The Music Exchange

And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, 'To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honour and glory and might for ever and ever!' And the four living creatures said, 'Amen!' and the elders fell down and worshipped (Revelation 5.13-14, ESV).

There are often times in our lives when we are made especially conscious of the greatness of God, causing our hearts and minds to respond in an outpouring of affection for our heavenly Father. I'm grateful for Mr. S. Wheeler's letter in last month's EN as he drew our attention to Job, David and others in Scripture who are compelled to worship God as a direct response to God's awesome revelation of himself.

The editorial title given to the letter ('Let's continue to worship in church') does a disservice to both him and me because it missed the point under discussion. Hopefully, Mr. Wheeler wasn't concerned that we have said: 'worship doesn't happen in church'. Both Simon and I had made the point about worship being a whole-of-life activity, and had qualified the point by emphasising that this must also include special times of engagement with God (January - 'though music is part of worship...', March - 'The Bible calls me to worship... at home, at work... and as I meet with God's church and sing his praises' There is only so much qualification one can do in 800 words, however.

Distinct within the totality

My one question would be of Mr. Wheeler's phrase, 'as well as worship being the totality of our Christian discipleship, worship should also be an activity distinct from the rest of life'. I don't know how any part of life can be distinct from the totality of life. I'm sure this is probably nit-picking, but I would maybe rephrase it by saying that worship should also be a distinct activity within the totality of life, which is certainly the experience of the characters in the Bible references mentioned: the locations for these experiences include the ground outside Job's house, David's bed, a mountain in Galilee and the heavenly throne-room.

Mr. Wheeler's point, I think, was more about the place of affections within our whole-life worship, the value of which has never been under question.

To show affection for our heavenly Father, whether distinct or continuous is, of course, a glorious privilege of our status as his children. My affection for Jesus is deep-rooted and passionate, though the way I show my affection will differ from everyone else on the planet. And that's the glorious way that God created us - with different, but equally valuable worship responses for the edification of the church (1 Corinthians 12.12-31).

Similarly, the style of music that I use at my church will not suit everyone (and often doesn't suit me!) but I'm delighted that some feel absolutely free to show their affection for God physically during singing. Meanwhile, there are others who can't sing, and when I hear them murdering a song that I think should move us all to tears, I do wonder whether they actually feel anything at all! But the good news of the gospel is that we may never have the experiences of Job or David, or even feel the same affection, but Jesus is in our hearts, so let's praise the Lord in whatever way and whenever we can.

However, it is right to look at Scripture to show what spontaneous response of worship may look like, though these responses aren't characterised by affection as much as reverence and awe. In fact, the worship word used in the two New Testament references Mr. Wheeler led us to is proskuneo, whose etymological meaning is 'to kiss towards'. It's a word used to describe the act of humbly prostrating oneself before a superior, and not a term of loving affection.

Thanks, Graham!

I'm particularly grateful to Graham Kendrick for helping with this issue in his interview last month. He makes the point far more clearly than me.

'There is a tendency to be a little other-worldly, and to retreat into a world of feeling love for God and loved by God in a kind of abstract, experiential way that doesn't always relate to real life and the real world. Having a warm experience of being loved by God is absolutely marvellous, and is definitely part of worship, but there is a danger of playing into the hands of individualism.'

The warm experience in itself isn't wrong, and is a heart-felt response. It's when we rely on that experience that our assurance in the sufficient work of the cross is in danger of being eroded.

This doesn't deny the worth of our affections in responding to our Heavenly Father, or how great a vehicle music is for expressing those affections, so let's keep singing as we worship in reverence and awe.

So much more than warm fuzzies

Distinct within the totality

Thanks, Graham!

Richard Simpkin

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