Iain Campbell on Psalmody (Reformation 21)

It leaves us a bit eccentric in the eyes of some, but that all depends on where the centre is. A lifetime of worshipping with the words of the Psalms certainly embeds the sentiments of Scripture on one's mind and memory. The Psalter represents the Songs of Zion, which celebrate the both the history and the application of redemption.

I realize there is a theological issue here - how can we sing songs in worship which do not praise Jesus? My response is simply that if Jesus is not the God of the psalms, I don't know who is. I also note that the early Pentecostal preaching on the life, death and resurrection of Jesus is grounded in the sentiments of the Psalms. So I do not accept that the Psalms are inadequate for New Covenant worship, and I enjoy speaking on the redemptive, Christological and even Trinitarian strands of our hymnody.

Driscoll preached on the Regulative Principle

In my tiny world there is a little discussion going on. Steve Steele and Sam Desocio are in that ring. I need to get out more. And it is about the regulative principle sermon Mark Driscoll gave 8 days ago. I find this funny as this is my 200th post.

I love Mark Driscoll. God is blessing the preaching of the gospel there and many people are coming to know Christ. Mars Hill knows more about God's saving grace than most churches do in their lifetime. Awesome truth and fact. I love Mars Hill and Driscoll because they love Jesus in all his glory- fully incarnate and fully divine. They are Christians and they are brothers and sisters.

I appreciated the sermon because I heard the gospel, I saw Mark humble himself before thousands of people (potentially many more as it is posted online). His words can now be stones hurled at him, I hope it is not so. I appreciated the sermon as he explain worship in a trinitarian way - Glorifying God the Father, through the mediation of God the Son, by the indwelling presence of God the Spirit.

As a brother I disagree with Mark's take on the regulative principle.
The fundamental disagreement is the idea that all of life is worship, and that there is little difference between scattered worship and gathered worship. Many theologians hold this position, John Frame and DA Carson are two of them. (And I love John Frame!)

Hywel Jones in his commentary on Hebrews says "to glorify God" means to reveal Him. 1 Corinthians 10:31 is then read as "So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to reveal God." The verse is then read in a clearer and lucid way in the how to glorify God. Our prayer should be to reveal the creator in all things. Gathered, corporate worship owns a different purpose. Yes it is to reveal God in all his splendor (Tim Keller notes that this is how worship is evangelistic), it is further as worship motivates Christians to please Him. It is in worship that you encounter God in His glory- you dont do that while drinking coffee.

At one point in his sermon he quoted Deuteronomy for the biblical reference for the regulative principle, but did not give scripture to support the Normative principle - only alluded to the typical freedom Scripture gives in other areas. (Biblical support vs. none?)

At one point he mentioned acappela worship (which I dont agree with), and psalm singing (which I do find biblical). In this instance Driscoll made sweeping statements that I would like him to unpack and explain more. I agree with Sam, why profile micro-norities, but if you are going to do so, explain and unpack what you say.

I made a comment on Steele's blog on other thoughts pertaining to this.

Trueman on authenticity

Some years ago I wrote a short editorial for the journal Themelios entitled `What do miserable Christians sing?’ It took me about thirty minutes to write, edit and email to head office; yet of all the things I have ever written, I have received more – and more positive – correspondence on that short piece than on anything else I have ever done. What was my basic thesis? That the typical Christian church offered the broken-hearted nothing whatsoever to sing in praise to God on a Sunday; and in so doing, the church was failing in her duty to care for the hurting, the downtrodden, the depressed. The answer I proposed was a recovery of psalm singing, not on the grounds that psalm singing is the only pure form of worship but because it offers a truly deep and authentic idiom for expressing the full range of human emotion and experience to God in the very act of praising him. No hymn book or collection of choruses of which I am aware even comes close to offering what the psalms offer in this regard; and for this reason alone I would personally be quite happy to sing nothing but the psalms.

You know you want to read more

Trueman on Psalms

Mark Loughridge is reading Wages of Spin by Carl Trueman at the moment.

HE writes..

"As well as that, he touches on the same issue in the next article, The Marcions have landed. Here's a great quote which made me laugh. I like this guy - he doesn't just make his point, he makes it in style:

Then, in our church practice, we need to take the Old Testament more seriously. It astounds me, given the overwhelming use of psalms as central to gathered worship in the first four centuries, the absolute importance given to psalmody for the first two centuries of the post-Reformation Reformed churches, and the fact that the Book of Psalms is the only hymn book which can claim to be universal in its acceptance by the whole of Christendom and utterly inspired in all of its statements - it astounds me, I say, that so few psalms are sung in our worship services today.

Moreover, often nothing seems to earn the scorn and derision of others more than the suggestion that more psalms should be sung in worship. Indeed, the last few years have seen a number of writers strike out against exclusive psalmody. Given that life is too short to engage in pointless polemics, I am left wondering which parallel universe these guys come from, where the most pressing and dangerous worship issue is clearly that people sing too much of the Bible in their services. How terrifying a prospect that would be! Imagine: people actually singing songs that express the full range of human emotion in their worship using words of which God has explicitly said, 'These are mine!' Back here on Planet Earth, however, there is generally precious little chance of overloading on sound theology in song in most evangelical churches as the Marcion invasion is pretty much total and unopposed in the sphere of worship. Yet I for one prefer Athanasius to Marcion as a patristic thinker and, in his letter to Marcellinus, he gives one of the most beautiful and moving arguments for psalms in worship ever penned. It is a pity more have not taken his words to heart.""

[HT] 3:17 - Mark Loughridge

The Power of Worship

If you are from a reformed church or even a confessional evangelical background you have certainly heard something like "the worship wars." It seems the significance of worship has been lost, in many congregations catering to the masses [seeker services]. Listen to RB Kuiper as he tells you what worship was to him:

"How lofty a conception of corporate worship Scripture rpesents!! when Gods people assemble for worship they enter into the place where God dwells.....God meets them, and they meet God. They find themselves face to face with none other than God himself. Their worship is an intimate transaction between them and their God."

To Kuiper worship is nothing less than a celebration of our eternal life before the living God, when we are drawn into His most holy presence. A parallel can be drawn here to the tabernacle in the Old testament. In the Israelite society the priests went into the Holy place and the Holy of Holies to pray for the people that they might be redeemed. When Christ came and died for our sins we all became priests and when we worship it is like going into the holy of holies to see God. It is there that we encounter Him in all His fullness and Glory. And what we do and say in worship must point to God in all the fullness of His glory.

This has a direct bearing on Evangelism. Many times we might feel guilty about inviting people to church with us because we might feel embarrassed or something like that, because our church is not entertaining. How we worship is to reflect who God is and all He has done for us, and to show who God is to those who both know Him and do not. For those who are Christians, to encourage them in their daily walk with God, and those who are outside of Christ that they might see His love for His people and come running to Him in repentance.

a question to ponder..... does your worship show who God is? and do you personally show who God is in how you worship... is there joy in your worship or is it only 'going through the motions?'