By David Faust
Someone quipped, “I’d like to go back in time to warn myself, but I was too stubborn and wouldn’t have listened anyway.” At times I can be stubborn and self-willed. What about you?
My body has become less flexible over the years. As a young preacher, I sometimes asked the congregation to kneel for prayer, and I didn’t understand why older members complained about kneeling. I now understand the difficulty involves more than arthritic joints or unrepentant hearts. God blesses young bodies with extra padding around the kneecaps that tends to disappear with age.
But when the Bible says, “Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker” (Psalm 95:6), physical posture isn’t the main point. Here are the tougher questions: Are we prideful and stubborn? Do we dare to stand before our Creator with a rebellious stare that says, “I refuse to cooperate”? Are we spiritually unbowed, untamed, and unyielding? James 4:10 says, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.”
Heaven’s Worship Service
Revelation chapter 5 tells about a worship service that moves us to bow humbly before God. The scene nearly exceeds the capacity of human language to describe it.
Here on earth, God’s enemies ridicule prayer and some of his friends neglect it. But in heaven, prayer is so valuable that John sees “golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God’s people” (Revelation 5:8).
Here on earth, we wish more people would show up for church. But heaven’s worship service is well-attended. Four living creatures (described in Revelation 4:6-9) and 24 elders (perhaps symbolizing the people of God as a whole represented by 12 tribes of Old Testament Israel and 12 apostles of the New Testament church) praise God in a worship service larger than any we have seen. There are too many angels to count, “numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand” (v. 11). In case you’re wondering, 10,000 times 10,000 equals one hundred million—and that’s a really big choir!
Heaven’s worship service doesn’t require special lighting or an electronic sound system. “In a loud voice” that mega-sized angel-choir sings out, “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!” (v. 12).
Twice in this chapter, John mentions that the four living creatures and 24 elders “fell down” and worshiped (vv. 8, 14). How could anyone stay on their feet in the overwhelming presence of the Lord? The sights and sounds of heaven’s worship service would drive anyone to the ground in humble praise.
Time to Bend Down
Of course, there are times we shouldn’t bow. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to bow before an idol (Daniel 3:1-30), and Jesus wouldn’t bow before the devil (Matthew 4:8-10). We should never worship a mere human being or an angel of God (see Acts 10:25-26 and Revelation 22:8-9). But it’s right and proper to fall down in praise before the Lamb of God who shed his blood for our salvation and rose again in power and might.
Even if our bodies stiffen with age, our hearts should bow in reverence before the holy Lord. An old proverb rightly reminds us, “The taller the stalk grows and the more grain it bears, the lower it bends.”
Personal Challenge:
If it is physically possible for you to do so, bow down and kneel before the Lord as you offer him a prayer of praise.
Good article, David, as always. It’s not, however, just the kneeling down that pains us old people, it’s the getting back up, for which we often need assistance. And there is always that arch-fear of older people, that they might fall in the process. A broken hip is often the beginning of the end for oldsters. And why do we have to stand up through an entire song service? Sure, we are “free” to sit down, but if we sit down, then we look like we are being uncooperative or extremely decrepit. We don’t like to appear old, no matter how old we may be. It embarrasses us, even makes us feel ashamed of being weak. Plus, if we stay seated, then we can’t read the song lyrics on the screen because the people standing in front of us block it. Where did standing throughout an entire praise service come from, from rock concerts? What harm is there in everyone sitting through a few songs? Someone needs to analyze our church services to see if they are safe and friendly for seniors. I’m sure that there are many seniors who simply choose to stay home from church because it is physically and emotionally hard on them. An anonymous survey of seniors in your church might might provide some ideas for where worship could be made safer and less painful for them. At the very least we need to educate younger people on what it’s like to be old, including the emotional stress of being old in a crowded public assembly.
I like how our worship minister takes out the stigma by saying this every week before the song service, “Please stand, if you are able.” I have fibromyalgia and chronic back pain, and I’m only 43 yrs old. And I’ve also been part of worship teams since I was a teen and would love to physically worship more with my body. So I try to rest up on Saturday and then go to the later service on Sunday to help with that. I also had to step back from more physical volunteering at church.
So, I totally appreciate and smile when I see others fully worshipping with their whole self, but I also understand and pray my fellow pain sufferers that have to sit throughout the service. I even have to stay home some weeks and watch online if the pain is really bad.
And ultimately, worship is from the heart, whether it’s corporate worship on Sunday, worshiping in song in your car or worshipping through your service to others. Do not be at all ashamed to sit down during a church service.
And if /when a church is able, they can adjust their screens so everyone can see the lyrics. It’s hard to accommodate everyone when you are a small church with a small budget. Hopefully people are attending often enough to learn the songs that are used frequently.
So, if you are able, stand. But if not, don’t feel guilty. Thanks.
And have a mix of a few old hyms into the song service, so the elderly who know them from memory may feel free to kneel if at all able.
Great article David. Thank you for your thoughts.