But singing is not the only aspect of a biblical worship experience. In addition to singing, here are some biblical exhortations that could inform our practice in worship:
"Oh come, let us worship and bow down;let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!" (Psalm 95:6)
"Lift up your hands to the holy place
and bless the Lord!" (Psalm 134:2)
"Clap your hands, all peoples!
Shout to God with loud songs of joy!" (Psalm 47:1)
"Shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous!" (Psalm 33:1)
"Let them praise his name with dancing,
making melody to him with tambourine and lyre!" (Psalm 149:3)
"Let all the earth fear the Lord;
let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him!" (Psalm 33:8)
All these exhortations are made to people who did not yet know the riches of God's love revealed in the life, death and resurrection of Christ. So those of us living on this side of the cross and empty tomb have far more reason to worship than these Old Testament saints.
If the Holy Spirit truly is inhabiting our corporate worship each Sunday morning, should we be seeing more of these manifestations of joy and passion on a regular basis? If we should, why aren't we?
I hope the answer is not that we've established an unwritten rule that you are allowed to clap and raise your hands during times of singing, but if you do anything else you're a little too weird for our liking. If that is so (and as I said, I hope it's not), may these verses be used to inform our thinking about these things.
The Psalms are wonderful.
ReplyDeleteTerry Finley
http://psalm51ministry.blogspot.com/
Larry,
ReplyDeleteThinking about how I DON'T bow down, etc., convicts me of my guilt before God, who deserves to be worshipped in this way. This may lead me to do these things outwardly, when my heart is not clapping, standing in awe, etc, but is instead thinking about how devoutly I'm worshipping God. However, thinking about how Christ died for the sin of me not worshipping him passionately enough, and lived the life of perfect worship I could never live, drives me to my knees in worship. Only in this way is worship about what he has done on the cross, and not what I am incapable of doing in the sanctuary.
Will
Good observation, Will.
ReplyDeleteThere is a danger of getting so focused on our worship that we aren't actually focused on the God who we worship. A subtle danger, but a real one for sure.
We always want our response in worship to be the overflow of truth about God, not a manufactured way of making ourselves spiritual because of the passionate forms of our worship.