Psalms  147:1: “Praise ye the Lord, for it is good to sing praises unto our God, for it is pleasant and praise is comely.”

Some  people tend to think that worship only takes place with music.  Actually, everything that takes place during a church service is worship.   But we tend to break down our church services to titles like Prayer, Sermon, announcements, offering and worship and of course worship is the music portion of our services.  When we are alone and feel the need to worship God we put on a CD of music. Unless we have music we are just not going to be able to worship God.  Electronic recordings have changed the face of our worship.  How did people before Thomas Edison ever worship God outside a church.  Actually, music was never really a part of the church until a couple hundred years ago.  Yea, it was even considered sinful to have music in the church. Music was considered the devil’s playground and the music of Bach, Beethoven and the other masters was considered about as radical as rock music is in the church today.  When music was finally accepted in the church it had to be the singing of Scripture and nothing else. Songs that had the words invented by man could not be honoring to God, let alone open the door to praise and worship.

In no way do I intend to belittle or condemn worship music.   David was a musician and even said: “It is good to sing praises unto our God.”  But what is a poor slob like me to do when it comes to worship.  I can’t sing, my taste in music is limited and to find music I find appealing, I would need a time machine to locate it.  Hence the music I have found in the vast majority of the churches is not my dream date. I would get jealous of the many others around me who fall into a swoon when they hear some three note I like God melody and I get nothing out of it.  I’d like to go into a swoon myself during worship service but they just don’t play my kind of music anymore.  I mean I just dig their jazz.  Heck even my idioms are outdated. Sometimes I get the feeling that the music program in a church is more of a form of entertainment than it is worship. It is used to heighten the emotion like a good rock concert or a drug and that warm and fuzzy feeling is called an anointing not an emotional stimulation which any form of art is intended to create.

Yet in Judaism where we find our heritage of worship it is the study and recitation of Scripture, helping the poor and needy and prayer that forms the basis of their worship. The other day I was in Starbucks and the young man at the counter gave me a cup of tea on the house. When I asked him way, he said it was a mitzvah.  Whether it was my coat identifying me as a disability worker, or my cap with the name Chaim Bentorah that prompted him to do a mitzvah (good work) I am not sure but I did not argue the point as he was Jewish and for him this was an act of worship to God.  Sometimes we mistake someone stopping to help and then suddenly disappearing without a thank you like the Lone Ranger as an angel unaware when it was just a good Jewish person performing a mitzvah as a personal act of worship to God from which they are to receive no thanks or reward. The point is that all these forms of worship do not involve music.  We tend to associate music with worship as it is music that arouses us emotionally and there seems to be some unscriptural belief that if a service does not move you emotionally, you have not worshipped God.  Yet, just because I am musically dysfunctional, does not mean that I cannot worship God.  It is just that I don’t get the emotional high that some do with music that is dominating the church today.

If praise and worship are meant for God, why is it that we expect some spiritual high in return. When a Jew performs a mitzvah, he does not expect any thanks as it was done as unto God and he is to get no reward.  Yet, we Christians have to get a real liver shiver in our worship service, we have music that turns us on, music that appeals to us so we can feel something otherwise we are just not worshipping God.  It seems we Christians, especially in the charismatic circles have moved the byproduct of praise and worship that thrill or joy, into an expectation of worship.  Our intimacy with God must be satisfying to us, must meet our needs, must make us feel good or dog gone it we will just leave our first love and go into that red light district and find a god that will meet our needs and satisfy us.

When I look at Psalms 147:1 I find that it is has nothing to say about worship, I do not find the word shacah (worship) anywhere in this verse.  I find this verse only speaking of praising God.  We even rightfully call many of our church services praise and worship.  We acknowledge that praise and worship are two different things in our church bulletin or sign on the front lawn but when we get into the church we treat it as one and the same.

The word used for praise in Psalms 147:1 is halal which is to make one shine, or to celebrate.   When you celebrate, everyone is supposed to get happy.   Note how that applies to this verse, it is good to sing celebrations to God.   The word good is the Hebrew word tov which means to be in harmony.   The word sing is zamar which means to cut or prune or divide as with rhythmical numbers. This is not just singing, but dancing as well.  What David is saying is to celebrate, honor God, or make Him shine, with rhythms that are in harmony with God both in singing and dancing.  This verse goes on to say it is pleasant.

The word for pleasant is na’am which is another word for glory, beauty, and delight.  To dance and sing in harmony with God is a form of glory, beauty and delight.   Song and dance in any culture is a source of joy and beauty.  To sing and dance in harmony with God brings forth the joy of the Lord.

So maybe I am not quite with the modern music in our churches and I don’t dig their jazz (if you will forgive my old fogeyness). However, that does not mean I cannot sing and dance in harmony with God.  Because that is what it is all about, just being in harmony with God.  In joining with the saints in harmony with God I can feel the joy of the Lord whether I like the music or not.  When I am alone with God I can sing and dance with Him and feel His joy.  Our bodies have a rhythm, our blood flow in a rhythm and our heart beats are all in rhythm.  God has a rhythm and the closer our rhythm gets to the rhythm of God, the greater we feel His joy and His pleasure.   I tend to pace the floor as I pray and it does not take long before I run out of things to pray.  Well, I can continue my pace in a sort of dance and just enjoy being in harmony with God. Song and dancing creates a rhythm that draws me closer to the rhythm of God.  That is praise and it is pleasant and  comely (na’ah – beautiful, refreshing). And then there is something else called worship which music can be a part of, but so can many other things.

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