When you go to most churches, and the chorister is asked to lead in praise and worship, the first thing you will hear is let us all close our eyes in worship. After worship, you hear in Jesus name we have worshiped. Then the next thing is praise.
I’ve been in a gathering where people asked me what praise and worship means, what’s the difference between praise and worship, and I will go speechless like one who has nothing in my head. That moment, I turn to a dummy, because I’m clueless, not like I don’t know the dictionary meaning of praise and worship, just that the dictionary did not clarify the difference between these words.
If I’m to answer in a layman’s terms, I would say, in worship we close our eyes, and sing slowly, while in praise, we dance, clap and sing joyfully. That’s the belief I had, but when I went to a church on a Sunday. During the hour of praise and worship, I heard the song I assumed to be for praise, in worship and vice versa, I criticized them. I said they are novice, they don’t know how to sing, they are not professionals, they need to learn from others, the chorister is wack and on and on, I kept on criticizing them till I left. I resolved not to go to the church because I’m a type of person that love attending churches that are good in praise. They move my spirit. I begin to dance, sing and clap. But when I went to another church, the same thing happened. Then I became confused. What is worship and what is praise, what’s the difference?
I decided to do my research to clear my curiosity.
In an article Johnson Olawale wrote concerning praise and worship, he explained three Hebrew words in the Bible that are translated as praise. One is “Yadah”, which means “praise or give thanks or confess”. Another one is “Zamar” which means “sing praise.” And the third one is “Halal” (which is the root word for hallelujah), which means to praise, honor, or commend.
In comparison of the differences between these two words, he said that most people see worship as the slow and melodious songs – CC: me – that often require the closing of eyes, lifting of hands in reverence to God while praise is considered as the singing of fast songs and dancing to God.
He added that these two words mean more than just songs or singing, that they are two different things. Worship is completely different from praise but praise can be a part of worship.
Praise is an appreciation of God, especially in songs. It is joyfully recounting everything that God has done and showing him gratitude for it. It doesn’t require much from us other than the acknowledgement of the righteous acts of God. In the Bible, praise is usually presented as highly-spirited, joyful and uninhibited. God asks all creation to praise him.
Worship, on the other hand, goes deeper than praise. It is something that comes from the spirit. It is often said that it is an attitude or state of the heart. In the Bible, Jesus spoke about worship in John 4 verse 23.
"Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks."- John 4:23.
Worship for Christians goes beyond singing. Songs are just one of the tools for worshiping.
While praise stems from recognising the good acts of God, worship is not a function of the acts of God. Worship comes from the core of who the worshiper is and what God means to them.
In true worship, a Christian is required to surrender themselves totally to God and adore him not just for what he has done but for who he is.
Okafor Precious is an ND2 student of the department of Mass Communication
