Loud Praise to Christ Our King

This Sunday we will be singing one of my favorite anthems of the early 20th century in worship. I don’t remember when I first sang Carl Mueller’s arrangement of “Come, Christians, Join to Sing”, but I have loved it for decades now … and that starts to make me feel a little old.
I thought of the second phrase in the anthem as I was reading from a worship blog written by worship leader and author Dwayne Moore (who just happens to be one of my college classmates). I haven’t read his book yet, but I hope to purchase it sometime in the near future. On his blog, Moore recently gave a list of Hebrew words translated “praise” in English.

Hallal: “to laud, boast, rave, to celebrate” - It is used approximately one hundred times in the Old Testament.
Yadah: “to worship with extended hands, to throw out the hands” - It is used over ninety times in the Old Testament. (Yad means “hand.”)
Barak: “to bless, to declare God the origin of power for success, prosperity, and fertility” - It is used approximately seventy times in the Old Testament as praise to God.
Tehillah: “to sing or laud” - It is derived from hallal and is generally accepted to mean “the singing of hallals.” It is used over fifty times in the Old Testament.
Zamar: “to pluck the strings of an instrument, to praise with song” - It is used almost exclusively in the Psalms and occurs approximately forty times in the Old Testament.
Todah: “to extend the hands in thanksgiving, a thank-offering” - It is used only a few times when translated “praise” but occurs many other times in connection with thanksgiving.
Shabach (Shebach): “to commend, address in a loud tone, to shout” - This is the exclamatory form of praise in a special sense and is found only about seven times in the Old Testament.

As I read those words, I was struck by how active the verbs are. There is nothing passive here. Yes, there is a time in worship to be quiet and listen; but reverence for God is also expressed in, as Christian Bateman put it, “loud praise to Christ our King.” Shall we be silent when scripture tells us to do otherwise? I don’t think we have that option. That’s enough to think about for now.

Another New Look at a Familiar Passage

I finally got caught up on my bible reading. If you’re not participating in the church-wide push to read the Bible all the way through this year, I strongly encourage you to do so. Because of familiarity with more standard translations like the KJV, NASV, NIV, I’m using Eugene Peterson’s THE MESSAGE. It’s fascinating to realize that I have just read an otherwise well-known passage but didn’t recognize it at all because of how Peterson translated the Koiné Greek into this decade’s vernacular English. It’s fresh … AND challenging.

Today I read Mark’s account of healing of the Gerazene demoniac. Check out how Peterson renders the last part of the story:

Those tending the pigs, scared to death, bolted and told their story in town and country. Everyone wanted to see what had happened. They came up to Jesus and saw the madman sitting there wearing decent clothes and making sense, no longer a walking madhouse of a man.

Those who had seen it told the others what had happened to the demon-possessed man and the pigs. At first they were in awe – and then they were upset, upset over the drowned pigs. They demanded that Jesus leave and not come back. (Mk. 5:14-17, MSG).

As I was reading that, a thought struck me:

I wonder if we do the same kind of thing nowadays. We think it’s wonderful that Jesus transforms lives … until it costs us. I wonder what our herds of swine are, and I wonder if we unwittingly ask Jesus to leave and not return.

It’s not the first time I have had this thought. It’s even possible that the thought is not original with me, but that it came from someone I heard somewhere in the past.

He didn’t harp on it or belabor the point, but Mike Ruffin said it last week: Serving people means that things can get messy. Do you remember that he said that he got the flu at Christmas? … and that it was probably from someone that his church was ministering to? That’s messy. Jesus didn’t tell us that serving others would be easy, neat, or inexpensive … He just told us to do it.

That’s enough to think about for now.

Eugene Peterson's Take on Mt. 7 and Mt. 9

We are leading our congregation through a year of reading the Bible through. There are many ways of doing it. We're starting with the New Testament and then going to the Old. Because of the familiarity of the more traditional translations (KJV, NKJV, NASV, NIV, etc.), I have chosen to use Eugene Peterson's THE MESSAGE. I know it's more of a paraphrase than a translation, but with his credentials and knowledge of the Greek and Hebrew, Peterson is incredibly qualified to paraphrase scripture authoritatively. He could probably quote it in Greek ... I know he has taught from it in Greek, translating "on the fly" as he taught.

His take on a couple of passages from Matthew chapters 7 and 9 grabbed me by the throat earlier this week.

Don't pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults -- unless, of course, you want the same treatment. That critical spirit has a way of boomeranging. It's easy to see a smudge on your neighbor's face and be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own ... Wipe that ugly sneer off your own face, and you might be able to offer a washcloth to your neighbor.
Don't be flip with the sacred. Banter and silliness give no honor to God. Don't reduce holy mysteries to slogans. In trying to be relevant, you're only being cute and inviting sacrilege. (Mt. 7:1-6, MSG)

Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick? Go figure out what this Scripture means: "I'm after mercy, not religion." I'm here to invite outsiders, not coddle insiders." (Mt. 9:12-13, MSG).

That's enough to think about for now.

Sally Morgenthaler interview

In the 1990's Sally Morgenthaler wrote WORSHIP EVANGELISM. Her pilgrimage has taken her beyond the scope of that book. A friend (thanks, Mark) sent me this link this morning. There is too much here to be contained in a blog of reasonable length. The interview is about 25 minutes. Allow yourself about a half-an-hour to get there and stream the whole thing ... and prepare to have things to think about:

Updated link (3/31/09) http://archives.allelon.org/articles/article.cfm?id=534

http://www.allelon.org/articles/article.cfm?id=534.



Also of interest is this print article Morgenthaler wrote (from the May/June issue of Rev! Magazine):

http://www.allelon.org/articles/article.cfm?id=402

Not exactly how I planned it

I really don't have time to do this, but I need a brain break from my work before I go get the toothpick (age 16 ... 5'10" tall and 110lb. soaking wet) from school so we can drive to a neighboring town so he can retrieve his nice heavy jacket (definitely needed these past couple of days) from the movie theater where it has been since Sunday night (long story ... couldn't have been his fault because he left it by accident, not on purpose).

On New Year's Day as I was waiting for the toothpick to drive me to Wal-Mart (still working on getting our hours in so he can get his license), I used the few minutes I had to go under the house and replace the main filter in the hvac system. While under the house, I heard the distinct sound of water dripping from a pipe onto the plastic moisture barrier we have down there. I had to investigate ... and learned that Providence had placed me under the house just as a pipe was failing so that I could repair it myself instead of having to call a plumber on an emergency basis.

Any ordinary day, the situation would have required a quick trip to the local True Value, buy the parts, come back and install them ... probably 45-minutes total to fix the leak. But it was New Years Day and we're a small town. Thankfully Lowe's in the next town over was open, but only until 6pm. It was a 60 mile round trip (which feels really long if you've lived in small towns for 15 years ... which we have) for parts costing $2.75 including tax (and I could have gotten by with less, but I bought teflon tape even though I thought I still had some from a previous plumbing job).

So the toothpick got a little more driving time than we had set out for, and by the time we got back home and I got the repair completed it was time to help get supper ready (we had guests coming) and I lost the time to do with the boys what I had originally planned to do: open an air-rifle that a dear friend gave us a couple of years ago for their use whenever I felt they were ready to learn how to handle one and teach them how to shoot. I don't know when we'll get to do that, but we aren't leaking water under the house any more.

It wasn't exactly how I had hoped to spend the afternoon, but God is still good. One day we'll learn how to shoot.