Psalm 145 (Essentials Blue Creative Project)

For: The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, in St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Blue Online Worship Theology Course with Dan Wilt

“In particular, Christian worship from the earliest times has made good use of the Psalms. They are inexhaustible and deserve to be read, said, sung, chanted, whispered, learned by heart and even shouted from the rooftops” (NT Wright, “Simply Christian” p130)

I’m not sure what made me do it, but the other day I lifted an old bible down from the shelf. I have other bibles, and this one hadn’t been my “bible of choice” for quite a while. My brother gave it to me for Christmas when I was 15, in 1985 (thanks bro – I wanted a skateboard). I started browsing through the ragged pages, looking at various passages I had underlined, trying to remember why particular sections had been deemed so worthy of highlighting. Then I came to Psalm 145 where I had underlined the well-known lines “The Lord is gracious and compassionate, He’s slow to anger and He’s rich in Love”. You don’t need to be a theologian to see the beauty in these words and what they declare – in a world where leaders inevitably tarnish and fade and people look for the next fresh face to take them forwards, the unchanging nature of God stands in stark contrast. Worship is a chance for us to declare our allegiance to and reliance on God and this Psalm gives us the opportunity to do this as we tell the world of the King and Saviour – what He is like and what He has done.

Part of me feels like I’m cheating here. After all, I’m not the first one to use this Psalm as a basis for a worship song, but perhaps that’s just the point. The Psalms seem like a limitless resource for succeeding generations to declare the same truths in ways which fit in their times. Although I had read (and sung) these words many times before, as I read them and realized the truth they had carried for me twenty five years ago, I wanted to put a frame around them that would enable them to be sung victoriously – to be declared to the world around us so that all of us can have the opportunity to capture anew just how utterly good, kind, loving and powerful God is. I’m a pretty reserved character – probably too reserved to be a proper lead guitarist, let alone an announcer of biblical truths from elevated positions, but when I consider Wright’s comment about the Psalms at the start of this Blog, I can’t help feeling that this Psalm is one to be “shouted from the rooftops.” So, I hope you enjoy it – but more than that, I hope you feel the gratitude, wonder and even elation that I felt a few days ago as I flicked through the pages of what I once thought was second best to a skateboard…

Psalm 145 (demo) MP3

Psalm 145 (chords) PDF

Guess how tired I am? (Essentials Blue)

For: The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, in St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Blue Online Worship Theology Course with Dan Wilt

OK. I’m tired and my head is beginning to hurt. It’s now week 4 of the Essentials Blue course, and I’ve read more articles on Worship in that 4 weeks than I have in the preceding 38 years of my life (although you might excuse me for my lack of interest for at least the first few of those). Anyway, it’s getting harder to post coherent “reflections” on this stuff, as it’s all becoming one big etiological blur, and to be honest I’d rather just run away to a cabin in the woods for a few weeks and actually think about some of it before having to commit those thoughts to cyberspace…

However, in the spirit of participation, I will share some thoughts about one of the articles I read this week (at least I think it was this week – who knows?) – Brian McLaren’s “The Jesus Creed”. Creeds are funny things. They’re not particularly amusing (although I wonder if anyone has ever tried that), but they are often, as in this case, one person’s very personal and detailed expression of faith created in the expectation that others will take it and use it as their own. It figures that for someone to do this honestly, they need to be able to really get what the writer intended.

The Jesus Creed revolves around the statement that “We have confidence in Jesus”. This struck me unusual at first, not least of all because it’s not a phrase I’ve heard a lot directed at Jesus. Then I started thinking (here we go again) about the contexts in which I have heard this phrase used, and one stood out in particular. I work for myself, and do contracts for other large organizations. One regular customer takes great pride in stating loudly and repeatedly that he has no confidence in any of his contractors, until they prove themselves. What does he mean? Well, the point he is trying to make is that until such times as I prove otherwise, he works on the assumption that I can’t do my job, will let him down and generally not deliver on what I have promised… Nice!

Suddenly the Jesus Creed makes more sense – suddenly I get it. Jesus has already proved himself. He has done what he said he would do up to now, and will continue to deliver. He keeps His promises. I can have confidence in Him because I can trust Him completely – I know He is who He says he is and He’ll see me through. That’s a creed I can buy into, no matter how tired I am

Have a great week!

MM

Wash my feet with loaves and fishes…(Essentials Blue)

For: The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, in St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Blue Online Worship Theology Course with Dan Wilt

I’ve just been reading Peter Fitch’s article in Inside Worship, “Inner Living, Outer Giving”.  In it, Fitch discusses which areas of spiritual discipline he considers vital for worship leaders (let’s stretch this to include the whole band) to make an integral part of their own lives. I’ll admit that when I first read his list – “foot washing, offering loaves and fishes, water-walking, cross-carrying and on occasion, dead-raising” I was pretty much ready to challenge the mental coherence of the author. However, as is often the case, actually reading the article made a difference…

I’ve never connected worship and foot-washing before, not least of all because when playing the guitar my two hands are pretty much otherwise engaged and the nearest feet (usually the drummer’s) are also in fairly frequent use. But as Dan wilt pointed out this week, “creativity is meant to serve”, and while I have been intensely aware of what I do as being for Jesus, I’m not sure I have ever really been too mindful of the fact that it’s also a service to the people around me. Maybe God can do more with what He gives me when I begin to grasp this…

My gig bag has also been woefully lacking in both loaves and fishes (and I’m talking literally here, not metaphorically, before some of you start nodding in a sympathetic manner). As I read this, it struck me that there were parallels in this with my last blog entry. After all, when the little boy gave his food to Jesus, he gave everything – he didn’t hold back. We need to do the same with our musicianship – we need to give it all we’ve got – and do what we can to be the best that we can be. But we need to do this in the realization (and this puts my previous blog entry in context) that, as Fitch says, “we are ultimately in a position of inadequacy.” The boy could bring the food, but only Jesus knew what to do with it – we can play the notes, but only He can take those notes and use them to build up His people and bring glory to himself.

So, I’m going to make you a promise. This Sunday, as I play my ol’ guitar in church, I’m going to wash people’s feet with loaves and fishes. No towel needed, no dubious smelling seafood (or socks, for that matter) – just a new awareness of the job God has given me to do, and how He wants me to do it.

MM

The Trinity (in B flat) (Essentials Blue)

For: The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, in St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Blue Online Worship Theology Course with Dan Wilt

Who knew that worship could be so complicated? Just when you thought it was safe to put on your rainbow guitar strap and strum a few bars of Kum-ba-Yah, someone goes and throws a big pile of other fish into the barrel – the echoes of God’s voice in the world around us, God’s kingdom, Jesus as creator, king, saviour and now… trinity!

In his article “Leading Trinitarian Worship”, Berten Waggoner states that “it is most important that a worship leader become (sic) a prayerfully and thoughtfully informed Trinitarian” (Inside Worship). He goes on to delve into doctrine before highlighting the “distinctness and diversity of persons” in the Trinity and urges the worship leader to reflect this – after all, as Don Williams and Brenton Brown observe, “worship leaders have a powerful role in moulding the faith” (Who is the God we Worship, Inside Worship).

So what does this mean for worship leaders? Aside from the obvious responsibility to deepen our knowledge of the bible, I’d like to suggest one unexpected (maybe even obscure) spin-off from the above – it also calls us to be better musicians. Think about it – how many of us construct our worship sets with these kind of filters; 1. Songs I can play 2. Songs I can sing 3. Songs that are in the same key as the last one so that it’s easy to get from one song the next… and so on. And that’s before we get to the theology. The chances that the above selection procedures leave us with many songs to choose from based on the actual content might be pretty slim. If the worship leader didn’t panic every time he or she lost their capo, or knew that the band could handle whatever was thrown at them, would he or she have more freedom to choose songs that truly helped to mould the faith of the worshippers?

So if you want to sing that new song which focuses on the Triune nature of God – you know, the one which starts in Bb, modulates to Dm with a compound-time bridge, maybe instead of leaving it for someone else it’s time to get the band to push themselves a little. Now, getting the congregation to sing it – that’s the fun part

What about the rest of us? (Essentials Blue)

For: The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, in St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Blue Online Worship Theology Course with Dan Wilt

I’ve just been reading “The Importance of Scripture Study for Modern Worship Leaders” by Dr. Peter Davids (one of the many fun things I do with my leisure time), and I was tempted to nod smugly  in agreement as he stressed the need for worship leaders to be well grounded in the Bible, and devoted to continual study so that we can “be assured that we are really worshipping God in a way that pleases Him.”

And then it struck me… the reason I wanted to nod so enthusiastically was that I was subconsciously labeling this as “someone else’s problem” – hey, I’m the one standing behind the worship leader playing my electric guitar, not the one doing the leading. I freely admit that this doesn’t feel quite right, but it does raise some interesting questions; does a guitarist need to be steeped in scripture before he or she can effectively participate in the worship band? Will a lack of “sufficient biblical depth” in the drummer change the nature of the worship? Is the bass player under the same specific obligation to study scripture because he is playing in a worship band?

The more I think about this, the more I’m inclined to suggest that Davids’ focus is too narrow; the call he describes is not just on worship leaders or even the rest of the band to broaden and deepen their knowledge of the Bible so that God can use worship to illuminate His truth. The call is to every single worshipper – from the drummer to the guy in the back row singing loud and flat -  to make bible study a priority so that they (or we) can see His truths revealed more deeply in the songs we sing. Maybe there’d be more deep encounters with God during worship – maybe the Holy Spirit would be heard more clearly and more frequently if all of us, not just the leaders, saw a renewed commitment to actively and regularly deepening our understanding of His word as an act of worship in itself…

(all quotes taken from “The Importance of Scripture Study for Modern Worship Leaders” – an interview with Dr. Peter Davids)

Hello world!

Hello World??? Maybe it’s just me, but that phrase seems to sum up a lot of blogs Another might be “look at me!” So, in the true spirit of blogging, here I am. “Oh, goody!” I hear the world shout back enthusiastically…

MM