This is How You Shall Worship – Psalm 150

Some churches say you can’t pray with your hands in your pockets. You must have them raised high into the air if you want God to hear your prayer.

Some churches say that you can’t experience the presence of God if you aren’t speaking in tongues.

Some say that you can’t have guitars in church – especially electric guitars – and you can’t have drums, God no – and you can’t have keyboards in church, unless it’s a pipe organ and you’re playing the music of Bach, and Handel, and Mendelssohn.

At some churches they want you to sing the “old songs” and by “old songs” they mean a Gaither song. You can’t have church without a Gaither song. “How can you be a pastor and not like southern gospel music?” they say.

At some churches they want you to sing the “old songs” and by “old songs” they mean Gregorian chants.

Others say that you may only sing the Psalms because to sing songs of human composition would violate the command of God.

Some Churches say that you should clap during worship songs; others say that you should not clap. Some allow that you may clap if you like, but not the off-beats.

Some churches will allow you to dance in the aisle. But at most churches they’ll glare at you. Dancing is not allowed. No Dancing. Stop it.

At some churches you must wear a suit and a tie. At some churches you must wear an ankle length dress.

At some churches you’re not really worshipping until you’ve got a handful of snakes, glory-be-to-Gawd-hallelujah-amen!

At some churches you must have a sermon, and it must be an alliterative three point sermon with balanced and equal sub-points, that opens with a joke and ends with a poem.

These things are expected. These things you must do.

A door-to-door evangelist once rang the bell at my house. When I opened the door he introduced himself and then looked me squarely in the eyes and said, “Do you think that we are free to worship God in any way that we choose?”

This seemed a strange way to begin his attempt to convert me, but I told him that, “yes, I do believe that we are free to worship God in whatever form is comfortable for us, provided that we are worshipping God in Spirit and in Truth.” He didn’t really like that answer, but that was all I had time to give him. He shook his head and went to the next house on the block.

Some places of worship are quite restrictive concerning the ways and means of worship – with a list of do’s and don’ts concerning the proper mode of worshipping the Living God. Sometimes these rules are unwritten – they’re just kinda' known by all the regularly attending members - and woe to you if you visit and ignorantly do the wrong thing at the wrong time. “We don’t do that here,” they might say. “That is not the way to worship.”

There are two kinds of approaches to the ways and means of worship.

The first is a Minimalist kind of approach that says that whatever is not specifically described in the words of Scripture is not allowed. The bible does not mention an altar call – so your worship service should not have an altar call. The bible does not mention electric guitars – so your worship service should not have an electric guitar.

An example of this attitude can be found in Chapter 21 of The Westminster Confession - Of Religious Worship and the Sabbath-day.

21.1. The light of nature shows that there is a God, who has lordship and sovereignty over all; is good, and does good unto all; and is therefore to be feared, loved, praised, called upon, trusted in, and served with all the heart, and with all the soul, and with all the might. But the acceptable way of worshipping the true God is instituted by himself, and so limited by his own revealed will, that he may not be worshipped according to the imaginations and devices of men, or the suggestions of Satan, under any visible representation or any other way not prescribed in the holy Scripture.

You may think that it’s a great idea to have a video projector and have all sorts of fancy graphics and videos as part of the worship service. It may be beautiful and stirring and powerful – but if it’s not specifically described in the bible then, according to this minimalist approach, we shouldn’t have them in our churches.

A minimalist approach to today’s Psalm would allow us the use of trumpets, harps, lyres, tambourines, dancing (gasp!) strings (but still no electric guitars!), pipes (break out the bag-pipes, I say!) and various kinds of cymbals.

Anything more than that would be – at the least, our own vain imaginations – or at worst, the prompting of the Satan.

But I’m not one to take a minimalist sort of approach. I don’t believe that to be the right – or the best way to understand what the bible is telling us about worship.

“The true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth; that is the kind of worshipper the Father seeks.” (John 4:23

The other way to approach worship is with a maximalist approach: That which is not specifically forbidden is allowed (and maybe even encouraged). Psalm 150, I think, provides an example of this approach.

Psalm 150 isn’t meant to be a restrictive list (only these things are acceptable) but rather as a representative and illustrative list. Psalm 150 is open and expansive and inclusive. It encourages the creative and the imaginative. It encourages the new and boisterous and the strange and exotic.

The worship described by the Psalmist in this, the last of the canonical psalms, the doxology of the Psalter, is exuberant, jubilant, and yet solemn and stately and magnificent.

Hallelujah – this is actually two words in Hebrew: Hallelu -Praise & Yah- Yahweh. It is a command. It is an encouragement. It is the ready, set, go of worship. People praise Yahweh.

And that word Hallel is a euphoric, triumphant, kind of praise. It is a shouting, singing, skipping head over heels, celebratory praise of the Living God, Yahweh, the God of Heaven.

We are encouraged to praise him in his holy place – in the vault of heaven. Here in this place, today, this morning in this building where we are gathered, we are right now, this very moment, praising God in heaven. We are in heaven praising God. We are making heaven in our praise. Praise him in the heavenly vault of his power. Praise him for his mighty deeds. Praise him for all his greatness.

We are encouraged to praise Yahweh with creativity and diversity, with intelligence and rhythm, with beauty and with art.

We are encouraged to worship him with a fanfare of trumpets – bold brassy sounds that echo from the walls and the roof.

We are encouraged to praise him with harps and lyres – restrained, quiet, melodious instruments.

We are encouraged to praise him with tambourines and dancing – this is the beat, the heartbeat, the rhythm, the dance, the motion of worship. This is the kinetic energy of worship.

We are encouraged to praise him with strings and with pipes and with various cymbals, loud crashing cymbals that jolt awake the one sleeping in the back pew.

And lest we begin to approach this psalm in a limiting, restrictive, minimalist manner, the psalmist throws it wide open, “Let everything that breathes praise Yahweh.”

The psalmist doesn’t define it or limit it. The psalmist doesn’t circumscribe it. He throws it open. Are you breathing? Then you should be praising. Hallelujah!