Praise him with trumpet sound;
praise him with lute and harp!
Praise him with tambourine and dance;
praise him with strings and pipe!
Praise him with sounding cymbals;
praise him with loud clashing cymbals!
Make noise for God!! I normally like to write my own thoughts in the morning after I read a sections of God’s Word, like the above. But, in studying this passage I came across a great thought from the following commentary:
(Understanding the Bible Commentary Series - Old Testament Set (18 vols.):
The bulk of the remaining calls to praise list the musical instruments that are to accompany the singing. The praise of God is not simply contemplation, confession, and prostration—it is also music, and so engages the mind, voice, body, and heart. It captures the emotions and the brain, both left and right brain. And these observations on praise have implications not only for humans but also for our understanding of God. He too is pleased with, even enjoys, music. It is no accident that the book of Praises (Hb. tehillîm, the Hb. name for the book we call “Psalms”), which is shaped for the worship of God, consists of poetry set to music. The God whom we praise is no mere ground of being or dispassionate judge; he is a person.
The fact that God loves music, created music and wants us to make noise with musical instruments to glorify Him ought to challenge us and change our worship mindset. In my history you would have heard me say that I could simply go to church and hear good teaching/preaching and be perfectly satisfied. Even though my children love music and I was in the high school band and select choir, I have never really embraced that concept in church settings. But, the above verses are part of my transformative mindset about music and the corporate worship in the Body of Christ and in our individual worship. God wants us to worship Him in song. He apparently wants it to be loud. None of the instruments in the above passage are that quiet. As stated in the commentary, music solicits our emotion. It is obvious in our modern day worship service many people like emotion. That should not be out of control and drawing attention away from Christ. But, God does want our emotional responses to be included in our logical recognition of His attributes to be praised. There is not “either/or” mentality here. In regard to logical worship that recognizes the awesome nature of God, music is to be added to solicit our emotions toward God.
No comments:
Post a Comment