Identifying God Through Worship | Understanding the Trinity

What is worship?

Worship is one of the clearest indicators in Scripture that help us determine whether the three persons of the Trinitarian doctrine are God.

However, we sometimes conflate the idea of ‘worship’ with mere recognition. In fact, to fully understand worship, we need to explore its theology and how it was practiced in Ancient Near Eastern religions.

If I wanted to define God, I would have to look at how the Hebrews understood God, how they defined worship.

The Ancient Concept Worship

Ancient Near Eastern culture had a very particular definition of worship.

Many of these cultures’ worship practices typically involved some form of sacrifice, mainly animals or grain. There were a few that also included human sacrifices to different gods (which, honestly, I’m so grateful I’m not a part of those cultures).

However, it could be daunting to grasp how these ancient cultures incorporated worship into their daily lives, especially when we compare it to our modern view of worship. Our concept of worship is shaped by Western theology, often surrounding singing, dancing, and music.

But … to understand God, we first need to understand how the Hebrews worshiped God, and in this way, we could clearly identify God in Scripture.

If God is worshiped in a particular manner throughout the Bible, it can help us place God in a historical context that is beneficial to our understanding of the Trinity.

How Did the Hebrews View Worship?

Throughout Israel’s journey, they struggled with faithfulness. Most times, they abandoned the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to pursue idols and foreign gods, mostly to ‘fit in’ with the cultures surrounding them.

While Scripture acknowledges the realness and power of these foreign spiritual deities, it never asserts that these entities shared the same nature and intrinsic value as YHWH. Thus, the Israelites were strictly prohibited from worshiping any being other than the True God.

Definition of Worship

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, worship can be defined as a noun meaning:

Reverence offered a divine being or supernatural power [an act of expressing such reverence]
A form of religious practice with its creed and ritual
Extravagant respect or admiration for or devotion to an object of esteem

The word worship can also be a verb, as in ‘to worship’, meaning:

To honor or show reverence for as a divine being or supernatural power
To regard with great or extravagant respect, honor, or devotion

The word ‘worship’ comes from the Middle English word ‘wurðscip’ or ‘worschip’, which means honor or esteem.

The Worship of YHWH

YHWH was worshiped in various ways throughout ancient Hebrew history. The five major ways that worship was displayed in the Old Testament scripture were:

The keeping of the three festivals
The keeping of the Sabbaths and Holy Days
The various sacrifices
Bowing, kneeling, or serving
Prayer, praise, and psalms

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The Bible indicates that the various ways to demonstrate worship were often corrupted and used ritualistically rather than as genuine expressions of obedience. In other words, God Himself desired full submission and a surrendering of the heart from which the act of worship could flow.

Regardless of this, one thing is made clear throughout Old Testament scripture: the Hebrews were to show reverence only to YHWH, and no one else.

YHWH, the Only God to Be Worshiped

As a part of His covenant with the newly-birthed nation of Israel, YHWH establishes Himself as the God who brought the Hebrews out of Egypt.

While we know these covenant sayings as the Ten Commandments, they were actually a contract established between the Israelites and God, who had previously delivered the Hebrews from Egyptian captivity.

To fully understand the Trinitarian doctrine, we must consider that YHWH establishes Himself as the true and living God, and the ONLY God to be worshiped.

Among the earliest statements made within the covenant at Mount Sinai was this:

‘Have no other gods before Me’.

Exodus 20:3

In fact, the first eleven verses of Exodus 20 are dedicated to establishing God as the one and only God and how the Israelites were to worship and reverence Him.

From the onset, the Israelites readily understood this covenant between God and themselves.

A Clearer Picture of God

When it comes to worship, the Old Testament seems to indicate the unique nature of God. There is no argument against the fact that the Israelites worshiped one God.

However, if we emphasize a Trinitarian God, we affirm that there are three persons within the Godhead.

We see God speak through the prophet Isaiah, stating:

I am the Lord, and there is no other, besides me, there is no God.

Isaiah 45:5 ESV

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“To whom will you liken Me and make Me equal, and compare Me, that we may be alike?

Isaiah 46:5 ESV

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“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.”

Deuteronomy 6:4 ESV

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“‘See now that I, even I, am He, and there is no god beside Me.”

Deuteronomy 32:39

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That all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God; there is no other.

1 Kings 8:60 ESV

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While it’s easy to attach our own thoughts and opinions to Scripture, we need to allow the Scripture to speak for itself—even if what it’s saying is a difficult pill to swallow.

The largest roadblock we face here is that there are multiple scriptures affirming God to be one, but at the same time, multiple scriptures point to the deity of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, all while maintaining that these three are separate persons!

Does this mean that Scripture contradicts itself, or is there something else that we haven’t seen yet?

If you believe in the Bible, then the conclusion we need to draw is the latter: there is something that we need to uncover.

Our culture, vocabulary, and thought processes differ significantly from those of the ancient Hebrews, so we must consider how they would have interpreted the phrases and sayings found in their Scriptures.

In our Western worldview, we consider ‘God’ as a personal name, and thus, we tend to incorrectly believe that we’re speaking of ‘one person’. While the New Testament uses the word ‘God’ mainly to identify the Father, this isn’t how the word is always used in the Old Testament.

Instead, there is a reasonable possibility that the unique identifier ‘God’ refers to three persons sharing the same divine nature, even in Old Testament scriptures.

The first occurrence of the complex and plural personhood of God can be seen in Genesis 1:27:

“Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

Genesis 1:27

While many might argue that this ‘us’ refers to God and the angels, we know for certain that we’re not made in the image of angels. Instead, God said, ‘Let us make mankind in our image and in our likeness,’ indicating that there is a complex and unified personhood within God.

Until Next Time…

I do believe that the concept of worship is important to how we understand God and His nature.

However, more importantly, it explains how we can incorporate the idea of worship into our daily lives. Worship is more than just music and singing; it is the self-sacrificial lifestyle that we live when we surrender to God. Most importantly, it is seen in our obedience to His Word.

The message of grace aligns with God’s nature: the threefold nature of God, that is. Jesus was sent by the Father, who in turn sent the Spirit.

When we worship God, we must remember that our worship ought to be pure and genuine, coming from a place of surrender to God’s will. Our obedience, our lifestyle, and our attitude reflect the nature of God—this is worship.

I hope that clarity and the strengthening of your faith will be at the forefront of your spiritual growth.

Signed,