Why does Psalm 47:1 command God’s people to clap and shout in worship?
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Worship Question about Clapping and Shouting
Posted in: Worship
About the Author
Jason Robertson is a husband and a father and a pastor. He is dedicated to leading and equipping his the Church with God’s word and biblical theology for life ministry, using a combination of pastoral, church planting and evangelism experience. He holds a Master of Divinity from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. He is experienced in church planting, evangelism, missions, and the training of pastors and Bible teachers.
Jason has been preaching the gospel since 1985, serving the first ten years of ministry as a Southern Baptist itinerant evangelist out of Milldale Baptist Church in Zachary, LA which ordained him in 1993. He has preached in hundreds of churches in over 30 States and 4 countries. He planted churches in Siberia, Russia in the summers of 1993 and 1994. He founded Murrieta Valley Church in California, which he planted in cooperation with the SBC NAMB in 2001. He also teaches ministry students at California Baptist University.
You can hear his sermons and read his manuscripts on sermonaudio.com. Just follow the link to "sermons" at the top of this page.
I am not sure about the question. But I will answer it the way I believe you are asking it.
This is the way I lean towards physical expression of worship. (take lean, not in the sesne I am a relitivist, but as “I have not done a major study into this but all the arrows I have seen point in this direction.) Clapping and shouting are physical expressions of an inward reality as are all true physical worship. But when a text, such as this one, meantions certain physical expression it is not madating them as THE way of physicaly expessing worship. God’s people are commanded to express praise physically to God for His sovereign reign that is the point of the passage.
The reason I don’t believe that certain physical expressions is in the command is three fold.
1. We do not believe that we are to only worship God with the instruments stated in the Bible. “Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving; make melody to our God on the lyre!” (Psalm 147:7). Taken as it looks, this is a direct command to praise God on the lyre. So, when was the last time you pulled out your lyre to praise God? If you want to read Psalm 47:1 as mandating that we express our praise by clapping and shouting, then you have to mandate we worship God by lyres!
2. There are some physical expression in the Old Testament that we do nothing about. When was the last you put on sack cloth and covered your head with ashes to show your humility and brokenness to God? The Godly men in the Old Testament did it. Should not we? No, because the exact form of physically worship is not the point. It is the fact that you are physically expressing your love and devotion to God.
3. We already do physical expressions that are not mentioned in the Bible. Where is, closing your eyes to pray, in the Bible? It is not. So, should we stop practicing it? No, for the same reason as above.
Thus, I do not believe that this is a command to do these exact physical expressions. But, it is a command to express praise to God physically for His sovereign reign over the nations.
Hopefully this answers your question. Just tell me if it does not.
You said, “Thus, I do not believe that this is a command to do these exact physical expressions. But, it is a command to express praise to God physically for His sovereign reign over the nations.”
So if God says clap, when could obey by stomping? If God says shout, we could obey by whispering?
I see what you are saying. It does seem simple, God says clap thus we clap. But, that does not solve any of the problems I raised. When God says play the lyre should we then play the lyre?
Here is another issue regarding taking this passage as a command on a specific expression of worship. Must I always clap and shout when reflecting on God’s sovereign reign over the nations. If such reflections cause me stand in awe to the majestic grandeur of such a God, is that sin? I am not clapping or shouting! If the greatness of God causes me to bow in submission to His reign am I rebelling? Again, no clapping or shouting. If I must do the exact physical expressions stated in the verse, any other expression when face with this truth is disobedience.
So, It does seem rebellious at first glance if we don’t clap when the verse says clap. But at another look, if that is what the verse means we are rebellious to a greater extant. No hand raising, no kneeling, no bowing the head, just clapping and shouting.
Charlie,
I do not disagree with you. I can tell we are not staunch adherents to the regulative principle (/understatement). But I am just wondering why God commanded such actions even if it were for a specific moment in time. In Job 8:21 it says that God will fill your mouth with laughter and joyful shouting. This sounds to me like cheering. We humans do this naturally about a lot of things that we love. Example: When my children started walking I laughed, cheered, etc. But I have heard song directors say, “Lets clap to the Lord” and certain guys huff in disapproval saying, “God doesn’t need an applause.”
Do you follow my line of thinking? Anyone that knows me knows that I am not a big “hand-raiser” while worshiping, but sometimes I do feel like dancing in joy. Certain songs fill my heart with such joy. And when I hear certain testimonies or see certain sinners get baptized I have way more “celebration” going on in my heart that I express physically.
And there are so many passages in the Bible that thus make me feel like I am disobeying the Lord by not physically expressing my celebration.
In my meditations this week I have just been thinking about it.
I see where you are coming from Jason. I have gone though such struggles myself of thinking about the physical dimension of worship. When I started to get serious about my faith I jumped right into the hand raising because that was what all the other Christians were doing. It was not, however, done with the right motives (expressing an inward reality) but from trying to have a better worship experience.
When I started to become more knowledgeable about my faith I drifted from physical worship. As I grew in knowledge I grew in want for God in the songs I would sing. Yet the CCM of the time really did not have much of God. Thus I became distant from that type of worship. The worship style that actually had God in the songs came from a tradition of little to no physical expressions (reformed people singing hymns). So I embraced the traditions of that style.
But now, through the minister of Bob Kauflin and the Bible, I have started to see the place of physical expressions in worship. And you have read some of the my position.
I do believe that the Bible commands us to physically express the joy of God in our hearts. Now, the question is, how do we do that. As said in my other post, I do not believe that there are certain mandated ways of doing that.
Now you bring up one aspect of how to know, “We humans do this naturally about a lot of things that we love. Example: When my children started walking I laughed, cheered, etc.” We do express ourselves to God physically like we express our joy in other situations.
So, there is a individualistic aspect of this. We are not commanded (as I have argued) to do certain types of physical expressions. We are not bound to them. We are free to apply our own physical expressions to the joy inside us. (note. And of course, we are under the final authority of the Bible in all things. We do not worship God in a caviler approach. We come to Him reverently.)
Yet, We as Christians are part of the community! We do not live our Christian lives on an island. We do not even worship God totally by ourselves. This is especially true when we gather for church. I am completely against a mindset of being in the misted of our brothers and sisters and tuning them out so we can worship God in our own way. God tells us to teach and admonish the brethren in our worship. If my physical expressions are not seeking to teach others and bring them closer to Christ, it is not God honoring. If the people around me do not know what I am saying in my physical expression, might I say that the expression are pointless! That is where the Bible is leading to me.
Let me state my points for clarity.
1. We should express the worship inside of us by physical expressions. Yet, we are not bound to certain types on physical expressions.
2. We are free to express our worship physical in ways that are not mentioned in the Bible. Yet, we should never remove this freedom from our fear of God and our service to our brothers and sisters.
I would encourage you to express your praise to God physically. It is Biblical and thus, pleasing to God. Yet, we must not put more on ourselves or give less then the Bible allows.
I am 3 months too late but still
“2. We are free to express our worship physical in ways that are not mentioned in the Bible. Yet, we should never remove this freedom from our fear of God and our service to our brothers and sisters.”
What if use of physical expressions become as regular as use of music(organs, guitars etc etc) and are seen as normal? This is increasingly true in developing nations. The person in my mind is Zwingli, he opposed music since for him it distracted from worshiping God and perhaps he thought it made some feel better without really worshiping God.