Bible Discussion Thread

- Worshipping and praising our great and mighty God -

Psalm 66:4

"All the earth shall worship thee, and shall sing unto thee; they shall sing to thy name. Selah."

It is so important that worship and praise (especially with a ministry) exalts God and only God. What do I mean? The modern worship I've seen in my life often hosts pop bands in the church and the worship and focus always magnifies the musician...or the music director...or the name on the ministry. It's almost never about Christ Jesus, Holy Ghost, God the Father (the Godhead). We hear that in beautiful well known old hymns like "Holy, Holy, Holy." I'm younger in age than most but was raised on the great hymns and gospel music from 75 + years ago.

Psalm 150

"Praise ye the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power. Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according to his excellent greatness. Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the psaltery and harp. Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs. Praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon the high sounding cymbals. Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD."

We have to really appreciate the importance of worship in praise. What great way to honor God than to sing everything from your soul to Him. I've never felt called to any other part of ministry but to worship. I'll leave the preaching to someone better qualified with that calling.

Does someone have a favorite gospel song or hymn that you always go to when you need to praise at any given time?

Psalm 34

Good afternoon Daniel,

"Holy, Holy, Holy" is one of my favorites as is "Great is thy Faithfulness" "Before the Throne of God I come" and many others. I also worship God with "contemporary" songs that exalt God more than our selves. The "old" hymns are good for us and I pray that many younger believers will discover them as good for worship.

But David, in Psalm 33:3 says to: "Sing to Him a new song, Play skillfully with a shout of joy." There is a place for both "old" standbys and contemporary songs in worship. Look at all of the "new" songs David wrote over his lifetime!

I do agree that worship leaders, pastors, and congregants need to resist the performance focused, entertainment quality in their worship. It has taken over most churches that switched to primarily contemporary music in worship. It was not like that in the early days of contemporary music in churches, but the carnal aspect of church services took over fiercely. I pray we can bring it back to a more proper way of worshipping together.

Those are some very wonderful and anointed hymns you shared. Great is Thy Faithfulness I learned while worshipping on piano one day and had to stop playing just to focus on what the words said. I learned the Spanish version when moving to Mexico and found that it's fairly close to the original. Sadly, Mexico imitates everything done in the United States and churches no longer play hymns (except certain Baptist sects and the olde Methodists).

Those old gospel songs and hymn had the Bible in them. Today people write songs that just don't go very deep like, "God is love, God is good...good is God. Yeah!" In the past we had words like this to worship to:

Alas, and did my Savior bleed

And did my Sovereign die?

Would He devote that sacred head

For such a worm as I?

Was it for sins that I had done

He groaned upon the tree?

Amazing pity, grace unknown

And love beyond degree

My God, why would You shed Your blood

So pure and undefiled

To make a sinful one like me

Your chosen, precious child?

Well might the sun in darkness hide

And shut His glories in

When Christ, the mighty Maker, died

For man, the creature's, sin

Thus might I hide my blushing face

While His dear cross appears

Dissolve my heart in thankfulness

And melt my eyes to tears

My God, why would You shed Your blood

So pure and undefiled

To make a sinful one like me

Your chosen, precious child?

That hymn later became another great one which was "At the Cross."

Very Lovely!

Daniel,

I agree. Church today is quite different than what it was in the early church. Today, it seems as though it's about how many people we can pack into the church. There are ministries that base their success on the number of people they have in attendance. I mean, the more people the better, right? I can't help but think about the times in the gospels when large crowds began to gather around Jesus, how He would remove Himself from those crowds. And also the times when crowds started gathering and Jesus turned to the crowd and began to teach a message, and those crowds left. They weren't there to worship Him or to be taught from Him. They wanted to see more miracles. They wanted to be entertained. We see that in our churches today. How many of those in attendance are there to hear the word verses being entertained. Some churches draw people in by offering things that appeal to the flesh, free potluck, free BBQ, and other forms of entertainment just to get people to come. But as you say, worship is what it's all about. We shouldn't go to church to be entertained. We go to be spiritually fed. But how many would stick around for two hours just listening to the word and singing a few hymns if there was no entertainment? For some, that's boring. I think it would be fair to say that as we sit in church, our flesh does not want to be there. But we have to reject what our flesh wants, discipline ourselves, and submit ourselves to Christ and the hearing of His word.

As to my favorite gospel song or Hymn, I would say that I have many. A couple that come to mind are "Blessed Assurance," and one by Alison Krauss and the Cox Family called "I Know Who Holds Tomorrow."

Amen and Amen! I played "I know who hold tomorrow" only a short few weeks ago. Gospel favorites of mine are: In the Shelter of His Arms, There is a Balm In Gilead, Unworthy of the Blood (this is a song from the 60's...but still holds), Rise and be Healed, The Blood will never lose it's power, etc. I play worship on many instruments but ultimately it comes down to an old fashioned acoustic piano. No lights, no P.A.s, no synthesizers, no fog machines...just everyone there worshipping God. The thing I love is I can finish the worship and no one has to pat me on the should and say "Great job Dan, that was some great piano playing." Nope, everyone is focused on God and that's who we need to be saying 'great job' too but even that to God are small words.

The modern church is about getting numbers (more money), dark stages with neon lights, P.A.s set to not only play contemporary pop/rock/country but they also play secular music now, worship leaders who come to the stage imitating secular musicians and the worship is focused always on the person. The people get energy to put their hands in the air or some will jump like it was a Deep Purple concert but that's really an energy that music has. Music of the world has the spirit and energy of Satan and that controls people. I did a music study on this about 4-years ago where I'd play a contemporary song and then play a clip of a secular song with similar lyrics/music and ask someone to tell me the difference. This is the falling away that was written in the Holy Bible.