Summer In The Psalms: Make a Joyful Noise
Summer In The Psalms: Make a Joyful Noise by Rev. L. John Gable
August 22, 2021
Summer in the Psalms: Joyful Noise August 22, 2021
Psalm 100 John 15:1-11
Leaving church one Sunday morning a woman asked her husband if he had noticed the designer suit the woman sitting two rows in front of them was wearing. He mumbled, “No”. “Did you see how close Bob Smith was sitting to Helen Wright?” Again, he nodded that he hadn’t. “Then surely you noticed the misprint in the bulletin and that the preacher lost his place again, more than once?” “Well, no”, he finally confessed, “I’m afraid I dozed off during the sermon.” “Well,” she said, “A lot of good church does you!”
That story does beg the question, as we come to worship what do we come looking for and what do we hope to find? What do we hope to see, hear, experience, feel? I think it is safe to say, we can expect to get out of it about as much as we put in to it.
Reflect with me on this for a bit. When you come to worship, do you think of yourself as being a receiver or a giver? A consumer or a contributor? An active participant or a passive observer? The answer we give to that question will, in large measure, determine what we can expect out of the worship experience. We likely will get out of it about as much as we put in to it. This is not to say that those of us on this side of the platform don’t have a particular responsibility to present our very best in our service of worship, but it is to say I am not convinced the responsibility rests solely with us.
As we think about this, perhaps we have gotten our roles confused as we come to this place. We have somehow forgotten what part we are given to play in this drama called worship. See if this rings true for you. “Too often”, writes Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, “when people come to worship they adopt the attitude of the theater, imagining that the preacher is an actor and they are the critics, praising and blaming the performance. Actually, (in worship) the people are the performers on the stage of life; the preacher is merely the prompter, reminding the people of their lost lines, and, in the most basic sense, God is the audience. In Christian worship, it is unto God whom we offer ourselves. Unto Him we offer our praise, our love, our thanksgiving. Unto Him we confess our wrongdoings in thought and in deed. Unto Him we respond in faith and obedience as we listen to God’s Word. Worship is the offering of ourselves individually and together as a community to the only One who is worthy of our praise and adoration.” In Christian worship the congregation is the performer, the minister is the prompter, the musicians are the encouragers, and God is the audience. Now, if that is the case, and I believe it is, then we have failed in our primary task of worship if we become distracted by the little nuisances of whether we are singing our favorite hymns and choruses, or who we will get to sit by or see at the coffee hour, or even who is the preacher of the day and how well he or she “performs” for us. If these are our expectations when we come to worship then we have set our sights too low, way too low, and invariably we will always be disappointed. To use Kierkegaard’s analogy, when we leave worship we should not be asking “How well did the pastor or the musicians perform?”, but “How well did I perform as a worshipper before the audience of one, who is God?”
I offer this reflection not so much as critique, but as encouragement to us. If ever we find ourselves saying, “I didn’t get anything out of worship today (as all of us have said at one time or another, myself included), perhaps the better question we should be asking ourselves is, “What did I put in to worship today?”
This morning we look at the beautiful 100th Psalm. Unlike the unfamiliar lament of Psalm 56 which we looked at last week, Psalm 100 is familiar to many of us as a beautiful hymn of praise. This was one of the very first passages of Scripture I ever committed to memory which I did as a child at the encouragement of one of my Sunday School teachers, and I imagine others of you can say the same.
Psalm 100 was written to be used/sung in worship, a liturgy calling the people to worship, and if we look carefully we see that it is filled with action words. It is written in the imperative, not only as an invitation but as a command and expectation. It is a call to action and involvement. “Make a joyful noise. Worship the Lord with gladness. Come in to His presence with singing.” These are good instructions to us as to what we should do, what we should bring with us, as we enter in to worship.
I think it is interesting that the Psalmist uses the word “noise”, or some translations may say “shouts”, as we come in to the presence of God in worship rather than “joyful music or song or prayers”. The emphasis seems to be on the “joyful” rather than on the “noise”, which means whether all of our notes are on pitch or not doesn’t really matter as long as the noise we are making is filled with gladness and joy. Franz Joseph Haydn was once criticized that his music was “too cheerful”. He responded by saying, “When I think of God, my heart is so full that notes dance and leap as it were from my pen. And since God has given me a cheerful heart, it will be easily forgiven me when I serve Him with a cheerful spirit.”
I think “noise” is also an interesting word to use because we are constantly surrounded by “noise”, around us and within us. We need to be mindful both of the kind of “noise” we listen to and the kind of “noise” we produce? Is the noise we listen to trustworthy and true, God-honoring and respectful of others? And what of the noise we produce, not just in here, but out there? An attitude of joy and gladness, of gratitude and praise marks the Christian life, again, not just in here but out there as well. So if ever we find ourselves grumbling that we didn’t get anything out of worship, perhaps we should ask ourselves if we entered in to it with gladness, giving thanks, making a joyful noise? This is what we, as worshipers, are expected to bring with us to worship, regardless of how well the pastor speaks or the choir sings or the musicians play. This is what the Psalmist instructed and expected of worshipers as they entered the Temple courts long ago, and what we are instructed and expected to bring with us as we come to worship today as well.
Last week I told you a story about author and Presbyterian pastor, Frederick Buechner, listen to the way he describes our responsibility in worship. “Phrases like Worship Service or Service of Worship are tautologies (I had to look that one up. It means “redundant”). To worship God means to serve Him. Basically there are two ways to do it. One way is to do things for Him that He needs to have done- run errands for Him, carry messages for Him, fight on His side, feed His lambs, and so on. The other way is to do things for Him that you need to do – sing songs for Him, create beautiful things for Him, give things up for Him, tell Him what’s on your mind and in your heart, in general, rejoice in Him and make a fool of yourself for Him the way lovers have always made fools of themselves for the one they love. A Quaker meeting, a Pontifical High Mass, the Family Service at First Presbyterian, A Holy Roller Happening – unless there is an element of joy and foolishness in the proceedings, the time would be better spent doing something useful.”
Is it realistic really for us to expect to be excited and enthused and glad when we come to worship, or is this just hype? I think this expectation is very realistic if we keep in mind what we are doing here and the One we have come to meet here, and I’m not talking about the pastor or whoever it is who happens to be sitting next to you. When we come to worship we are entering in to the very presence of God. Not that God isn’t present everywhere, but He is present here. Not that we can’t worship God at any time or in any way, but when we gather as the people of God in this time and place we do so for one purpose and one purpose only, to worship Him, and that reason, in and of itself, should excite us and fill us with great expectation whenever we come to worship.
The heart of this Psalm, inserted between the two calls to worship, is verse 3 which clearly states why we should be glad and joyful as we come in to worship, because we “know that the Lord is God, it is He who made us and we are His. We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.” This is why we come to worship because we know that God is God and we do so with a strange blend of humility and awe, asking ourselves, “Who am I that I should be given this wonderful privilege to enter in to the presence of the God of the universe, the Maker of heaven and earth, and that He should love me so much that He calls me one of His own, His child, a sheep in His pasture, and not me only but all who hear His voice and follow Him”? If we don’t come to worship with the awareness that we are entering in to the very presence of God, then we don’t have our heads, much less our hearts, around what we are doing here.
There are two great affirmations of the Judeo-Christian faith stated in these few verses. The first is this, that “the Lord is God, it is He who made us and we are His.” And the second is that “The Lord is good, His steadfast love endures forever and His faithfulness to all generations.” Just like the very first prayer we ever learned as children, so the Psalmist reminds us that “God is great and God is good.” And that alone should excite us to enter in to His presence.
Bruce Larson, who some will remember as being the father of one of our former pastors Peter Larson, tells about the time he was asked to preach at a renewal conference in a Presbyterian Church in Omaha, Nebraska, years ago. As people entered the sanctuary they were each given a balloon filled with helium. They were told to release it at some point in the service when they felt like expressing their joy and enthusiasm, during an anthem, a hymn, a prayer, the sermon. Since they were Presbyterians (recall we referred to as being the “frozen chosen”) he didn’t expect them to shout out “Hallelujah” or “Praise the Lord”, so he gave them the opportunity to release their balloons as expressions of praise to God.
So all throughout the service brightly colored balloons were rising up and bouncing off the ceiling, visual signs of praise. But oddly enough, Larson notes, when the service was over about a third of the balloons were still unreleased. Those “frozen chosen” had felt no joy or, feeling it, could not bring themselves to express it. Whose responsibility is that? The pastors, the musicians and worship leaders? Those in the pulpit and on the platform or those in the pew? Or might it be that they were simply getting out of worship the same measure they were putting in to it?
The Psalmist instructs us as to how we should enter in to worship and why? We are to enter into God’s presence joyfully, gladly, expectantly, giving Him thanks and praise. These instructions are not so much intended to be commands or demands, as they are invitations. As C.S. Lewis put it, “In commanding us to glorify God, God is inviting us to enjoy Him.” What greater privilege could we ever be given? And why?
Because “the Lord is God. It is He who made us and we are His…(and) the Lord is good. His steadfast love endures forever and His faithfulness to all generations.”
So, knowing this as we do, how can we be anything but joyful as we enter in to His presence?
Rev. L. John Gable
Tabernacle Presbyterian Church
Indianapolis, IN