BIBLICAL EXPRESSIONS OF PRAISE ACCEPTABLE IN PUBLIC WORSHIP
Nehemiah 8:6
Morning Meditation 10/29/16
Verse 6 says, “And Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God. And all the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands: and they bowed their heads, and worshipped the LORD with their faces to the ground.”
I try to avoid controversy. So what I am about to write is not intended to offend or cause controversy. However, I do believe that those who are open to what the Bible says on this subject can be encouraged by looking at the Scriptures.
I have heard remarks made about certain external responses by people in a Baptist church, and these remarks were intended to identify a person or persons with a denomination because of a particular expression of praise, i.e., such as raising the hands or saying “praise the Lord!” Even a hearty “amen” is too much for some people. A lot of what is believed as proper expressions of praise are cultural or what the preacher learned by whoever taught him. When a person forms his beliefs on the basis of culture or opinion two things happen. First, he can get strong support for his views which does not make it right. Second, he will suffer for those views and will gladly offend people over them. He will attack people who do not agree with him and make fun of their disagreements. This is the only authority he has. If you can’t prove your view by the Bible, opposition will frustrate. A frustrated person becomes hostile and attacks the opposition on personal grounds, tries to make them look like fools, rather than deal with the issue on Biblical grounds. One of the things that Baptists have believed over the years is that the Bible is our only rule of faith and practice. The claim is good if we practice it. When we do not practice it, people get confused. Especially young converts who can find no Biblical basis for what the preacher or people are opposing. So lets look at what the Bible says on this subject.
The text we are using today is Nehemiah 8:6 where Ezra opened the Book in the sight of the people. This was the holy Scroll, i.e., the Word of God. Ezra was standing above the people on a pulpit made for the purpose. I really don’t think it was a glass pulpit. You know, sell yourself so you can sell your product, kind of thing!!! I believe they put him up so the people could see and hear who was speaking. What was the peoples response? They stood out of reverence and respect for a man of God reading the Word of God. Was this necessary? No. But I’m glad they did it. It is a good illustration of an acceptable response to the reading of the Word of God. What else did they do? They said, “Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands: and they bowed their heads, and worshipped the LORD with their faces to the ground.” There are three responses that are identified in this verse. First, they said amen. It was an external expression of agreement with what Ezra was doing and saying. This is a very acceptable response on the part of a congregation to what the preacher is saying in his sermon or lesson. I think there are times when the visitors think the preacher is the only one who believes what he is saying. The pastor is actually supposed to be the voice of the whole church. Amen? If he is saying what you believe, there are times when and “Amen” is in order. There was also the “lifting up of the hands.” Oops! Here is where Baptists start having problems. Why? Well, you say, “This kind of external expression is what the ....’s do!! I’ll let you fill in the blanks. The lifting up of hands is not a doctrine. If it does identify one with a group who does this, what of it? How far are you going to go to keep from identifying with a group? Are you going to quit knocking on doors because the JW’s knock on doors? Are you going to quit preaching on the Virgin Birth because you might be identified with the Roman Catholic Church? Why don’t you admit that there is nothing wrong with what these people are doing when they say “amen” and “raise their hands in worship?” If that is the only place you disagree with them, you need to receive them as brethren in the Lord. Our basis for non-fellowship ought to be Biblical (doctrinal) and not what one does as an external expression of worship, especially, if it was practiced some place in the Bible and not condemned. Let me explain what I mean. In First Corinthians eleven the church at Corinth perverted the Lord’s Supper. We are told what they did. Someone might say, “It is ok to do what they did because it was a practice in the Bible.” The only thing wrong with that is that Paul does not only tell what they did, but he tells us that what they did was wrong. He also tells us what God did because of what they did. Read it for yourself. There is nothing in the Bible that suggests that saying “Amen” and “lifting up the hands” in worship is wrong. There is something else they did. The bowed their heads to the ground and worshipped. So there are three external expressions mentioned in this verse that were the responses of the people in public worship.
Psalm 32:11 says, “Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, ye righteous: and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.” This is a Psalm of David. Not that that makes any difference. It is the inspired Word of God. Before I go any further, I want to establish Biblical authority for the use of the Psalms in New Testament worship. Ephesians 5:18-20 says, “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” So we are authorized by the Bible in the New Testament to use the Psalms in praise to God as an acceptable external expression of the filling of the Holy Spirit in a Baptist church. This Psalm says, “. . . and rejoice, ye righteous (a saved man is righteous on the basis of faith; Rom. 5:4): and shout for joy . . .” The word “shout” translates “ruwa” and means, “to shout, raise a sound, cry out, give a blast.” He is not talking about doing this in a whisper! The word “blast” and “cry out” have an evident meaning. So the shouting of a “righteous” (one who has the imputed righteousness of Jesus and is walking accordingly) man is in order as an external manifestation of the joy of the Lord in his heart. You say, “Well, as long as they do it in the Spirit, it’s ok.” I want to ask you, “Who is to be the judge of whether it is in the Spirit or not?” There are some cases where it may be obvious to all. But God has not called us to make this judgment.
I think I told the story once before of an old lady who was in the habit of shouting in this nice city church when something was said that thrilled her. Well, she caused the preacher to lose his place in his manuscript! So the preacher told a couple of deacons to carry her out then next time she did it. Well, sure enough, the preacher said something that thrilled her and she stood and began to shout. The two deacons walked down the isle to where she was. One got her by one arm and the deacon by the other and there they went carrying her out. Just as she was carried from the auditorium she shouted, “Praise God, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on one and I’m riding out of this church on two!”
Psalm 47:1 says, “O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph.” Here the clapping of the hands is urged as an external form of praise to God. I must admit that when I first heard people of the congregation respond to things they liked by the clapping of the hands, I thought they were adopting something from the world and bringing it into the worship service. I read through the Psalms every month in my quiet time. I kept coming across this verse. Then I began to examine the clapping of the hands in the worship services. I began to recognize that the people were responding spontaneously to something all of them enjoyed. And most of the time they were responding to a doctrine or precept taught in the Scripture that the preacher was emphasizing. Now I join them!
The Bible ought to be our only rule of faith and practice in the area of our subject just as it is in all doctrine. You might say, “It bothers me when people shout or raise their hands, or clap their hands in the worship service.” It is ok for you to have your own tastes. It is wrong for you to judge someone who is using these forms of external expression. It is wrong to say that these practices are Unscriptural when they are not. May I suggest that you may need to change your mind if it is not in harmony with Scripture? Especially if you are offended by it. We ought never to be offended over a Biblical practice. I am not saying that you should shout or raise your hands or clap your hands in worship. That is between you and God. But you should grow enough in grace to allow the Scriptures to change you when you are wrong. I have been changed in many areas over the years. And some of those changes were grievous. I have discovered that it is easier to accept the Scriptures where I do not have an opinion, than it is where I have to put away something that I have been taught that was wrong.
You say Preacher, “Are you telling me that you would be comfortable in a Pentecostal Church?” I will tell you this. Their shouting and hand raising wouldn’t bother me a bit. I might even join them if something was said that caused joy that would make me want to do it. Where the hair would get in the butter, is when I got up to preach. You see there is a definite difference in doctrine. And those differences are Biblical beliefs.
Christians in Baptist Churches ought to be allowed, without criticism, to express their joy externally, as long is it is taught in the Scriptures by precept and example.
If you don’t agree with this meditation, you have my permission to put it in “file 13". I still love you.
May the Lord bless these words to our hearts.
In Christ
Bro. White
