Boisterous praise!

Yesterday I posted about a verse from my morning devotions. Today I'd like to address something else I see in that verse.

Nehemiah 12:43
And they offered great sacrifices that day and rejoiced, for God had made them rejoice with great joy; the women and children also rejoiced. And the joy of Jerusalem was heard far away.

Our OFRBC worship team discussed the concept of how loud we should play. We tend to play more and more loudly as we go on when we are really enjoying ourselves. Although we need to make sure we are not allowing our music to get out of control, I argued that we should not be too concerned with the idea that we might be playing too loudly. (I'm not arguing that we should be cranking out 120 decibels as if we were presenting some sort of rock concert.) We should not play so loudly that the congregation cannot hear themselves contributing to the corporate worship experience of music. But I think we conservative Christians tend to lean more toward the quieter side than we should.

The end of the above verse is of interest to this discussion. "The joy of Jerusalem was heard far away." Even at our loudest, our worship team cannot be heard far away. In fact, I doubt that we could be heard across the street at any time. It must have been an awesome thing to hear the Israelites praising God with such gusto that their praise could "be heard far away."

God made them rejoice

Yesterday Old Forest Road Baptist Church commissioned our new pastor, Mike O'Brien. It was a wonderful day. The preaching (by Dane Emmerich) was outstanding, the fellowship was enjoyable (potluck dinner after church), and the singing was inspiring and enjoyable.

As the worship team practiced the music the week before, we all enjoyed the songs. The words were great, but the music itself was fun to play and we all had a good time. Yesterday morning we discussed the fact that the act of praising God is all about Him and not at all about us, so we need to make sure that we're not enjoying the music ONLY because it is fun, but first and foremost because it is praising and magnifying our great God.

After church, a few of the members of the worship team discussed the fact that the congregation seemed to be very involved in the music and seemed to be genuinely worshiping God. So ... was it because the music was fun (which we all agreed would not be true worship) or was it because the music led the people into a true spirit of praise?

This morning, God answered my question in my morning devotions:

Nehemiah 12:43
And they offered great sacrifices that day and rejoiced, for God had made them rejoice with great joy; the women and children also rejoiced. And the joy of Jerusalem was heard far away.

Why did they rejoice? ---Because "God had made them rejoice with great joy." The spirit of praise and worship among the OFRBC congregation was not because the worship team was playing well or because the songs were fun or even because the songs were inspiring. The spirit of praise and worship was because God moved in the hearts of the congregation to praise Him. It's humbling and awesome to realize that God's sovereignty stretches even to whether or not we are able to praise Him.

So ... we must regularly ask God to grant us a spirit of praise and worship so that we will be able to do what is expected of us, even commanded in scripture.

Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow.