Exclusive Psalmody vs. Exclusive Hymnody

What comedy would befall the traditionalists and contemporaneists if they only knew their quibble over musical genre put them in the same camp when the scope of history is extended beyond their current generation! Perhaps they would choose to lay down their arms, forge a ceasefire to the great Worship War that has raged for nearly fifty years, and focus their attention on a common enemy. This may happen if they recognized that there are only three Biblically defined genres of music that are to be used in the church. Those being the Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs Paul references in his letters to the Ephesians and Colossians.

That is of course not to say that these two groups don’t battle over other important facets of music in worship. But perchance they could link arms for a day or two against a combatant that would launch an attack on both of them if it still had any vitality in it. That dying adversary was known in years past as exclusive Psalmody.

There is a good chance that you consider yourself a member of the traditionalists or contemporaneists and have never even heard of exclusive Psalmody. In truth, we’ve nearly liberated our musical corporate worship from the Psalms altogether! We’ve relegated the inspired words of David, Moses, Asaph, and the sons of Korah to mere inspiration for our own compositions. We may mine their poetry for interesting phrases that resonate with modern hearers. But we deem those Hebraic texts in full, inspired structure, lamentation, and imprecatory language to be irrelevant to modern day believers - at least in terms of their musical use.

Let it be known that this has not been the case throughout ecclesiastical history! Before Christian worship, it was certainly not the case.

Be transported to the age before Christ came. Feel your feet pounding on the Israeli ground as you ascend the mount - up you go to worship in the mighty temple of God! It’s a steep seven-hundred yard journey to the summit. And what songs do you sing in humble worship and anticipation as you amble towards the copy of heavenly realities? The Songs of Ascent of course! Psalm 121 flows from you and your journeymen’s lips.

I lift up my eyes to the hills.
From where does my help come?
My help comes from the LORD,
who made heaven and earth.

Climbing the summit, the hulking temple in front of you, you join the chorus around you in the words of Psalm 24 as the gates are opened:

Lift up your heads, O gates!
And be lifted up, O ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in.
Who is this King of glory?
The LORD, strong and mighty,
the LORD, mighty in battle!
Lift up your heads, O gates!
And lift them up, O ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in.
Who is this King of glory?
The LORD of hosts,
he is the King of glory!

Entering the gates, the time for the immolation eventually comes. As the stench of sacrifice assaults your nostrils, the singing of Levites fills the courts (Psalm 26):

I wash my hands in innocence
and go around your altar, O LORD,
proclaiming thanksgiving aloud,
and telling all your wondrous deeds.

O LORD, I love the habitation of your house
and the place where your glory dwells.
Do not sweep my soul away with sinners,
nor my life with bloodthirsty men,
in whose hands are evil devices,
and whose right hands are full of bribes.

But as for me, I shall walk in my integrity;
redeem me, and be gracious to me.
My foot stands on level ground;
in the great assembly I will bless the LORD.

A few centuries later, Jewish worship had been expanded to synagogues. While no sacrifices took place there, the Psalms still persisted. Psalm 145 through 150 were sung on the weekdays while Psalm 95 through 100 filled the weekend services.

And then the Messiah came and dwelt among man for thirty-three years. In that thirty-third year, on the Passover, what song did He sing with His disciples before making His way to the Mount of Olives to be betrayed by him whom Satan had entered? The words of Psalm 118:

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD!
We bless you from the house of the LORD.
The LORD is God,
and he has made his light to shine upon us.
Bind the festal sacrifice with cords,
up to the horns of the altar!

And finally, that glorious prophetic Psalm having found it’s fulfillment in Christ, did the new believers abandon the Psalms? No! Using synagogal worship as their template, for it was what they were accustomed to, they continued in their Psalm singing.

Now, lest you think I set out to make a case for exclusive Psalmody, I assure you it is not so! For I will remind you again of those foundational texts from the pen of Paul. Ephesians 5:19 commends the use of Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs - as does Colossians 3:16.

Moreover, those exclusive Psalmody advocates find difficulty in the very fact that the early Christians had already started writing their own hymns before the New Testament epistles were even finished. These hymns written more than likely mere years after Christ’s death were passed down and even found their way into the very Scripture we hold in our hands today.

Which hymnal can we find these selections in? Philippians and Colossians. For Paul inscripturates that great kenotic hymn for us in the second chapter in verses five through eleven of Philippians:

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

While these words may not tickle our ears the way modern poetry can, I have been assured that in the Greek to native ears they are most moving.

And what of that hymn of Colossians? Why we find it in chapter one starting in verse fifteen:

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

It is clear that from the very beginning of the Christian movement believers set out to pen their own compositions - some so rich as even to be confirmed as God-breathed.

These are but the Biblical examples one may use to conversate of Psalmody and hymnody. What are we to say of the debate as it has raged through history? Hymnal upon hymnal has been compared to psalter upon psalter. While Luther found remarkable benefit in hymnody as he retrieved corporate singing from the priests and returned it to the people, Calvin found that there were no words more glorifying to God than those He had breathed out Himself.

And what are we to say in mention of Watts? What of Wesley? What of Newton? What of Toplady? What of modern day hymnists or as they’re simply known “contemporary music artists?” I assure you some of these “artists” will one day join the ranks of Watts and Wesley but will be considered far from contemporary should the time be stretched far enough into the future. For contemporaneity always has a way of ceding ground to some new age and in the end finds itself jealous of newer, younger, more attractive forms. Everything that is at the present considered “traditional” was at one time considered “contemporary.” And everything that is at the present considered “contemporary” shall one day be considered of the same ilk of that which it once heartily mocked as out of date.

Now, the question has been begged by that poor beggar Curiosity, “Where shall the modern church land on the pendulum of these melodic genres?” A brief examination of the benefits of both is necessary to find the answer.

Psalmody does indeed have multitudinous benefits - none of which those who reject it’s exclusive use would deny. For one finds it hard to argue with Calvin’s agreement with Augustine that the very words God’s Spirit has inspired are of utmost worth and beauty. Do you not recall that this is the same Spirit who testifies to our spirit that we are children of our God and allows us to cry out, “Abba, Father!” Would we not want that Spirit to testify to us every Lord’s Day reminding us of the matchless promises we have in Christ? What’s more, would we not want to use these words to teach and admonish one another in our melodizing? For what words could we find that are more filled with truth? What language applies more positive pressure on our conscience insisting that we choose what is best than that which is theopneustos (God-breathed)? I wager a guess that most who still hold to even the slightest form of Biblical inspiration would be hard pressed to find speech that is more edifying to the body.

Perhaps the only question is what should this Psalmody sound like? A word for word rendering does not sound beautiful to our modern ear. And why should it? We have translated it from it’s original language and in doing so have no doubt lost some of it’s natural beauty. (At the same time, I whole-heartedly affirm that we have lost none of it’s truth!) For in how many of our daily devotional times have we failed to recognize the intentionality of the acrostic structure of Psalm 119? And I am quite certain that there are many other nuances we miss in the texts that would add to their beauty if only we understood Hebrew.

The good news? Nearly no one who claims the title of Exclusive Psalmody Advocate would hold that we must sing these pieces word for word. Rather, the Psalms can be rewritten in a way that is pleasing to our modern ear. However, present day Psalm re-composers must be careful to lyrically translate the original creations in a way that does not damage their verity while perhaps restoring some of their former musical beauty. We must be reminded that while the words of the Psalms have been inscripturated, God saw it fit that their musical accompaniment was not. Therefore, we have leeway in our musical presentation of them in melodic form but not in content. All the while we must fully acknowledge that the question of to what extent a composer may re-present the Psalms before it ceases to be considered Psalmody is a delicate balance. Isaac Watts found himself teetering on the fulcrum of this imposing scale as he was accused of Psalmic paraphrasing. But one can hardly complain if they are to be found in the same measuring plate with him!

Luckily the balance need not be so black and white, for it is my insistence that our compositions for corporate worship can stretch beyond the bounds of exclusive Psalmody. As already discovered in earlier paragraphs, hymnody has had a rich and vibrant history throughout the church age. It’s heritage has brought much enrichment to the believers who have utilized it to great effect in their services. While this seeming effectiveness of teaching and edification is not the coup de grâce to exclusive Psalmody (pragmatism is not the end-all-be-all for the Church), it does lend credence to hymnody when coupled with the argument already made prior. That argument being that hymnic work had already been created before the end of the writing of the New Testament.

What are the benefits of this hymnody that cannot be achieved through exclusive Psalmody? Well for one, it helps fulfill the commandment to “sing a new song to the Lord.” Was it not common for the children of Abraham to compose musical compositions when God had worked in their life? Should the present children of Abraham not do the same when God acts on their behalf? It is not as if God has been convinced that the viewpoint of deists is now favorable and has left His creation alone until that final return of Christ. If God still acts, do we not have anything to praise Him for? Do we not have our own melodies hidden within our souls? Do we not burst forth in jubilant rejoicing at the current work of His hands? As Spurgeon reminds us, “We have new mercies to celebrate, therefore we must have new songs.”

Secondly, hymnody allows us to express the fulfillment of Christ’s work as prophesied in the Psalms. It is no secret that those Psalms of old were written by faithful musicians who awaited a future fulfillment. Glory be! The fulfillment is here! Shall we not celebrate it, not just in allusions, but in full understanding? Shall we not rejoice in the prophetic word more fully confirmed? Or shall we continue to worship in types and shadows, never explicitly recognizing the tremendous truth that has been revealed to us in Christ Jesus? Of course, some would say that it is still Psalmody to recognize the richness of Christ in the Psalms but where shall we draw the line in our expositing versus our Psalmody? If we can only sing that which is inspired, should we exposit at all? I am aware that this is a very extreme argument but I pen it in hopes that it will help us recognize the extremes so often pointed out in the pendulums we examine. It seems to me that it takes but a mere millimeter of a step away from the nucleus of exclusive Psalmody for the whole concept of only singing that which is inspired to collapse altogether.

So, where should this pendulum find it’s resting place? I will simply say this: It is with regretful disdain that I find the wider evangelical corporate worship landscape virtually barren of Psalmody. (Mind you, I stand beside you equally implicated as a card carrying member of this club!) You may find traces of it over hills in the depth of dales under some mossy rock of tradition. But any more it is rare to find. Check the charts, streaming statistics, and radio airplay and you will be hard-pressed to find a Psalm among them. This has been to our grand detriment. The inspired Psalms serve as a guide for proper emotion in worship. Thumb through the middle of your Bible and you will find a song for nearly every season of life. You will learn how to rightly celebrate in times of triumph. You will discover how to properly lament in times of sorrow. You will be taught how to repent in times of sinfulness. You will be reminded of how to rejoice and what to rejoice in.

And what has a sizeable portion of our modern worship become? A collection of emotion poured out in the heat of the moment, that which we can hardly trust to be properly ordered. We may pat ourselves on our collective back praising ourselves for what we call authenticity. But be warned, the authentic man is sinful. To be true to ourselves and our emotions while in the flesh is to allow our fleshly desires to flourish instead of mortifying them. Pick up your sword, Christian warriors. Get to work mortifying your fleshly desires. Do it not by giving expression to that which you consider to be your authentic self - our sanctification is not found in therapeutic venting sessions. Accomplish sin’s mortification through the Spirit by wielding that double-edged blade of Truth that has the sharpness to pierce to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Allow those ancient words to reorder your “authentic-self” until your “authentic-self” is the “self” God has created you to be in your new life in Christ. For we do not seek an “authentic-self” but a Christ-like self. Seek authenticity and you will be shaped more into your own image. Seek Christ and you will be conformed more into His.

In short, our modern days need no reminder of hymnody. We have that well covered and are in danger of verging on it’s exclusivity. What we are lacking in is Psalmody and all the benefits thereof.

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Individualism vs. Corporeality

As the pendulum of praise continues to swing, let us look at it from another angle. That being the degree of individuality or corporeality.

As we approach the swinging instrument, careful to not get knocked over by the immense weight of the very object we seek to study, we find ourselves standing on the highest arc of two contrasting sides. On one side, we discover ourselves upon a platform of solitude. The silence is deafening here. But in the silence, we hope to hear what some call the “still, small voice of God.”¹ (please take note of the parenthetical in the footnotes)

If you may allow for an introductory aside: preachers teach that the background noise of life has been turned up to eleven in such a way that it has drowned out the voice of God altogether. As if to imply that God’s omnipotent voice cannot cut through earthly distractions!

What folly! For I assure you, that if God wants your attention He shall have it. If God seeks an audience, He will by no means struggle to garner attention. He is not some poor social media influencer laboring away in obscurity hoping that the almighty algorithm (a modern god) might have mercy on the Source of Mercy Himself and grant Him some boon of virality.

God seeks no permission to get your attention. He needn’t woo you as though He were some pimple-faced teenage boy nervously hoping his promposal goes over well. God does not lower Himself to witty invitations filled with sushi and pizza puns. Nor does He post feeble attempts at courting His future Bride on His Instagram page.

Why? His method is much better. He draws us to His Son Jesus. His sheep hear His voice. He calls them by name and leads them out. And not one of those the Father has given Him shall be lost! For He sustains them by His inspired, inerrant, infallible, all-sufficient Word. When the Spirit of regeneration enters the heart of a man, that man shall enjoy communion with the Almighty in the eternal courts of Heaven.

But, tangents aside, this platform of Sunday solitude is lonely. Were it not that the pastor told us God is there beside us, we would feel altogether alone. It’s dark on this scaffolding. We can barely see the next step ahead of us but are ensured that by some mystical process, this is how we cultivate a relationship with God.

And who is not invited to stand upon this platform with us? Well, at first we look around and are surprised to see that our fellow Christians aren’t in our immediate view. We squint through the dimly-lit sanctuary and barely make out, leagues away, our brothers and sisters in Christ. Each of them have their own personal mini-platform identical to ours. They all appear to be having the very same experience we are, although it is hard to determine whether that’s truly the case. Their eyes are closed. Their hands are raised in humble adoration of the Almighty. They bow in reverence. And all the while, they are wholly unaware that the rest of the body has come to worship the very same God they worship.

When communion comes, they individually approach the table of elements and silently reflect on the work Christ has done for them (reflected on in a singular and personal fashion). They then return to their lonely platforms to finish their individualized worship.

Finally, the service concludes, they trade their platform for a church lobby with coffee bars, snacks, and bathrooms and are progressively thrown into the realization that there were indeed other believers standing right beside them in the very service they just participated in.

And perhaps in the quietness of their hearts they question whether isolated worship is really the purpose of the corporate worship experience.

Who else is not invited to this vantage point? Why Tradition has not received her invitation in the mail either! No faithful evangelists canvased her neighborhood and put a flier on her door. “She’s old and will pass away soon anyways,” they argue in an attempt to reconcile their slothfulness. “Plus, she came a few months ago and she was rather contrary to the way we do things these days. She didn’t like our songs. She didn’t like the lack of structure. She didn’t like our new interpretations of the Bible. She nearly told us to our face that us ‘young kids think they know everything.’ No, no, no! Tradition is not welcome on the platform of hyper-individualism. She will not interpret my experience and I will not allow her to teach me any supposed lessons from ages past.”

This is how we treat our great grandmother Tradition. Keep her in her nursing home! She’s rude and always gets in our way.

The more intellectual among us justify the desire for her absence by inviting a much more prominent member through the oaken doors beneath our steeple - the royal guest Sola Scriptura (Scripture alone). And when this esteemed visitor shows up on Sunday, to our great surprise we realize we’ve mistakenly sent the invitation to his cousin - Solo Scripture (Scripture only).

What a blunder! In a last ditch effort, we phone Sola and extend a desperate invitation. When he hears that Tradition wasn’t invited, he kindly declines. “I appreciate the invite. Yes, I am the final word and authority on matters of faith and Christian practice. However, there is also much to learn from Tradition. She has lived many years and gray hair is a crown of glory. You would do well to consider her wisdom and then run everything she says by my infallible rule.”

When the time comes for corporate worship, we find ourselves standing all alone; no fellow believers, no tradition to give us wisdom, and - in the most extreme cases - no Scripture to guide us. Worship becomes an individualistic, subjective experience. In our attempt to turn down the volume of the world around us, not trusting that God’s voice is quite loud enough to cut through the din, we end up extricating ourselves from anything that truly serves to edify us.

We DO hear a “still, small voice” but it is only the voice inside of our head - our own inner-monologue. We call this kind gentlemen who always tells us nice things “God” but it is simply ourselves. We call him “Holy Spirit” but in reality we have deceived ourselves into making ourselves our own god.

Do you not notice how he only encourages you but never rebukes you? Do you not recognize how he always reinforces your beliefs but never challenges them?

Occasionally we have a cathartic experience and think we have achieved some mental breakthrough. Bravo! Good for you! Many mystics and yogis have claimed the same - even so self-deceived to think that their internal musings are for their benefit. But in the end we know that the heart (and if I may be so bold to add, the inner-monologue) is deceitful above all things.

Man’s heart is fixed on a sinful path. It is a path that is at first studded with roses and lilies, flowing with beautiful streams and rivers, auditorily enticing with singing birds and chirping crickets. But beware this path that once looked paradisiacal soon grows thorns and thistles. The streams and rivers turn into barren riverbeds that have long run dry. Once the birds fly closer to the ground you realize they are actually vultures counting the hours until your imminent demise. The chirping of crickets devolves into the low hum of an army of locusts patiently waiting to destroy the crop that will eventually sprout from your decaying body once it has been composted back into the earth.

The apex of the swing of individualism in worship is indeed a dangerous platform to plant your feet upon. So, you step off and run to the other extreme: corporeality.

As you climb the height to view individualism’s sister apex, you reach the last rung. Several hands reach down to offer you assistance in traversing the squared edge onto this new platform. Cresting the precipice you see a platform filled with throngs upon throngs.

“Welcome to the body of Christ!” A polite voice echoes. “We’re a little full today so it’s standing room only. But you should be able to find a spot to observe the service over in the north-eastern quadrant.” Squeezing through the crowd, you start to recognize some of the attendees.

A hand reaches out to shake yours, “Hello! Good to see you again. Do you remember me?” After a moment of contemplation, you recognize this man as Anonymity. “Of course I do, Anonymity my old friend! How are you? Shall we get lost in the crowd again today? I trust you’ve saved me a seat in the back row by the exit as usual. I suspect if you and I put on sour faces, show up ten minutes after the service has started, and refuse to make eye contact, we may even be able to avoid the greeters standing at the front door this time. How excellent that would be to be able to consider ourselves part of the great body of Christ without having to truly interact with anyone!”

Locking hands with Anonymity so as not to get lost in the shoulder-to-shoulder horde of church-goers, you eventually manage to find your spot for the morning service. “See, that was nice. We didn’t even have to talk to anyone from our lovely church family on the way in.”

However, your luck is ruined as you feel a bony finger tapping on your shoulder. Instinctively you turn around and are greeted by a pleasant smile from a decrepit elderly woman. “Oh honey! I didn’t think you’d come today and yet here you are. What a pleasant surprise,” she warmly greets you. To which you respond while feigning a polite smile, “Ahh! Yes. It is so very good to see you this morning, Sister Tradition! I hope your ears weren’t burning earlier today. They were having quite the conversation about you over on the platform yonder.” Her countenance sours for a moment, “Yes. They never did welcome me into their church. I suspect they thought I was too bossy.” A smile graces her face again, “Anyways, I’ve saved you and Anonymity two of the last seats in the sanctuary. Come join me and my children!”

Squishing into the middle of the back row, you take a seat beside Tradition’s offspring - Creed and Confession. They are two well-dressed chaps who have decided to wear three-piece suits to this morning’s gathering. Creed’s children Athanasius, Apostle, and Nicaea sit beside him. Confession’s progeny Westminster and Baptist sit further down the row. You take note of how well behaved they are.

They turn and address you in unison, “Have a seat! Feel free to turn your mind off. We will tell you what to think today. No need to compare our words to the Bible. We’ve already done that for you.”

And there you sit for the remainder of the service, taking comfort in the fact that you are among family.

It’s safe here. You are surrounded by a group of people who call themselves Christians and you are quite sure you’ve done all the right things to be considered a part of this elite club.

Firstly, you have managed to forsake your comfortable bed and grace the doors of a parish. You’ve truly found community - you’re in a room full of people after all!

Secondly, you’ve learned all the right things to believe after just a short conversation with Confession and Creed. Being assured that this is what you must accept, you feel a part of not just the visible church but also the invisible. What a wonderful delight to be the body of Christ!

Little do the inhabitants of this platform know that they have only merely mentally assented to the idea of being a part of God’s family but have never chosen to fully participate. For they have left their individuality at the door in hopes that by clinging to the communal promises of God’s eternal Word they might find entrance into His kingdom.

They grasp onto the coattails of the elect - that undeserving group that God has predestined from the beginning of the world.

They dock their boats in that safe harbor named Pas (all). Hoping that their vessel may be protected from the coming storm of God’s wrath if only they securely fasten it to a collective promise.

They find pasture among the sheep that belong to Christ, while all the while trying to hide in the far corners of the fertile acreage miles away from the rest of the flock. They do not realize that these tender babes are among the first the wolves choose to devour. For there is strength in numbers, and even more strength when cajoled by the guiding crook of the great Shepherd Himself!

These are those who have considered themselves part of God’s family only by their own identification and not by God’s. Are their names graven on His hands? Are their initials written on His heart? They do not realize that, despite their best efforts, their stylus’s are unable to pierce the hardened clay of God’s sovereign decree. Man cannot adopt himself into God’s family. Man cannot take the Almighty to court and cause the judge to force custodial rights.

The amazing part is that these false sheep are virtually unidentifiable from the true sheep that surround them. For the false sheep seem to do most things the true ones do. They go to church. They read the responsive readings. They sing the hymns. They go to Sunday school. They drop their mammon in the offering plate. These sheep indeed graze in the same pastures the true sheep graze in. But, when they arrive back to their private abodes far away from prying eyes, they regurgitate anything they’ve mistakenly swallowed while cordially reclining at the table of this week’s family reunion. They have no second stomach as if to chew the cud to make it easier to digest. They simply clench tight their eyelids, vomit their sustenance straight into the commode, and hastily flush it down without even giving it a mere glance!

This is the routine of the spurious sheep who find counterfeit community in deceiving themselves into thinking they truly belong to a family. If this be your concept of family, it is a wildly bastardized version of one! The true sheep consider themselves part of a familial unit, at the same time understanding the individual responsibility and title they have.

And therein lies another lesson of this pendulous analogy. To be part of the true church is to be both an individual and a part of the family. It is to be a son or a daughter (singular pronouns) while recognizing that we are also brothers and sisters (plural pronouns). It is to sit down for the family meal and not just hope we gain strength and energy (mercy and grace) as if it were by sheer osmosis - being around others who seem to be doing the right things. But rather, it is to sit down at the family feast, ladle heaping portions onto our brother’s plate, and then consume our own allotment of bread and wine. All the while, engaging in the conversation that is always heartily shared around a common meal.

We mustn't be like ignorant teens who sit at the table only because their parents have demanded it. These adolescents can tick the box and claim that they did their duty of casting a shadow upon their placemat. But when the table is cleared and dessert is brought out, it is found that their silverware has not been soiled for they have spent the whole sup utterly oblivious to those around them. They have instead chosen to bury their head in a cellular device of false connection that serves as a thick veil to separate them from the true connection that presents itself all around them.

May it not be so when we gather as the church! May we be individuals who identify with the family of God. May we know God as our Father and those around us as our brothers and sisters. May we not bury our heads in hymnals but also teach and admonish one another in our singing. May we know what we believe and why we believe it, being always ready to give an answer for the hope we have and at the same time be firmly planted in that great invisible Church that has persisted throughout the ages by fixing our feet upon the creeds and confessions of those who have lived before us. May our ears not just perk when we hear supplication and petition for our own needs but may our spirit join in praying for those around us. May we come to the communion table with an awestruck wonder of the work Christ has done on the behalf of a sinner such as us and at the same time realize that we share in this communion as God’s covenant people. May we show up early and stay late to engage with our heaven-bound relatives, not hurriedly hobbling to our vehicles in hopes of beating everyone to the nearest lunch spot.

May we worship in the individual depths of our heart in such a way that it resounds outwardly and affects all who worship alongside us.

Footnotes:

1. At risk of sounding purposefully offensive and obtuse, a note should be made on the phrase “still, small voice of God.” This phrase has taken root in modern days, even being referenced by far from heretical teachers - teachers I would firmly recommend on most occasions. And, at the same time, it is also used by “teachers” I would never recommend. If both groups use the same phrase, what is the difference between the two? Just as there is a pendulum to praise there is likewise a pendulum to this theology.

   In the group of instructors I am more favorable towards, my qualm with them may simply be a vocabulary discrepancy. What they would suggest is “the Holy Spirit speaking,” I would label as being led by the Spirit through the wisdom He provides. What they might delineate as the “Spirit’s impression,” I would call the result of the believer who is continually being filled with the Spirit and yielding to the fruit of such an effect. I choose not to use the phrase “God speaking” or “the Spirit whispering through a still, small voice” so as not to obscure the uniqueness of God’s more sure Word - the prophetic Word more fully confirmed - what we know as the sixty-six canonical books of Scripture.

   If you believe that “God speaks in a still, small voice,” I would simply ask you what you mean and we might end up in similar positions. What you may call “speaking” or “a unique impression,” I would simply call the Spirit’s leading (but not in a uniquely vocalized way as I believe God speaks through His Word.)

   Of course another group, that which I am less favorable of, seems to expect a unique revelation from God for every major and minute decision in life. This is the extreme I reference being at the apex of individualism. This understanding of the “still, small voice” has believers sitting in meditative silence (or with soaking music - a newly produced genre that has sprung up in present days). In the stillness of the moment, they expect to hear an internal, clear voice that will give them direction on whichever question they decide to ask this mystical magic eight-ball.

   I would simply argue that the mountain top Elijahian experience they reference firstly, included an audible, external voice speaking to the prophet and, secondly, was not inscripturated to communicate that this should be the normal expectation for all Christians throughout history.

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The Pendulum of Praise: Emotionalism vs. Intellectualism

When generations that exist after we have long passed away recount our current age, what shall they conclude concerning our worship? Will it be considered a doxological dark age or an age of doxological enlightenment?

As I study the ministry of praise throughout the church age, it appears the pendulum has swung back and forth rarely finding equilibrium. And if it has managed to settle somewhere between the two extremes of the trajectory this doxological pendulum swings upon, it has settled only for a moment. For in short time, some outward force has grabbed hold of the theology of worship and, being unsatisfied with a balanced position, aggressively given the pendulum a swing in one directional extreme or another.

In speaking of the back-and-forth nature of the church’s doxology, it is necessary to identify the apex of both ends. What is the outer limit which man’s understanding of corporate praise can swing before it exhausts it’s energy and must swing in the opposite direction?

The answer? It’s complicated.

This pendulum does not simply swing back and forth along a simple plane. But rather, it exists in three dimensions swinging not only backwards and forwards but also side to side and also up and down and also any direction you may imagine.

Despite the spatial challenges of the analogy, perhaps we can do our best by identifying contrasting apex points on the axes we can ascertain.

The first axis that catches our attention is that of emotionalism and intellectualism. Some may call this the contrast between Spirit and truth. While I personally disagree that Spirit equates to the emotional side of worship and truth to the intellectual, it is nonetheless how many find it helpful to understand this plane of pendulous motion.

What are these extremes?

Without preference for one or the other, let’s examine emotionalism. In traditional pendulum-extremed fashion, to swing completely in one direction is to forsake the other direction. Therefore, emotionalism focuses solely on emotion and forsakes truth altogether!

In this type of worship, the faithful use any means necessary to incite an emotional response to some deific being. Which deity you ask? Well, these fanatics aren’t quite sure. Come to think of it, they have never taken the time to define their object of worship at all! They simply know that when they feel a certain emotion, that means that they are worshiping this sacred object. In the end, the thing they worship becomes the very emotion itself!

At the other end of the miles-long trajectory sits the proud, boasting of intellectualism. It scoffs across the chasm at it’s infantile sibling.

“They don’t even know the God they worship!” It mocks. “We know the complexities of the Trinitarian God. The inner workings of His very tri-personal nature. Give us a pop quiz on how we come to God in worship and with amazing haste we will scribble down the answer: we come to God the Father, through Jesus Christ the Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit!”

They sing hymns of rich theology:

O God our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come
Our shelter from the stormy blast,
And our eternal home.

They sing praise with a well-curated hymnal in one hand and a Septuagint in the other (they can fluently read Greek, you know!)

Their worship is filled with creeds and confessions, lofty language and lyrics, and theological concepts most seminarians have long forgotten. And the amazing part is after learning about the vast riches of mercy and grace God pours out on them - it being dictated to them in clinical terms the laity could never hope to understand?…

…

They feel none of it! It is simply a mental exercise for these faithful gatherers of knowledge.

For the devotees of that proud god Intellect, to know God is to know God but not to love Him. For they are incapable of feeling any emotions at all because they have long ago saddled anything that even remotely resembles emotion upon a mighty catapult and flung it over the divide they sneer across.

Or perhaps it could be said they have tumbled it down the mighty summit of their great Mount Intellect from which they look down upon the rest of the infantile believers who are still drinking from bottles of spiritual milk at the bottom of the mountain. “We have filet mignon up here! Real spiritual meat!” They jeer. “Perhaps someday when you gain the strength you can come up and join us.”

Just as the extreme of emotionalism makes emotion a god, the extreme of intellectualists makes knowledge theirs.

And therein lies the truth. While both emotion and knowledge are false gods, they are both necessary in the pursuit of the one true God. He stands at the bottom of the pendulous gulf an equidistance from both extremes.

And how do we know this? Jesus tells us that the Father is seeking those who will worship Him in Spirit AND Truth. To forsake one is not just to forsake the other but is to forsake the very God Himself whom you seek!

So, where is the God of Christian worship? He is in the chasm, the exact middle point between emotion and intellect. Both being an equally necessary coordinate on the map that leads to true praise.

To forsake the latitude of intellect and only follow the longitude of emotion, leads us to a false god. One we have either created in our own image or one that we refuse to define (in doing so, most likely casting him in our own image as well!) We feel an intense devotion to a deity that we don’t really know at all. And a false one at that!

In the other direction, to only plug in the latitudinal coordinates of intellect into our doxological GPS, we arrive at an equally displeasurable state! Sure, we may hear the polite, mechanical voice of our navigation system proclaim, “You have arrived at your destination. The one, true, living God will be on your right!” But once we’ve arrived, we will not have the ability to enjoy the destination now that we are there. We may get out of our car, take a few pictures, write down the dimensions of what we’ve arrived at, record any observations we find interesting and catalogue them later for further study. But we will not be able to worship because worship must by necessity be an emotional experience.

Hebrews 13:15 tells us that worship is the fruit of lips that acknowledge God’s name. True worship seeks to see the true and living God - not to record facts about Him - but to allow the experiential knowledge of His holiness, grace, love, mercy, justice, and wrath to fill our hearts to overflowing where we cannot help but burst forth in jubilant praise!

The words that pour forth are not mere lip-service to some theological concept we read about from a long-dead theologian. The words that leave our lips in TRUE worship are the overflow of a heart that is inculcated with a holy fear and affection for the God that welcomes us into His presence through the propitiatory sacrifice of His Son Jesus.

This is ONE of the center-points on that great pendulum of praise that has swung back and forth throughout ecclesiastical history.

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