The Bible makes it clear that everyone is expected to worship God, but beyond the Mosaic Law, which was primarily intended to remind the people of Israel of their continual need to be cleansed from sin, there is no prescribed way given for people to do it. The book of Psalms includes numerous examples of believers expressing their reverence for God, sometimes directly to him. “The psalms are intimately personal in that they explore the whole realm of human emotion: from deep despair to ecstatic delight; from a yearning for vengeance to a spirit of humility and forgiveness; from earnest pleading with God for protection to jubilant praise for his deliverance” (Introduction to The Psalms). Psalm 95 is a psalm that focuses primarily on worshipping God through jubilant praise in response to the Lord’s creating and delivering activity on behalf of His people (H7321). Psalm 95 begins with the declaration, “Oh come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!” (Psalm 95:1). The Hebrew word that is translated make a joyful noise, ruwaʿ (roo-ahˊ) “was utilized fundamentally to convey the action of shouting or the making of a loud noise. Shouting often took place just before a people or army rushed into battle against opposition; sometimes the war cry became the very signal used to commence engagement with the enemy” (H7321). In Psalm 60, David quoted God using the word ruwaʿ to convey triumph. He said, “Moab is my washbasin; upon Edom I cast my shoe; over Philistia I shout in triumph” (Psalm 60:8, emphasis mine).

Worship involves individuals expressing their feelings toward God. One of the ways that we can think about worship is that it is an emotional response to what God has or perhaps, has not done for us. Psalm 95 shows us what our response to God’s work of salvation should be, a shout of victory! The psalmist went on to say, “Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise” (Psalm 95:2). Romans 5:15 tells us that salvation is a free gift that is given to us by Jesus Christ. If you have received salvation, you should be thankful for it. Therefore, when you are worshipping God in response to having received salvation, your worship should involve expressions of gratitude.

Psalm 95 also focuses on God’s work of creation. The psalmist said:

For the Lord is a great God,
    and a great King above all gods.
In his hand are the depths of the earth;
    the heights of the mountains are his also.
The sea is his, for he made it,
    and his hands formed the dry land. (Psalm 95:3-5)

In response to God’s work of creation, the psalmist states, “Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!” (Psalm 95:6).

The psalmist tells us that worshipping God in response to his work of creation should not be the same as when we worship him in response to having received his free gift of salvation. The psalmist indicated that rather than shouting in triumph, we should bow down and also, kneel before God, our Creator (Psalm 95:6). Bowing down can be a sign of submission or of repentance (H3766), but when we kneel before God, it is an act of adoration (H1288). The reason why all of these are appropriate responses to God’s acts of creation is because we are dependent on the resources that God has provided to remain alive. The beauty of God’s creation and the abundance of resources that we have at our disposal are so amazing that we should never take for granted that God made us and the world we live in and could destroy everything in it if he wanted to (Genesis 6:5-7).

After God delivered the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, they initially worshipped him as they should have. The Song of Moses was a tribute to God’s miraculous deliverance of the people of Israel (Exodus 15:1-17), but not long after that, when Moses was on Mount Sinai for forty days and forty nights, the people grew impatient and instructed Aaron, “Up make us gods who shall go before us” (Exodus 32:1). Psalm 106 depicts the gradual decline of Israel’s faithfulness in worshipping God. It says in Psalm 106:21, “They forgot God, their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt” and in verse 24, “They despised the pleasant land, having no faith in his promise.” Verse 28 goes on to say, “Then they yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor, and ate sacrifices offered to the dead.”

Near the end of the reigns of the kings of Israel and Judah, there was a revival that involved the people of Israel worshipping God as they should have according to the Mosaic Law. In the first year of his reign, King Hezekiah confessed, “For our fathers have been unfaithful and have done what was evil in the sight of the LORD our God. They have forsaken him and have turned away their faces from the habitation of the LORD and turned their backs” (2 Chronicles 29:6). Hezekiah said that the people of Israel had turned their backs on God. This meant that the people refused to bend down or kneel before God in submission to him (H6202/H5414). The people were actually doing the opposite of what they were supposed to. Because of this, King Hezekiah had the priests offer sacrifices “to make atonement for all Israel” (2 Chronicles 29:24). Second Chronicles 29:25-28 states:

And he stationed the Levites in the house of the Lord with cymbals, harps, and lyres, according to the commandment of David and of Gad the king’s seer and of Nathan the prophet, for the commandment was from the Lord through his prophets. The Levites stood with the instruments of David, and the priests with the trumpets. Then Hezekiah commanded that the burnt offering be offered on the altar. And when the burnt offering began, the song to the Lord began also, and the trumpets, accompanied by the instruments of David king of Israel. The whole assembly worshiped, and the singers sang, and the trumpeters sounded. All this continued until the burnt offering was finished.

Hezekiah increased the Israelites’ intensity of worshipping of God by having music played in the background as the burnt offerings were being made. It says in 2 Chronicles 29:28 that “the whole assembly worshipped, and the singers sang, and the trumpeters sounded. All this continued until the burnt offering was finished,” which likely took several hours. Second Chronicles 29:29-30 goes on to say, “When the offering was finished, the king and all who were present with him bowed themselves and worshipped. And Hezekiah the king and the officials commanded the Levites to sing praises to the LORD with the words of David and of Asaph the seer. And they sang praises with gladness, and they bowed down and worshipped.”

King Hezekiah’s restoration of worship in God’s temple was intended bring the people of Israel back to a place of submission to God. Bowing down demonstrated the people’s repentance and humility toward God. Following this act of humility, Hezekiah called the people to Jerusalem for a celebration of the Passover. “Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the house of the LORD at Jerusalem to keep the Passover to the LORD, the God of Israel” (2 Chronicles 30:1). Hezekiah said in his letters:

“O people of Israel, return to the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, that he may turn again to the remnant of you who have escaped from the hand of the kings of Assyria. Do not be like your fathers and your brothers, who were faithless to the Lord God of their fathers, so that he made them a desolation, as you see. Do not now be stiff-necked as your fathers were, but yield yourselves to the Lord and come to his sanctuary, which he has consecrated forever, and serve the Lord your God, that his fierce anger may turn away from you. For if you return to the Lord, your brothers and your children will find compassion with their captors and return to this land. For the Lord your God is gracious and merciful and will not turn away his face from you, if you return to him.” (2 Chronicles 30:6-9)

Hezekiah’s letters received mixed reactions. It says in 2 Chronicles 30:10-11, “So the couriers went from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, and as far as Zebulun, but they laughed them to scorn and mocked them. However, some men of Asher, of Manasseh, and of Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem.”

The majority of the people who came to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover were not clean (2 Chronicles 30:17-18), meaning that they had not dedicated themselves to the LORD and gone through a ceremonial washing. Because of this Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, “May the good LORD pardon everyone who sets his heart to seek God, the LORD, the God of his fathers, even though not according to the sanctuary’s rules of cleanness” (2 Chronicles 30:18-19). “Hezekiah’s prayer clearly stressed the spirit of the law, not merely the letter of the law” (note on 2 Chronicles 30:18, 19). Jesus often condemned the scribes and Pharisees because they meticulously performed temple rituals, but had not done more important things like showing mercy and being faithful to God (Matthew 23:23-24). Hezekiah knew that the people who had come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover were worshipping God with sincerity in their hearts. As a result of Hezekiah’s prayer, the LORD “healed the people” (2 Chronicles 30:20).

King Hezekiah’s celebration of the Passover was a rare event. It says in 2 Chronicles 30:26, “So there was great joy in Jerusalem, for since the time of Solomon the son of David king of Israel there had been nothing like this in Jerusalem.” The fact that the people of Israel had not been worshipping God the way they were supposed to was likely the reason why their nation was on the brink of disaster. It says in 2 Chronicles 32:1, “After these things and these acts of faithfulness, Sennacherib king of Assyria came and invaded Judah and encamped against the fortified cities, thinking to win them for himself.” Fortunately, we’re told the voice of the people who were worshipping God, “was heard, and their prayer came to his holy habitation in heaven” (2 Chronicles 30:27). As a result, when Hezekiah cried out to God to deliver Jerusalem from Sennacherib, “the LORD sent an angel, who cut off all the mighty warriors and commanders and officers in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned with shame of face to his own land. And when he came into the house of his god, some of his own sons struck him down there with the sword. So the LORD saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib king of Assyria and from the hand of all his enemies, and he provided for them on every side” (2 Chronicles 32:21-22)