Worshipping or worshiping?

By: Pastor Raymond Desadier

2 CHRONICLES 20:18-20 “And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground: and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell before the LORD, worshipping the LORD. And the Levites, of the children of the Kohathites, and of the children of the Korhites, stood up to praise the LORD God of Israel with a loud voice on high. And they rose early in the morning, and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa: and as they went forth, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem; Believe in the LORD your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper.”

A pet peeve of mine is spelling, “worshiping” rather than “worshipping”. If I read this in my head I pronounce it wor-SHIPE-ing. After all, the derivative of piping is pipe so it would only make sense for “worshiping” to rhyme with “piping”.

On the other hand, the conjugation of the verb ship is shipping or shipped so logically wor-ship should be conjugated as worshipping and worshipped. Then again, I suppose this spelling is indicative of most worship today – incomplete. So why not also spell it incompletely?

The worshipping referred to in the Bible inferred a certain level of reverence we do not see as much today. We have gone from the Jewish custom of holding God in such high esteem they did not dare even utter His name to the opposite end of the spectrum where He is just some “good buddy” who lives “upstairs” who we call on when we need a hand. God has been demoted to Santa Claus or a building superintendent.

There has to be a middle ground. God is our loving Father in Heaven and we should feel comfortable in approaching Him, but not so comfortable we forget His awesome power. His glory is so mighty He told Moses in Exodus 33:20, “Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.”

The word worshipping in 2 Chronicles 20:18 is translated from the Hebrew word shachah which meant to bow down or lay prostrate. Prostrate – there is our missing P! Today’s worship lacks the reverence shown by lying prostrate before a mighty God. He may be our Heavenly Father, but we still need to show Him the awe He deserves.

Another explanation for the P missing in today’s worship could be lack of Praise. As I mentioned before, God is like Santa Claus to many – nonexistent for most of the year until the time comes they need something. No praise for the things He has done already, no praise for the things yet to come, only requests for help getting out of a jam.

Have you been worshipping the Almighty or have you been worshiping? Are you lying prostrate with praise or are you leaving something out? Our worship of God should be to the letter – in this case, the letter p!