These combined usage of these words, praise and worship, does have a beginning. There origin does not come from God’s word, but use as a genre in the secular christian music industry. When someone thinks of praise and worship of today, it is automatically comes across as christian’s music.
Christian music has been around since chanting of the scriptures, hymns, and today’s contemporary christian music. We love music. It is here to stay with us, because it soothes the soul. However, praise and worship is not christian music.
The Meaning of Praise and Worship
Praise means to give approval of or admiration, well Worship means to show reverence and adoration. Both words are directed towards someone or something you have feelings for. In scripture (the bible), praise and worship is used at random to refer to renown, fame, homage or glory given to idols, material things, or to the true God.
Word Origin of Praise and Worship
Praise
v.
c.1300, “to laud, commend, flatter,” from Old French preisier, variant of prisier “to praise, value,” from Late Latin preciare, earlier pretiare (see price (n.)). Replaced Old English lof, hreþ.
Specifically with God as an object from late 14c. Related: Praised; praising. Now a verb in most Germanic languages (German preis, Danish pris, etc.), but only in English is it differentiated in form from cognate price.
n.
early 14c., not common until 16c., from praise (v.).
Worship
n.
Old English worðscip, wurðscip (Anglian), weorðscipe (West Saxon) “condition of being worthy, honor, renown,” from weorð “worthy” (see worth) + -scipe (see -ship). Sense of “reverence paid to a supernatural or divine being” is first recorded c.1300. The original sense is preserved in the title worshipful (c.1300).
v.
c.1200, from worship (n.). Related: Worshipped; worshipping.
ONLINE ETYMOLOGY DICTIONARY, © 2010 DOUGLAS HARPER
Praise and Worship in the Bible
Praise can be founded 259 times (old testament – 232 and new testament – 27) and Worship is 188 times (old testament – 115 and new testament – 73) from the King James Version of the Holy Bible. There is only three times that praise and worship is used together in God’s word and they are as follows:
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.”
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 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.”
The King James Version of the Holy Bible Public Domain
What is praise and worship from the bible?
Praise and Worship is an expression that is done by someone who would like to verbally or physically show their gratitude in respect to another person, or something. In our case, we will love to express our love towards our Lord, our God.
Is there a difference between the two words, praise and worship, founded in the bible?
Yes it is! Worship almost always confused with praise, even by people who ought to know better. Worship doesn’t mean “to lift your hands” or “bow your knees.”
Worship is much different than Praise. Why? The bible talks about a sacrifice of praise that is found in Hebrews 13:15 and Jeremiah 33:11, but there is NO sacrifice of worship. Let’s look at this verses of scripture from the Amplified Bible:
“[There shall be heard again] the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bride, the voices of those who sing as they bring sacrifices of thanksgiving into the house of the Lord, give praise and thanks to the Lord of hosts, for the Lord is good; for His mercy and kindness and steadfast love endure forever!….” – Jeremiah 33:11
They brought a sacrifice of thanksgiving into the house of the Lord. Do you know that if you do not understand something you read in the bible. Most of the time, it is explained for you, if you keep reading on. What did they do? They gave praise and thanksgiving in the house of the Lord, and to the Lord of Host, for He is good.
“Through Him (Jesus Christ), therefore, let us constantly and at all times offer up to God a sacrifice of praise, which is the fruit of lips that thankfully acknowledge and confess and glorify His name.” – Hebrews 13:15
Praise the Lord, Christ gave us the opportunity to offer up to God a sacrifice of praise. By doing what? Opening up your mouth, and praise Him. Do we really understand the word sacrifice in Hebrews 13:15? Sacrifice means to give up, forgo, forfeit, let go, and surrender. This is what Jesus Christ did on the cross for us—He sacrifice His life that we may live.
Under the law of Moses, animals were killed and their bodies disposed of outside the camp. The blood from that animal was brought inside the tabernacle (a sanctuary for God to well) to the altar as a sacrifice for sin. It is the same with Jesus. He was crucified outside the city gates, and His blood was brought to God’s altar to cleanse His people. We are NO longer sacrificing animals, but we are pouring out sacrificial praises from our lips to God in Jesus’ Name. We can make known in our speech (praise), and believe by faith, when we worship, we mean it. If we read on in Hebrews 13:16, you will find out that we should not take these things for granted, because God takes pleasure in our acts of worship. Just be genuine in our approach from our open mouth and motive of our heart.
Origin of Praise and Worship Music
In the mid-sixties (1960’s), this musical branding of contemporary Christian music had been developed in the United States by the young adults until present day. Under the category of contemporary worship music, this sub-category, praise and worship, is used in part to help with corporate worship, along with blending of genres of other pop style songs.
Jesus Movement, Chuck Smith, and the Secular Music Industry
Hippies and Young Adults from the sixties and seventies started attending the church. They were street musicians and folk singers; which begin to rewrite jiggles and bar tunes, plus simple chores to Jesus music (folk and pop tunes). Their music was easy to learn with a catchy tune. The Jesus Movement loved to evangelized by young people for young people. Their motto was to reach people from their level of understanding for salvation. After accepting Jesus in their heart, they became “Jesus People or Jesus Freak.”
Wikipedia describes the term Jesus freak as an “originally a neutral label imposed on the group by non-Christian hippies, but members of the Jesus movement, who misunderstood the term as pejorative, reclaimed the phrase as a positive self-identifier. The Jesus movement was partly a reaction against the counterculture from which it originated.”
All the evangelical churches adopted this secular pop form of new style music into its churches congregational singing, where Chunk Smith, pastor of Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa California helped spread this style of praise music through Maranatha! Music, as well as Vineyard Music during the same time frame. Praise Music (Jesus Music) Bands were forming throughout the west coast; which became a model for today’s congregational worship singing around the world. Praise and worship teams were needed to coach individual followers of Jesus Christ to worship God. Some church leaders rejected this new found freedom, and “Worship-Wars” begins.
While they were undecided to come together in unity, the secular music industry took advance of the fast growth and style. Without the church leaders noticing, they begun introducing entertainment to the people of God. Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) was pushed as the new spiritual experience. Before CCM, Christians only had one category: Church Music with sub-categories: Hymns, Southern Gospel, Traditional Black Gospel, and Urban Contemporary Gospel. Today we have my genres and here they are:
Church music (Contemporary Christian Music, Christmas Music, Gospel Music, Spanish Traditional Christian music, and Liturgical Music)
♪ Contemporary Christian Music
sub-category: Contemporary Worship Music, or Praise and Worship and Soaking Music, Christian Rock, and Christian Hip Hop with Christian Rap, or Holy Hip Hop, or Gospel Rap
♪Christmas Music
sub-category: Carol (Music)
♪Gospel Music (Southern Gospel, Traditional Black Gospel, or Spiritual (Music), Urban Contemporary Gospel)
sub-categories: Byzantine Music, Bahamian Rhyming Spiritual, Hymn with Hymn tune, and Lining out (a form of acappella hymn-singing or hymnody), West gallery music (Georgian psalmody, refers to the sacred music (metrical psalms, with a few hymns and anthems))
♪Sacred Harp (tradition of sacred choral music that originated in New England)
♪Sacred Steel (musical tradition), a musical style and African-American gospel tradition that developed in a group of related Pentecostal churches in the 1930’s.
♪Shape note, music notation found in American Singing Schools
I highlighted the CCM genre so you can see that praise and worship is found there.
Conclusion
Are we suppose to make melodies in our heart to the Lord or not? Or are we just to watch others worship the Lord and join in if we would like? Really!
If you believe that, you have mess the point in going to church in the first place. You are suppose to do something for God individually as well as collectively – that’s church service!
Praise and worship is something each individual follower of Jesus Christ are to do from their act of worship. Listening to music is not worship. Watching others sing a solo is not worship. Keeping your mouth closed during congregational singing is not worship. Worship is love expressed, and only you can do that. Praise the Lord!
Offer up your praise in order to worship God. This is praise and worship. A genuine heart to worship in spirit and in truth. This is the origin of praise and worship, my friend.
I Love Praise and Worship 