If we had to pick between great music with no spiritual engagement or great spiritual engagement with no great music, we'd choose the Spirit. Every time. You probably would too.
But it's a false choice.
It's also a far more nuanced topic than we have space to address here, but at least we can scratch the surface.
First, Jesus is our righteousness. Our worship is acceptable to the Father because of the work of, the intercession of, and the covering of the Son. We can never preach a sermon good enough, sing a song well enough, read a passage articulately enough, pray a prayer eloquent enough, or do anything in worship that will make it good enough for God. He is wholly other and He is holy, holy, holy. Nothing as shabby as our best effort is pure enough for the Worthy One.
But, thanks be to God, He who knew no sin became sin for us so that we could become the righteousness of God! (2 Cor 5:21)
Still, the pattern throughout the scriptures is to bring God our best.
The sacrificial system of the Old Testament required animals to be brought that were without blemish. To paraphrase, don't bring the lamb with a limp. That's not your best. Bring the firstborn with no limp and no discolored coat. Only the best!
But, thanks be to God, we don't live in the sacrificial system any longer. Jesus, our High Priest and the Lamb of God, has been sacrificed once for all. Hallelujah!
And yet everything about the New Testament is extraordinarily crafted. The writing is not just excellent, it is superior. The more we study about the Bible, the more astounded we are at it's brilliance. For more, check out the video from The Bible Project about the gospels of Matthew or John. These aren't just people telling stories. They are "ordinary unschool men" (Acts 4:12) who have created stunning documents of our faith.
And then there's Hebrews. This particular book in the New Testament is perhaps the one most connected to the Old Testament. There are more quotes from the Old Testament in Hebrews than any other book. So the author must have had Temple worship in mind when writing, "Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name."
"A sacrifice of praise." Surely that is a shadow of the sacrificial qualities of Old Covenant worship. Our praise should be a sacrifice. It should cost us something. Not just practice, but practice. Not just preparation, but preparation. The New Testament never lowered the bar from the Old Testament, but it liberated us from the limitations of the First Testament and Jesus makes it possible for us to be and do even more... by His power and His grace!
The mixture represented in the opening verses of Psalm 33 is so helpful:
Sing joyfully to the Lord, you righteous;
it is fitting for the upright to praise him.
Praise the Lord with the harp;
make music to him on the ten-stringed lyre.
Sing to him a new song;
play skillfully, and shout for joy.
Joy, upright, praise, music, new, skillfully, shout, joy.
Not just joy, but skill. Not just skill, but shout.
Excellence in the Relay Worship way of thinking is not perfection, but it is doing the very best you can (really) with what you have. The best isn't an excuse. And what you have isn't an excuse. If you have an extra 15 minutes to make sure the chord changes on your guitar are instinctual rather than a struggle in the moment, practice. And if you don't, don't. But Netflix and Instagram are discretionary. They are not inherently evil. But they can distract us from our calling to practice for worship... so we can be excellent.
Bob Kauflin writes, "don't practice 'til you get it right; practice 'til you can't get it wrong."
That's excellence. That level of preparation will make it possible to get to the other side of music where the manifest presence of God is to be found.
Psalm 78:72 summarizes one of the most powerful worshipers, King David: "He cared for them with a true heart and led them with skillful hands."
Let's lead like David.
More next week as we wrap it up.
Don't forget, Relay Worship is committed to helping those in our tribe grow in all four areas: Godliness, anointing, thoughtfulness, and excellence. If you want to know more about specific practices you can participate in to help, please reach out to us!
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