Lyrical Poetry - Dr. Mark D. Roberts
Ancient Psalms and Modern Technology
Praise the LORD. Praise God in His sanctuary;
praise Him in His mighty heavens.
Praise Him for His acts of power;
praise Him for His surpassing greatness.
Praise Him with the sounding of the trumpet,
praise Him with the harp and lyre,
praise Him with tambourine and dancing,
praise Him with the strings and flute,
praise Him with the clash of cymbals,
praise Him with resounding cymbals.
Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.
Praise the LORD. Psalm 150:1-6 (NIV)
Do the Psalms have anything to do with twenty-first century worship technology? At first glance the answer would appear to be "no." You can comb through the Psalms in any translation you choose without finding references to microphones, mixing boards or MediaShout. So if we're looking for obvious connections between the biblical text and wired worship, we're bound to be disappointed.
But if we step back from the literal level, I believe the Psalms do indeed speak to us as we utilize technology in our worship leadership. In particular, the biblical text reminds us why we do what we do. This purpose shows up repeatedly throughout the Psalms, especially in Psalm 150.
Twelve times in only six verses this psalm urges us to praise the Lord. Praise for God is musical, involving a wide range of instruments (vv. 3-5). Even dancing befits the praise of God, much to the consternation of Presbyterians like me. In
The Message, Eugene Peterson's paraphrase calls us to praise God with trumpet, soft strings, castanets, dance, banjo, flute, cymbals, a big bass drum, fiddles and mandolin. I'd love to hear a worship team that actually used all these instruments!
Use Everything Psalm 150 doesn't limit our expressions in worship. It doesn't imply that we can use only these particular instruments in our praise. Rather, we're to use everything at our disposal as we worship. If you don't believe me, check out Psalm 148, where inanimate objects, animals and even legendary monsters are summoned to praise the Lord. I don't think it would be too much of a stretch, therefore, to amplify Psalm 150 in this way:
Praise the LORD.
Praise Him with digital projectors and media display software.
Praise Him with portable audio systems and giant speaker clusters.
Praise Him with wireless microphones and workstation keyboards.
Praise Him with multi-effects, floor pedals and MIDI software.
Let everything that has electronic circuits praise the Lord.
Praise the LORD. How can we do these things? Most obviously, we praise God with a wide range of electronic paraphernalia by using them in worship. But here's where things get a little tricky. How can we know if our technology is actually adding to God's praise, or, instead, detracting from it?
Worship First Consider this personal example. When we moved into our new sanctuary at Irvine Presbyterian Church, the room was very lively acoustically. This meant that the congregation had a hard time understanding my preaching. Our solution to this problem, which worked perfectly from a technical angle, was for me to use a headset microphone, one that utilized a tiny tube running from my ear to my mouth. But that tube really bothered some worshipers. To these good folk I looked something like Madonna in concert, not a happy image for a preacher. After a couple of months I decided to abandon the headset, to return to a traditional wireless mic and to add some extra absorptive material to the sanctuary walls.
I did this because the technology, even though working perfectly from a technical point of view, was not helping from a worship point of view. The microphone was drawing attention to itself. It was distracting many of my people from worshiping God through hearing His Word. So, though I was well aware this technology had worked in other churches, I realized that it was not going to work in mine.
Of course it takes time for people to get used to new technologies. My congregation might have adjusted to my "Madonna-mic." But we who (like Kip Dynamite) love technology must carefully weigh the worship impact of our hi-tech innovations. We must continually ask ourselves, our people and the Lord whether they are truly drawing people into deeper worship, or whether they are drawing attention to themselves. If we genuinely desire that God be praised in all we do, then I believe we'll be led by the Spirit to discern which technologies are right for our congregations and which are not.
Dr. Mark D. Roberts is the Senior Pastor of Irvine Presbyterian Church. His latest book, No Holds Barred: Wrestling with God in Prayer
is a practical and devotional exposition of the Psalms. Mark's writings on various topics and his daily blog are available at his Web site: markdroberts.com. His daily devotional can be found at
thehighcalling.org.
