Psalms 95:6 – O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker.
The idea of kneeling has lost it’s meaning our culture. Often used a sign of mourning, it has become equivalent with disrespect.
Not many years ago men would kneel before their favored woman while proposing marriage as a sign of respect. It was a gesture of royalty where the man acknowledged the worth of the woman. The idea of kneeling in proposals has it’s roots in medieval times. A man would kneel before a king to show his submission and respect. Although a man kneeled voluntarily, he stayed in a kneeling position until being told to rise by the king.
Well before the medieval era men throughout history knelt to God. David here is Psalm 95 sends forth an invitation to worship the Lord. That worship involved kneeling. Solomon knelt before the altar, the leper knelt before Jesus, and the man with the lunatic son knelt before Jesus.
Of lately, I have been guilty of failing to kneel. While it is true that prayer can happen any time and any place, because that is the only way to pray without ceasing, there is something to be said for kneeling in prayer. It’s easy to lay in bed and pray, pray while driving down the road, or even pray while doing the dishes, but there’s something special about taking the time to kneel in prayer.
If kings of the earth receive the respect of kneeling, how much more does the King of Heaven deserve us to kneel before Him. I’m sure even today no one would imagine walking into Buckingham palace demanding the king to give them things they wanted without first bowing and giving him plenty of praises. Yet we rarely treat God with the same kindness.
If we took a page from history, entering the presence of the King should come with kneeling in His presence and staying there until He says rise. Those kneeling before kings realized their time belonged to the king. They were to submit themselves to the desires of the king.
I want my goal for this coming week to treat the Lord with, at least, the same respect as an earthly king. To try and carve time to put aside every task to kneel in His presence for as long as He desires. To realize time doesn’t belong to me, but is a gift from Him. To get my desires to align with His.