You may not realize this, but the church choir or the worship team is not there for your entertainment, or at least they shouldn't be. Throughout scripture, all of God's people are encouraged to sing to the Lord.
And what we sing and how we sing matters a lot. Today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg looks at Psalm 100 to help us understand the significance of worshiping God together through song. I want to read the hundredth Psalm. I've decided that instead of me roaming around the Bible as we set the context for this conference, that we allow the Scriptures themselves, having sung that we want God to speak to us, then we want it to be the Bible that frames both our understanding of what we do, our ability to do it, and the manner in which we do it.
So Psalm 100, a psalm for giving thanks. Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness.
Come into his presence with singing. Know that the Lord, he is God. It is he who made us, and we are his.
We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him.
Bless his name. For the Lord is good, his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations. Amen.
A brief prayer, an old Anglican prayer. Father, what we know not, teach us. What we have not, give us. What we are not, make us.
For your Son's sake. Amen. Well, I don't apologize at all for turning to one of the best known and best loved of all the psalms in the entire book of Psalms. Some of us are familiar with it as the jubilati deo because of our Anglican background, as we have sung it routinely as part of the prayer book service. Most of us are familiar with the hundredth psalm in its metrical version as composed by William Keith and sung routinely to the tune of the old hundredth. Incidentally, William Keith was not only a contemporary of John Knox but also a friend of John Knox. And it's hard for me not to feel some kind of distant pride in letting you know that it was a Scotsman that gave us this metrical version which we've come to love so very much.
He could have been Irish, but that would have been difficult for him, and so he's fine. The psalm is very clear. It invites all the people on earth to worship the Lord with gladness and with thanksgiving, for he alone is God and he alone is good.
That really is it. In summary, it's a psalm that was sung by the Israelites in the temple, subsequently in the synagogue services, and it's always good for us to remind ourselves of the fact that when we turn to the psalms, we're turning to the hymnbook, which the Lord Jesus himself used. I don't think it's difficult for us to imagine that Jesus knew all of the psalms ultimately off by heart, and not because of some divine and omniscient understanding but because from his infancy and from his earliest days, at the feet of both Mary and Joseph, he was taught the Shema. Here, O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one. And you will worship the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and your mind and your strength. And so here we turn to the songs that Jesus himself and the disciples too would have sung. It's akin to Psalm 95.
If you leaf back, you will realize that, you'll remember it. Again, if you're an Anglican, you know it as the venite, as the invitatorium, as the invitatory psalm, with the constant call, Come now, let us sing. And once the psalmist has said, Let's do this, let's do this, let's do this, he then says, For or because. So that the people of God, both in this psalm and indeed in many of these psalms, are on the receiving end of the invitation which lies at the very heart of this conference—an invitation to sing. And when we sing, we sing as pilgrims. We sing, in the words of the hymn writer Isaac Watts, joining our cheerful songs with angels round the throne. Or we remind ourselves in another hymn that we on earth have union with God the three-in-one and mystic, sweet communion with those whose rest is one. So that the great celebration of praise that takes place on earth mingles with the praise that is going on in heaven. And when we have sung those words, we may not have paid particular attention to them.
We used to sing in the sixties, some of us, heaven came down and glory filled my soul. Well, in actual fact, the reality of it is that Jesus himself is the one who stands in the midst of the congregation and says to the Father, I will sing your praise. And while it is beyond the realm of our response this afternoon, if you follow this up in the book of Hebrews, you will make the discovery, a staggering discovery, that the Lord Jesus Christ is himself the worship leader.
He is the liturgos. You'll find that in Hebrews 8 and verse 2. And you may not know Greek, but when I tell you liturgos, it will make you think of English words, such as liturgist or liturgy. And what the writer of the Hebrews is saying is this, that Jesus Christ ultimately is the one who leads his people in their praise. Now, some of you are here, and you are very, very good at leading people in worship, and you understand that you have a role in that.
But let me just sound a cautionary word to some of you from the pen of our good friend Singler Ferguson, just to reinforce this notion. Jesus leads every worship service you attend. Jesus is the worship leader. You may be the music director in a church or its organist or sing in its choir or play in its worship team. You may even be its pastor.
But the one thing you are not is its worship leader. Now, you say, Well, Singler must have been having a bad day, you know, over there. Over there it gets cold in Scotland and so on. What strange words!
Oh, I have worse for you than that! We can go from the Presbyterian in the islands of Scotland back to London and to Spurgeon in 1870. And he addresses the people in his day, and he says, To those of you who are responsible for helping the congregation, remember that the song is not for your glory but for the honor of the Lord. Therefore, select not anthems and tunes in which your skillfulness will be manifest, but such as will aid the people to magnify the Lord with their thanksgivings. The people come together not to see you as a songster but to praise the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Remember also that you are not set to sing for yourself only but to be a leader of others, many of whom know nothing of music. Therefore, choose such tunes as can be learned, and followed by all, that none in the assembly may be compelled to be silent while the Lord is extolled. May I beg you in a very gentlest whisper, he says, to think very much of God, much of a singing, and extremely little of yourself.
That's challenging, isn't it? Now listen to this. The institution of singers as a separate order is an evil, a growing evil, and ought to be abated and abolished. What's he saying? Listen. And the instruction of the entire congregation is the readiest, surest, and most scriptural mode of curing it.
A band of godless men and women will often install themselves in a conspicuous part of the church and monopolize the singing to the grief of the pastor, the injury of the church, and the scandal of public worship. Now Getty's probably back there going, I knew I shouldn't have invited him. He's only five minutes into it. He's alienated two-thirds of the conference.
Well, I hope not. You're sensible people. You can work this out. Here's all that we're saying. When I was a boy growing up, we used to sing this before our Bible study class began. Did you sing this? Jesus stand among us in your risen power. May this time of worship be a hallowed hour.
That was penned in 1855. When I was twenty in 1972, in the words that came from Jamie and Carol Owens out of the West Coast, in that great charismatic festival that went around the place, we used to sing, He is here. He is here. He is moving among us.
He is here. He is here as we gather in his name. Do you know when a transformation takes place in a congregation, when they understand that Jesus is not simply the shepherd of their souls but he is the leader of our praise and he ultimately is the preacher?
It is he who preaches when his Word is taught by the Spirit. Now, all of that by way of introduction, because we're really dealing with this psalm. And you will notice that it begins with this clear call to praise God. Make a joyful noise.
Three of the seven imperatives that are contained in the psalm are here in verses 1 and 2. Make a joyful noise, or shout to the Lord. Oh, be joyful. When Keith and Kristen rewrote for us a version of the hundredth psalm, they took this theme up, didn't they? Oh, shout for joy unto the Lord.
And that was the opening salvo. Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. What is this joyful noise? It's not the special contribution of those who are tone deaf. Those of us who are tone deaf are not making a joyful noise. We're making a dreadful racket.
And if our wives can't help us, then we need to go to somebody else. No, the word that is used here for shout is the word of welcome given to a king in taking possession of his throne. Shout as the king comes. And this psalm, when you work back the way, comes as the climax of a number of psalms which are announcing again and again the fact that the Lord is a great God and a great King above all gods. And you will notice that the invitation, the exhortation, is not limited to Israel, because the Lord is the sovereign ruler of the entire earth. The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof. Hence George Herbert's poem, which begins, Let all the world in every corner sing, my God and King. That is the call to sing, a call which extends far and beyond the immediacy of the psalmist's little world.
And when Luther dealt with these psalms, he said of the hundredth psalm, It is clearly a prophecy concerning Christ. For who is the King that we welcome? None other than Jesus. Psalm 24, Ye gates lift up your heads on high, Ye doors that last for aye, Be lifted up that so the King of glory enter me. And then the antiphonal response, But who is he that is the King? And then the answer, The Lord, whose great in might.
Who is this? Who fulfills Jesus, the one who stands beside you as you begin to be responding to the exhortation of those who lead us in our praise. Come now, let us sing to the Lord. Also, not only to shout but also to serve. Serve the Lord with gladness.
Not with reluctance but with gladness. You remember Joshua urged the people that were gathered around him, the tribes of Israel, to fear the Lord and serve him with sincerity and faithfulness. And he then went on to say, If you're not going to do that, then choose who you will serve. Because, to quote Bob Dillon—not that Joshua was quoting Bob Dillon—you're gonna have to serve somebody. You're gonna have to serve somebody. Serve the Lord.
So instead of viewing the gathering for worship as a kind of weekly activity, we understand it in terms of Romans 12, 1, and 2, which is our reasonable service of spiritual worship. Shout, serve, and sing. Sing. Well, I know the imperatives come, but this is called sing. So I thought I should use sing, which makes sense to me at least. Shout, serve, sing.
Now, again, this isn't the province of an elect group or a select group. It is an extended invitation. Alec Matea, who's now around the throne of heaven, speaks here of the progressive nearness that we see. He calls us to come into his presence with singing. Let those refuse to sing who never knew our God, but the children of the heavenly King, must speak his praise or his love abroad.
Now, let's just pause and camp on this for a moment. People sing all over the place, don't they? I mean, if you watch the Premier League, which is football played correctly, you will be aware of a number of things, and I say this with the greatest respect. There is none of that organ playing, whatever that thing is, that happens in these American sporting events.
You know, diddly-diddly-doo, and then it goes charge, and the people all go charge, and then if it doesn't diddly-doo anymore, then they just say, I think I'll get a hamburger, and off they go. But if you watch the Premier League, you say to yourself, who started that singing? How can fifty thousand people be singing like this? What is wrong with them? There's nothing wrong with them.
It's something that is inside of them. You find the same thing in bars, at least in the United Kingdom. Scottish bars, Irish bars, English bars, Welsh bars—people sing. Interestingly, it doesn't really happen that much in America. But isn't it true?
I mean, I say it respectfully. The average British fellow who's converted, if he's a football fan, is converted as a singer. He's been used to singing. And when he comes into the church, what happens to him? There's an exhortation to sing. What changes? The subject matter.
The subject matter. You have put a new song in my heart, a song of praise to God, so that even if he does go to watch Manchester United on a Saturday, when he comes on a Sunday, he is singing to the Lord his God. He understands that. That we sing in this way is, first of all, evidence of spiritual life. It's evidence of spiritual life that we sing. I can actually tell you that this is the case just from watching a congregation over thirty-four years.
I could give you chapter and verse for this, but I would embarrass people. But I can tell you that there are men now—I'm not thinking of one in particular or really I am—but there are men who used to say to me, Why do we have to have all this blooming singing? Why do we do the singing, Pastor?
You know, why don't we just get on with things? And when I look out on a Sunday evening and I see this man singing, I say, Oh, what has happened here? You see, God has got a hold of his heart. All he used to do was jingle his chains.
He just stood there. As you go further and further back in the congregation, you find the change jinglers and then the hummers, and eventually it just fizzles out to nothing the further back you get. C. S. Lewis, in his reflections on the Psalms, he says, This is the wonder of praise, isn't it?
Because it's a dreadful thing when you're reading a book that is fantastic and you don't have the opportunity to say to somebody, Oh, this is a fantastic book, can I read something of it to you? So in the same way, across the lines, as it were, within the congregation, from young and old and from a diverse background, the evidence of spiritual life is seen in part in our songs. That we sing is an evidence of spiritual life. What we sing is a matter of spiritual importance. What we sing is a matter of spiritual importance, so that it is framed biblically, that it is framed by the truth of Scripture. And, if I may say so, turning to the Psalms, we neglect Jesus' hymnbook to our impoverishment. We are probably… This generation is probably the first generation that has actually ignored the Psalms almost in their entirety. If you have lived long enough, you know that there may well have been a psalm that was sung within the liturgy of your church. Largely gone.
Something's missing. Because, you see, the truths that God conveys to us in the Psalms, the truths that he gives us to sing back to him, help us to understand that what we sing is a matter of importance. Let me just pause and quote to you something that I came across just the other day. This is a piece written by a vocal coach. If you've ever watched The Voice, the BBC version of The Voice, then this lady, Juliet Russell, is one of the vocal coaches on that. And so she wrote a very nice little piece called Ten Great Reasons to Sing.
And I'll only give you two of them. Number two is, when you sing, your brain releases feel-good chemicals, including endorphins. When you sing, it's a natural beauty treatment, because you exercise your facial muscles. When you sing, it's eco-friendly, because your body already has all of the equipment you need, and you don't require fossil fuels or expensive upgrades. This is not a joke.
This is real. You say, well, you're not including that, are you? No, I'm not.
I don't know what happens to your facial muscles, but some of us could use a little exercise on our facial muscles. Just maybe turning them up this way a little bit would be a start, right? On the average Sunday morning. What do you think it looks like from up here? You think it's bad out there?
You try up here for a few Sundays. I say it with the greatest respect. David Wells, the purpose of worship is clearly to express the greatness of God and not simply to find inward release or still less amusement. Worship is theological rather than psychological. That's why the exhortations to sing are then always framed in the awareness of what we know. It is what I know of thee, my Lord and God, that fills my lips with praise and my heart with song. You're listening to Truth for Life with Alistair Begg.
We'll hear more about singing God's praises tomorrow. If you're hearing Alistair on your local radio station, you need to know you are now joined by people who are listening through radio to Truth for Life in Kenya on Nation FM, and there are two networks in Liberia. And also on faith radio in Zambia. We're grateful for the way God is working through Truth for Life to reach a growing Christian population throughout these African nations.
Now the radio airtime is not free in these countries. Without your giving, the distribution of Alistair's Bible teaching would not be possible. When you give a gift to Truth for Life as one of our monthly truth partners, God is working through you to make it possible for us to say yes to these gospel outreach opportunities.
So on behalf of many, let me just say thank you. And if you've been a regular listener to Truth for Life for a while and you've never joined this important team of truth partners, the ones who bring Alistair's teaching to you every day, why don't you take that step today? You can do that by calling 888-588-7884 or you can sign up online at truthforlife.org slash truth partner. And when you do, we'll say thanks by inviting you to request the book we are currently featuring. It's titled Sighing on Sunday. It's a collection of 40 short meditations to encourage those who've had a hurtful or disappointing experience in the local church. Ask for your copy of the book today when you become a truth partner or when you give a one-time donation at truthforlife.org slash donate. Thanks for studying God's word with us today. Tomorrow we'll find out why it's hard to resist singing in church once we understand who God is. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life where the Learning is for Living.
