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To Please Our Father
By
Denie Riggs
Muscle Shoals Music Academy, Inc.
There is a revival in praise as a new wind of free worship sweeps across the earth affecting people of
all denominations. After decades
of singing songs about God, we are
turning our hearts to seek God’s
desire for worship.
As our hearts cry out to praise and
please our Father, we must know what pleases Him. We
find our answers in the Psalms, especially 148, 149 and 150 where the psalmist
commands us to “Praise the Lord!” I
want to look specifically at Psalm 149.
In verses 1-3 we are given instruction
as to HOW we are to praise Him:
-
Sing to the Lord a new song (v 1)
-
Praise His name with dancing (v 3)
-
Praise with tambourine (v 3)
-
Praise with lyre (v 3) (strings)
Who
is commanded to Praise? In verse
two we see: “Let
Israel
be glad in their Maker. Let the sons of
Zion
rejoice in their King.” We know that
Israel
is God’s chosen people. ‘The
sons of
Zion
’ includes all of the rest of us. One
version puts it as ‘all God’s children.’
I like that. That includes
me.
And you.
Why
are we to praise? Verse four…for the Lord takes pleasure in His people.
Wow! Can you believe that
we give God pleasure? I don’t
know about you but I was raised to believe that God was ashamed of me.
I strived for perfection just so that He would not be mad. To know that
I bring God pleasure is awesome,
amazing and refreshing.
What is the result
of this worshipping with the tambourine, strings, singing and dancing?
He will beautify the afflicted ones with salvation. The godly ones will
exult in glory and rejoice in their beds.
There will be salvation, glory and joy, both in the worshipper and
those around us.
Verse six tells us two important things.
-
The Psalmist calls this form of
worship (dance, tambourine, singing and strings) the high praises of God. The
Bible is giving instruction as to what God enjoys, and what pleases Him.
-
The benefit to us is in the next
part of that same verse… ‘a two-edged sword in our hands.’ This
form of high praise (dance, tambourine, singing and strings) is a weapon
of victory for us.
In our modern churches, singing with the
strings of a piano is widely accepted. Some
churches permit other instruments like guitars and drums. Worship dance is
reluctantly becoming accepted as a form of worship in our more radical
churches. However, even where
there is an acceptance of worship dance, there seems to be a resistance to the
tambourine.
A few weeks ago we had the occasion to
attend a banquet in a large local city . There, I met a lady who told me
about a huge Praise Parade that recently took place.
She spoke of the music, banners,
flags and dancing that occurred. I
chimed in, “And there were tambourines?”
She said, “No.
I specifically noticed that there were no tambourines.”
I have noticed this same thing in most
circles of worship. I feel that
this “oversight” of the tambourine is not by accident.
Our lack of understanding regarding this instrument is because of the
blinding of our enemy.
Why?
Why would our use or non-use of the tambourine make a difference?
I believe that God is revealing a new truth.
In our search to please God in our
worship, we may look at Lucifer, because God created him to be the chief
worshipper in Heaven. Surely it
will show us what is important to God in worship.
In Ezekiel 29:13, God, speaking of
Lucifer, says “The
workmanship of thy tabrets (tambourines) and of thy pipes (wind instruments)
was prepared IN THEE in the day that thou was created.” (KJV) In
Isaiah 14:11. God says to Lucifer, “Thy pomp is brought down to the
grave, and the noise of thy viols (stringed instruments.)”(KJV)
From these two passages we see
that when Lucifer was
created, in
him were created the tambourine, strings and pipes.
Every where he moved, there was music and noise.
Those sounds were pleasing to the Father.
When we use those instruments in worship, we are redeeming the sounds
of Heaven. Surely
this worship pleases the Father.
But wait, there
is more going on here! The
spiritual world is more real than the natural world.
The tambourine is an instrument of warfare.
The Bible tells us in Isaiah 30:32 that God fights our enemies to the
sound of the tambourine. Every
time we strike the tambourine, it is a direct blow to our enemy.
The tambourine gives God’s children victory,
as a two-edged sword in their hand.
When
we use the tambourine, strings and pipes in worship we are redeeming those
instruments for heavenly worship. When
we worship in obedience to the scriptures; we give God the high praises from His perspective; and we receive power of a
two-edged sword in our hands.
Do you want to give God high praise? Do
you want to please Him and give Him pleasure?
Dance around your living room (or your sanctuary) with a tambourine.
Sing to Him a new song. Strike
the strings. There is power and
victory.
And
He likes it!
Hallelujah!
***
Our HALLELUJAH KIDS is a tambourine performing troupe. MSMA children
ages 5 to 8 learn to worship Him with tambourine routines. They will be
available for outside performances in the late Spring 2004. For more information
click Hallelujah Kids.
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