THE SONGS Psalm 96:1&2 Zephaniah 3:17 Revelation 5:9&15:3

Transcription

1 COVENANT PULPIT THE SONGS Psalm 96:1&2 Zephaniah 3:17 Revelation 5:9&15:3 January 17&18, 2015 Pastor Bob Petterson Covenant Church of Naples Ι PCA 6926 Trail Boulevard, Naples (239)

2 For longer than I care to remember, Christians have been fighting worship wars. In the 40 years since I was ordained, I have come to this conclusion: the Word of God unites; music and songs divide. You like symphony; I groove to B.B. King playing the blues. She is moved by opera; he loves the Grand Ole Opry. He worships best to praise music driven by guitars and drums; she is closest to God singing Holy, Holy, Holy accompanied by piano and organ. Take that golden oldie from the hymnal: In the Garden. Most of you on the grey side of the generation gap sang it often if you grew up in church. But I hated that song. The words seemed so syrupy. Its tune was written like a waltz, more suitable for the dance floor. The organist at our church made it sound like music to roller skate by. I cringed when our song leader said, Turn in your hymnals to number 395, In the Garden. When the organist went into her roller skating vibe, I gritted my teeth just like some of you do when praise bands take it up several decibel levels. When I became a pastor, I banned In the Garden from our worship. Then, a group of us met with an 80-year-old Chinese pastor who had spent 40 years in a Communist prison camp. Because he persisted in sharing the gospel in prison, he was beaten and tortured. Through battered lips and broken teeth, he doggedly continued to proclaim his faith. Finally, he was separated from the rest of the prisoners, and spent 35 years in solitary. Still he preached nonstop to the guards outside his cage. So they boarded it up. No light filtered in, and none of his words were able to get out. Everyday he was dragged from his cage to a trench on the edge of the prison camp. All the pipes from the latrines fed into it. He was lowered naked into that stench. The wastes from the latrines were flushed in, almost up to his neck. It was his job to fill buckets with the human excrement to be used as fertilizer in the prison gardens. It was grotesque and dehumanizing work, designed to break his spirit. As this Chinese martyr told us his story in broken English, one of us whispered, It must have been unbearable. Oh no! he replied. It God s goodness to put me in smelly pit. The stink so bad, guards run away. I left alone to sing praises to Jesus without being beaten. What was your favorite song? asked another.

3 Breaking into a toothless smile, he answered, I mostly sing my favorite song, In da Garden. As stinky wattas rise, I sing at top of voice, I come to da garden alone while da dew is still on da roses Dirty waters rise higher, so smelly bad. But I keep on singing, And da voice I hear falling on my ear, da Son of Man discloses. And he walk with me, and he talk with me, and he tell me I am his own And when I sing this song, my soul set free from stinky watta to fly in song to heaven. As I listened, tears welled up. I remembered how many times I had ridiculed that old gospel hymn and those who loved to sing it. We are so opinionated, easily offended, and judgmental when it comes to songs and music in the church. Traditionalists demean contemporary praise music as shallow and irreverent. Contemporary types dismiss hymns as boring and irrelevant. The worship wars rage on. I believe that God weeps over that, and the division it brings. Jesus redeemed us for better things than that. To bring peace, I would be tempted to ban all singing and music from the church, and just preach and pray. But there can be no true worship without music and song. In the 96 th Psalm, David begins by calling us to sing. Pastor Trent and I discovered a third worship principle from the 96 th Psalm: Words make you think. Music makes you feel. Songs make you feel thoughts. Words are important. Without them, we can t express our thoughts. St. John referred to Jesus as the Logos. From that Greek word we get our words logic and logical. God is a logical God who created us logical. From Aristotle to Einstein, he has given us inquisitive minds able to unlock the mysteries of the universe. We worship him when we use our minds. Yet we live in an age of shallow preaching and lazy thinking. Itching ears are asking for 20 minutes of pabulum preaching. Pabulum is for babies. St. Paul says that we should desire meat. Meaty sermons challenge us to think great thoughts about God and life s burning issues. Great preaching and teaching is key to worship because it glorifies God, edifies his people, and transforms the world. But God didn t only make us rational people. He gave us a heart along with our brains. He created us to feel deep emotion, and to express those feelings in deeply emotional ways. Music touches the deepest parts of our soul. In music,

4 composers and performers reach people where words fail. But both mind and the heart come together in a song. Songs make you feel thoughts. Aldous Huxley wrote, Outside of silence, music and song are the most profound means of expressing the inexpressible feelings of the heart. David would say amen to Huxley s words. This is how he begins his 96 th Psalm: Sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth. Sing to the LORD; praise his name, proclaim his salvation day after day. verses 1&2 David is going to say a lot of things about worship in this Psalm, but he begins with singing. We should come into his presence not with silence, or calls to worship, or prayers, or offerings, or Scripture readings, but first with songs. David here establishes the preeminence of singing. Check it out in the Bible: singing is the primary expression of worship in heaven. That s why I have insisted that we always begin our worship services at Covenant with a song. Then (and only then) do we have a call to worship, or Scripture reading, or prayer. But we must first sing, and do so often, because that s what God wants most. Sing to the LORD all the earth! Why and how must we, above all, sing to the Lord? 1. We must sing because we were created to do so. Verse one says, Sing to the LORD all the earth. Literally, all the cosmos! Everything in the cosmos, and all the creatures that inhabit it, are created by God. Psalm 24:1 says, The earth is the LORD s, and everything it contains; the world and all those who dwell in it. For he has created it all Everything (from earthworms to stars) reflects its Creator. We humans alone were created exactly in his image. What does all that have to do with singing? God sings. Therefore, those created in his image must also sing. I don t know if God sings tenor or bass, but I know that he sings. Listen to the words of the prophet Zephaniah: The LORD your God will rejoice over you with singing. Zephaniah 3:17 Let me repeat it: God is a singer. Music and singing originate out of his heart. He loves singing so much that, when he designed his home in heaven, he filled it with choirs of

5 singing angels. So, when you outfit your home with surround sound to saturate your world with music and song, you are expressing who you are as created in his image. When he sits on his royal throne in his celestial living room, he has surround sound praise music going all the time (and no wife to tell him to turn the sound down)! He programed music into his creation, from crashing cymbals of ocean waves on rocks, to the drumbeat of thunder, the stringed instruments of crickets rubbing legs together, and the flute sounds of birds singing in trees all of creation is a symphony of praise. Job 18:6 says that the first stars that God created sang as they watched the light and life fill the universe at dawn s creation. Light pulsates, atoms dance, and trees sway in the wind to heaven s song. Not only does God the Father sing, so does Jesus his Son. He says to us in Hebrews 2:12, In the presence of the congregation, I will sing your praises. Isn t that amazing? In the congregation, we sing the praises of Jesus to God. But, when Jesus sings in the congregation, he praises us to God. Listen. Can you hear him singing about you to God right now? And St. Paul says to us, filled with the Spirit, speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord. (Ephesians 5:19) Paul is saying that the Holy Spirit sings through us. So Father, Son, and Spirit all sing in holy harmonies as the Heavenly Trio. So it is that we, created in his image, must sing. Adam rose from the dust singing because music and song were indelibly imprinted on his DNA. He had to sing because his Creator sang, and the heaven for which he was destined sings. Music is the way we set free the deepest feelings imprisoned in our soul. Singing gives words to express the inexpressible. When we feel like celebrating, we sing a happy song. When sad, we sing the blues. Sometimes songs come in the drumbeat of lament from an African village suffering from AIDS, or the wailing of a mother whose child has been killed by a terrorist car bomb. At other times, hearts soar to the heavens as we listen to a majestic symphony in a grand concert hall. The gifted sing with the voices of angels, while we less gifted are glad that Psalm 100:1 says, Make a joyful noise unto the LORD. So we sing because the image of the Creator, encoded in our very DNA, compels us to do it. There are so many songless saints who bottle songs up like soda fizz on the inside. Maybe that s why, when shaken up, they explode in road rage, or at their wives and children, or a thousand other things that make

6 them lose it. Here s a suggestion: singing may be the best therapy for you to unleash the tensions bottled up within. So sing with all the gusto you have at church. But don t wait until Sunday. Sing in the shower. Sing in your car. Sing when the golf ball slices out of bounds. Sing like a wolf to the moon at night. Sing like the rooster at the rising of the sun. Most of all, Sing to the LORD; praise his name, proclaim his salvation day after day. (Psalm 96:2) 2. We have to sing an old song to remember his faithfulness. Psalm 96:2 says about our songs, proclaim his salvation day after day. God has saved us. That salvation was conceived in the mind of God before time began. Our names were written in the Book of Life before a single star spangled the night skies. It was secured on the cross 2,000 years ago, and then realized in your life when you put your trust in Jesus as your Savior and Lord. God has been faithful to you ever since. So you have to sing an old song, one written by those who ve gone before you, and on whose shoulders you stand. Look at St. John s description of martyrs now in heaven: They held harps given them by God, and sang the song of Moses, servant of God, and the song of the Lamb: Great and marvelous are your deeds, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are your ways, King of the ages. Revelation 15:2&3 This song that they sing in heaven was sung by Moses when he was on earth. Some 1400 years later, it was sung by Jesus when he walked here. Now, 3400 years after Moses, it is still being sung in heaven by martyrs. Some old songs never go out of fashion. Yet there are people in the church today who lament if we sing songs in church that are less than five years old. It s as if the only good songs are those played on contemporary Christian radio. At the risk of offending some, let me suggest that all the good praise songs aren t written in Nashville. Some were written by Reformers in the 16 th Century, others by Puritans in 18 th Century England, and still others by songwriters in your grandparents time. Please allow me to champion old songs. Your children need to be connected to the faith of their ancestors. So do you. The old songs are rich in content, poured out of the souls of those who triumphed in adversity you may never experience. In those songs, you become one with them. You are also connected to believers around the world. They may not know

7 the Covenant contemporary song playlist, but in foreign lands they sing How Great Thou Art and Amazing Grace and lots of other familiar hymns that are part of the song library of the church international. So, together with our brothers and sisters around the world, let s sing the old songs with gusto and gratitude for an uninterrupted history of God s faithfulness. 3. We have to sing a new song because his mercies are new every day. Now I am going to take the opposite side of the coin (I am an equal opportunity offender). David gives an imperative command: Sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD all the earth (Psalm 96:1) Notice the two parts of this command: one, sing a new song; two, all the earth do it. Let me define the meaning of new. It means now songs, up-todate songs, freshly written songs that you have never sung before. Now let me define all the earth that must sing the new song. That would be everyone: the old guy, the traditionalist, the sacred music aficionado, and the person who doesn t quite get the syncopation or the style of the new songs. We sing the old song because God has been faithful; we sing the new song because he is always doing a new thing in a new way every day. We are a multi-generational family so we have to sing songs that are multi-generational; songs that are comfortably familiar, and those that stretch us. We sing the old songs to connect to our parents and grandparents; we sing the new song to connect to the next generation. We should never get bored with the old, or be afraid of the new. Now, some road rules that your pastors have determined for singing both old and new songs at Covenant. Listen carefully to what I am about to say, because this is where we are going with our singing: 1) They must be God-focused and Christ exalting. Songs that don t lift our eyes to our Triune God don t make the cut at Covenant. Psalm 95:1 says, Come let us sing for joy to the LORD; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. 2) They must be gospel-centered. In other words, they lead us to the cross. Psalm 96:2 says, Sing to the LORD; praise his name, proclaim his salvation day after day. 3) Singing is the job of the congregation. The Psalmist says, Sing to the LORD all the earth. That means that singing primarily comes from the whole congregation, not the stage. We are grateful to our praise teams, choirs, musicians, and tech people. But we need them to lead and help, not distract

8 or overwhelm. I call them lead worshippers rather than worship leaders. 4) Singing is preeminent; the music is there to enhance and help our singers. The Psalmist is clear: Sing to the LORD. That means that the music can t be so loud (whether drums or organ) that we can t hear ourselves or others sing. On the other hand, it has to be dynamic so that it arouses us to sing. The songs should be singable, and in a key that is accessible to us amateurs not too high, or too low. Though we should sing new songs that stretch us, the majority should be familiar ones. The melody has to be clearly heard. We want everyone to come boldly to the Lord with singing. Just as nothing should inhibit or distract you from that, you must actively honor God by singing out. King David, Jesus, Moses, the martyrs in heaven would say amen to that. Now a pastoral word: The Psalmist says, Come before the LORD with singing, not Come to church to critique worship. Danish philosopher Sorën Kierkegaard wrote, When we come to worship, we mistakenly think that we are the audience, the pastor is the performer on the stage, God is the prompter telling the pastor what to say, and we leave as the critics evaluating his performance. We are, of course, entirely wrong. God is the audience, we are the performers, the pastor is the prompter, and God is the critic who evaluates our performance. So today, I ve been the prompter, telling you what his Word says: Come before the LORD with singing. I have set the compass for our Covenant family. Now you have to perform, whether in church or up to your neck in the cesspools of a Chinese prison camp. You just can t help yourself, if you are filled with the Holy Spirit. God is watching from a distance, and he is the only critic that really matters, and the only audience you should care about. Remember, worship down here is a dress rehearsal. Time is short. Opening night in heaven is coming sooner than you think. So learn to sing now, because that s what you will do then. Copyright January 17&18, 2015 by Covenant Church of Naples, FL / PCA