To bow or not to bow -- that is the question

O come, let us worship and bow down,
let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
For he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture,
and the sheep of his hand.

Psalm 95:6-7

Those who followed Morning Prayer as a regular form of worship recognize these as the closing lines of the Venite which is often recited before the psalm of the day. In our day the act of kneeling is seen as too subservient for some people. But a passage like this fills this person with a sense of the awe of being in God’s presence. To be before the one who has made us and who still keeps us nourished in her pasture and safe in his hand is an opportunity to be filled with joy and thanksgiving. Some people might even see it as an honor to be able to kneel before such a God.