David Murray - Leadership for Servants
Tag Archive - Worship

Better to worship in the pew than the pulpit?

Aug 23, 2011 • By David Murray • 8 Comments

One of the benefits of having to sit in the pew more often than I was used to before my illness is not only to hear more good preaching but also to be more “involved” in the worship of God.

Like many preachers I’ve often found it difficult to get fully engaged in corporate worship. Partly it’s because of the sense of responsibility for leading the service; partly it’s the burden of having to preach shortly; but it’s also partly the “distance” from the congregation.

On a platform or in a pulpit you hear the general volume of the gathered voices (if the instruments are quiet enough!), but you don’t get to hear the subtle and beautiful pathos in individual voices.

I was reminded of this recently when a deep male voice started singing near my pew. I recognized it immediately and, knowing the person as I do, I was able to understand why he was singing these words with such passion and feeling in his voice. It so enhanced my own singing of that Psalm as I joined my voice and experience to his. It felt like I was singing in stereo.

Another time it was a female voice and, again, from what I know of her life and providence, I could tell what was going through her mind as she sang words very appropriate to her situation. Again I was able to worship God more meaningfully as I listened to the joyful trembling in her voice.

Probably neither of these people have any idea how much they ministered to me and thereby heightened my own worship. Maybe, hopefully, I’ve done the same for others at times.

Though I still miss pulpit-Sundays, my pew-Sundays have given me a new understanding and appreciation of two-dimensional, or bi-directional, worship. There’s the “singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord,” but there’s also the horizontal “addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” (Eph. 5:19-20).

And more of the latter results in more of the former.

Is the First Amendment being re-defined?

Sep 2, 2010 • By David Murray • 0 Comments

The Acton Institute PowerBlog alerted me to an article by Ralph Benko in the Washington Examiner on the worrying implications of President Obama’s re-phrasing of the First Amendment:

President Obama’s recent formulation, “Freedom of Worship” has the religiously serious aghast.  It telegraphs a subversion of faith — by defending a right not in question, the right to conduct religious feasts and fasts and ceremonies, and downgrading religion’s heart, values.

The First Amendment interdicts the making of laws prohibiting the free exercise of religion.  The president now replaces a strong and constitutional word, “Religion,” with a weak and chic one, “Worship,” which is religion defined by esthetics, not ethics.  Implication: the Constitution protects our steeples and liturgy, not religious values.

 

The political elites shamelessly are in the process of “defining devotion down” to liturgy — hey kids, totally up to you to decide whether the priest faces the altar or the congregation, knock yourselves out — and delegitimize the right to advocate for laws reflecting religiously informed values.  A delegitimized right collapses, which is the objective of its adversaries.

Read the rest here.

Boring grace?

May 7, 2010 • By David Murray • 1 Comment

In the Scottish Highlands, Christian families commonly sing their way through the Book of Psalms (the Scottish Metrical Version) at their morning and evening devotions. My own family also adopted this practice, and this week we arrived back again at Psalm 136.

This psalm recounts God’s multiple deliverances of His people and defeats of His enemies, each line concluding with, “For His mercy endures forever.” In the Scottish metrical version of the Psalm, that phrase alternates with: “For His grace fails never.” So, over 26 verses you sing “For his mercy endures forever” thirteen times, and “For His grace fails never” thirteen times. You could say it’s the Psalms’ version of “Amazing Grace.”

As an unbelieving teenager being raised in a Psalm-singing church, I often remember the congregation singing this Psalm (one of the pastor’s favorites) and thinking, “Man, this is so boring! Why all the repetition? Why can’t they just sing of grace and mercy once and be done with it?”

What a difference the actual experience of Christ’s grace and mercy makes!

Because, as we were singing through Psalm 136 this week, I found myself thinking, “I could sing of grace and mercy forever and ever…” When you’ve tasted Christ’s grace and mercy, it becomes the song of your heart and your life. And no matter how much you hear about it, speak about it or sing about it, it increasingly amazes and excites.

It certainly never bores. It’s sin that does that.

UPDATE: Just discovered Tim Keller on reading and praying through the Psalms.

Christ Conducts His Choir

Mar 24, 2010 • By David Murray • 3 Comments

In this astounding video, American composer and conductor Eric Whitacre spliced together nearly 250 videos of individuals singing individual parts of “Lux Arumque.” He sent out the music, auditioned the singers, and then chose 250 of the submitted videos, which he spliced together to form this “virtual choir.”

As I watched in wonder, I could not help thinking of how Christ our Mediator gathers His people’s praises from every church and every believer in the world every Sunday and presents them, as a perfect choir, to His Father.

Then my mind went further and “I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sits upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.”