Psalm 47

 

I.        Darlene Zschech from Australia, is one of the best-known writers of modern worship songs.  In her hardback book on worship, she says our worship must be extravagant!

A.       We enter into God’s presence with new understanding and excitement when (we) discover “what it means to be an extravagant worshiper.”

1.       God created us for worship, for his glory. God is happy when we worship.

2.       Zschech writes, “I love the sense of storming heaven with our praise when we unify in faith...Worship is a movement of our hearts, our thoughts, and our wills toward God’s heart, thoughts and will.”

3.       A large church I was serving as interim pastor decided to explore adding a modern worship service to the two services we already had. A small ministry group was formed to study the matter. Our job for the first six months was to study Darlene Zschech’s book on Extravagant Worship, so we might learn what responsible, good worship is.

          B.       WORSHIP is an old word from early English, WORTHSHIP, “to ascribe worth.”

                                      1.       It means “God is worthy.”

                                      2.       The term derives from both its Hebrew and Greek antecedents:

a.       In the Greek the most often used in the New Testament is the word PROSKENEO, which means to kiss like a dog licking his master’s hand. 

b.       And it is used to describe subjects falling down to kiss the ground before their king or God.                  

          C.       We must then couple this term, worship, with another term: LITURGY.

1.       In the New Advent Roman Catholic Encyclopedia of Worship, liturgy refers to either our formal celebration of the Eucharist;

a.       or it may refer to the whole complex of activities we do in a set sequence on Sunday.

2.       “Liturgy” is a composite word from ancient Greece for a public duty, a service to the state undertaken by a citizen, usually one of the wealthier citizens, like the person who held the office of choregus, the patron who paid the singers of a chorus out of his own means.

3.       In the Septuagint, or the Greek version of the Old Testament from the 2^nd century BCE, then, liturgy came to mean your duty of public service to the temple, presiding over its ritual worship.

a.       In Luke 1 when the time for Zechariah’s “liturgy” or public service was up, he went home.

4.       So our worship is not only something God created us to do and to enjoy, but it is our duty to our community of faith.

 

II.       From this, then, you and I understand thatin worship God is the audience. We do it for God, not for what we may get out of it.

A.       There are several correct elements of Worship.  The first correct element of worship is to be God-centered.

1.       If I raise my hands on Sunday morning, or I say, “Amen!” if I am led by the Spirit to applaud, it is to praise God and God’s wonderful creation.

2.       Our Presbyterian “Book of Order” (Constitution)  in The Directory for Worship, chapter 2, says this, “In the Old and New Testaments and through the ages, the people of God expressed prayer through actions as well as speech and song. So in worship today it is appropriate

a.       “to kneel, to bow, to stand, to lift hands in prayer, 

b.       “to dance, to clap, to embrace in joy and praise,

c.       to anoint and to lay (on) hands...”

3.       All of these proper expressions of worship are what the Directory for Worship identifies as “enacted prayer.”

4.       Again, Darlene Zschech: “Keep the zeal in your worship...A worshiping church attracts worshiping people.”  It is contagious! ...not because we are so friendly, but because altogether we enjoy God’s goodness.

                                                                                     

B.       The second correct element of worship is that it is participatory.   

1.       The only mention of clapping the hands is in three of the enthronement Psalms which are part of the liturgy for the Jewish New Year in the seventh month, also known as the Feast of Booths or Tabernacles.

a.       Psalms 97 and 98 are two enthronement psalms in which all of nature is summoned to join in the loud, exuberant celebration of God coming to sit on his throne as the Lord over the creation.

(1)      the sea roars,

(2)      the floods clap their hands;

(3)      the hills sing for joy

(4)      the mountains melt like wax,

(5)      and the heavens proclaim Yahweh’s righteousness! 

b.       The congregation of Israel is summoned to join the creation, to join the seas, floods, hills.

2.       Hence, the 47^th Psalm:

a.       “Clap your hands, all peoples! (exclamation point)                        

           Shout to God with loud songs of joy...                                                 

           God has gone up with a shout!”

3.       By our applause we are not only giving our gift and our duty to God through the liturgy, but in our participation we all are joined together as one creation,

                                                          a.       “one subdued peoples”

                                                          b.       and as one “heritage.”

 

                   4.       An ELCA Lutheran pastor, Lawrence Wagley, points out that in most congregations with mainline European roots, applause as an outburst of emotion is limited, or only when invited.

                                                          a.       such as at a baptism,

                                                          b.       at the presentation of a married couple in a wedding

                                                          c.       at the election of a new pastor

                                                          d.       or welcoming new members or new officers.

                                                          e.       Bruce T. Forbes tells of his experience when he decided to attend the Japanese Baptist Church’s bilingual service on Pentecost Sunday. In his own words, “I was intrigued to note that they warmly applauded (almost a standing ovation) a calligraphic rendition of the Lord’s Prayer in Japanese with chanted accompanying vocals (on tape). The calligrapher was Dr. Akira Ishimaru (an emeritus Electrical Engineering professor).  Usually

                                      the congregation at JBC are more reserved...”

 

                                      5.       Each of these events in their own way recognize again God’s creative activity and
                   Lordship.          (page 2)

 

                                               6.       In American culture, however, Rev. Wagley points out, we have bought into our culture’s notion of entertainment, and so an ovation becomes as acknowledgment of a performance, thanking the performers.

                                                          a.       This is not in keeping with our heritage of worship and liturgy.

                                                          b.       Wagley suggests, it would be appropriate for the pastor, the choir director, and the organist to provide other opportunities to express our thanks to them for their beautiful anthems and solos.

                                                                             (i)       This is where I made my mistake last Sunday. I should have worked with Jon Clements, Vicky Kiehl and Ann Shields to give you direction and leadership on a united front. I apologize to you all for my statement about not clapping.

                                                          c.       If you feel the Holy Spirit grabbing you personally and you feel led to shout “Amen!,” lift your hands to God, or applaud, do so.

                                                                   (i)       When we were singing those old-time hymns last Sunday, “Wonderful Words of Life,” some of you were dancing right there in your pew—that was nice to see!

                                                                   (ii)      And it was appropriate this morning to applaud God’s gift of 40 years of marriage to couples in our church.

 

                                  7.       Just keep in mind: worship leaders are not performers and you are not an audience. All of us are the participants together. A  few of us are fulfilling our community duty as liturgists.

 

                                                          a.       Do you recall Paul’s reaction in Acts 14 (vss 8-18) to the people of Lystra who were so impressed with Paul and Barnabas that they wanted to fall down to them and offer sacrifices.  Paul assured them they were but mere humans “of like nature with you.”

                                                          b.       The apostles insisted the glory should be directed at God alone.

 

                   C.       It follows from all of the above that #3, worship is to be Spirit-centered.

                                      1.       What did Jesus tell the woman at the well in John 4?  “‘God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth,”

                                                          a.       whether it is in a temple in Jerusalem or on a mountain.

                                      2.       The Swiss Second Helvetic Confession of 1561, in our Book of Confessions, says that often in our worship we “struggle against the Spirit” rather than “let the blessing of God envelop us.”

                                                          a.       It is through the Spirit that you and I apprehend the arts in worship, in addition to the Sacraments and the Word proclaimed.

                                      3.       When we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, we sit quietly in our pew and listen to the organ.  Why not be more joy-filled, sing a happy hymn, or listen to an anthem?

                                                          a.       We may get up out of our pew and do intinction, or gather around a table in groups and serve one another other.  Or break a stick of unleavened bread. I have been in one church that did hand or foot washing before Communion!

                                                          b.       I preached in a Philadelphia congregation that was 80% African-American right before I graduated from seminary. It was the only church where someone was waiting for me at the entrance to be sure I parked in a good place and knew where to go.  And I also remember that the adult choir did not just process, they entered the

                                                                   (page 3)

sanctuary dancing and singing up the side aisles, with tambourines and other instruments, and they went around again. They did the same thing during the anthem.  It was wonderful!

                                      The worshipers clapped their hands in keeping with the beat.

                                      4.       In the history of the spiritual in early America, I read that some black

congregations after the preacher had finished his long sermon would

gather in what was known as a “ring shout.” The members arranged themselves in a ring. The music started slowly, perhaps with a Spiritual, and the ring began to move, at first slowly, then with a quickening pace. The same music phrase was repeated over and over for hours. This produced an ecstatic state. People screamed and fell. When “educated” pastors learned that this “ring shout” was a survival of primitive African tribal dance, they placed a ban on it.

                                                          a.       Some African American religious singers, however, incorporated it into new spirituals of the late 1800's. That gave rise to the clapping for beat and rhythm, moans and groans, and dancing.

                                                          b.       One example is “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.”  Another is “The Glory Train.”

 

                   D.       Our fourth correct element of worship involves a correct place.

                                      1.       As it was for the woman meeting Jesus at the well, the correct place, says Grady Scott, is any place the people of God encounter God’s presence.

                                                          a.       That sacred encounter may create a “holy time and holy space.”

                                                          b.       Much modern worship profanes the notion of holy space, being more comfortable with a fast-rise corrugated metal auditorium.

                                      2.       In Hebrew the word for the first place of worship was “Ohel moade”, or the “tent of meeting,” “the gathering place.”  The two words were found above our dining room at San Francisco Seminary, because that is where the whole community, faculty, singles, and married often met–at a meal.

                                      3.       People tend to best associate their memories and sacred stories in sacred places from sacred times.

         

                   E.       Fifth, in Reformed or Presbyterian worship, correct worship always includes the Word of God read and proclaimed.       

                                      1.       This proclamation of the Word occurs in a variety of media: in print, in song, in prayer, in sacred dance, in sermon, in the sacraments, in the arts, in weddings and funerals.

                                      2.       Today, however, music wants to replace the centrality of the Word. As Reformed people we must not let that idolatry get the upper hand. We must be sure our music is always informed by faithfulness to Scripture.

                                      2.       Our proclamation of the Word is always corporate, God-centered, received through the inspiration of the Spirit, and it is joyful.

                                      3.       As Darlene Zschech has said, our worship is “extravagant worship,”

                                                          a.       we learn to work creatively under the Lord’s leadership,

                                                          b.       to surround ourselves with positive people,

                                                          c.       and fulfillment comes from the One above and not our emotions.

                                      4.       As we Presbyterians might put it, doing it “decently and in order.”

                                                (page 4)       

 

III.      In Closing, let me share how I found the title for this sermon.  it comes from a poem by William Butler Yeats, “Sailing to Byzantium” (1928).

A.     This is about an old man’s journey toward the end of life, his search for the meaning of immortality or heaven, the meaning of the human spirit. The old timer pursues “his own vision of eternal life as well as his conceptions of paradise.” 

For me this 4-stanza poem comes down to a line in the second stanza, that life and eternity will not be captured “unless Soul clap its hand and sing.”

                                      1.       Listen: “An aged man is but a paltry thing

                                    A tattered coat upon a stick, unless

                                    Soul clap its hand and sing, and louder sing

                                    For every tatter in its mortal dress.”

                                      2.       But how shall the soul clap its one hand and sing...  It needs another soul and another hand.

                                      2.       Worship is ultimately about the need for our Soul to clap its hand and sing, and louder sing in our every tatter of mortal dress to the One in “the artifice of eternity.”          (Amen)          (page 5)