Great Texts on Worship: Psalm 105:1-6 - Rev. Hughes Oliphant Old
Previous articles in the Great Text series by Hughes Oliphant Old:
Psalm 105:1-6In the worship of the ancient Temple at Jerusalem, Psalm 105 had a central place. Every day it was sung at the immolation of the morning sacrifice. It is not surprising, therefore, that it tells us some important and basic things about worship. The tradition went back to David, who, as we read in I Chronicles 16:1-22, first appointed the use of this psalm, together with Psalm 96, to be sung before the ark of the covenant at the time it was brought to Jerusalem.
Apparently David also directed that the singing of this psalm was to be accompanied by the playing of lyres and harps, cymbals and trumpets (I Chronicles 16:5-6).
Central to the worship of God's people in every age is the rendering of thanks to God for his mighty acts of creation and redemption. The whole of this psalm is a recounting of God's saving works. The psalm celebrates the covenant given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It tells the story of how God sent Joseph ahead into Egypt that the descendants of Abraham might have refuge in time of famine. The people prospered in Egypt for a time, but after awhile they were enslaved. Then God sent Moses and brought the people out of Egypt. What a triumphant procession! By the power of God the people of Israel had not only been freed, but enriched with silver and gold. In the wilderness God fed them miraculously and finally brought them into the promised land.
The point was that recounting the story of how God had saved his people was at the center of worship. Worship should be a witness to how God has blessed us. It remembers both the story of creation and the story of redemption.
This recounting of the story is done in public, not just privately in our hearts. It is a witness before the congregation, as we have it in Psalm 22:22. Furthermore this witness encourages the brethren, as the psalm puts it. But there is something else. It is a witness to the whole world, even to the nations, that is, to unbelievers, to the Gentiles outside of God's chosen people. "Make known among the nations what he has done" (Psalm 105:1b).
"Sing to him, sing praise to him" (Psalm 105:2), our psalm tells us. Singing the story as Israel did in Psalm 105 goes back to the oldest biblical traditions of worship. So many of the psalms sing the story of salvation. They thank God by recounting the history of salvation.
But there is another dimension to the worship enjoined in this psalm, and that is praise. Although the psalms often put the words "praise" and "thanksgiving" in parallel construction, such as in Psalm 100, "Enter his gates with thanks giving and his courts with praise" (Psalm 100:4, NIV), the two words have distinctly different meanings. Thanksgiving celebrates the story of our redemption, while praise is astonishment at becoming aware of entering God's presence. As I like to put it, praise is an expression of the "Oh, wow!" experience. Our worship should have not only thanksgiving but praise as well. "Sing to him, sing praise to him."
Psalm 105 goes on to tell us that in worship we should, "Glory in his holy name" (Psalm 105: 3, NIV). To glory in God's name is to savor his majesty, to rest in his peace, to meditate on his justice and truth. This is one of the places where the arts play their role in worship. This is true of the visual arts as well as music. The arts help us feel the truth. To glory in God's name is not so much a matter of learning something new about God as it is to feel what we already know. It would be a mistake to try to separate these two aspects of our experience. They have to go together. In fact, the deeper knowledge we have of God's Word the more profound our feelings. Some people are more sensitive than others, to be sure, but all other things being equal knowledge promotes feeling and feeling promotes knowledge.
One of the best illustrations of this which I can come up with is the way people love to hear the "Hallelujah Chorus" of Handel's
Messiah. I don't know how many times that word "Hallelujah" is sung in that popular choral work. But one asks, would it not be sufficient to sing the word just once? The text itself is very brief. A few other phrases frame that one word sung again and again. No, just singing the word once would hardly be glorying in the praise of God. That word is sung again and again to savor the heavenly glory of the risen and ascended Christ. The worship of the Church should not be a fast food experience. It should be enjoyed slowly, in leisure and depth.
But there is one more thing which these opening verses of Psalm 105 have to say about worship. Worship is a matter of presence. "Let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice. Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always."
We come to worship seeking to enter into God's presence. We want God's face to shine upon us. The classic benediction, "The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace" (Numbers 6:24-26, NIV), expresses so well what we have all come to worship to receive. We should remember this when we plan our services of worship. For those who come to Church, even more important than fellowship with other Christians is experiencing the presence of God. This is so obviously the case with prayer. People want to come into God's presence that they might receive his blessing. This is also true with the ministry of the Word. There is a kerygmatic presence of Christ just as there is a eucharistic presence of Christ. The
Didaché, one of the earliest documents of the ancient Church, tells us that one of the reasons we go to Church is to hear the reading and preaching of the Scriptures, because "Where the Word of the Lord is heard, there is he present."
To be sure, we come to church for fellowship with our fellow Christians, but even more we come in order that we might know the presence of Christ in prayer, in praise, in the hearing of the Word and the fellowship of his table.
Hughes Oliphant Old, formerly pastor of Faith Presbyterian Church in West Lafayette, Indiana, teaches worship at Princeton Theological Seminary.
Previous articles in the Great Text series by Hughes Oliphant Old:
