                                                   The
                                     Standard
A Reformed                                   Bearer
Semi-Monthly
Magazine


       Special Issue:

        Reformed
          Worship

Editorially Speaking .......................170

Editorial -- Prof. David J. Engelsma
     Preaching in Worship:
     Voice of God,
     Voice of Christ (1) .................170

Reformed Worship:
     Fellowship with
     the Holy One
       Rev. Steven R. Key .............172

The Songs of Zion:
     What Shall the Church Sing?
       Prof. Herman C. Hanko .......178

The Force of the
     Second Commandment
     in Worship
       Rev. Ronald VanOverloop ..184

The Participating Pew
       Rev. Barry L. Gritters ..........187





Vol. 74, No. 8
January 15, 1998


                                                                  last  September.    The  conference                        treatment of the subject in one is-
Editorially Speaking:                                             was  held  in  the  building  of  the                      sue is helpful for future reference
       This  issue  is  different.    The                         Peace PRC in Lansing, IL.                                  and  for  spreading  this  witness
usual rubrics are missing.  The ar-                                      Including all of the speeches in                    about worship to others, something
ticles  that  do  appear  are  longer                             their entirety in one issue (with the                      that we hope our readers will do.
than is customary.                                                exception of the one that becomes                                   For  "Reformed  Worship,"  al-
       The explanation?  You have in                              the editorial in this and the follow-                      ways a fundamental topic, is timely
your hands a special issue on "Re-                                ing issue) has its advantages.  Each                       today in the churches of the Refor-
formed Worship" consisting of the                                 address retains its full force, some-                      mation.  It is controversial, explo-
addresses given at a Protestant Re-                               thing that is lost when an article is                      sively so.
formed  officebearers'  conference                                broken up and read in installments.                                                                            --DJE
                                                                  In  addition,  having  the  complete

   Editorial


                                              Preaching in Worship:
                  Voice of God, Voice of Christ  (1)

                                                                  Is  the  place  of  preaching  in  wor-                    that the preaching of the Word of
                                                                  ship this, that preaching is merely                        God is  vox Dei (voice of God) and,
The subject of this editorial
           contains two distinct truths.
           Both are of fundamental im-                            one of a number of equally impor-                          more particularly, vox Christi (voice
portance for the  right worship of                                tant  activities?    Or  is  preaching,                    of Christ).  For this reason, preach-
God.  One is the  nature of preach-                               with  the  sacraments  that  are  at-                      ing is not merely part of every ser-
ing.    This  truth  lies  on  the  fore-                         tached to it, the heart of the wor-                        vice  of  the  public  worship  of  the
ground  and  is  immediately  obvi-                               ship of the church of God?                                 Triune God in Jesus Christ by the
ous to all.  The question at issue is                                    If  preaching  has  the  central                    power of the Holy Ghost, but is the
whether preaching is God's Word                                   place in worship, is this because of                       central, preeminent act in the wor-
or man's word.                                                    what preaching itself is, because of                       ship of the church.
       The other truth is the  place  of                          what  preaching  is  by  God's  ap-                                 Between these two truths con-
preaching in worship.  This truth                                 pointment?  Or is this because of                          cerning the nature and the place of
lies more in the background of the                                tradition  and  culture--Reformed                           preaching, there is mutual relation-
subject and might easily be over-                                 tradition and Western, intellectual                        ship.  As the voice of God, preach-
looked.    Does  preaching  have  a                               culture?                                                   ing  is  the  central  act  in  worship.
place in worship?  Does it have a                                        In  the  teeth  of  the  "liturgical                Who  would  presume  to  exclude
place at all?  If it does have a place,                           renewal" in Reformed and Presby-                           from  worship  the  voice  of  God?
is this place central or peripheral?                              terian  churches  today,  I  contend                       Who  would  dare  to  consign  the


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170/Standard Bearer/January 15, 1998


voice of God to a peripheral, sub-                  One  does  not  have  to  read       book (which also happens to be the
ordinate place in worship?                  many issues of the journal Reformed          public worship that Frame has cre-
    But  the  relationship  may  also       Worship  to  realize  that  in  the  re-     ated and leads in his southern Cali-
be  stated  this  way:    God  has  or-     structured  worship  that  this  Re-         fornia  "New  Life  Presbyterian
dained preaching as His voice ex-           formed  periodical  envisions  and           Church"),  the  preaching  of  the
actly in order that His voice may           promotes preaching is, at best, one          Word is lost in the shuffle.  (I use
have the central place in the wor-          element among many.  Fact is, al-            the  word  "shuffle"  deliberately
ship of the church.                         though the editors pay lip service           since  Frame  also  approves  dance
    The  truth  of  the  nature  of         to  preaching,  preaching  does  not         in the worship, pp. 130-132.)  Not
preaching and the related truth of          have their heart.  What truly inter-         the preaching, but the lively praise
the place of preaching in worship           ests  them  are  banners,  dialogue,         songs; the choruses; the clapping;
are the two most important issues           dance, and music--especially mu-              the whistling; the tapping of tam-
at stake in the battle by the true,         sic.                                         bourines;  John  Frame's  prayer;
faithful Reformed church for right                  Whereas  Reformed  Worship           hymn after hymn after hymn; John
worship.  The  battle for the faith         damns preaching in worship with              Frame's talking to the congregation
now at the end of the ages rages            faint  praise  and  scant  attention,        between  the  hymns;  the  Lord's
also  on  the  front  of  worship.          Presbyterian  theologian  John  M.           Supper;  and  John  Frame's  direct-
"Rages"  is  the  appropriate  verb         Frame  expresses  that  the  current         ing the choir are on the foreground
here.  For one thing, the battle over       renewal of worship in supposedly             (pp. 145-154).
worship  is  furious.    For  another       conservative Presbyterian and Re-                All  these  other  activities  take
thing, the conflict in the congrega-        formed churches takes dead aim at            up most of the time.  Unless they
tion between those introducing in-          preaching.  He does this in his re-          hold services for two hours or more
novations and those holding on to           cent  book,  Worship  in  Spirit  and        in southern California, the sermon
the  old  ways  produces  hot  anger        Truth:    A  Refreshing  Study  of  the      cannot be longer than 15 minutes.
and heated exchanges.                       Principles  and  Practice  of  Biblical          The book comes highly recom-
    The movement for liturgical re-         Worship  (P&R,  1996).    Under  the         mended by professors at leading,
newal,  or  "progressiveness"  in           heading "Preaching and Teaching"             conservative Reformed and Presby-
worship, hinges on a denial of both         Frame denies that "teaching in the           terian seminaries.  Steve Brown of
the nature of preaching as the voice        church is ... restricted to elders" (p.      Reformed Theological Seminary in
of God and the place of preaching           91).  He affirms that drama is a le-         Orlando, Florida states, "This is the
as central.  Regardless of the con-         gitimate  form  of  preaching  and           kind of book that you will read and
scious  motives  of  everyone  who          teaching.   He  asserts that  "teach-        say,  `But,  of  course.    Why  didn't
promotes  this  renewal  of  public         ing  can  take  place  through  dia-         someone  explain  it  that  way  be-
worship, the movement as such has           logue" (pp. 92-94).                          fore?'    John  Frame  has  done  the
two results.  It dislodges the ser-                 This  reputedly  conservative        church a great service ... with bib-
mon  from  its  central,  dominant          and certainly influential Presbyte-          lical balance, insight, and an irenic
place in the worship service, and           rian theologian says, "I see no rea-         spirit."    Richard  B.  Gaffin,  Jr.,  of
it  inculcates  a  view  of  preaching      son  why  some  worship  services            Westminster Theological Seminary
as  the  word  of  man  (and  now,          should not be entirely musical" (p.          in Philadelphia gives this commen-
woman).                                     114).                                        dation:  "Some of Frame's conclu-
    The  seriousness  of  the  raging               Basic to his gutting of the regu-    sions and applications are contro-
conflict over worship is that with          lative principle of worship (by so           versial,  but  anyone  concerned
the loss of a regard for preaching          expanding it that it becomes mean-           about  worship  honoring  to  God
as the Word of God is lost the right        ingless) is his denial of any valid-         and  true  to  Scripture  will  surely
worship of God.  Where  worship             ity to the distinction between offi-         benefit  from  reflecting  on  this
is thus corrupted, there can be no          cial, public worship by the church           stimulating, clearly argued, and al-
giving  of  grace  to  needy  sinners.      and informal worship at home by              ways  biblically  focused  study"
Preaching  as  the  Word  of  God  is       a  family  (pp.  44, 45).    This effec-     (back cover).  Frame himself is pro-
the means of grace.                         tively  negates  the  necessity  of          fessor at Westminster in California.
    The question whether preach-            preaching at church, for obviously           The  Reformed  and  Presbyterian
ing is the Word of God or the word          we do not have preaching in our              saints who have their young men
of  man  is  forced  on  us  at  the        family devotions.                            trained  for  the  ministry  in  these
present  hour  by  the  assault  on                 It comes as no surprise, then,       seminaries must not be  surprised
preaching  in  the  Reformed                that in the last chapter, "Putting It        when  their  pastors  have  them
churches.    It  is  this  assault  that    Together," where Frame describes             dancing in the aisles.  They have
drives the movement to overhaul             the ideal worship for which he has           been forewarned.
Reformed worship.                           laid the foundation throughout the

                                                                                              January 15, 1998/Standard Bearer/171


    The attack on preaching in the
                                               as awake.  For  whatever reason,
churches  of  the  Reformation  is                                                         tions  and  adornments,  creative
                                               the authority of the preacher has
open, direct, and brutal.  Dutch Re-                                                       participation and additions, some-
                                               become problematic (p. 6).
formed theologian Klaas Runia has                                                          times reduce it to a sermonette....
                                                                                           The  long  prayer  is  now  written
taken note of this frontal assault in            With the assault on preaching             down and read to God.  The ser-
the  publication  of  a  series  of  lec-    goes a deep doubt concerning the              mon is  in  danger  of  becoming  a
tures, The Sermon under Attack (Pa-          effectiveness of preaching.  Runia            diminishing dot in a flurry of ad-
ternoster,  1983).    Essentially,  the      quotes Henry Ward Beecher:                    denda....    I  sometimes  think  the
criticism of the sermon is the fruit                                                       sermon is in many churches a di-
of the Enlightenment's liberation of                                                       minishing island in a surging sea
                                               The  churches  of  the  land  are
Western man "from the authoritar-                                                          of activities (p. 125).
                                               sprinkled  all  over  with  bald-
ian  shackles  of  Scripture  and  the         headed old sinners whose hair has
church."  Modern man "does not                                                               Implied, if not bluntly stated,
                                               been  worn  off  by  the  friction  of
want  to be  told what is true  and            countless sermons that have been          in all this criticism and neglect of
worthwhile; he wants to discover               aimed at them and have glanced            the sermon is the modern convic-
it for himself and, accordingly, he            off  and  hit  the  man  in  the  pew     tion that preaching is a human ac-
                                               behind (p. 10).
also  wants  to  determine  for  him-                                                    tivity:  a man (or, now, a woman)
self  what  he  should  do.  .  .  .  He                                                 talks  about  God  and  spiritual
                                                 The  Reformed  layman  cannot
wants to join in the discussion.  But                                                    things.    This  can  be  beneficial,  if
                                             but notice the wounding, if not the
the  sermon  provides  no  opportunity                                                   the speaker is gifted.  But preach-
                                             murder, of the sermon in Reformed
for discussion (my emphasis--DJE)."                                                       ing is just another human act that
                                             churches.  John J. Timmerman, es-
    Runia  quotes  L.  E.  Keck,  ex-                                                    must  fight  for  its  few  minutes  in
                                             teemed  professor  of  English  at
pressing  well  the  attitude  of  the                                                   the limelight of the liturgy with all
                                             Calvin College for many years, rue-
people toward sermons:                                                                   the  other  acts  that  clamor  for  a
                                             fully reflected on the demise of the        place.
                                             sermon in his 1987 semi-autobiog-
  If  something  is  worth  communi-                                                         Such  a  conception  of  the
  cating, don't spoil it by preaching        raphy,  Through  a  Glass  Lightly          preaching of the Word is a radical
  it!  Let it emerge in the give-and-        (Eerdmans):                                 break with the conception held by
  take of the group; celebrate it by                                                     the  Reformation.    There  is  today
  music, dance or drama.  In preach-           The sermon was formerly the cen-          the loss of faith that preaching is
  ing, people are as passive as chick-         terpiece  of  worship;  now  addi-        the voice of God.   u
  ens on a roost--and perhaps just                                                                      (to be continued)  --DJE



                            Reformed Worship:
           Fellowship with the Holy One
                                                                                                          Rev. Steven Key
                   O worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness:  fear before him, all the earth.
                                                                                               Psalm 96:9

                                             tions and experiences.  You and I           whole life and mine.  To worship
                                             are called to worship Jehovah.  We          Jehovah is to acknowledge Him as
The subject that we treat to
       day is a subject of great sig-
       nificance.  It is immediately         are, in the words of Psalm 29:2, to         the  sovereign  Lord  and  the  One
evident not only from the passage            "Give unto the LORD the glory due           who alone is worthy of all honor
that was just read, and particularly         unto his name;  worship the  LORD           and glory.
verse 9 of Psalm 96, but from all            in the beauty of holiness."                     But that worship comes to ex-
Scripture, that to worship God is                Fundamentally,  worship,  ac-           pression especially in the public as-
the highest of all religious obliga-         cording  to  the  literal  idea  of  the    sembly  of  the  church.    It  is  the
                                             term, is "bowing the knee towards"          church's public worship that is our
                                             Jehovah.  It is, therefore, our act of      focus today.  The public assembly
Rev. Key is pastor  of the  Protestant       praising and magnifying the alone           of the church is a special, covenan-
Reformed Church of Randolph, Wis-            living God.  In the broader sense,          tal  gathering,  in  which  God  and
consin.                                      worship  is  to  characterize  your         His  people  fellowship  together.

172/Standard Bearer/January 15, 1998


Those  whom  God  has  gathered,           ship practices?  And what must we           subject to consider from Scripture.
and  purchased  with  the  precious        say when other Reformed churches            For the God who made the judg-
blood of His own dear Son come             worship God by way of greater in-           ment  concerning  Israel  in  Isaiah
together  in  the  presence  of  their     dividual participation and special          29:13 and Ezekiel 33:31, and Christ
Redeemer, listening to Him and re-         music, and what to us seem to be            who  repeated  that  judgment  in
sponding  to  Him  in  commanded           rather  chaotic  liturgies,  perhaps        Matthew 15:8 and Mark 7:6, "This
acts of faith and love.  Such is pub-      even liturgical dance and programs          people worships me with their lips,
lic worship. The church gathers be-        and  children's  services  and  such        but their heart is far from me; they
fore  the  sovereign  Jehovah,  the        like things?                                draw  near  me  with  their  mouth,
Holy  One.    He  speaks;  and  they           The  question  might  be  asked:        but  their  heart  is  far from  me"--
bless Him in return.                       Who are we to say that men may              that God makes the same judgment
    In  worship  we  enter  into  fel-     not worship that way?  So let's face        today concerning those who put on
lowship with the living God.  That         some of these things.                       an appearance of worship but do
in  itself  makes  this  a  subject  of        But  then  let  us  also  be  re-       so with disobedient hearts.
great significance.                        minded:  The object of worship is               Our concern today is not pri-
    But  in  the  second  place,  this     not us, but God.  Because that is           marily with those who worship in
subject of worship has been made  a        so, we ourselves have no right to           ways other than the ways that we
subject of importance in our day.          determine how  God  shall be wor-           worship; but our concern is exactly
I  speak  now  just  from  the  view-      shiped.    But  God  does  have  the        with  the  way  that  we  worship  as
point  of  the  Reformed  church           right  to  demand  of  men  that  we        congregations.  Do we in our own
world.                                     worship in a particular way.  And           congregations worship God as God
    Years  ago,  one  could  go  to        when it comes to our worship, we            must be worshiped?
churches in a variety of Reformed          had  better  understand  what  God              We  must  not  worship  God
denominations  and  find  striking         requires.                                   merely  as  a  matter  of  tradition.
similarities  in  worship.    Whether          Christ  stated  clearly  in  John       Our  worship  of  Him  must  be  in
Protestant Reformed, Christian Re-         4:24  that  we  are  to  worship  the       spirit and in truth.  And therefore,
formed,  Netherlands  Reformed,            Lord in spirit and truth.  Worship          from  the  moment  we  enter  the
and  to  some  extent  even  in            must be  spiritual, therefore, lest it      sanctuary,  we  must  come  with  a
churches of the Reformed Church            become mere formalism.  But with-           particular attitude and understand-
in  America,  the  style  of  worship      out truth, worship becomes an ac-           ing into the presence of the Holy
was  essentially  the  same.  Apart        tivity  of  mysticism  and  emotion-        One, whose name is Jehovah.  That
from the use of hymns in the CRC           alism,  a  matter  of  feelings  which      begins, in fact, prior to entering the
and RCA--and even hymn singing              arise  from  our  deceitful  hearts.        doors  of  the  sanctuary.    Already
was  very  limited  in  the  CRC  for      Truth is the standard  set by  God          Saturday  night  and  into  Sunday
some decades after hymn singing            Himself  and  recorded  for  His            morning it must be  our desire as
was first allowed in worship--wor-          church in the inspired Scriptures.          God's  people  more  perfectly  and
ship services were very similar.               The fact that we enter the very         sincerely to render to Jehovah the
    That is no longer true.  In fact,      presence of God in worship means            worship that He requires from us.
in our day varying opinions over           not only that there are general prin-       For  so  shall  we  also  receive  His
matters  and  methods  of  worship         ciples  to  be  observed  within  the       richest blessings.
have  caused  no  little  division  in     bounds  of  true  Christian  liberty,           In calling your attention to the
many  churches.    Many  church            but  that  God  Himself  sets  the          general  theme,  "Reformed  Wor-
members, crying for new things in          boundaries  within  which  our              ship:  Fellowship  with  the  Holy
worship,  have  left  their  churches      Christian liberty may be exercised.         One," I focus especially on the in-
to  go  elsewhere  or  to  form  new       That includes even the elements of          struction  of  Psalm  96:9  and  call
congregations,  even  within  the          worship.                                    your  attention  to  three  necessary
same  denomination.    Other                   If we want truly to please the          characteristics of proper worship,
churches  gradually  have  adopted         King of kings in our worship, we            Reformed worship.
all sorts of innovations in worship.       will try to find out those things that          That worship which is fellow-
These  things  have  brought  the          please  Him,  and  we  will  subject        ship with the Holy One is covenan-
whole  matter  of  worship  to  the        ourselves willingly to His desires,         tal worship, holy worship, and fear-
foreground once more.                      rather than trying to please Him in         ful worship.
    What must we think about all           our own way and by our own stan-
these  developments  in  recent            dards.  For not only the act of wor-        Covenantal Worship
years?    Why  do  we  worship  the        ship,  but  also  the  content  of  that        You  and  I,  according  to  the
way  we  do?    Is  there  more  than      worship is important to Him.                words  of  this  text,  are  called  to
mere tradition governing our wor-              Yes indeed, this is a pertinent         worship Jehovah.

                                                                                            January 15, 1998/Standard Bearer/173


        Now  I  want  immediately  to         about God.   God Himself is in our          claimed by God's ministering ser-
emphasize what I consider a fun-              midst, in Christ Jesus!  If we truly        vant, "Beloved, called to be saints."
damental  truth  concerning  Re-              worship  Him,  we  enter  into  that        Amazing!  God greets us as His be-
formed  worship:    Worship  is  the          fellowship with the living God!             loved!  And we stand in awe be-
highest  expression  of  God's  cov-              That  is  absolutely  amazing,  a       fore  Him  and  worship  Him.   We
enant of grace.                               wonderful thing!  Immediately be-           express  our  praise  and  adoration
        To understand that, it is neces-      fore the worship service, as the or-        to the alone living God, our Father.
sary to have a proper biblical un-            ganist is quietly playing and you               But at the center of worship is
derstanding of the covenant.                  are contemplating the fact that you         the preaching of the Word.  That
        The  covenant,  as  God  has  re-     are now in the house of God, soon           Word  at  its  very  heart  is  God's
vealed it in Scripture, is that bond          to begin holy worship, it ought to          promise to His people, the assur-
of infinite love and fellowship that          amaze you!  God is a spirit!  And           ance  that  in  the  face  of  all  their
God  lives  within  Himself  as  the          He  is  ready  to  enter  fellowship        troubles  His  promise  will  be  ful-
triune God.  He is the covenant God.          with you in the highest expression          filled by Him who is faithful.
The three persons of the holy Trin-           of His covenant love!  Absolutely               Through the Word of the gos-
ity live a life of perfect fellowship         amazing!                                    pel, as it comes to us in that which
and love within the one divine be-                The most fundamental element            Paul  calls  "the  foolishness  of
ing.  That is God's covenant life.            in such fellowship with God is that         preaching," God in  Christ speaks
        But God has been pleased, out         of  conversation.    Conversation  is       to us His people.  He reveals Him-
of His own good pleasure, to take             at  the  heart  of  any  fellowship.        self  to  us  by  that  holy  conversa-
a people into that life of fellowship         Whether  we  speak  of  the  fellow-        tion.  He shows us His great glory,
and love.  He has been pleased to             ship of husband and wife, parents           the majesty of His being, His infi-
establish  His  covenant  with  a             and children, or of friends and of          nite holiness and perfect righteous-
people outside of Himself in Christ           saints within the one household of          ness.  He shows us His mercy and
Jesus. The eternal and infinite God           faith,  the  communion  that  they          love,  His  abounding  grace.    He
takes us into the fellowship of His           share is a communion of conversa-           makes known that He alone is God,
own family life.                              tion.  There is no fellowship with-         and He is good.  He makes clear
        When  you  and  I,  when  His         out such conversation.                      that  He  knows  us  through  and
people, come together to worship,                 We express our fellowship by            through.
that  blessed  reality  comes  to  its        speaking  to  one  another  of  our             He  doesn't  hesitate  to  expose
highest expression.  Worship is fel-          hopes and desires, our sorrows and          to us our sins and our weaknesses.
lowship  with  the  living  God,  the         fears, our joys and excitements.  By        He tells us that He has no fellow-
highest living expression of God's            conversation we seek  comfort and           ship with unrighteousness, that He
covenant of grace with us.                    encouragement to support us in the          will  surely  punish  all  workers  of
        To understand that covenant as        distresses  and  trials  of  our  lives.    iniquity, and that we ourselves are
a  relationship  of  fellowship  and          We offer sympathy and words of              sinners who cannot find fellowship
love  into  which  the  triune  God           comfort to those who need some-             with Him except first His justice is
takes His people in Christ, rather            one to help them through the bur-           satisfied.
than  an  agreement  or  contract,            dens and sorrows of life. All these             But He also gives us the good
adds a much clearer dimension to              things take place by means of con-          news  of our  everlasting salvation
the concept of worship.                       versing one with another.                   in Christ Jesus, of that salvation by
        Worship  is  a  covenantal  activ-        The expression of covenant fel-         which He separated us out of the
ity!                                          lowship with Jehovah is found in            human race, for reasons which He
        Have you thought of worship           the  conversation  of  worship;  for        alone knows--for there was noth-
in those terms?  Jesus Himself re-            worship is indeed a holy conversa-          ing in us which could cause Him
minds us of this when He says in              tion between God and us.                    to love us. He points us to Christ,
Matthew  18:20:    "Where  two  or                In our conversation with Him,           His  only  begotten  Son,  given  for
three are gathered together in my             we  do  not  approach  Him  flip-           us, willingly to walk the way of the
name,  there  am  I  in  the  midst  of       pantly, but with recognition of His         cross  that  we  might  be  partakers
them."    In  the  fellowship  of  His        greatness  and  infinite  glory.    We      of this such great fellowship, that
saints Christ appears, to reveal the          wait  to  hear  what  God  will  say.       we might indeed participate in cov-
love of the Father.                           We come in the consciousness that           enant worship with our God.  He
        We must realize that our com-         our help is in the name of Jehovah,         tells us of His counsel, of His will
ing together to worship is not sim-           who made heaven and earth.  We              which encompasses everything that
ply a social gathering.  It isn't just        recognize, therefore, that our wor-         takes place in heaven and on earth.
you  and  your  relatives,  some              ship cannot begin until God speaks.         He  reveals  to  us  great  and  glori-
friends,  and  the  preacher  talking         And then we hear the words, pro-            ous things!

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       And as God speaks to us His              In Psalm 96:9 we are called, lit-      commandment, where we are for-
people  through  the  preaching  of         erally, to prostrate ourselves, bow        bidden to take His name in vain.
the Word, as well as though those           with our faces to the earth, before            We do that, you know.  We do
other elements of the worship ser-          Jehovah in the splendor of holiness.       that all too often.  We sit in wor-
vice in which the minister speaks           Let us remember:  We worship  Je-          ship  with  our  minds  wandering;
in God's name, we also respond in           hovah, who is transcendent in His          we  sing  the  words  of  the  Psalter
speech to God.                              holiness.  The whole of Psalm  96          numbers, taking God's name upon
       To this great wonder that the        resounds  with  that  truth.    The        our lips, without any thought what-
Almighty God would speak to us              psalmist calls us to worship in that       soever; we do not concentrate dur-
and enter into covenant fellowship          consciousness.                             ing prayer.  And in all of this we
with us, our initial response is to             Bless  the  name  of  Jehovah!         profane the holy God.  Let us con-
praise  Him.    Shall  we  not  praise      "For the LORD is great, and greatly        fess that, shall we?
the exalted God who stoops so low           to be praised."  He is God alone.              It is amazing that God even lets
as  to  initiate  a  conversation  with         "Give unto the LORD the glory          us worship.  There is nothing in us
us?                                         due unto his name."  God is sover-         that makes us fit for covenant fel-
       So we speak to Him.  We speak        eign; we are but creatures.                lowship  with  Him.  We  who  are
to  Him  in  song.    We  praise  Him           It  is  an  astounding  privilege      conceived and born in sin, and who
with  the  singing  of  the  Psalms         that we may even enter His pres-           sing with the psalmist in Psalm 65
which He gave us to glorify Him.            ence; that He would converse and           that our "iniquities prevail against"
And in the songs of Zion that we            commune  with  us.    That  God  is        us daily, forfeit by our sins all right
sing, we not only praise Him, but           holy means that He is totally "set         to covenant fellowship with God.
we also enter into fellowship with          apart,"  completely  consecrated  to           That He is pleased to gather us
Him.    We  pour  out  our  souls  to       Himself  and  His  own  glory.    We       together and to dwell with us and
Him,  giving  expression  to  our           are  to  worship  Him  in  the  con-       converse with us is the great won-
deepest thoughts, our spiritual de-         sciousness that we stand before the        der of  His everlasting mercy and
sires and even the emotions of our          brilliant  light  of  the  splendor  of    love in Jesus Christ our Lord!  For
hearts.                                     God's holiness.                            God can only dwell in fellowship
       We enter into prayer, another            That means that we recognize           with those who are holy as He is
form of covenant conversation. We           that  we  do  not  approach  Him  as       holy.  And you and I are holy only
express  our  thankfulness  to  the         His equals.                                as  we  stand  in  Christ  Jesus,  and
God of our salvation, our Friend-               In the first place, God Himself        are indwelt by His Spirit.
Sovereign Jehovah.  We thank Him            is  so  infinitely  glorious  and  set         For  that  very  reason,  as  we
for  who  He  is  and  what  He  has        apart,  that  even  the  angels  cover     worship Jehovah in the beauty of
done for us.  And because He also           their  faces  with  their  wings  and      holiness, we do so recognizing that
would have us approach Him with             cry, "Holy, holy, holy, is Jehovah         this  holy  conversation  is  always
all  our  needs,  we  tell  Him  our        of hosts: the whole earth is full of       initiated by God Himself.  And He
needs and the needs of which we             His glory."  That is what we read          initiates this holy conversation sov-
are aware within His church.                in Isaiah 6:3.                             ereignly  and  powerfully,  so  that
       In our worship service there is          You  and  I  must  indeed  ap-         our part of the conversation flows
fellowship taking place between us          proach God in deep humility.  It is        from His work in us.
and  the  living  God.  And  at  the        of great significance that the term            That  is  why  those  in  whom
heart  of  that  covenant  fellowship       "worship" means to bow with our            God does not work cannot possi-
is a conversation that takes place          faces to the earth!                        bly worship Him. They may put on
between God and us.                             We come into the presence of           an  appearance  of  worship.    They
       Yet, let us understand, this con-    Him who alone  is perfectly holy!          may even put on a very enthusias-
versation must be a holy conversa-          And  therefore  we come,  not sim-         tic appearance of worship.  But the
tion.    For  we  are  called  to  "wor-    ply as creatures before the Creator,       man or woman who is outside of
ship the LORD in the beauty of ho-          but as sinners before a holy God.          Christ, who has not a true and liv-
liness."  That brings us to what I          That  must  be  our  consciousness         ing faith, cannot possibly worship
call  the  second  necessary  charac-       too. Else we will not worship Him          Him.
teristic of Reformed worship.               who alone is Jehovah, but we will              Worship  is  only  the  response
                                            worship a god of our own imagi-            to  God  which  is  effected  by  God
Holy Worship                                nations.                                   Himself.
       In worship we find fellowship            If we come before Him as if He             Our worship, when it is true,
with the Holy One.                          is our equal, we profane His name          spiritual  worship,  is  the  fruit  of
       Our worship therefore must be        and make it common.  And that is           God's powerful Word. That is very
holy worship.                               exactly  the  violation  of  the  third    clearly  taught  us  in  Psalm  27:8:

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"When  thou  saidst,  Seek  ye  my         against Him to come into His pres-           must  not  be  offered  to  God  in  a
face; my heart said unto thee, Thy         ence and to be received by Him in            slovenly,  superficial,  and  sinful
face, LORD, will I seek."                  worship--that is an amazingly gra-            manner.  Half-hearted worship is
    God  is  sovereign  in  all  the       cious thing.                                 an  abomination  to  Him.    I  called
work of salvation.  He is sovereign            But let us understand, God will          attention  in  the  introduction  to
in the establishment and realization       also determine how we are to wor-            those  scathing  and  condemning
of His covenant.  He is also sover-        ship Him.  That is what the second           words of Christ, "This people wor-
eign in that worship which is the          commandment  of  the  ten  is  all           ships me with their lips, but their
highest manifestation of that cov-         about.    How  shall  we  worship            heart  is  far  from  me."    Holiness
enant fellowship. When God says            God?  "Thou shalt not make unto              must  characterize  our  worship  in
to your regenerated heart, "Seek ye        thee any graven image, or any like-          every respect.  "Exalt the LORD our
my face," His speech is powerful,          ness of any thing that is in heaven          God, and worship at his holy hill;
efficacious, irresistible.  And there-     above,  or  that  is  in  the  earth  be-    for the LORD our God is holy" (Ps.
fore  you  enter  the  conversation.       neath, or that is in the water under         99:9).  Our worship in every respect
You worship Him in the beauty of           the earth. For I the LORD thy God            must be wholehearted devotion to
holiness.                                  am a jealous God."  He is jealous            the God of our salvation.
    If we understand this; if we en-       of His own honor, of His holiness.               So  we  are  called  to  worship
ter the sanctuary in the conscious-        And for that reason He tells us in           Him in fear.
ness of coming as sinners saved by         His Word how to worship Him.
grace into the presence of the holy            We  observe  in  our  day  a  ter-       Fearful Worship
Jehovah,  it  will  have  a  profound      rible  departure  from  this  truth.             "Fear before him, all the earth."
impact on how we worship.                  Scripture  tells  us  that  we  are  to          This call is a call to the church.
    No saint can enter God's pres-         worship Jehovah in the hearing of            Let  that  be  understood.  "All  the
ence in worship and then experi-           the  Word  of  God,  in  song  and           earth" marks this call as belonging
ence the riches of God's fellowship        prayer  and  offerings  and  sacra-          to  the  church  as  it  shall  be  gath-
without being deeply conscious of          ments. But people in our day want            ered out of all nations, tribes, and
His  own  unworthiness  and  the           more.  They  want  new  modes  of            tongues,  indeed,  from  the  entire
depths of God's mercy and grace.           revelation,  drama,  entertainment.          face of the earth. This Psalm is one
You  may  use  that  as  a  gauge  in      It is presumption.  For what it says         of the great missionary hymns, one
measuring how your own partici-            is  that  worship  must  be  pleasing        of the many prophecies in the Old
pation in worship measures up to           to me, not to God.                           Testament  where  Israel  was
this  biblical  standard.    How  con-         To many it has become a light            pointed to the universal nature of
scious are you of your own unwor-          thing to approach the true and liv-          the body of Christ.  The many lan-
thiness to be here and the riches of       ing God.  In presumption they as-            guages of the sons of Adam who
God's love and mercy revealed to           sume that God will accept any way            were  scattered  at  Babel  will  all
you?  For the result of such a con-        of their inventions, as long as the          blend  in  the  same  song  of  praise
sciousness will indeed be a hearty         heart is sincere.  So you ask people         when the Lord gathers His people
desire to render God praise.  "For         about  worship,  and  they  say,  "I         at Zion.
the LORD is great, and greatly to be       think we should do this, and I think             With that understood, we may
praised" (v. 4).                           we should have that.  I like this; I         consider that concept of "fearing"
    Furthermore,  to  worship  the         find that boring."  I, I, I.                 the Lord.
Lord in the beauty of holiness is to           And where is God in the beauty               That is not the fear of terror. It
worship in such a way that the en-         of His holiness?!                            is true that Scripture often uses the
tire  service  is  one  totally  conse-        God  forbid  that  we  approach          word  "fear"  in  that  sense.    After
crated to Jehovah.                         Him  with  such  presumption,  set-          all, the holy God cannot look upon
    Do you understand what that            ting  our  own  opinions  above  the         sin without great indignation. He
means?  That means that our own            very will of the Holy One!                   takes righteous offense at any at-
thoughts and desires and feelings              But let us also understand, such         tack upon His holiness.  And sin is
have nothing to do with what con-          sin is not seen only in those who            such an attack.  The judgments of
stitutes  worship.    Worship  is  for     have rejected the Word of God for            the holy God against sin cause the
God and God alone.                         human inventions in the worship              ungodly and unbelieving to shrink
    The God who is totally conse-          services of the church.  To worship          back in terror before the Judge of
crated  to  Himself  and  His  own         the Lord in the beauty of holiness           all the earth.  Those who are out-
glory  requires  the  same  from  us.      not  only  means  that  we  are  re-         side of Christ have every reason to
That  He  has  condescended  to  be        stricted  to  God's  own  will  as  to       live in terror before the face of the
approached  by  sinners,  to  allow        how we shall worship Him.                    holy  God.    Scripture  emphasizes
men and women who have rebelled                It also means that our worship           that repeatedly.

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    But we speak now to those who           is  only  twice  translated  by  the          to the will of Him who has saved
are in Christ Jesus, who walk not           word "fear" in the Old Testament.             us.
after the flesh, but after the Spirit,      The  other  use  is  found  in  I                    I  say  again,  worship  is  not
who are the objects of His perfect          Chronicles 16:30, where you have              self-serving.  When the fear of Je-
love.    John  writes  in  the  fourth      almost  a  parallel  song  to  this           hovah is lacking in us--and let us
chapter of his first epistle that per-      Psalm.                                        confess, it is often lacking--we use
fect  love  casts out  fear.   There  is        The  word,  in  the  picture  lan-        the name of our God in vain.  We
no fear of God in the fellowship of         guage  of  the  Hebrews,  is a  word          become guilty of intolerable arro-
His love.  That is, there is no fear        that pictures a woman squirming               gance.   Our worship must  reflect
in the sense of terror, being afraid        or writhing in labor.  You realize            the fear of Jehovah, profound rev-
of rejection and damnation.                 that a woman in labor is not com-             erence and adoration, and a desire
    Yet you and I are called to wor-        fortable.  Her mind is not wander-            to  do  His  will  and  to  be  faithful
ship Him in fear.                           ing  and  day-dreaming.    She  cer-          doers of the Word and not hearers
    Because the reference cannot be         tainly is not sleeping.  She can only         only.  Else it is not worship at all.
to  the  terror  of  judgment,  it  has     think about her labor and the joy                    From  the  moment  we  step
come  to  have  another  meaning,           that is soon to be fully realized in          through the doors of the sanctuary,
that  of  reverential  awe  and  holy       the birth of her child.                       and in fact even several hours be-
adoration, a fear inspired by deep-             The  idea  conveyed  by  this             fore, we must humble ourselves be-
est  love  for  God.    The  psalmist       term, therefore, is that in worship           fore the great Jehovah, seeking His
sings  of  this  fear  in  Psalm  19:9:     before the holy Jehovah we do not             face.    The  prayers  that  we  offer
"The fear of the LORD is clean, en-         "get comfortable," so to speak.  In           upon entering the sanctuary, seek-
during for ever: the judgments of           worship we labor to focus single-             ing His blessing upon the worship
the LORD are true and righteous al-         mindedly  on  the  Holy  God  in              service  and  the  preaching  of  His
together."                                  whose  presence  we  worship,  and            Word,  seeking  the  application  of
    That  idea  of  fearing  God  is        on the full realization of His glory          the Holy Spirit to our own hearts;
most  prevalent  in  Scripture.    Re-      as we shall experience in His fel-            the songs that we sing; the hearing
peatedly  God's  people  are  de-           lowship.                                      of  the  gospel;  all  the  elements  of
scribed as those who fear Him.  The             That doesn't come easy.  Wor-             the worship service must  express
whole duty of man is to fear God,           ship  is  hard  work.    It  is  difficult    that awe of God, without which it
and  to  keep  His  commandments,           because  we  are  attracted  to  that         is impossible to please Him.  And
according to Ecclesiastes 12:13.            which  is  concrete  and  visible,  to        when such fear is present, when we
    That fear of the Lord was even          that  which  entertains,  while  God          enter into fellowship with the Holy
possessed by Christ.  Even as ful-          requires the spiritual exercise of the        One, we will enjoy the blessedness
fillment  of  the  promise  given  to       heart.                                        of His favor and love.  Oh, to taste
Him in the Old Testament, in Isaiah             To worship Him in spirit and              of the wonder of His grace in tak-
11:2, the Son of God received the           truth,  therefore,  requires  tremen-         ing us into His own covenant fel-
Spirit of knowledge and of the fear         dous effort.  Proper worship is so            lowship!
of the LORD."                               to  fear  Jehovah,  to  stand  before                Yes, our worship is weak. We
    Search the  Scriptures, and in-         Him with a focused sense of love              fall so far short of this biblical call-
deed you find the fear of the Lord          and adoration.                                ing  in  worship,  that  we  ought  to
a prevalent and important concept.              Such  fear  of  God  is  to  be  so       hide  our  faces  in  shame.  But  we
    Here  in  Psalm  96:9,  it  is  re-     captivated by this great  salvation           come before Him in Christ.  And
vealed as an essential part of wor-         that  He  has  provided  for  us  in          when that is true, we not only con-
ship.  Nor is this the only such pas-       Christ Jesus, that we can only fall           fess our sins and receive His mer-
sage.    David  sings  in  Psalm  5:7:      before  Him  in  amazement  and               ciful forgiveness, but we also thank
"But  as  for  me,  I  will  come  into     deep reverence, to praise and ex-             Him for His Word, for this instruc-
thy house in the multitude of thy           tol Him who has been so merciful              tion  He  gives  us  in  how  to  wor-
mercy: and in thy fear will I wor-          to us!                                        ship  Him.    For  Jehovah  is  great,
ship toward thy holy temple."                   This  deep  love  for  God,  awe          and greatly to be praised.
    To fear God is to stand before          and reverence toward Him, is also                    "O  worship  the  LORD  in  the
Him with a deep sense of love and           expressed in a deep concern to live           beauty of holiness: fear before him,
adoration.                                  as obedient sons and daughters in             all the  earth."    May  God  give us
    But  the  word  used  here  in          His  household.  That  also belongs           grace to put to practice the calling
Psalm 96:9 is striking.  The word           to  proper  worship.    We  must  be          which He gives us, and so to teach
that is translated "fear" in this text      motivated  in  our  worship  by  a            the people which He has entrusted
is different from the word that is          strong  desire  to  do  that  which  is       to our care.   u
generally used.  In fact, this word         pleasing in God's sight, according

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                             The Songs of Zion:
        What Shall the Church Sing?
                                                                                                      Prof. Herman Hanko


Introduction                                                                               son  that  already  in  the  16th  cen-
                                             quainted  with  the  history  of  the
                                                                                           tury it was said of the Arminians
                                             church, especially since the time of
                                                                                           that they sang their way into the
It is my conviction, expressed in
   this  article,  that  the  Word  of       the Reformation, will know that ex-
   God requires the exclusive use                                                          church,  for  Arminian  error  flew
                                             clusive  Psalmody  in  the  worship
of the Psalms in the corporate wor-                                                        into  the  church  on  the  wings  of
                                             services acts as a deterrent to the
ship of the church.                                                                        songs other than the Psalms.  And
                                             introduction of heresy into the pul-
    The  assumption  here  is  the                                                         this  has  been  the  pattern  since
                                             pit.
regulative principle of worship, de-                                                       those days.
                                                     It is equally true that the sing-
fined in the Heidelberg Catechism                                                              Someone  phrased  it  correctly
                                             ing of songs other than the Psalms
(Q  &  A  96):  "What  doth  God  re-                                                      when  he  said:  "Let  me  make  the
                                             opens the door, not only to liturgi-
quire in the second commandment?                                                           ballads of a nation, and I care not
                                             cal  innovation,  but  also  to
That we in no wise represent God                                                           who makes its laws."
                                             unbiblical preaching.
by images, nor worship him in any                                                              The close relation between the
                                                     It is not difficult to understand
other way than he has commanded                                                            preaching  and  the  singing  in  the
                                             the reason for this.  Preaching and
in his word."                                                                              church is underscored by the fact
                                             singing  both  belong  to  worship.
    I  shall  not  argue  the  case  for                                                   that when reformation came to the
                                             Worship, when it is truly worship
the  regulative  principle  in  corpo-                                                     church,  such  reformation  always
                                             in  the  presence  of  God,  requires
rate worship, nor shall I make any                                                         included a return to the singing of
                                             harmony  and  agreement  between
attempt  to  explain  it  in  detail;                                                      Psalms.  Apostasy which brought
                                             preaching and singing.  It is pre-
knowledge of these ideas is presup-                                                        with it the desperate need of refor-
                                             posterous to imagine that a congre-
posed on the part of the reader. If                                                        mation  was  apostasy  in  doctrine,
                                             gation can listen in a satisfied way
there is any question about these                                                          in church government, and in lit-
                                             to heresy in preaching while sing-
things,  material  can  be  found  in                                                      urgy.  Reformation was a return to
                                             ing the songs of Scripture.  And it
many places written by many dif-                                                           the "old paths" (Jer. 6:16) in doc-
                                             is  equally  preposterous  to  think
ferent men.                                                                                trine,  church  polity,  and  liturgy,
                                             that  the  church  which  has  aban-
    It is the thesis of this article that                                                  and  thus  in  singing  by  Jehovah's
                                             doned the Psalms will long be sat-
the regulative principle of worship                                                        congregation.    Psalm-singing  is  a
                                             isfied  with  sound,  orthodox
requires the  use  of the Psalms  in                                                       part of these "old paths."
                                             preaching.
the church's worship.                                I  am  not  saying  by  this  that
                                                                                           Direct Biblical Proof
                                             there cannot be found some hymns
The Argument From History                                                                      Such proof from history, how-
                                             (by which I mean songs other than
    Although it is of greatest con-                                                        ever,  is  not  sufficient  to  make
                                             those based on the Psalms) which
cern to me to demonstrate in this                                                          Psalm-singing in the worship ser-
                                             express  certain  truths  of  God's
article how Scripture requires ex-                                                         vices an element incorporated into
                                             Word.    But  true  biblical  and  Re-
clusive  Psalmody,  I  shall  digress                                                      the regulative principle of worship.
                                             formed preaching is theocentric; i.e.,
momentarily and point out a few                                                            For that we need to go to Scripture
                                             it begins and ends with God and
facts from the history of the church.                                                      itself.
                                             His  glory.    Hymns  may  express
    Anyone  who  is  at  all  ac-                                                              The strong line of biblical proof
                                             themes  which  are  biblical  and
                                                                                           which we need can be found in the
                                             truths which are orthodox, but the
                                                                                           Old Testament Scriptures.
                                             body  of  hymns  taken  as  a  whole
                                                                                               Before the argument from the
                                             are  either  anthropocentric  or
                                                                                           Old Testament is laid down I must
                                             wrongly  Christocentric,  but  not
Prof.  Hanko  is  professor  of  Church                                                    once  more  make  an  assumption
                                             theocentric.    And  to  be  God-cen-
History  and  New  Testament  in  the                                                      clear on which the scriptural argu-
                                             tered is to be orthodox.
Protestant Reformed Seminary.                                                              ment is based.  The assumption is
                                                     It is undoubtedly for this rea-

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that the church of the old dispen-           God  of  Jacob,  and  the  sweet           sounded:  and  all  this  continued
                                             psalmist of Israel said, the Spirit        until  the  burnt  offering  was  fin-
sation and the church of the new
                                             of the Lord spake by me, and his           ished.
dispensation  are  one  church  of
Christ; and  that, therefore, an in-         word was in my tongue."
                                                                                          But the text is even more spe-
junction for worship given in the              One or two points are to be no-        cific.  We are told in verse 30:
old dispensation is binding on the
church of the new dispensation as          ticed here.  David claims for him-
                                           self  divine  inspiration  to  such  an      Moreover Hezekiah the king and
well.                                      extent that God's Word was in his            the  princes  commanded  the
    It  has  been  argued,  even  by                                                    Levites  to  sing  praise  unto  the
those  who  will  agree  that  the         tongue by the Spirit; and that the
                                                                                        Lord with the words of David, and
church is one in all ages, that nev-       words  he  consequently  spoke,  he          of Asaph the seer.  And they sang
ertheless  a  command  concerning          spoke  as  the  psalmist  of  Israel.        praises  with  gladness,  and  they
worship given to the church which          That is, he spoke for purposes of            bowed their heads and worshiped.
lived  in  the  times  of  types  and      giving the church her songs.
shadows is not valid for the church            That this was recognized in Is-            Nothing  is  clearer  than  this.
today simply because the worship           rael, and that the Psalms were sung        Scripture enjoins Psalm singing in
of  God  was  bound  to  the  temple       by  God's  command,  is  evident           the worship of the church.
and the rituals and ceremonies of          from the great reformation which
Old  Testament  times,  while  the         took  place  during  the  time  of         Covenantal Worship
church  today  is  free  through  the      Hezekiah, king of Judah.  As a part        and Covenantal Psalms
Spirit of Christ.                          of  that  reformation,  Hezekiah  re-          The third line of argumentation
    There  is  a  certain  superficial     stored to the church the pure wor-         must be made from the character
validity to the argument, but it is        ship of God.  II Chron. 29:25 reads:       of the Psalms themselves.  My ar-
not difficult to see that, carried out                                                gument here is that the Psalms are
consistently, the  argument would            And he (Hezekiah) set Levites in         deliberately inspired by God to be
                                             the house of the Lord with cym-
make  irrelevant to the church to-                                                    covenantal  in  form  because  wor-
                                             bals,  with  psalteries,  and  with
day  the  entire  moral  law  embod-                                                  ship itself is, in the deepest sense,
                                             harps, according to the command-
ied in the ten commandments.                 ment  of  David,  and  of  Gad  the      covenantal.
    The point here (a point which I          king's  seer,  and  Nathan  the              In order to make this point it
do not intend to argue in detail) is         prophet: for so was the command-         is necessary to go first of all to the
that, while the  form  of the admin-         ment of the Lord by his prophets.        New Testament Scriptures and pay
istration  of  God's  covenant  with                                                  attention  to  two  passages,  well-
His people (in the context of which            Again, one ought to notice in          known and usually quoted in the
worship took place) was changed            this passage that David, along with        debate  over  exclusive  Psalmody.
with  the  fulfillment  of  the  types     Gad and Nathan, and so by divine           They are the passages in Ephesians
and  shadows,  the  substance  re-         revelation, determined every detail        5:18, 19 and Colossians 3:16.
mains  intact  and  binding  on  the       of the worship of God that was to              Ephesians  5:18,  19  reads  (we
church  today  as  well  as  on  the       take  place  in  the  temple.    When      take here the more correct transla-
saints of the older times.                 Hezekiah  brought  reformation  to         tion of the RV):
    This  is  especially  true  of  the    the church, he restored the divinely
command  to  sing  the  Psalms,  for       ordained pattern of worship given            And  be  not  drunk  with  wine,
                                           to the church through David, Gad,            wherein  is  excess;  but  be  filled
the  Psalms  themselves  belong  to
                                           and Nathan.  It was by divine or-            with  the  Spirit;  speaking  one  to
that which is the possession of the
                                           dinance that this worship was or-            another in psalms and hymns and
church of all ages.  The Psalms are                                                     spiritual songs, singing and mak-
part  of  Scripture,  and  Scripture,      dered.                                       ing  melody  in  your  heart  to  the
also the Old Testament, is still to-           Although  verse  25  does  not           Lord.
day our rule of faith and life.            mention the singing, verses 27 and
    The argument, briefly stated, is       28 do:                                         Colossians 3:16 reads:
as follows.
    In  II  Samuel  23:1,  2  David          And Hezekiah commanded to of-              Let  the  word  of  Christ  dwell  in
claims that he is God's instrument           fer the burnt offering upon the al-        you  richly  in  all  wisdom;  teach-
in preparing music for the church:           tar.  And when the burnt offering          ing and admonishing one another
                                             began, the song of the Lord began          in  psalms  and  hymns  and  spiri-
                                             also with the trumpets, and with
  "Now these be the last words of                                                       tual songs, singing with grace in
                                             the  instruments  ordained  by
  David.    David  the  son  of  Jesse                                                  your hearts unto the Lord.
                                             David king of Israel.  And all the
  said, and the man who was raised           congregation worshiped, and the
  up  on  high,  the  anointed  of  the                                                   Here  again  I  must  point  out
                                             singers sang, and the trumpeters

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that I am arguing on the basis of          Why does Paul speak here of the            to each other; even teaching each
an assumption which I do not in-           need to be filled with the Spirit?         other--and,  of all things, admon-
tend to prove.  That assumption is             The answer to that question lies       ishing each other.  In singing there
that the three words used in both          emphatically in the fact that in the       is conversation and discussion go-
passages,  (psalms,  hymns,  and           new dispensation the whole congre-         ing on between the saints who are
spiritual  songs)  refer  together  to     gation sings, while in the old dis-        joined in singing.  That strikes me
the Old Testament Psalter found in         pensation the Levites sang.                as extremely peculiar.
the 150 psalms.                                If  you read carefully the pas-            In order to appreciate the force
    If anyone questions that, I re-        sages  we  quoted  above  from  II         of those startling expressions of the
fer such a one to the literature on        Chronicles, you will have noticed          apostle, we must remind ourselves
the  question,  which  is  vast  and       that the Levites did the singing, not      of the covenantal nature of worship.
compelling and which is prepared           the  whole  congregation.    This          It might not be without purpose to
by scholars who know more about            changes in the new dispensation.           point out, though in passing, that
the formal aspects of the Hebrew               Why the change?  Paul explains         the very nature of the covenant is
Psalter than I.                            that.  In the old dispensation the         at stake here.  If the covenant is a
    I  call  attention  to  one  point     Spirit was not yet poured out, and         treaty or pact or agreement based
only.    The  use  of  three  words  to    so the people of God did not pos-          on  mutually  accepted  conditions,
describe  one  document  is  not           sess that Spirit which made them           stipulations, obligations, and prom-
strange to the Scriptures.  One ex-        prophets, priests, and kings in the        ises,  the  covenantal  character  of
ample will suffice.  In I Kings 6:12       church.  There were special offices        worship is erased.  What is going
the  three  words,  statues,  judg-        of prophets, priests, and kings; and       on in worship is not God and man
ments, and commandments, are all           those who held these offices pos-          sitting down to discuss the condi-
direct references to the law of God,       sessed the Spirit--by way of prom-          tions  and  obligations  of  a  certain
though each word looks at God's            ise  of  another  age  to  come.    The    agreement which both hope to re-
law from a slightly different view-        Levites,  for  their  work  in  the        alize in time and through discus-
point.  So psalms and hymns and            temple,  possessed  the  Spirit.           sion.
spiritual songs all refer to the book      Hence, they did the singing.                   Worship  is  profoundly  spiri-
of Psalms, though each word con-               But now, with the dawning of           tual.  God and His people are liv-
veys a slightly different idea con-        another age, an age which begins           ing together in friendship and fel-
cerning them.                              with Pentecost when the  Spirit is         lowship.  Worship is the highest ex-
    Before I turn to these passages        poured out upon  all flesh, all the        pression here on earth of the great
to point out their significance for        people  of  God  possess  the  Spirit.     truth that the covenant is a living
the  question  we  face  concerning        No longer do these saints need the         bond  of  communion  between  the
singing  in  corporate  worship,  I        Levites to bring to them the Word          eternal  and  living  God  and  the
think it important to point out that       of God and sing for them so that           church  which  He  has  saved
the passage in Ephesians emphati-          the responsibility of "speaking to         through Christ.
cally speaks of the Holy Spirit as         one  another"  and  "teaching  and             This was already prefigured in
making it possible to sing in cor-         admonishing  one  another"  falls          the  temple,  for  the  temple  was  a
porate worship: "be filled with the        upon the Levites (See also II Chron.       concrete  symbol  of  God  and  His
Spirit...."                                  17:8, 9); they now possess the Spirit      people dwelling under one roof in
    Two  points  have  to  be  made        themselves--and  the  Spirit's  own         covenant  fellowship  with  each
here.  The first is rather obvious.        words in the Psalms--so that they           other.
The  Holy  Spirit  always  works  in       can speak to one another and teach             In the new dispensation this re-
the hearts of His people in connec-        and admonish one another.                  ality is achieved through Christ's
tion  with  (and  never  apart  from)          But these remarks are a bit of a       perfect work by which He becomes,
His own Word which He has given            parenthesis.  I am particularly con-       in His own body, the temple: "De-
to the church through infallible in-       cerned  with the words "speaking           stroy this temple and in three days
spiration.  If the Holy Spirit alone       to one another" and "teaching and          I will raise it up"... (John 2).
makes  singing  in  corporate  wor-        admonishing one another."  This,               Because worship is the highest
ship possible, then the Holy Spirit        the apostle says, is characteristic of     expression  of  God  in  fellowship
will use His own Word in the work          the corporate worship of the church        with  His  people,  there  is  a  holy
of  enabling  the  people  of  God  to     in her singing.  A strange descrip-        conversation going on in the wor-
sing.    That  Word  is  found  in  the    tion of singing indeed.  I wonder          ship,  for  conversation  lies  at  the
Psalms.                                    whether we even give any thought           heart  of  fellowship.    There  is  no
    The second point is not so ob-         to  this  aspect  of  singing--even         fellowship where there is no con-
vious; at least, no one seems to call      though we sing the Psalms.  When           versation.
attention to it.  The question arises:     we sing the Psalms we are talking              In  that  holy  conversation  in

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which  God  and  His  people  are           covenantal  character  are  the            fice" (50:5; see also vv. 6, 7-15).
speaking together, God's speech is          Psalms.  They are unique.                      No  free  songs  do  what  is
always  first:  first  logically,  first        I  am  not  arguing  that  certain     unique to the Psalms: a direct ad-
sovereignly,  first  creatively,  first     free songs can be found which ac-          dress of God to His people.  This
causatively.  Our speech is the ef-         curately express the truth of Scrip-       is essential to covenantal worship.
fect of which God's speech is the           ture.  I can sing with a great deal            Sometimes the Psalms are the
cause.                                      of  enjoyment,  "The  church's  one        speech of God's people to God, in
    This is of crucial importance to        foundation  is  Jesus  Christ  her         which speech they pour out their
an  understanding  of  Ephesians  5         Lord"; and, "Elect from every na-          hearts in praise and thanksgiving,
and Colossians 3.                           tion, yet one o'er all the earth."  I      in prayer and petition, in wonder
    There is conversation going on          am not arguing, therefore, that cer-       and awe.  These Psalms are to be
in the worship.  God is speaking.           tain  free  songs  are  not  accurate      found everywhere, for the Psalms
And  God's  people  are  speaking.          confessions  of  the  truth  of  Scrip-    are  often  prayers  uttered  before
God is speaking to the whole con-           ture.  I am not even arguing that          God's face.  "Be merciful unto me,
gregation;  and  the  congregation,         many free songs are prayers to God         O God: for man would swallow me
together, is speaking to God--and            set to music.                              up" (56:1).  "Deliver me from mine
also to one another; and to one an-             What I am arguing is that this         enemies,  O  my  God:  defend  me
other in the singing.  That is what         is  all free songs are.  And that is       from them that rise up against me"
Paul is talking about.                      not enough.  The covenantal char-          (59:1).  "Have mercy upon me, O
    Our worship is, after all, corpo-       acter of worship must be reflected         God,  according  to  thy  loving-
rate worship.                               in the singing of the church.  Only        kindness....  Against thee, thee only
    This too, I fear, is often forgot-      the Psalms do that.                        have I sinned..." (51:1, 4).
ten.  As I worship in the holy con-             A number of years ago, read-               Many times the Psalms are di-
gregation, I can easily be one indi-        ing the Psalms during our family           dactic, what we could probably call
vidual  in  a  sea  of  worshipers,         devotions, I took the time to write        confessions of faith.  The full range
thinking about and concerned with           down on a slip of paper precisely          of the truth is found in the Psalms,
my own personal relation to God,            who was speaking to whom in ev-            and no single truth concerning God
and forgetting that I am only one           ery part of the Hebrew Psalter.  It        in all His works is omitted in this
in the corporation of the body of           was an enlightening exercise.              marvelous Psalter.  I cannot begin
Christ.                                         While,  of  course,  in  a  certain    to list those Psalms here which are
    This is wrong.                          sense of the word God is speaking          such confessions, but I can remind
    I  am  reminded  of  one  of            in every Psalm because the Psalms          you of some of the Psalms which
Luther's prayers.  Luther liked to          are inspired by God, nevertheless          do so in familiar and much-loved
go through the Lord's Prayer and            in  some  of  them  God  addresses         words.    Psalm  23  is  perhaps  the
make  a  special  prayer  in  connec-       others  in  direct  discourse.    God      very  first Psalm  which  little  chil-
tion with each part of  the prayer          speaks to Christ, e.g., in Psalm 110       dren learn when they can scarcely
the  Lord  gave  us.    In  connection      and  Psalm  89.    God  speaks  to         lisp  the  words  of  the  AV:  "The
with  the  very  first  word  of  the       David  in  Psalm  132:11-18.    God        Lord  is  my  shepherd;  I  shall  not
Lord's  Prayer,  the  word  "Our,"          speaks  to  the  wicked  in  Psalms        want."   Psalms 25, 27, 32, 46,  48,
Luther prayed:                              50:16-23  and  2:6-9,  as  well  as  to    73,  and  many  others  arise  out  of
                                            kings in Psalm 2:10-12a.                   the confident belief of the saints in
  It is also Thy will that we should            But  mostly  He  speaks  to  His       the truth as it is revealed in Christ.
  not  individually  name  Thee  Fa-        people in a direct way.  A few ex-             In  many  of  the  Psalms  God's
  ther, but together call Thee our Fa-      amples will suffice.  "I will instruct     people are speaking directly to oth-
  ther and united pray for all.  So         thee  and  teach  thee  in  the  way       ers.  The variety of the list is as-
  give us a united love that we may         which thou shalt go: I will guide          tounding.    They  speak  in  the
  know and consider all to be broth-
  ers  and  sisters.    United  we  ask     thee with mine eye.  Be not as the         Psalms to workers of iniquity (6:8,
  Thee, our beloved Father, for each        horse, or as the mule, which have          9), to their own souls (16:2, 3), to
  and all, even as one child speaks         no  understanding:  whose  mouth           Jacob (24:6), to the mighty (29:1, 2),
  for another to its father.  Amen.         must be held in with bit and bridle,       to children (34:11-22), to all people
                                            lest  they  come  near  unto  thee"        (49),  to  God-fearers  (66:16),  to
    The  point  that  needs  to  be         (32:8, 9).  "Be still and know that I      judges (85:2-4, 6, 7).  God's people
made here is that the singing is car-       am God: I will be exalted among            have something to say to just about
ried on by the church in the con-           the heathen, I will be exalted in the      everyone  and  everything  about
text  and  as  a  part  of  covenantal      earth" (46:10).  "Gather my saints         God and His works.  Where in free
worship.    The  only  songs  that  I       together unto me; those that have          songs  do  you  find  anything  like
know which have about them that             made a covenant with me by sacri-          that?

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    Sometimes  God's  people  are           sing together.  I can and often do           alone  can  be  used  in  the  highest
very conscious of the fact that they        sing alone--especially when I am              reality  of  that  covenant  here  on
speak only what God has first spo-          driving  my  car  a  fairly  long  dis-      earth, the corporate worship of the
ken,  and  they  give  expression  to       tance.    It  is  interesting,  edifying,    church.
that:  "When  thou  saidst,  Seek  ye       uplifting.  Music does that.  When
my face; my heart said unto thee,           we are merry, James says, then we            Our Spiritual Biography
Thy face, Lord, will I seek" (27:8).        ought to sing Psalms.                            The last line of argumentation
    And  sometimes  everyone  is                But singing with others is dif-          for exclusive Psalmody has to do
talking together and the conversa-          ferent.    Singing  with  the  family        with another unique feature of the
tion almost gets so mixed up that           around  the  piano  does  things  to         Psalms.  The book of Psalms, taken
one can hardly tell who is talking          me.  Hearing my wife and the chil-           as a whole, constitutes a spiritual
(Psalm 91:9-16).                            dren sing together is moving.  And           biography of the people of God.
    In other words, the Psalms are          this  is  especially  true,  as  many            Let it be understood what I am
the only book of songs which ex-            families have testified, in times of         saying.  The Hebrew Psalter con-
press all the holy talk that is going       great  spiritual  crisis--when,  e.g.,        stitutes a biography for every child
on in the intimacies of covenant fel-       the  Lord  has  taken  a  loved  one         of  God;  and  the  Old  Testament
lowship  between  God  and  His             from their midst; or when one of             Psalter constitutes a  complete biog-
people, and between God's people            the family is in the hospital.  Sing-        raphy.  That is, not one single ele-
together.                                   ing  communicates  between  those            ment  of  the  spiritual  life  of  any
    Now,  it  is  to  this  latter  that    joined  in a song  in a way that is          child of God is omitted.
Ephesians 5 and Colossians 3 refer          different from speaking directly or              It would take more time than I
especially.                                 reading.    It  is  more  forceful  and      (or  the  Standard  Bearer)  have  to
    It is a little difficult to express     affective.  It is mysterious.  Each is       demonstrate this.  Nor need it be
this, but the simple fact of the mat-       singing to the others.                       done.  If you have doubts about it,
ter is that Paul emphatically states            When  the  church  of  Christ            read the Psalms.  That's all I can
that in singing the Psalms together         comes together, the saints sing to-          say.  I warn you ahead of time, that
in church we are speaking to one            gether.    They  sing  what  God  has        they are a spiritual biography, and
another, and teaching and admon-            said,  what  they  want  to  say  to-        you  yourself  must  be  a  spiritual
ishing one another.                         gether to God, what they must say            man  or  woman  to  recognize  this
    That is strange language which          to all the world about them, what            great truth.  But I assure you that
the apostle uses.  How often do we          they want to tell each other, what           it is all there.
really think of our singing in that         lives in their hearts and souls.  And            You may ask: What  does  this
fashion?    How  can  that  be  done        when through song together they              have to do with Psalm singing and
when a choir sings instead of the           speak to each other, they teach and          exclusive  Psalmody  in  the  corpo-
congregation?  How does that hap-           admonish each other as well.  The            rate worship of the church?
pen  when  songs  other  than  the          fellowship  between  God  and  His               Well, it has much to do with it;
Psalms  are  being  used,  Psalms           people  comes  to  concrete  expres-         but a few preliminary remarks are
which are written in such a pecu-           sion in the conversation of singing.         in order.
liar way that this sort of thing be-        The fellowship between the saints                In the first place, by "spiritual
comes possible?                             which is rooted in the covenant is           biography" I mean something defi-
    I am not sure that I understand         spoken of freely, joyfully: instruct-        nite  and  specific.    I  mean,  essen-
how  corporate  singing  results  in        ing,  comforting,  encouraging,              tially, that the Psalms are all, in the
speaking to one another and teach-          teaching, admonishing, and edify-            final analysis, Messianic.
ing and admonishing one another.            ing.  When I sing Psalm 23 alone                 It is true that some Psalms are
I  am  not  sure  I  understand  the        in times of great trouble, it is one         directly Messianic, and Christ Him-
"mystique"  of music.  Music is a           thing,  for  I  confess  before  God's       self is so clearly speaking in them
wonderful gift of God.  Music does          face  that  indeed  Jehovah  is  my          that  He  spoke  the  same  words
things  to  people.    Music  does          Shepherd.  But when, in the midst            when  He  was  on  earth  (Ps.  22).
things to the singer, as well as to         of these troubles, other saints are          Some Psalms unmistakably speak
the  one  being  sung  to.    Music  is     singing with me, they are also sing-         of Christ in a prophetic way, fore-
mysterious, ineffable, affecting one        ing to me and telling me that Jeho-          telling many things of Christ's suf-
in  strange  and  unexpected  ways.         vah is also their Shepherd, and they         fering, death, resurrection, and ex-
Music can do things which no other          have never lacked anything, even             altation--as well as His coming in
means  of  communication  are  ca-          in their greatest sorrows.                   judgment upon the clouds.
pable of doing.  I am not sure why              Because the Psalms are so com-               But all are essentially Messianic
this is true.                               plete in their descriptions of every         in the sense that Christ is speaking
    But  it  happens  when  people          aspect  of  God's  covenant,  they           in all of them of Himself; speaking

182/Standard Bearer/January 15, 1998


through His Spirit; speaking of His       speech  of  God,  the  Holy  Spirit          The saints must sing it.  They must
work--in  sometimes  unbearably            works in the hearts of the elect to          sing it in response to God's speech
poignant ways.                            make  that  very  word  spoken  in           to them.  They must express what
    But, and this is unique also to       preaching effective in the salvation         God has said to them in their own
the Psalms (it cannot be the char-        of the sinner. But that very Word            life and calling in the world.  Here
acteristic  of  free  songs),  Christ     preached is made effective by that           are these marvelous Psalms.  They
speaks  in  the  Psalms  historically.    work of the Holy Spirit when He              are, taken together, a divine biog-
That is, Christ speaks  through the       impresses the Word of God upon               raphy  which  is all-inclusive, con-
sweet  singers  of  Israel,  through      the consciousness of each saint.             taining everything that is included
those  who  sang  and  wrote  the             When I speak of the conscious-           in  the  life  of  the  believer  --  of
Psalms, through the church which          ness  of  each  saint,  I  refer  to  the    which the preaching speaks.  They
took the Psalms into their hearts.        saint in all the relationships of life       are God's interpretation of what He
Christ singing of Himself, yes.  But      in which he stands and which form            has  done  in  our  lives.    They  are
Christ  singing  of  Himself  in  His     a  part  of  his  experience  as  God        God's commentary on what is in-
glorious relation to His people as        leads him by His counsel step by             volved in that glorious work of sal-
their Savior and Redeemer.   And          step, moment by moment through               vation which is our portion here in
so, Christ is singing of Himself as       life, with all its joys and sorrows,         the world.
He lives in and through His people        burdens and trials, joyful moments               If only we will limit ourselves
and is the great power of all their       and sorrowful times.  The believer           to God's explanation of what hap-
life from here to glory.  Christ is       comes to church  as a sinner who             pens, we will not get involved in
singing  in  them;  and  when  they       has struggled with sin, fallen and           our own interpretation (which free
sing, He sings through them so that       broken; he comes out of the life of          songs so often do), nor in fantasy
their entire spiritual life is Christ     the week carrying heavy burdens,             experiences, which characterize so
in them.                                  weary  beyond  description,  thirst-         many hymns.  But we will say to
    And that brings up the second         ing for that which nothing here on           God and to one another only what
point that needs saying, especially       earth  can  satisfy,  overwhelmed            God Himself has said, first, to us.
because  we  are  talking  about  the     with  problems,  caught  up  in                  This is, by the way, the answer
corporate worship of the church.          Satan's  snares,  wounded  by  fiery         to a rather serious objection to ex-
    As I mentioned earlier, in the        darts;  in  desperate  need  of  help        clusive Psalmody.  I refer to the ob-
holy conversation that goes on in         which no man can bring.                      jection  of  some  that  the  Hebrew
worship  between  God  and  His               God  speaks  to  the  believer           Psalter  is  inadequate  to  express
people,  God  takes  the  initiative.     through Christ; but speaks so that           New  Testament  truth  in  all  its
His  speech  is  first  and  creative.    he  hears  the  voice  of  the  Good         riches because it is Old Testament
Our  speech  is  the  result  of  God     Shepherd,  knows  the  Shepherd,             truth revealed in types and shad-
speaking to us.                           hears his Shepherd call him by name          ows.  We need, so it is said, songs
    But let it be understood that in      (Jesus says, John 10), and the Spirit        for  Christmas,  Easter,  Pentecost,
Reformed  worship  this  is  exactly      speaks that Word preached to the             Ascension  Day.    The  Hebrew
why  preaching  is  central  to  wor-     sinning saint in the depths of his           Psalter is inadequate.
ship.    In  preaching,  God  speaks.     consciousness.  It is the power of               I reject the objection.
He speaks to His saints.                  preaching.  It is that which makes               The problem is not that the He-
    But--and here is the point that        preaching the power of God unto              brew  Psalter  is  inadequate.    The
needs so desperately to be made:          salvation to everyone who believes           problem is that we do not take the
God does not speak as  a lecturer         (Rom. 1:16).                                 time  to  understand  what  the
who wishes to educate His people              Christ  through  the  preaching          Psalter given us of God is all about.
in  a  given  subject;  nor  does  God    calls:  "Come  unto  me  all  ye  that           The fact that the Psalms are a
speak, as some ministers seem to          labor and are heavy laden."  And             spiritual biography erases the ob-
think, to entertain.  God has only        the Spirit presses that Word on our          jection.  Although to a certain ex-
one  reason  for  speaking  to  His       consciousness  so  that  we  become          tent the Psalms do reflect the dis-
people, and that reason is that by        aware of the great burden of our             pensation  of  types  and  shadows,
His  divine  and  powerful  speech,       sins  and  the  weariness  it  brings.       this does not mean that the Psalms
God saves.                                But that same Spirit impresses the           are  not  adequate  to  express  New
    Nor does God speak to save in         call of Christ on our consciousness:         Testament truth.  Again, if you are
a robot-like fashion, so that salva-      " Come to me!"  And by the power             doubtful of this, read them.  As a
tion goes on, while God is speak-         of the Spirit we say, "He is calling         matter of fact, the Psalms are less
ing,  mysteriously,  unconsciously,       me!"    And  we  flee  to  Him  who          Old Testament-like than any other
automatically.  Nothing of the kind.      alone can give rest.                         of  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures,
When  preaching  is  genuinely  the           But then, a song is announced.           with  the  possible  exception  of

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Isaiah 53.  Where does a particular         in Joseph's garden: "Thou wilt not         him, to his family, to death, to the
verse make a truth either obscure           leave  my  soul  in  hell,  nor  suffer    resurrection, to the world to come,
or  obsolete,  or  incomplete,  or  in-     thine holy one to see corruption."         yes, fundamentally and principally,
adequately developed because it is          Every  saint  still  hears  Christ  say    to Christ.
not written in the context of New           that, in his own consciousness, as             The  Psalms  are  his  traveling
Testament revelation and New Tes-           he looks forward to the full glory         companion in his pilgrim's sojourn,
tament truth?  You say: the Psalms          of the resurrection of his body in a       his road map, his torch to find his
are always talking about sacrifices?        time  yet  to  come.    So  he  sings:     way, his comfort and inspiration,
So does Romans 12:1, 2.  You say:           "Thou  wilt  not  leave  my  soul  in      his song book when talking to God,
The Psalms lack the full expression         hell...."                                  and always everything he wants to
of the truth of the resurrection, e.g.          The whole of the Christian life        say to God, to the world about him,
They do?  Remember, the Psalms              is there.  The birth of the believer       and to those with whom he lives
speak of the resurrection of Christ,        in God's providence; his salvation         in the company of the redeemed.
not  only  as  a  historical  fact,  but    in  Christ;  his  walk  in  God's  cre-        It must be that that is why my
they speak of the living Christ in          ation; his battle with sin; his con-       wife and I, when venturing out in
us as we experience His life in our         stant need of grace; his longing to        our songs together into the realm
resurrection  life.    Will  not  Psalm     enjoy God's gift of sleep when he          of hymns, always find ourselves re-
16, and, yes, also Psalm 17, do?  Pe-       is on his bed; his fears and terrors,      turning to the Psalms.  And that is
ter found it adequate to express the        struggles  and  sorrows,  joys  and        why we, and all who understand
truth of what happened in Joseph's          hopes--in  relation  to  God,  to  his      the Psalms, want to sing the Psalms
garden.  Peter heard Christ saying          fellow  saints,  to  the  world  about     in church on the Lord's Day.   u




                 The Force of the Second
             Commandment in Worship
                                                                                        Rev. Ronald VanOverloop

                                            ever  God  meets  with  them.  Wor-        122;  149).  The  second  purpose  of
                                            ship can be public or private. Pri-        public worship is the edifying and
                                            vate worship is the serving of God         building  up  of  the  church  collec-
                                            which  takes  place  wherever  God         tively  through  the  strengthening
The force of the second com-
       mandment  is  that  the  one
       true God is to be worshiped          meets with individuals or groups           and growth of the individual mem-
only as He desires. The nature of           of believers, such as families. Pub-       bers as part of the body of Christ
God, on the one hand, and the na-           lic worship is the serving of God          (Eph. 4:11, 12). Through the means
ture of God's fallen-into-sin crea-         which  takes  place  wherever  God         of  public  worship  the  people  of
tures, on the other hand, are such          meets with His people as the insti-        God are strengthened in their faith.
that God alone can determine how            tuted church on earth through the
He is to be worshiped.                      instrumentality  of  the  offices  He              333   333   333
                                            instituted in the church. God comes
        333    333    333                   to  His  people  to  fellowship  with          Next,  let  us  consider  the  sec-
                                            them and to bless them. His people         ond commandment. It reads, "Thou
    First, let us briefly consider the      approach God to serve and to wor-          shalt  not  make  unto  thee  any
concept of worship.                         ship Him as the God of their sal-          graven  image,  or  any  likeness  of
    Worship is the serving of God           vation in Jesus Christ, and to extol       anything that is in heaven above,
by His people whenever and wher-            His glory as manifested in His vir-        or that is in the earth beneath, or
                                            tues.                                      that is in the water under the earth:
                                                The first and chief purpose of         thou  shalt  not  bow  down  thyself
                                            public  worship  is  the  public  and      to them, nor serve them: for I the
Rev.  VanOverloop  is  pastor  of           united service and glorification of        LORD  thy  God  am  a  jealous  God,
Georgetown  Protestant  Reformed            God with joy and thanksgiving in           visiting the iniquity of the fathers
Church in Bauer, Michigan.                  an orderly manner (Ps. 35:18; 111:1;       upon  the  children  unto  the  third

184/Standard Bearer/January 15, 1998


and fourth generation of them that          question of the proper worship of            ment and discipline; the ministry
hate me; and showing mercy unto                                                          and maintenance thereof; religious
                                            God. This is evidenced in the ex-
thousands  of  them  that  love  me                                                      fasting; swearing by the name of
                                            planation of the second command-
and keep my commandments" (Ex.                                                           God, vowing unto him: as also the
                                            ment  as  found  in  the  Reformed
20: 4-6).                                                                                disapproving, detesting, opposing,
                                            creeds.                                      all false worship; and, according
    The second commandment for-                 On the continent of Europe the           to each one's place and calling, re-
bids the making of images of the            Heidelberg  Catechism  expresses             moving it, and all monuments of
one true God spoken of in the first         creedally  how  the  Reformers  ap-          idolatry.
commandment.                                plied the second commandment to              Q. 109. What are the sins forbid-
    Images of the one true God are          public worship. Lord's Day 35 of             den in the second commandment?
forbidden for several reasons. First,                                                    A. The sins forbidden in the sec-
                                            the Catechism speaks to the second
we  may not make an image of Je-                                                         ond commandment are,  all devis-
                                            commandment as follows.
hovah because of His freedom as a                                                        ing, counselling, commanding, using,
Spirit (John 1:18;  4:24). An image                                                      and any wise approving, any religious
                                              Q. 96. What doth God require in            worship, not instituted by God him-
attempts to comprehend the Incom-             the second commandment?                    self;  tolerating a false religion; the
prehensible  One,  to  control  and           A. That we in no wise represent            making  any  representation  of
limit Him. Second, we cannot make             God by images, nor worship Him             God, of all or of any of the three
an image of God because of His in-            in  any  other  way  than  He  has         persons,  either  inwardly  in  our
                                              commanded in His word.
finite  majesty  and  glory  (Is.  40:                                                   mind,  or  outwardly  in  any  kind
                                              Q. 97. Are images then not at all
25,27,28). God and His majesty are                                                       of image or likeness of any crea-
                                              to be made?
so infinitely great that man cannot                                                      ture whatsoever; all worshipping
                                              A.  God  neither  can,  nor  may  be
know God unless He is pleased to                                                         of it, or God in it or by it; the mak-
                                              represented by any means: but as
reveal Himself. And even then our                                                        ing  of  any  representation  of
                                              to creatures; though they may be           feigned deities, and all worship of
knowledge of God is not compre-               represented,  yet  God  forbids  to        them,  or  service  belonging  to
hension. Third, we  need not make             make, or have any resemblance of           them;  all superstitious devices, cor-
an image of God because of the na-            them, either in order to worship           rupting the worship of God, adding
ture  of  His  covenant  with  His            them or to serve God by them.              to it, or taking from it, whether in-
                                              Q. 98. But may not images be tol-
people in Christ. God has already                                                        vented and taken up of ourselves, or
                                              erated  in  the  churches,  as  books
established an intimate relationship                                                     received  by  tradition  from  others,
                                              to the laity?
of love, so He is very near us, in                                                       though under the title  of antiquity,
                                              A. No: for we must not pretend
our  mouths  and  in  our  hearts                                                        custom, devotion, good intent, or any
                                              to  be  wiser  than  God,  who  will
(Deut.  30:12-14;  Rom.10:6-9).  His                                                     other  pretence  whatsoever;  simony;
                                              have  His  people  taught,  not  by        sacrilege;  all  neglect,  contempt,
people do not need images to bring            dumb  images,  but  by  the  lively        hindering, and opposing the wor-
Him close to them.                            preaching of the word.                     ship  and  ordinances  which  God
    The  second  commandment's                                                           hath appointed. (emphasis mine--
prohibition of images speaks spe-               The Westminster standards re-            RVO).
cifically to the manner in which the        flect the thinking of the Reformers
one  true  God  is  worshiped.              on  the  British  Isles.    The  Larger            333    333    333
Whereas  the  first  commandment            Catechism presents the fathers' in-
rejects  all  other  gods  for  the  one    terpretation  of  the  second  com-            The  second  commandment
God, the second commandment de-             mandment and show clearly how              regulates  the  worship  of  God  by
termines the contents and manner            they believed it spoke about wor-          the church. This commandment de-
of the worship of Jehovah. It em-           ship.                                      nies  man  the  right  to  determine
phasizes that the one God is to be                                                     what belongs as an element of wor-
worshiped only in the way He com-             Q.  108.  What  are  the  duties  re-    ship.  Positively,  God  Himself,  in
mands, and not as man imagines.               quired  in  the  second  command-        His Word, prescribes the elements
                                              ment?
An image is the  effort of the  hu-                                                    of the church's worship. That fact
                                              A. The duties required in the sec-
man imagination to represent the                                                       that  this  right  belongs  to  God
                                              ond commandment are, the receiv-
deity,  which  representation  is             ing, observing, and keeping pure         clearly implies that man does not
thought  to  be  needed  to  regulate         and entire, all such religious wor-      have this right.
the  relationship  between  the  god          ship and ordinances as God hath              This is known as the "regula-
and its worshipers. Thus the sec-             instituted in his word; particularly     tive  principle."  It  is the  principle
ond  commandment  regulates  the              prayer  and  thanksgiving  in  the       that God is to be worshiped only
worship of the one true God.                  name  of  Christ;  the  reading,         in  ways  prescribed  in  Scripture.
    The  fathers  of  the  Reformed           preaching,  hearing  of  the  word;      The Heidelberg Catechism stated it
                                              the  administration  and  receiving
faith took the position that the sec-                                                  thus: "That we in no wise...worship
                                              of the sacraments; church govern-
ond  commandment  spoke  to  the                                                       Him in any other way than He has

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commanded in His word" (q. 96).            jealous God. Consider the history            the  general  rules  of  the  Word,
The  Westminster  Confession  de-          of the fire from the Lord which de-          which are always to be observed"
clares that "the acceptable way of         voured  the  priests,  Nadab  and            (I - 6). There is much in a worship
worshiping  the  true  God  is  insti-     Abihu,  because  they  offered               service concerning which no com-
tuted  by  Himself,  and  so  limited      "strange  fire  before  the  LORD ,          mandment  of  God  is  given,  such
by His own revealed will, that He          which He  commanded them not"                as the time of day of the services
may  not  be  worshiped  according         (Lev. 10).                                   and  the  length  of  a  service.  The
to the imaginations and devices of               In the new dispensation, the           regulative  principle  does  not  de-
men,...or  any  other  way  not  pre-      apostle  Paul  expressly  condemns           mand that there be a specific bibli-
scribed in Holy Scripture" (XXI, 1).       "will-worship"  (Col.  2:20-23).  In         cal  command  for  all  the  circum-
                                           this  passage  Paul  describes  will-        stances  in  a  worship  service.  For
         333   333    333                  worship  as  worship  according  to          example,  the  minister,  while
                                           the doctrines and commandments               preaching, may stand, though we
    The  second  commandment's             of men.                                      read  in  Scripture  that  Jesus  sat.
demand  that  God  be  approached              These  passages  of  Scripture           Also, the exact way in which the
and worshiped only as He has com-          support  the  second  command-               elements  are  to  be  present  in  the
manded does not stand alone in the         ment's  rule  that  it  is  the  will  of    service  is  not  detailed  for  us  in
Scriptures.  Elsewhere  the  Scrip-        God, not the will of man, which is           Scripture.  God  gives  no  explicit
tures expressly forbid man adding          to determine the worship of the one          command concerning the order of
anything  to  God's  commands  re-         true God.                                    the  elements  in  the  service,  the
specting His worship and His ser-                                                       amount of time to be given to each
vice.                                              333    333    333                    element,  etc.  In  such  cases  the
                                                                                        church has freedom, a freedom she
    "Ye shall not add unto the word            The application of the second            must always use with care.
  which  I  command  you,  neither         commandment to a worship service                 However, the way in which the
  shall  ye  diminish  aught  from  it,    requires the making of a legitimate          elements  are  present  in  the  wor-
  that ye may keep the command-            distinction between the "elements"           ship service is to be always one of
  ment of the LORD your God which          and the "circumstances" of a wor-            reverence, so that it is obvious that
  I command you" (Deut. 4:2).
    "What thing soever I command           ship service.                                the  Most  High  Majesty  is  being
  you, observe to do it: thou shalt            By "elements" is meant an item           worshiped.  Also  solemnity,  sim-
  not add thereto, nor diminish from       or  a  matter  which  is  included  in       plicity,  orderliness,  and  stability
  it" (Deut. 12:30).                       the  liturgy  of  the  service of  wor-      are  to  characterize  the  way  in
    "Every word of God is pure: he         ship. "Circumstances" refer to the           which the elements are present in
  is a shield unto them that put their     way in which the elements are in-            the worship service (I Cor. 14:40).
  trust in him. Add thou not unto          cluded or practiced in the worship           The way in which the elements of
  his  words,  lest  he  reprove  thee,    service. The elements which God's            the  worship  of  God  are  present
  and thou be found a liar" (Prov.         Word authorizes to be used to wor-           should not be ritualistic and strictly
  30:5, 6).                                ship Him are: salutation, blessings,         external  ceremony,  on  the  one
    Concerning the worship of God          singing of Psalms, reading of Scrip-         hand. And, on the other hand, the
in  the  tabernacle,  Moses  was  ad-      ture, prayer, the administration of          way in which the elements of a di-
monished to be careful to every de-        the two sacraments, offerings, and           vine  worship  service  are  present
tail God had shown to him when             chiefly the preaching of the Word.           should not be frivolous and enter-
he  was  before  God  on  Mt.  Sinai.      The regulative principle demands             taining.
"And look that thou make them af-          these elements to be a part of the
ter  their  pattern,  which  was           service.                                            333    333    333
showed  thee  in  the  mount"  (Ex.            The  regulative  principle  ap-
25:40 and Heb. 8:5). The detail of         plies to the elements of a worship               Just  how  forceful  is  the  force
God's  commands  concerning  the           service,  and  not  to every  circum-        of  the  second  commandment  can
construction of the tabernacle and         stance  connected  with  a  worship          be seen in God's use of the words
the use of the tabernacle for wor-         service.  The  Westminster  Confes-          "hate"  and  "love"  in  the  second
ship made it very plain that what-         sion declares that "there are some           commandment.
ever was not commanded was for-            circumstances concerning the wor-                God  describes  the  making  of
bidden.  Those  who,  contrary  to         ship of God, and government of the           images  of  Him  as  "hating"  Him.
such  clear  revelation,  worshiped        Church, common to human actions              This hating God by making of im-
God in another way became the ob-          and societies, which are to be or-           ages of Him arouses His jealousy
ject of the fearful vengeance of the       dered  by  the  light  of  nature  and       (Deut. 4:24). He pursues with an-
                                           Christian  prudence,  according  to          ger all who do not worship Him as

186/Standard Bearer/January 15, 1998


He has commanded, but are con-            which  makes  worship  real  and              as  He  has  commanded.  May  the
temptuous of Him. He is jealous of        true. Love of God is doing always             force  of  this  truth  be  ever  before
His glory and will not give it to a       what He wants us to do ("keep My              the consciousness of the instituted
mere  image  (the  fruit  of  human       commandments"), and doing that                church  as  it  determines  what  be-
imagination). He is jealous of the        especially in our worship of Him.             longs to a service of worship. And
total  devotion  His  covenant  wife          The  second  commandment                  may the force of this truth be ever
owes  Him.  Self-willed  worship          speaks  directly  to  the  worship of         before the consciousness of believ-
arouses  jealousy  in  God,  just  as     God.  It  specifically  demands  that         ers as they gather for worship, flee-
jealousy is aroused when one sees         God not be worshiped according to             ing mere formality and insincerity
his mate loving another.                  the imagination of man. Positively,           to love the one true God with all
    And in the second command-            it demands that God be worshiped              their  heart,  mind,  soul,  and
ment  God  says  that  it  is  "love"                                                   strength.   u



                    The Participating Pew
                                                                                                      Rev. Barry Gritters

Introduction                                  Participation of the pew can be           The Necessity of Pew
    It  should  be  a  given  in  Re-     lost, really, in two directions.  On          Participation
formed circles that all the members       the one hand, the pew can partici-                There are at least three reasons
participate when the church gath-         pate in the worship in an improper            the people of God in the pew must
ers for the public worship of Jeho-       manner ,  either  by  usurping  the           participate actively and consciously
vah  God.  Every  heir  of  the  Re-      place  of  the  duly  appointed               in  God's  worship  on  the  Lord's
formed  tradition  ought  to  know        officebearers or by involving itself          Day.
well the place of every believer in       in activities that are  not required              First, God demands active par-
the worship services of the church.       by Scripture.  By allowing this im-           ticipation by the pew because He
I would imagine that the Reformed         proper  participation,  the  church           requires worship from His  church,
officebearers present at this confer-     will inevitably  lose the  true  wor-         not only from the officebearers in
ence, because of their precious ref-      ship of God.  I will say something            the church.  Writing to the churches,
ormation heritage, simply assume          about that in the second section of           Peter says that they "should show
that each member will be actively         the paper.                                    forth the praises of" God.  The Old
involved in the worship.                      On  the  other  hand,  pew  par-          Testament calling of Israel to bring
    This--participation  of  the           ticipation  can  be  lost  by  a  rever-      their  worship  to  God  is  a  calling
pew--should neither be taken for           sion  to  the  mentality  of  Roman           not  to  a  select  few  people  in  the
granted nor assumed.   For as soon        Catholic sacerdotalism, where the             nation, but to the nation itself, as
as the Reformed officebearer makes        pew only observes the worship of              type  of  the  new  covenant  church
this assumption, either the church        the  priests  or  ministers,  but  does       of Jesus Christ.
will lose the necessary participation     not actually participate in the wor-              According  to  the  Reformed
of the pew, or will fall into dead        ship of God.                                  faith, the church (the new covenant
orthodoxy, which I define as a for-           I submit that there are always            Israel) is made up of believers and
mal carrying out of biblical man-         dangers for the Reformed pew on               their  seed.    (I  realize  that  among
dates without the support of head         both sides--the danger to partici-             confessing believers and their seed
or heart.                                 pate  improperly,  and  the  danger           are  also  some  reprobate,  but  that
    I pray that this paper will pro-      not  to  participate  at  all.      There-    does  not  alter  the  point  being
mote the biblical and Reformed un-        fore, I  would  like first to explain         made:  that  God  requires  worship
derstanding of the participation of       the  necessity of congregational par-         from the church as it manifests it-
the pew, so that we may present to        ticipation  in  the  worship  of  God,        self  on  the  earth.)    In  distinction
God an acceptable worship, a sac-         then to explain the  manner of that           from Roman Catholic ecclesiology,
rifice  well  pleasing  to  God,  to      participation, both negatively and            the Reformed faith holds that the
whom belongs all our praise.              positively.   Finally, I will give sug-       church  is  the  body  of  confessing
                                          gestions as to how this participa-            believers  and  their  children.
Rev. Gritters is pastor of the Protes-    tion can be promoted in the worship           Whereas Roman Catholic doctrine
tant Reformed  Church of Hudsonville,     of Reformed churches.                         holds that the church is made up
Michigan.                                                                               of  the  priests,  bishops,  cardinals

                                                                                                January 15, 1998/Standard Bearer/187


and  popes--the  clergy--Reforma-            my previous point.  We have just           priesthood, an holy nation, a pecu-
tion theology  holds to  the  priest-      established  that  worship  is  the        liar people; that ye should shew for
hood,  and  membership  in  the            means by which God brings us the           the praises of him who hath called
church, of every believer.   Thus,         benefits of our salvation.  But that       you out of darkness into his mar-
the people of God all must bring           is not to say that the primary pur-        vellous light," he meant: "This is
worship to God when they gather            pose of worship, or the great im-          the  purpose  or  end  of  your  elec-
together on the Lord's Day in the          portance of worship, is to receive         tion,  your  appointment  to  the
house of praise.                           the benefits of salvation.  The ulti-      kingly priesthood, and your setting
    (As  an  important  aside,  this       mate purpose of worship is to de-          apart as a distinct people: that you
shows  the  importance  of  doctrine       clare  the  great  worth  of  Jehovah      might bring me praise."  Although
for life, and the correlation between      God, the Father of our Lord Jesus          the KJV of Rev. 4:11 is a question-
theology  and  the  practice  of  the      Christ.   By definition, worship is        able  translation,  it  is  good  theol-
church.  What we believe about the         declaring the worth of God.  Our           ogy:  "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to
church directly affects the  behavior      English  word  "worship"  comes            receive  glory  and  honour  and
of the church.  I pray that this will      from the Anglo-Saxon word  weor-           power:  for  thou  hast  created  all
always be pointed out to the people        thscipe,   which  means  sounding          things, and for thy pleasure they are
of God.)                                   forth the worth of another; and the        and were created" (my emphasis,
    Second,  God  requires  active         biblical words for worship indicate        BLG).
participation  by  the  pew  because       a "bowing the knee towards" and                Forgetting this is why we par-
by participating rather than simply        "bringing praise to," another.             ticipate  wrongly.    Supposing  that
observing, the believer receives the           To  make  my  point  clear,  we        our benefit is the primary purpose
benefits  of  salvation  that  Christ      may ask which proposition the Re-          of  worship,  we  sometimes  com-
purposes for him.  What God has            formed man would choose as cor-            plain (perhaps justifiably) about a
joined  together  in  the  church--         rect if the alternatives were the fol-     worship service that did not edify
namely the hearing of the preach-          lowing:                                    us.  How often do we complain if
ing and the salvation of believers--        a. Salvation  is  the  goal  of  our       a  worship  service  does  not  bring
man must not attempt to put asun-          worship.                                   glory to God?   This consideration
der.  When Romans 10 teaches that          b. Worship is the goal of our sal-         ought to be primary in any analy-
salvation  is  linked  inseparably  to     vation.                                    sis of a Reformed church service.
the hearing of the preaching pro-              I contend, on the basis of Scrip-          To sum up: the pew must  al-
claimed by a "sent" preacher, we           ture, that the second is ultimately        ways engage in the public worship
obey.                                      correct, even though the first has         of God with these things in mind:
    But "hearing the preaching for         some truth in it.  We may say with-        1)  God  calls  the  entire  church  to
salvation" must not be understood          out hesitation that God's purpose          worship, of which each member is
in any other way than a  believing         in  saving  the  church  in  Christ  is    part;    2)  the  benefits  of  salvation
hearing.  To  hear  believingly  re-       that the church might worship Him          are received primarily by an active
quires  a  careful,  active  participa-    now and in eternity.  To put it dif-       involvement of the believer;  and
tion in the public proclamation of         ferently,  God  does  not  call  us  to    3) God saves His people with this
the Word.  A worshiper must "hold          worship Him in order that we may           design, that they might bring Him
onto the hem of His garment," and          be saved; He saves us in order that        the "worship due unto his name"
refuse  to  let  go  until  He  blesses    we might worship Him to His eter-          (Psalm 96:8).
him.  Any other manner of hearing          nal glory.
comes  under  the  classification  of          Choosing  only  two  familiar          The Manner of Pew Participation
"tempting  God,"  that  is,  asking        texts is sufficient to show the va-            If the danger of Roman Catholi-
God to give what He has promised           lidity of this point.  When God said       cism is to be feared, so is an over-
in a way that he has not promised.         in  Isaiah  43,  "This  people  I  have    reaction to this evil by an attempt
    God's way of salvation requires        formed for myself, they shall shew         to involve the pew in an illegitimate
of His people that they participate        forth my praise," it is plain that He      manner.  I will try to be brief here
in worship.                                meant:    "I  formed  them  in  order      as well, because I want to concen-
    Third,  active  participation  by      that  they  would  show  forth  my         trate our attention on the positive
the pew in worship is necessary be-        praise.  This is why I created them,       aspect of pew participation.
cause  the  worship  of  God  by  the      gathered  them,  and  shaped  them             The danger of an improper par-
church  is  the  purpose  of  God  in      to be what they  are: so that  they        ticipation  by  the  pew  is  that  the
saving the church.                         would be able to give me praise."          pew  either  violates  Paul's  com-
    At this point, many Reformed           When  Peter,  speaking  to  the            mand that everything be done "de-
believers  make  a  serious  mistake       church, said in I Peter 2:9, "But ye       cently  and  in  order"  (the  charis-
of  misunderstanding  the  truth  of       are  a  chosen  generation,  a  royal      matic error), or that the pew tries

188/Standard Bearer/January 15, 1998


to  take  a  leading  or  entertaining    this  nineteenth  century  phenom-             Perhaps inconsistent with this
role in worship (more the danger          enon, coming largely out of reviv-         principle--that  the  entire  congre-
some  Reformed  churches  have            alism, is out of place in Reformed         gation actively participate in every
fallen into).                             circles.  For generations, no soloist      element--is  (at  least  can  be)  the
    This negative point may be put        or quartet, choir or musical group         practice of the playing of an instru-
in  the  form  of  a  principle:  Re-     made its way to the pulpit of the          ment (organ) while the deacons re-
formed worship is carried out by          Reformed church.  But in the last          ceive  the  offerings.    I  cannot  see
the people, not for the people.  Or,      century, without explanation or de-        how the singing of a solo or a quar-
Reformed worship requires the ac-         fense,  they  became  so  common-          tet is different in principle from the
tive participation in every act that      place  even  in  Reformed  churches        playing  of  the  instrument.    Al-
they  possibly  can.   Or,  Reformed      that when new members join a Re-           though  the  playing  of  an  "offer-
worship is a communal activity, in        formed  church  that  lacks  these         tory"  will  be  viewed  differently
which all the worshipers are active       things,  a  good  deal  of  time  must     than  a  "special  number"  because
at every point.                           be spent explaining the history and        of its long use among us, it is nev-
    One  outstanding  example  of         biblical  principle  behind  the  ab-      ertheless the participation of one to
violation of this principle is the in-    sence of these special numbers in          help the whole worship better--the
clusion  of  "special  numbers"  as       our worship services.                      purported  purpose  of  all  special
part of the worship.  Beautiful as            In the late 1940s, the Rev. P.Y.       music.  Understand well, this is not
they  may  be,  special  numbers  by      DeJong wrote long series of excel-         said out of a desire to promote spe-
an  individual  or  group  (small  or     lent  articles  in  the  Banner  about     cial numbers during the offering or
large) should be saved for another        worship.  Understanding  "special          any other time.  I only submit that
occasion  than  the  public  worship      numbers"  to  be  a  danger  for  his      the  PRC  are  not  without  some
of the church.   At every point, the      denomination already then, he is-          slight inconsistencies in their hold-
congregation actively participates in     sued  a  warning  to  the  churches        ing to these principles of worship.
the worship of God.                       about  them:  "The  church  in  the        (Another example of which could
    Where there is singing, the con-      middle ages reduced believers to a         be  the  singing  of  the  beautiful
gregation  sings.    Where  there  is     state of nonage.  Instead of being         trinitarian hymn,  "Praise God from
confession  of  faith,  the  congrega-    active  at  the  time  of  public  wor-    whom all blessings flow ... praise
tion should recite a creed together.      ship,  they  were  present  in  the        Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,"  as
And although it is impossible for         church largely, if not exclusively,        the  beginning  doxology,  rather
the congregation to be active in the      as  silent  spectators.    A  dead  and    than a Psalm.)
same manner during the preaching          dread silence hung over the cowed              How  should  the  pew  partici-
of  the  Word,  nevertheless,  the        worshipers on the eve of the Prot-         pate  in  worship?    What  must  be
members are as active as they pos-        estant  Reformation.    One  of  the       said  about  the  congregation's  ac-
sibly  can  be  at  that  time--by  be-    outstanding  contributions  of  this       tivity in worship?   How may the
lieving, "kissing the Son," receiv-       new arrival was the restoration of         Reformed  officebearer  be  in-
ing the Word as truth.                    congregational singing to its right-       structed  to  build  up  the  worship
    If it is objected that the church     ful place in the house of God."            services in his congregation?   I will
of  the  old  covenant  had  special          As  church  history  shows,  al-       submit three particulars in answer
groups  worshiping  for  the  rest--       lowance of  "special numbers" in           to these questions.  And then I will
the Levites and the special singers       the  worship  services  inevitably         give  some  ways  in  which  the
and  players  of  musical  instru-        leads to the mentality that church         officebearer  can  promote  godly
ments--we  may  respond  that  the         is entertainment rather than wor-          worship among the members of his
Reformed officebearer should not          ship.  The Lutheran Soren Kierke-          congregation.
make such a hermeneutical and ex-         gaard put his finger on this danger            First, the people of God must
egetical  mistake.    The  Old  Testa-    when he remarked (although with            be  taught  to  participate  with  the
ment includes many practices not          a  not  altogether  happy  analogy)        proper  attitude.    Required  of  the
carried over into the New.  Now,          that "people have the idea that the        people of God is that they worship
because we confess the priesthood         preacher  is  an  actor  on  the  stage    with the desire to bring something
of all believers, we no longer ask        and they are the critics, blaming or       to  God,  rather  than  to  get  some-
"priests"  or  "Levites"  to  worship     praising  him.    What  they  don't        thing from Him.  In order to foster
for us.  To allow choirs to supplant      know is that they are the actors on        that  attitude,  the  people  of  God
any of the congregational singing         the  stage;  he  is  merely  the           must  learn  to  reverence  the   holy
is to detract from that great refor-      prompter  standing  in  the  wings,        God,  as  I  trust  Pastor  Steve  Key
mational principle.                       reminding them of their lost lines."       will have pointed out in his intro-
    The  history  of  Reformed            God is the object of worship by the        ductory address to this conference.
churches  brings  out  plainly  that      congregation.                              But that must be emphasized here

                                                                                          January 15, 1998/Standard Bearer/189


as  well.    The  people  of  God  will     remain intellectual.  The way to the           of the service is only introductory
not participate properly unless first       heart is the head.   The people of             to, or a warming up for, the ser-
of all their hearts are right.  They        God  must  think.    Away  with  the           mon.    Then  he  is  not  "listening"
must come to give the worship that          worship services that are so orches-           when the people of God confess to-
is due the majestic, holy, sovereign,       trated that the emotions have the              gether, "Our help is in the name of
gracious,  creator  God,  the  Father       primacy.                                       Jehovah,  who  made  heaven  and
of our Lord Jesus Christ!                       Let every Reformed believer be             earth."  He is not worshiping when
    How, pray tell, will that hap-          reminded  of  Paul's  warning  in  I           the commandments are read or the
pen unless they learn, in a rever-          Corinthians  14:  "I  will  pray  with         Psalms are sung.  He does not re-
ent atmosphere, that "God is great          the spirit, and I will pray with the           ally  make  the  congregational
and  greatly  to  be  praised"?    The      understanding also: I will sing with           prayer his prayer.  He seems to be
people  of  God  must  know  their          the spirit, and I will sing with the           interested  only  in  the  Word
God.    They  must  know  Jesus             understanding also."                           preached.  The mistake is that he
Christ--and not as a weak, pathetic              Worshiping without the intel-              sees the Word only in the sermon,
beggar who cannot accomplish his            lect  is  one  way  of  coming  under          and  forgets  that  the  Word  is  pri-
will, but as the sovereign Lord who         the  condemnation  that  God  pro-             mary in every aspect of the wor-
reigns as King over all.  A man will        nounced  on  apostate  Old  Testa-             ship.
not  worship  as  he  should  unless        ment Israel.  It is formalism--a go-                A notable illustration of weak-
this  reality  is  established  in  his     ing  through  the  motions,  doing             ness in this regard is the offerings.
heart.                                      what is right, without engaging the            I believe that gross weakness is ex-
    A delightful illustration of the        mind and directing it towards God.             hibited when the time to give our
truth that must be learned here is          The heart cannot be close to God               offerings  is  almost  viewed  as  a
found  is  C.S.  Lewis'  Chronicles  of     unless  the  mind  participates  in            "half-time."  Here the children go
Narnia.  Every few years I take the         worship.                                       out to the bathroom, the latecom-
time  to  read  these  books  to  the           A Reformed sermon addresses                ers  read  the  bulletin,  moms  pass
younger children in my family, as           the mind of the people of God, the             out  peppermints,  the  serious-
much for my enjoyment as theirs.            mind  of  every  person  present,              minded reads his pamphlet (and to
In that series, Lewis symbolizes the        young  and  old.    The  Reformed              include the preacher, the preacher
Christ with a great lion, Aslan.  Be-       preacher  understands  that,  today            finds the stanzas for his next song,
fore  the  children--Lucy,  Susan,           as well as 2500 years ago, "God de-            or reminds himself of his sermon's
and Peter--meet Aslan for the first          lights in obedience rather than sac-           introduction).  But precious few are
time, talking beavers answer their          rifice,  and  the  knowledge  of  God          meditating  on  the  act  of  worship
questions about him:                        rather  than  burnt  offering."      It  is    that giving gifts is.  Either the time
                                            striking to me that the Hebrew par-            of offering is an important part of
    "Ooh," said Susan, "I'd thought         allelism in that verse indicates that          worshiping  God  and  must  be
  he was a man.  Is he--quite safe?          the  knowledge  of  God  is  parallel          treated  as  such,  or  the  churches
  I  shall  feel  rather  nervous  about    to, and therefore an explanation of,           ought to put the box in the back of
  meeting a lion."                          obedience!  This--knowing God--                  the  building  for  the  money  to  be
    "That you will, dearie, and no          is the proper manner in which God              dropped  in  as  the  people  arrive
  mistake,"  said  Mrs.  Beaver,  "if
  there's anyone who can appear be-         wills to be worshiped!                         and not take the five minutes or so
  fore  Aslan  without  their  knees            Third, the people of God must              required to "pass the plate."
  knocking,  they're  either  braver        participate  in  every  element  of  the           There is work to be done prop-
  than most or else just silly."            worship.   With a proper attitude              erly to participate in every part of
    "Then isn't he safe?" said Lucy.        of humility and reverence, the Re-             worship.
    "Safe?" said Mr. Beaver.  "Don't        formed  worshiper  engages  his                    But even though there is weak-
  you  hear  what  Mrs.  Beaver  tells      mind and heart in all parts of the             ness in these other areas, no weak-
  you?    Who  said  anything  about        worship.                                       ness could be more serious than a
  safe?  `Course he isn't safe.  But            I detect that a danger for many            weakness with regard to the hear-
  he's  good.  He's  the  King,  I  tell
  you."                                     is that they may be prepared to lis-           ing of the gospel.  In this part of
                                            ten to the sermon, ready to hear a             worship, Jesus Christ speaks to His
    Second, the people of God must          good message, perhaps even to talk             people  as  really  as  when  He  did
participate with their intellect firmly     about it for a while afterwards, but           during His earthly ministry.  To be
engaged.   This is not to say that in       they are relatively unprepared for             in  the  presence  of  the  speaking
the Reformed worship service the            and  unthinking  as  regards  the              Christ without honoring Him with
intellect has the primacy.  It is to        other elements of worship. A man               attentive  ears  and  believing
say the worship service is and must         supposes,  perhaps  unconsciously              hearts--why, what could be more
                                            (to judge graciously), that the rest           tragically  evil?    Let  no  one  be

190/Standard Bearer/January 15, 1998


present  during  offerings,  singing,        out shame.                                 Lord's  Day  as  a  day  of  rest  and
and confessing faith, without active             Second, the elders can suggest         enrichment, instead of dreading it
and careful participation.  But God          ways for the people of God to  lis-        as a day of dreariness.
forbid that the people of God sleep          ten well to the preached Word.  The            A  commendable  way  to  pre-
or ignore the speech of the Son of           sermon is not the only element of          pare  for  the  worship  is  to  speak
God  to  the  church.    Here,  above        worship; but it is the most impor-         about the sermons both before and
all, we "kiss the Son."  On account          tant.  Thus,  the better the  people       after the service.  In this way, the
of failure in this, more than  any-          of  God  can  do  with  hearing  the       people will find it a joy to listen,
thing else, "his wrath is kindled"           Word, the more holy will be their          so that they can be ready to speak
(see Psalm 2).                               worship.  Some take notes on ser-          with  like-minded  believers  about
                                             mon outlines provided by the pas-          their  faith.    Probably  one  of  the
The Promotion of Pew                         tor.  Children too young to listen         most  difficult  things  for  a  pastor
Participation                                for concepts can be taught, even at        to understand (or is it humbling?)
    How can the officebearers pro-           the youngest age, to listen for cer-       is that after the worship is finished,
mote  godly  participation  in  wor-         tain words, making marks by the            the people can immediately begin
ship?                                        word  holiness  on  a  pad  of  paper      speaking about the car they bought
    I  would  suggest  that  during          each time that word is said,  Jacob        the day before, the fish they caught,
family visitation, a special point be        if the sermon recounts his history,        the meal they served.  I think we
made to discuss with the members             wisdom  or  some  other  key  word         can learn something from our Pres-
the urgent necessity of a worship            that  parents  can  certainly  antici-     byterian  brothers,  whose  confes-
that pleases the Lord.  I am encour-         pate by looking at the sermon title        sion is that it is sin not to rest from
aged  by the willingness of elders           or outline.  Children who have a           all  our  "own  works,  words,  and
to  talk  specifically  about  particu-      difficult time listening, or are fidg-     thoughts about their worldly em-
lar needs in the congregation.  Here         ety after ten minutes, can be asked        ployments and recreations" (Conf.
is  a  great  need:    proper  worship       to make notes of the sermon.  Any-         21:8).  The elders can help by mix-
by the members.  What need could             thing (within the bounds of rever-         ing with the people and encourag-
be greater?  The purpose of our sal-         ence  and  holiness)  to  keep  them       ing discussion about some positive
vation  is  worship!    The  minister        from  counting  bricks  or  falling        aspect  of  the  sermon.    Parents
must preach about proper worship.            asleep.                                    ought to ask questions of their chil-
But the elders must reinforce that               Finally,  in  connection  with         dren  at  the  dinner  table,  making
word  with  the  one  they  bring            hearing  the  Word,  the  members          sure that they are genuinely inter-
"from house to house."                       must be taught to  prepare for wor-        ested in the subject themselves.
    Among other things, I pray that          ship.    In  order  to  come  with  the        Some  prepare  for  the  Lord's
the  elders  would  encourage  the           proper attitude that God requires,         Day  by  reading  through  a  good
people of God in this way:                   the people of God must be encour-          commentary  on  the  Heidelberg
    First, the elders should see to          aged  to  prepare.    If  the  elders      Catechism, anticipating the sermon
it  that  the  current  trend  of  casual    would  do  nothing  else  than  this,      for the coming Sunday.  I have had
dress in worship does not catch on           and  the  Lord  would  bless  it,  my      more than one member tell me of
among us.                                    heart would rejoice.                       his  profit  from  reading  Herman
    It  may  seem  trivial  to  begin            The  Westminster  Confession  of       Hoeksema's Triple Knowledge as we
with this as a way for the elders to         Faith  claims  that  without  "a  due      proceeded through the Heidelberg
encourage proper worship; but I do           preparing of their heart, and order-       Catechism.  Having one's heart and
not consider it trivial whatsoever.          ing of their common affairs before-        mind on spiritual things through-
    I was astounded recently when            hand,"  the  people  of  God  cannot       out the week makes for eagerness
we  worshiped  in  a  conservative           keep  the  Lord's  Day  holy,  and         to come to God on the Lord's Day.
church away from home, and most              proper worship cannot take place           But any good Reformed literature
of  the  members  who  returned  to          (Conf. 21:8; see also Cat. 117, 160!).     will whet the appetite for worship.
God's house for the second service               Preparation for worship begins             Perhaps  best,  by  way  of  out-
(few  though  they  were)  came  in          already on Monday morning when             ward, physical preparation, is what
jean-shorts  and  tennis  shoes.    It       we begin to teach our children to          is done on Saturday evening.  Is it
cannot  be  said  categorically  that        look  forward  to  worship.    When        any wonder that worship is drudg-
casual dress is indicative of an ir-         they  learn  that  Sunday  is  the  be-    ery when the night before was late
reverent  heart.    But  it  usually  is.    ginning of the week instead of the         and busy?  How many of our fami-
Not for the praise of men, but for           end; that Sunday has the power to          lies  are  at  restaurants  until  late,
God's praise, we ought to wear our           bring us through this desert land          playing  cards  until  late,  doing
best.   Controversial, I admit.  Old         where all the streams are dry; they        books or finishing the wash or out
fashioned?  I accept the label with-         will begin to look forward to the          in  the  garage  until late  on  Satur-

                                                                                             January 15, 1998/Standard Bearer/191


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day night?  I have a difficult time             true, spiritual worshipers."               service will rarely be higher than
understanding  that  there  is  any                 The minister must prepare his          the heart of the pastor who leads.
heart  for  worship  at  all when  no           heart, and his mind.  He must think        Pray God to give us (make us) pas-
concerted  effort  is  made  to  be  in         about  the  songs  before  he  an-         tors who show their preparation to
bed  on  time  the  evening  before.            nounces  them.    What  will  the          the pew.
Has anyone ever done a study on                 people  think  when  the  minister              Pastors and elders, the respon-
the  Old  Testament  boundaries  of             shows that he hasn't even taken the        sibility is ours first of all.  Moats
the day as "evening and morning"?               time to consider which stanzas of          and beams, men.  And  our prepa-
What implications might there be                the Psalm to sing?   How can the           ration is not complete unless it has
for the church today if we consid-              people  be  eager  to  hear  the  law      led  us  to  say,  as  we  walk  to  the
ered the Lord's Day to begin Sat-               when, in a monotone, the minister          sanctuary,  "As  pants  the  hart  for
urday evening?  If all the families             reads the commandments with his            streams  of  living  water,  So  longs
(or individuals) spent the evening              mind  on  something  else?    Where        my soul, O living God for Thee; I
in quiet meditation, singing of the             will  the  heart  of  the  people  be      thirst for Thee, for Thee my heart
Psalms, reading a good book, the                when the pastor introduces the ser-        is yearning; When shall I come Thy
Lord's  blessing  on  our  worship              vice with the great apostolic bene-        gracious  face  to  see?"    When  we
would be rich.                                  diction, but with such lack of feel-       do,  I  believe  that  the  Lord  will
    Above  all,  the  preparation               ing that in the very same breath he        honor  that  preparation  with  a
must be spiritual.  It is a matter of           can announce the next song?  The           membership  that  participates,  to
faith.  All the outward things mean             spirituality of the people and the         His glory.   u
nothing unless the heart is right be-
fore God.  Each outward element                                           ANNOUNCEMENTS
of  preparation  must  be  exercised
with the desire of Psalm 27: "One
thing have I  desired of  the  L                                                                    WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
                                        ORD,                                                    With thankfulness to our heavenly Father
that  will  I  seek  after;  that  I  may                                                  we are privileged to celebrate, on January 24,
dwell in the house of the L                                  NOTICE!!
                                 ORD  all                                                  1998, the 35th  wedding anniversary of our par-
the days of my life, to behold the                  Classis West of the Protestant         ents and grandparents,
beauty of the Lord, and to enquire              Reformed Churches will be hosted                GERALD and BONNIE KUIPER.
in his temple."                                 by the Trinity Protestant Reformed              We are grateful to God for their love and
    But the Lord will not bless all             Church  in  Houston,  Texas  on            faithfulness to one another, as well as for all
the  elders'  talk  in  the  world,  un-        Wednesday, March 4, 1998, at 8:30          the ways in which they have given of them-
less  the  officebearers  themselves            A.M., the Lord willing.  All material      selves in His service throughout their married
are practicing what they preach.  I             for the classical agenda is to be in       life together.
often remark to people in my pas-               the hands  of the Stated Clerk 30               May  our  Lord  continue  richly  to  bless
toral work that, even if the mem-               days before classis convenes.  An          them in their marriage and uphold them in His
                                                                                           loving arms.
ber does what is right before God               officebearers'  conference  is  also            "Oh  how  great  is  thy  goodness,  which
in one respect, if he is not living             planned for Tuesday, March 3.  All         thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; which
before God honestly in another re-              meetings will be held at the J-Bar-        thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee
spect,  God  will  "dam  up"  His               J Guest Ranch in Sealy, Texas.  All        before the sons of men!" (Psalm 31:19).
blessings  to  the  man  until  he  re-         delegates  or  visitors  in  need  of      c    Gerald and Beth Kuiper
turns in a way of serious and genu-             lodging or transportation from the                 Jordan, Travis, Kelsey
ine  repentance.    Likewise,  the              airport  should  notify  the  clerk  of    c    Douglas and Pamela Dykstra
officebearers may speak until they              Trinity's  consistory,  Mr.  Ben                   Joshua, Justin
are blue in the face, but if their wor-         Hopkins, 5368 Franz Rd., Katy, TX          c    James and Karen Daling
                                                                                                   Nathaniel, Brandon
ship is not heartfelt, intelligent, and         77493, phone:  (281) 391-2368
                                                                                           c    Matthew and Tami Kuiper
with the proper attitude, the Lord                                       Rev. S. Key,      c    Timothy Kuiper
will likely not answer their prayers                                     Stated Clerk      c    Andrew Kuiper
when  they  plead,  "Lord,  give  us                                                       c    David Kuiper
                                                                                                                             Hudsonville, Michigan

192/Standard Bearer/January 15, 1998


