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Phonetic Confusion

Friday, July 27th, 2012 | Author:

He that conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion.  Proverbs 28:13  NASB

Confesses -  “Yada, yada, yada,” is a common Hebrew phrase that has made its way into English.  We are familiar with its idiomatic meaning – “and more like that” or something similar.  You know that the Hebrew verb, yada’, is the general verb for “to know” in all of its wide range on contexts.  But you might not know that the phonetically similar verb, yada (spelled Yod-Daleth-Hey rather than Yod-Daleth-Ayin), is connected to confession.  What you might find even more interesting is that this yada is also the word for “to praise, to give thanks, and to thank.”  In one of its forms, toda, it is often found in the Hebrew expression for “thank you.”  The emphasis of the word is agreement with the facts.  Confession is really saying, “You’re right about me, God.  Your assessment of who I really am is the truth.”

Today we have made confession of sins into a religious ritual.  It might be a trip to the altar; it might be joining an elder for prayer; it might be taking our place in the booth.  The truth is that none of these things are real confession.  Confession is always an act of admission before God.  The outward signs of confession can be mimicked, but the inward examination of our hearts cannot.

The amazing thing about confession before God is that He already knows all about us.  Confession before God has a self-reflexive motive.  It is for our own good, not His.  Why does God require that we reveal our secrets to Him if He already knows them all?  Because we need to see ourselves from His point of view if we are going to become what He designed us to be.  Confession is for us.  It clears our air.  It focuses our sight.  We can’t be released from the destructive power of a secret as long as we expend energy to keep it secret, even if God knows it anyway.

Confession is just like forgiveness.  My refusal to forgive hurts me.  So do those sins I have not confessed.  Admitting my true condition before God clears the ground for change just like forgiving someone else’s sin against me repairs my inner damage.  Confession and restoration go hand in hand.

This verse tells us that agreeing with God about my real moral state and turning away from practicing what doesn’t fit His design guarantees compassion.  As long as I refuse to see myself from God’s perspective, I will hurt inside.  When I face the truth, the pain of admission will be followed by mercy.  That’s a promise!

Topical Index: confess, yada’, praise, acknowledgement, forgiveness, Proverbs 28:13

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THE EQUATION OF WORSHIP

Friday, March 23rd, 2007 | Author:

Sometimes the teacher is more in need than the pupils.  For quite awhile, I have been disturbed by the experience of worship.  My wife and I have gone to many different church buildings (I deliberately use this expression to make the distinction between the church as an assembly of God believers and the place where God believers meet) in an attempt to find a local church home.  No matter what the outcome, we always connect with people who are genuinely interested in God’s rule in their lives.  Unfortunately, we are usually uncomfortable or disappointed with the corporate experience of worship.  We come away feeling like we just don’t fit in.

This has bothered me so much that I started researching the concept of worship.  What I found is that worship in both the Old Testament and the New Testament has one common and significant theme – to show reverence.  In the Old Testament, the word translated “worship” literally means, “to bow down in respect”.  In the New Testament, the Greek word means virtually the same thing – a physical act that shows humility and respect in front of another.  Worship is quite simply acknowledging God’s rightful rule and majesty by demonstrating personal humility and submission.

My life is based on this fact.  God is my Sovereign.  I bow before Him out of gratitude, awe and respect.  I often find myself looking up at the heavens at night and being overwhelmed by the thought that the God who put all those stars in the sky actually wants to know me.  It is one of the most amazing thoughts of my life.  God, in all of His power and majesty, and His terrible awe, actually desires to love me.  If that doesn’t cause you to want to worship, I don’t suppose anything ever will.  So, my discomfort with the “worship service” of the church building is about the equation of worship.  Until we see both sides of this relationship, we don’t get the correct result.

It seems to me that worship has two related functions:  First, it is about God.  Worship is showing reverence to God.  It is demonstrating, publicly or privately, that I know God is the proper focus of my homage, adoration and gratitude.  I basically tell God that I know in the bottom of my heart that He is the King and Ruler and Lord and Master of my universe and of me – and He deserves my praise and love and respect.   For me, this is a “down on my knees” expression.  A physical demonstration of my humility before Him.  A deep and quite contemplation of His authority over me.  I let God’s rule soak into my soul by mentally and physically bowing before Him.  This action is for God.

But, the action is self-reflexive.  It is an action that is directed outwardly but reflects back on the person performing the act.  It turns back on itself.  When I acknowledge God as Creator and Lord, my action turns back on myself.  In worshipping God for who He is, I also deepen my relationship to Him.  This is the second aspect of worship.  This action is for me.  When I worship God, I first experience His power.  I am humbled before Him.  But immediately I also experience His grace – His favor toward me.  I acknowledge my humility before God by bowing before my Master, but I extol my gratitude before God by any number of actions – praise, singing, shouting, dancing, etc.  Worship for God results in praise before God.  Worship transitions me from humility to gratitude, from obeisance to exultation.

Now I see why I am so uncomfortable in most “worship services”.  Only half of the equation of worship is performed.  Either I am directed only to the contemplative, humbling action or I am pushed into the gratitude, praising exclamations.  Neither option fulfills the basic function of worship.  My natural rhythm from humility to gratitude is truncated.  I feel as though I missed something important.  I did.

What should I do?  This is a plea to those leaders of assemblies of God believers.  Give me time for both.  Let me enter into His presence with the ritual of humility.  It is a ritual, an important one and a necessary one.  If I don’t have time for humility, what am I singing praises about?  “Praise and worship” services are backwards.  Worship comes before praise.  It has to.  I can only praise after I have experienced the self-reflexive humility before my Lord.   Worship acknowledges Power.  Praise acknowledges Grace.  This is why we teach our children that simple prayer at meals:

God is great and God is good

And we thank Him for our food.

Worship then praise.

The Lord’s Prayer follows the same pattern.

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