Grace SensingINTRODUCTION
This is a short psalm, but it is densely packed with hallelujahs. There are twelve of them here, and one hallelu-el. Together they praise Jah, the covenant God of Israel—Yahweh or Jehovah, and El, the great God Almighty. The longest stretch of words here between any two hallelujahs is four words, with all the rest of the bridges being two words. This conclusion to the Psalter is a great crescendo of praise.
THE TEXT
“Praise ye the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary: Praise him in the firmament of his power. Praise him for his mighty acts: Praise him according to his excellent greatness. Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: Praise him with the psaltery and harp. Praise him with the timbrel and dance: Praise him with stringed instruments and organs. Praise him upon the loud cymbals: Praise him upon the high sounding cymbals. Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord” (Psalm 150).
SUMMARY OF THE TEXT
We have yet another hallelujah psalm, concluding the psalter in a great crescendo. The psalm begins with hallelujah (v. 1), and it concludes with the same word (v. 6). At the very first, we should notice where Jehovah is to be praised in this way. We are to praise Him in the sanctuary first, and in the heavenlies also. Inside the sanctuary and far above the sanctuary—inside and outside. The second thing we do is praise Him for His great deeds down through history. We serve and praise the God of history. He created history in Genesis 1, and He called Abraham in that history, and He delivered Israel through the Red Sea in that history. He took out Sisera in that history, as Deborah sang. Praise Him for His mighty acts (v. 2). These acts of His proceed from His very nature and being, and so we also praise Him for His excellent greatness (v. 2). As the human voice is not strong enough to get the effect we need, we bring in various means of amplification—the trumpet, psaltery and harp (v. 3), with the timbrel, dance, stringed instruments, and organs (v. 4), with loud cymbals and with the high hat (or finger cymbals?) (v. 5). At the end of the psalm, we turn away from loud but inanimate instruments and turn again to the singers. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord (v. 6). Hallelujah.
THE REGULATIVE PRINCIPLE
As we look around at what we offer God in our weekly worship, we can recognize a number of the things mentioned in this psalm. We have singers. We have stringed instruments. We have brass. We have percussion. We have a psalter. Okay, you might be muttering, but where are the dancers? Some of you might be anticipating the point with gladness . . . dancers? Others might be quite worried about it, with furrowed brow. Nobody needs dancing Presbyterians.
One of the principles that arose out of the Protestant Reformation came to be called the regulative principle, which states that if something is not commanded of us in worship, then it is prohibited. This, in distinction from the opposing principle, which is that if it is not prohibited, then it is allowed. “And nobody said that we couldn’t set up a statue of the Virgin Mary in the foyer.” Now I want to argue that all Reformed Christians must be regulativists of some stripe. We say this while rejecting the restrictions of what might be called the strict regulativists—their standard excludes far too much, even for them. They want to exclude any accompanying instruments because pianos aren’t in the New Testament, but they would also have exclude singing out loud—Paul says to sing and make melody in your heart (Eph. 5:19). We would also have to ban women from the Lord’s Supper, along with a number of other oddities and novelties.
Now in this debate there is obviously an interpretive hermeneutical principle involved, because stringed instruments are in the Old Testament. So exactly how does God require certain worship practices of us, and what do we get to bring across from the Old Testament? And if we bring over the stringed instruments, then on what principle do we exclude the dancers? Obviously excluded would be animal sacrifices (as we see through the entire book of Hebrews) and things directly associated with animal sacrifices (burning altars and incense). Remember that the Temple was a slaughterhouse, and the incense dealt with the smell.
TABERNACLE, TEMPLE, STREETS, SYNAGOGUES, CHURCHES
Remember that this is a psalm of cosmic praise. It begins with praise in the sanctuary, but it extends to praise outside the sanctuary—praise Him in the firmament of His power (v. 1). The appropriateness of what you are doing depends upon where you are, along with the nature of your culture. There is no indication of any musical instruments in the Mosaic tabernacle. The Tabernacle of David was dedicated to music, and there were various instruments everywhere (1 Chron. 25:1-8). We know that the Temple of Jesus’ day did have a great organ. David danced before the Lord in a religious procession that was not contained within any sacred space (2 Sam. 6:14), and remember that Miriam led the women of Israel to dance beside the sea (Ex. 15). Some of you have gotten close to that spirit at some of our block parties. Synagogues had the shofar (trumpet), but apparently not as a means of accompaniment.
Now the institution of the Christian church brings together elements of all of these—the Temple, the synagogues, but I think centrally the Tabernacle of David. The prophet Amos prophesied the Gentile church under the figure of that tabernacle (Amos 9:11), and at the Jerusalem Council, the Lord’s brother James applied this prophesy to the inclusion of the Gentiles: “After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up” (Acts 15:16). And here we are. “By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name” (Hebrews 13:15).
So is dancing excluded then? Not in principle, although other principles must always be remembered. “Let all things be done decently and in order” (1 Corinthians 14:40). In cultures where dancing is woven into everything, there is obviously an easy way to incorporate it into worship fittingly. But even in a place like west Africa, say in Anglican worship, the worshipers dance their way to church, and away from it, but not in the service—although there is still a lot of moving in place. And don’t leave out processionals, whether of a choir, or elders serving the Supper.
PRAISE HIM
But let us return to the theme of true praise. The great acts of Jehovah are not glorified through pious muttering. We need to be loud about it. “Sing unto him a new song; Play skilfully with a loud noise” (Psalm 33:3). “Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth: Make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise” (Psalm 98:4). We engage with the enemy of our souls through this potent weapon of praise. All evangelism is recruiting for the choir. Our choir members are in the regular army, and all the congregational singing is conducted by the militia. But everyone is in the choir somehow. So praise Him.