Tag: Psalm 33

Links for today’s readings:

Feb 12  Read: Proverbs 3 Listen: (3:05) Read: Psalm 33 Listen: (2:08)

Scripture Focus: Psalm 33.3

3 Sing to him a new song; 
play skillfully, and shout for joy.

Reflection: Worship Greatly

By John Tillman

Do you have an inner “worship critic”? I do.

I have decades of experience and expertise in planning, producing, and performing in large worship gatherings in addition to being a musician, singer, theater performer, and director. Any public performance, whether in person or on television, activates my inner critic to analyze the event.

It’s one thing to critique the quality of a worship service. We should always care about doing things with excellence for God’s glory. We must “play skillfully.” However, my expertise and experience aren’t always objective. Neither are yours. There is often a grey area between quality and preference.

Federico Villanueva reminds us of a variety of worship styles, stances, and volumes in Psalms.

“It has been said that there are two kinds of worshipers: the “Joy to the World” type and the “Silent Night” type. The latter like solemnity and silence, with matching candles. The former like it noisy, with worship viewed as celebration. The beauty of the Psalms is that they show that there is a place for both types.” (Federico G. Villanueva, Asia Bible Commentary Series)

The orchestration notes for some psalms indicate masses of loud instruments like cymbals and trumpets. (Psalm 150.3-5) Some psalms specify tender-sounding tunes such as “Doe of the Morning.” (Psalm 22) No style is excluded from “sacred” music.

Psalm 33 turns the volume up to eleven. “Shout for joy” (v. 3) means a cheer of victorious celebration. We are not well acquainted with the victory shouts one might have heard from ancient armies, but we are acquainted with the shouts of sports stadiums when one’s team has won a championship. Like it or not, worship can be like that. Worship can also be totally silent.

The vital quality of worship is not volume. Worship is not about a great production which meets our preferences or standards, but a great God. To worship properly, quiet your inner critic and distinguish between critiques of preference and quality. If a singer is pitchy or an instrument too loud or a sermon too long, but God is glorified, we should be able to say “amen.”

If the readings, prayers, music, and sermons point to God’s greatness and the gospel, I can deal with a less than perfect service. However, high production values can’t save services that mute or miss the gospel.

Don’t mistake your preferences for quality. “Shout to the Lord” and “be still and know he is God.” (Psalm 46.10) Worship God greatly, always

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer

Come, let us sing to the Lord; … For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. — Psalm 95.1, 3

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more: Wearisome Worship

When we misrepresent God outside his house, our worship within his house is wearisome rather than welcomed.

Wearisome Worship

Read more: We Need Renewal — Worldwide Prayer

Please forgive our failures in thought, speech, and action, those we omit as well as those we commit.

We Need Renewal — Worldwide Prayer

Psalm 33.1-3
Sing joyfully to the Lord, you righteous;
   it is fitting for the upright to praise him.
Praise the Lord with the harp;
   make music to him on the ten-stringed lyre.
Sing to him a new song;
   play skillfully, and shout for joy.

Reflection: Easter—The Happy Beginning
By John Tillman

We return again this Easter Monday as last, to consider the challenge of N.T. Wright, in Surprised by Hope, to celebrate Easter fully. After all, Easter is not a happy ending. It is a happy beginning.

I regard it as absurd and unjustifiable that we should spend forty days keeping Lent, pondering what it means, preaching about self-denial, being at least a little gloomy, and then bringing it all to a peak with Holy Week, which in turn climaxes in Maundy Thursday and Good Friday…and then, after a rather odd Holy Saturday, we have a single day of celebration.

… Is it any wonder people find it hard to believe in the resurrection of Jesus if we don’t throw our hats in the air? Is it any wonder we find it hard to live the resurrection if we don’t do it exuberantly in our liturgies? Is it any wonder the world doesn’t take much notice if Easter is celebrated as simply the one-day happy ending tacked on to forty days of fasting and gloom? It’s long overdue that we took a hard look at how we keep Easter in church, at home, in our personal lives, right through the system. And if it means rethinking some cherished habits, well, maybe it’s time to wake up.

Easter is not the “end” but the beginning of our new, joyous life in Christ. We don’t get to go back to “normal” even if we go back to what we gave up for Lent. Normal is dead. Going back to normal means crawling back into the tomb. If we are to live in Christ, it must be a new kind of living.

If, like Cleopas, we try to find happiness and joy by going back to Emmaus, Jesus will intercept us. If, like Peter and the other disciples, we try to find fulfillment going back to fishing for fish instead of fishing for men, Jesus will call to us from the shore with breakfast cooking on a fire.

Easter is a season in the church calendar, not a day. But in our lives, it can be an evergreen season that blooms throughout the year. Let us abandon our destinations for his, and let us leap out of our boats, swimming to shore when he calls.

Let us see what the risen Christ will say to us today.

Prayer: A Reading
“Did not our hearts burn within us as he talked to us on the road and explained the scriptures to us?” There they found the Eleven assembled together with their companions, who said to them, “The Lord has indeed risen and has appeared to Simon.” Then they told their story of what had happened on the road and how they had recognized hi at the breaking of bread.  — Luke 24.32-35

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

Today’s Readings
Leviticus 26 (Listen – 6:22) 
Psalm 33 (Listen – 2:08)

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“Waking up” to Easter may be a disruptor to our ordinary lives. If we are honest, we’d rather get on with the world now. We want to go back to winning at life and move past all of this gloomy suffering and servanthood.

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Mary of Bethany may have been the only disciple who realized Jesus was about to die a sacrificial death. But it seems only his enemies remembered that Christ also promised to come back to life.

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