What's the Difference between Praise and Worship

Psalm 100:1-5 English Standard Version

Psalm 100:1 Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!

Psalm 100:2 Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing!

Psalm 100:4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!

Expressions of Praise

1. Shout (Psalm 100:1)

2. Singing (Psalm 100:2)

3. Thanksgiving/thanks (Psalm 100:4)

4. Praise (Psalm 100:4)

5. Bless (Psalm 100:4)

Psalm 100:3 Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Psalm 100:5 For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.

The seven commands might hereby make up a chiasm, with the explanation and elaboration on the fourth marking it out as central:

Shout (100:1)

Serve (100:2a)

Come (100:2b)

Know (100:3)

Come (100:4a)

Praise (100:4b)

Bless (100:4c)[1]

Psalm 100:3 Know that the Lord, he is God!

Colossians 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

1. Psalm – The Book of Psalms

1. psalm - ψαλμός, ὁ, twitching or twangingwith the fingers[2]

2. Hymns – commemorating an event (Exodus 15)

1. Exodus 15:1 Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the Lord, saying, “I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.

3. Spiritual songs – songs inspired by the Holy Spirit either through deliberate composition or spontaneously or singing in tongues (1 Corinthians 14:14).

Today we may use praise and worship to describe different ways to glorify the Lord.

The expression of church music has changed over time: choirs, praise teams, and worship teams; song service to worship service.

What is the difference between praise and worship?

1. Tempo

a. Someone may say the difference between praise and worship is tempo: praise songs are upbeat and worship songs are slower.

2. Direction

a. Praise is about God.

i. Know that the Lord, he is God (Psalm 100:3)

1. I Feel Like Traveling On by William Hunter 1838

a. My heav’nly home is bright and fair, I feel like traveling on; Nor pain nor death can enter there, I feel like traveling on.

b. Refrain: Yes, I feel like traveling on, I feel like traveling on; My heav’nly home is bright and fair, I feel like traveling on.

c. Its glitt’ring tow’rs the sun outshine, I feel like traveling on; That heav’nly mansion shall be mine, I feel like traveling on.

d. Let others seek a home below, I feel like traveling on; Which flames devour, or waves o’erflow, I feel like traveling on.

e. The Lord has been so good to me, I feel like traveling on; Until that blessed home I see, I feel like traveling on.

2. Good Good Father by Chris Tomlin 2016

a. You’re a good good Father It’s who You are, it’s who You are, it’s who You are And I’m loved by You It’s who I am, it’s who I am, it’s who I am

b. Worship is to God.

i. For the Lord is good (Psalm 100:5)

3. Relationship

a. Everyone can praise God (Psalm 150:6).

i. Psalm 150:6 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!

b. Only those who knowGod can worship Him (John 4:22-24).

i. John 4:22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.

ii. John 4:23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.

iii. John 4:24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

The conventional translation “give thanks to him” might give the impression that our attitude of thankfulness is of key importance here. But “with this hōdûwe are not called to a sentence in which Iam the subject, but to one in which Godis the subject.”[3]

[1] James M. Hamilton Jr., Psalms, ed. T. Desmond Alexander, Thomas R. Schreiner, and Andreas J. Köstenberger, vol. 2, Evangelical Biblical Theology Commentary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Academic, 2021), 207. [2] Henry George Liddell et al., A Greek-English Lexicon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996), 2018. [3] John Goldingay, Baker Commentary on the Old Testament: Psalms 90–150, ed. Tremper Longman III, vol. 3 (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2006), 136.