September 13, 2009 Sermon

Worship Music
Psalm 47

The Book of Psalms came together about 500 years before Jesus walked this earth. A collection of poems and song lyrics, the Psalms served as the hymnbook for worship in the temple in Jerusalem. Many of the Psalms were already 500-plus years old when temple priests collected them. Those of you who prefer to sing the “old hymns” would have loved the Psalms. Please understand: I laugh with, not at, those of you who love traditional worship music. The church of my youth offered the best music (in every sense of that phrase). It spoke deeply to my soul. I would have agreed then—as I do now—with the introduction to the Psalms found in the Oxford Annotated Bible, which states, “The living spirit of any religion shines through most clearly in the hymns by which its people bring before God their troubles and fears, their hopes, aspirations, and reasons for confidence.”

Most of the Psalms are worship music. All of the Psalms have the same purpose as all worship music: to empower people to offer their deepest selves to God. Ideas we cannot put into words come pouring out of us through music. Feelings we usually keep under wraps come pouring out of us through music. Use music. Offer yourself to God through music. Praise God through music.

Let us go back to that church of my youth. My family attended the First Presbyterian Church of Bloomington, Indiana. The home of Indiana University, Bloomington boasts the finest music anywhere. Many of you may think I exaggerate, but the IU School of Music is the number one such school in this country, if not the world. A very high percentage of Interlochen graduates audition for admission to IU; a very low percentage of them get accepted. The most talented music students from around the world go there. Year-round, you can attend on-campus concerts, operas, musicals and recitals of the highest quality, often for free. This has a powerful impact on the music scene in the community, including in the churches. World-class musicians lead worship in many congregations. In Bloomington one of those big-box, non-denominational churches that feel like a rock concert employs as its drummer a full professor of percussion at IU. He also tours with John Mellencamp and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. This kind of quality appears in many churches there.

First Presbyterian of Bloomington offered only classical church music, and I mean classical. It presented only music composed during the Classical Period (1750-1825) by the likes of Beethoven, Haydn and Mozart. The organist, an instructor at the U., played improvisations during the offering. But these improvisations had nothing in common with what you would hear from a jazz combo. No, she would establish a classical theme and then elaborate on it according to rigid patterns long established by the classical guild. They carried me away. Listening, I would forget where I was. I do not know whether I worshiped God more deeply in those moments, but I certainly lost myself in the music. But as the years passed and fewer people in our culture—even in Bloomington—appreciated classical music, that church began to dwindle. Other issues certainly caused the decline, but its music did not help. The music people would not bend: theirs was the only acceptable music. People who did not like it could go elsewhere. They put the music ahead of the worship. That is exactly backwards.

We must offer ourselves to God through music. We must not offer God to our music. Music in church has a purpose: to empower our praise of Jesus Christ. After I left Bloomington I preached one summer in a tiny country church. They sang sentimental, hundred year-old hymns (In the Garden, Just As I Am). An aging soprano led the music. Her voice had lost a step or two. To put it honestly, she screeched. My wife and I could not look at each other for fear of breaking out into laughter. One seminary year I worked in a church that shared its organist with a bigger church in the next town. If our service ran late she would leave in order to get to the next service on time. After all, the folks there paid her more. That irritated me. Later I pastored a church in which I waged low-intensity warfare with the choir director for seven years. I actually liked her and I believe she liked me. But she had grown up in that town and had set herself up comfortably in that church job. She worked exactly as hard as I made her work, and complained constantly to her allies in the choir. Though my best friends in that town were in that choir they would always take her side.

Let us review this brief history of my reaction to music in churches. I was inappropriately amused, irritated and at war with a choir director. To my sorrow I must confess that for twenty-five years I have done what I accused the music director at the church of my youth of doing. I have put myself ahead of God. Instead of praising God through music, I have allowed the baggage I carry in my heart and soul to prevent me from worshiping. How about you? Have you ever steeled yourself against church music (thereby against God) instead of praising God through the music—regardless of whether it comes in your preferred style? I admit it. I am a musical snob. If you have fallen into this pit trap you will find me down there with you.

Praise God through music. Let yourself go. Praise God through music.

Look at what the poet wrote in Psalm 47. “Clap your hands, all you peoples; shout to God with loud songs of joy.” Many people picture the Old Testament Hebrews as a severe, humorless bunch. We read so much in the Bible about their focus on keeping the Law of God. But the Hebrews constantly broke God's Law, in no way more seriously than in worship. They were always falling for the seductions of foreign gods like Baal and Ashteroth. Worship of those gods was anything but severe. They were fertility gods and people worshiped them in ways that demonstrated human behavior associated with fertility, if you catch my drift. Clapping your hands and shouting with joy would therefore have seemed like relatively tame expressions of praise. Why do we struggle to do even these small things? Are we so restricted by our shy northern European ancestry? Are we so afraid of looking foolish? Clap your hands! Shout for joy! Our church already sings its heart out. Now go for it: praise God with clapping hands and shouts of joy!

After all, “the Lord, the Most High, is awesome, a great king over all the earth.” Perhaps that is what causes our restraint in worship. Maybe we do not wish to swear allegiance to any king. We threw off our king a long time ago. Independence is part of out national DNA. We have put ourselves up on the throne. Ask any worker in retail or customer service. A hilarious video on the Internet shows what would happen if a corporate committee redesigned the stop sign. The result looks nothing like the red octagon we recognize—and presumably obey. The committee indulges every whim of its target market, its executives and themselves. The poor sap who must produce the sign they want gives them endless variations on color, shape and wording. But when they test the new sign nobody obeys it. This perfectly describes us. We do not want to be told what we can and cannot do. We want to be in charge. We want no king. Yet God has “subdued peoples” and “nations.” God has infinite power. God knows all. God created all. In order to worship God without reservation we must submit without reservation. If music does nothing more than help us to get over ourselves it has given us a tremendous gift. Praise Almighty God, not ourselves, through music.

“Sing praises to our God, sing praises; sing praises to our King, sing praises. For God is the king of all the earth.” This congregation comes nearer to throwing itself freely into worship than any other church I have served. But we can go farther, and we need not become ridiculous in order to do it. Why not clap during the songs? I have felt recently that the idea of clapping along hovers over us while we sing. If somebody started we might join. Dan and Gretchen: when the Spirit moves you, go for it. People: when the clapping starts, participate. We do not have to force it. It does not belong in every song we sing. Yet the Holy Spirit has made itself known in this room on many a recent occasion. Why not let it flow without fear?

From the early days of Northern Lakes Church we have urged, “If you can't sing good and loud, just sing loud.” This saying comes from my best friend in that choir that always sided with the director. He is a Presbyterian elder. He is the son, grandson and probably great-grandson of Presbyterian elders. If he can say it, any Presbyterian or attendee of a Presbyterian Church (like this one) can do it. Sing loudly. Have no fear. If everybody sings loudly nobody can hear individual voices. Wait: there is one exception to that. God can hear us. God can hear us singing our praises. God can see us clapping. God already knows whether we can or cannot sing with a quality that would satisfy the Indiana University School of Music. And I strongly suspect that God could not possibly care less. God is love. “God is king over the nations; God sits on his holy throne.” Praise God. Praise God through music.

No matter what the style of music a church offers, no matter the ability with which that church offers that music, only one thing matters: that we offer ourselves in praise to God through that music. Let the Holy Spirit flow. Drop your defenses. Trust God not to laugh. Trust the people of God to join with you. Sing. Clap. Shout. Let her rip. Praise God through music.