands to worship God alone (cf.Exodus 34:14, etc.).

Pulpit Commentary by Joseph S. Exell, Henry Donald Maurice Spence-Jones. Public Domain.