Song Reflection: "All People That on Earth Do Dwell"

In preparation for the release of our album, Without Our Aid, on September 13, 2011, we're beginning a series of posts reflecting on the hymns incorporated into the project. 

Many do not realize that the Protestant Reformation was just as much about worship as it was about doctrine.  In fact, reformers like Martin Luther and John Calvin would have seen little division between the former and the latter.  Luther championed three emphases in particular, which all serve the goal of elevating the congregation's participation in worship against the backdrop of the passive, clergy-driven liturgy of the medieval Church:

(1) The priesthood of all believers
(2) Worship in the vernacular
(3) Scripture and doctrine in the hands of the laity

As the Reformation spread, a revolution in songwriting occurred, and Christian musicians began reaping the harvest of writing songs in their native tongue.  It was an exciting time.  In England in the 1500s, the dominant strain of the Reformation was that of Calvin, whose own worship emphases strongly advocated the singing of Psalms.  And in 1562, a fresh edition of newly Anglicized hymns appeared, commonly referred to as "Sternhold and Hopkins," the editors' names.  Many of those metrical psalms (psalms set to poetic meter) have fallen into disuse, but one has endured and can still be found in some hymnals today--"All People That on Earth Do Dwell," by William Kethe.  This hymn is a metrical version of Psalm 100, one of the most popular psalms in the Bible.  Our album, Without Our Aid, gets its title from the second line of the second verse, emphasizing the sovereignty and power of God over against the helplessness and inability of humanity.

Our setting of the psalm is a driving, mid-tempo arrangement, with an added chorus that is nearly completely derived from Psalm 100 (NIV).  Of our songs, it has been one of our congregation's favorites for several years now.  The song's ending repeats the psalm's final words ("for the Lord is good and His love endureth forever...") over and over again.  It is a "surprise refrain" in the sense that it introduces a new melodic and harmonic section of the song, painting the picture that God's eternal, heavenly love and faithfulness are like nothing we've experienced before.  We sing it repeatedly to emphasize this eternality and to offer a moment of meditation on this portion of Scripture.

Here are the words:

All people that on earth do dwell,
Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice;
Him serve with joy, His praise forth tell,
Come ye before Him and rejoice.

Know that the Lord is God indeed;
Without our aid He did us make;
We are His folk, He doth us feed,
And for His sheep He doth us take.

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth!
Worship Him with gladness;
Come before Him with joyful songs!
Praise the Lord, all the earth!
Enter with thanksgiving;
Shout for joy to God, all the earth!

O enter then His gates with praise,
Approach with joy His courts unto;
Praise, laud, and bless His name always,
For it is seemly so to do.

For why? The Lord our God is good,
His mercy is forever sure;
His truth at all times firmly stood,
And shall from age to age endure.

For the Lord is good,
And His love endureth forever,
And His faithfulness continues through all generations.

Words: William Kethe, 1561; Zac Hicks, 2009 (add’l lyrics adapted from Psalm 100)
Music: Zac Hicks, 2009
©2011 Unbudding Fig Music (ASCAP)
Winner of the Church of the Servant 2010 New Psalm Contest
In memory of Ben Fackler

Theology vs. Pragmatism: The Foundational Difference Between Worship Discussions Then and Now

Church history knows no division between theology and worship.  As worship became “institutionalized” in the Church in the Middle Ages, though perhaps excessively mystical, leaders of and reflectors on worship did so through an intensely biblical-theological grid.  The writings and leadership of church music pioneer Hildegaard von Bingen attest to this. 

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An Untruth Which Has Affected our Worship Landscape: The Holy Spirit was Forgotten but Rediscovered 100 Years Ago

Justin Taylor brought to my attention a book I had read over a decade ago in my quest to know God better—Sinclair Ferguson’s The Holy Spirit.  Ferguson made this observation (links provided by Taylor):

The assumption which became virtually an article of orthodoxy among evangelicals as well as others, that the Holy Spirit had been discovered almost de novo in the twentieth century, is in danger of the heresy of modernity, and is at least guilty of historical short-sightedness.

It forgets that it was with good reason that the Reformation pastor-theologian John Calvin was described as “the theologian of the Holy Spirit.”

Moreover, each century since his time has witnessed events which were ascribed to the unusual working of the Holy Spirit.

Even in the late twentieth century, the two opera magna on the Holy Spirit remain the extensive studies by the seventeenth-century Puritan John Owen, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford, and by the great Dutch theologian-politician, Abraham Kuyper, founder of the Free University of Amsterdam.

Looking back even further, the assumption that the twentieth century had recovered truth lost since the first two centuries displays a cavalier attitude to the material unearthed by H. B. Swete in his valuable series of studies on the Spirit begun more than a century ago. These richly demonstrate the attention which much earlier centuries gave to honoring him along with the Father and the Son.

In every chance I’ve had to teach on the history of worship in evangelicalism, I’ve said that modern evangelical worship today, across denominational lines, is most immediately shaped by three things: (1) Finney-brand revivalism; (2) modern technology; and (3) Azusa Street Pentecostalism.

It is (3) to which Ferguson is referring, and he’s right.  So how has this “heresy of modernity” affected evangelical worship?  For one, it has pigeonholed our understanding of how the Holy Spirit moves and acts in the context of a worship service.  Such ideas are betrayed by the way we can equate a lack of planning with “room for the Spirit,” as though the Spirit cannot be present in a highly structured, pre-planned liturgy.  We think of the Spirit as acting only in spontaneity, rather than in order.  The irony here is that those who hold such a view may be in danger of “constraining” the Spirit (I use quotes because we can’t really constrain God, but the language is often used against those who are from traditions that have highly structured liturgies).   Problems arise also when we equate the Spirit’s movement only with feeling, or only with our feeling.  But these are Azusa Street values, and may not necessarily be the values associated with a full-orbed understanding of the Holy Spirit. 

The Spirit certainly is probably the most nebulous and “free-wheeling” member of the Godhead.  John 3:8 affirms, “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”  In fact, ruach (Hebrew) and pneuma (Greek) can equally mean “wind” and “breath.”  But the Holy Spirit is also called the “Spirit of Truth”:

But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.  (John 16:13)

The Spirit is a teacher:

But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.  (John 14:13)

In scholarly lingo, if you’ve been noticing that all three references to the Spirit have come from the same book, we need a full-orbed Johannine Pneumatology, here.  Then, maybe, our charismatic brothers and sisters (who have, undoubtedly, taught us much about the Spirit’s relation to and involvement with Christian worship) might be more open to how the Spirit moves in yet other ways in other worship contexts. 

Last June, our church hosted our denomination’s national gathering, called our General Assembly.   Naturally, I was in charge of planning the worship services that we would all partake in while we were together.  The spectrum of worship represented by our one, little denomination is surprisingly large.  We’ve got full-blown Pentecostal Presbyterians and high, stately Anglican-style Presbyterians.  And then we’ve got everything in between.  Needless to say, the very issues I speak of above were present in my mind as I planned these five or so services.  I attempted to plan and execute a variety of worship styles and expressions.  I ultimately don’t know how it hit everyone, but I did get many words and emails of appreciation for the diversity.  I think everyone was stretched (including myself, a bit) in our pneumatological encounters.  For those who were open enough, we all experienced winds of the Spirit in both the formality and informality of our times.  But, I have to say, I did wrestle with applying the very things of which I speak above. 

All in all, the lesson here is to fight the urge toward chronological snobbery in the way we understand worship and the Holy Spirit.  Knowing just a bit of church history can cure many ills and dysfunctions in the psychology of our worship.  I guess that’s reason #473 why worship leaders need to be thoughtful students of theology, history, and the Bible. 

Church of the Servant Psalm Contest Winning Song: Psalm 100

I'm pretty pumped and humbled to have won the Church of the Servant 2010 New Psalm Contest.  I know several of my friends, who I honestly consider superior songwriters and true mentors in the art, entered the contest, as well.  The song that won was "All People That On Earth Do Dwell," a versified version of Psalm 100, set by William Kethe in 1561.  It's a mainstay in the Reformed tradition and has a prominent place in it because of its Genevan roots (the original tune ["Old Hundredth"] is typically the one many churches sing the Doxology to).  Late one night, I asked some of my band members to stick around after a rehearsal to record some BGVs and whistles for a crude demo of this song.  It ended up being a fun little project!  Lord-willing, "All People" will appear on our sophomore album, Without Our Aid in September 2011, in a much heavier, rocked-out version.

Greg Scheer (overseer of the contest) and I will be working on some arrangement tweaks to the song, which is why I'm not putting up the sheet music at this point.  He's a seasoned songwriter himself, and I can't wait for his valuable input on how to make this song better.  But in the meantime, enjoy the text and our little in-house mp3.

Download the FREE mp3.

All People That On Earth Do Dwell (Psalm 100)

All people that on earth do dwell,
Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice;
Him serve with joy, His praise forth tell,
Come ye before Him and rejoice

Know that the Lord is God indeed;
Without our aid He did us make;
We are His folk, He doth us feed,
And for His sheep He doth us take.

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth!
Worship Him with gladness,
Come before Him with joyful songs.
Praise the Lord, all the earth!
Enter with thanksgiving,
Shout for joy to God, all the earth!

O enter then His gates with praise,
Approach with joy His courts unto;
Praise, laud, and bless His name always,
For it is seemly so to do.

For why? The Lord our God is good,
His mercy is forever sure;
His truth at all times firmly stood,
And shall from age to age endure.

For the Lord is good and His love endureth forever.
And His faithfulness continues through all generations.

Words: William Kethe, 1561; Zac Hicks, 2009 (add'l lyrics)
Music: Zac Hicks, 2009
©2009 Unbudding Fig Music (ASCAP)

Pascal’s Wager and Christ’s Presence in Communion

The most recent edition of RELEVANT Magazine contained an intriguing article by Jason Boyette, author of the “Pocket Guide” series of books…and a Baptist.  Boyette openly wrestles with his tradition’s take on the presence of Christ in communion.  Most Baptists traditionally believe that communion is purely symbolic and merely a remembrance…there is no special presence of Christ (whether spiritual or physical) in communion.  This is sometimes called a “memorialist” position.  Boyette offers some great thoughts as he entertains certain challenging Scripture passages and the majority tradition of the Church. 

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Should Worship Songs Correspond to the Sermon? Maybe Not.

Worship Leader Magazine’s latest issue (a GREAT issue, by the way) featured an interview with Hughes Oliphant Old (worship leaders should know this name) by Reggie Kidd.  In a brief, two-page span, Kidd probed Old’s brain on the subject of what Paul means in Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16 when he refers to “psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.”  This is an ongoing and important exegetical dialogue that should be entered into by every worship leader.  One of the questions and answers hit the subject that haunts every worship leader…whether or not songs should tie to the sermon.  This is a perennial struggle

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Reformation Sunday…wishing more worship leaders were equipped to celebrate it

This Sunday is Reformation Sunday—a time when Protestants thank God for how He refined and revived the Church in the sixteenth century.  Being Presbyterian, we’re wedding the celebration of the Reformation with the 500^th anniversary year of the birthday of John Calvin.  Our unique slant on acknowledging Calvin is by stepping back several centuries and worshiping with a liturgy straight out of Calvin’s Geneva.  We’re going instrument-less and hymn-less.  We’re singing a capella psalms.  We’re comparing the Genevan liturgy to its preceding backdrop—the medieval Roman mass.  I’m hopeful that our people will emerge from the worship time more devoted followers of Jesus, having seen how theology affects worship (and vice versa).  Perhaps they might think more critically about worship, engage more deeply in worship, and appreciate God more fully through worship.

However, I say all this with a bit of lamentation.  My lament is for churches which aren’t equipped to celebrate God’s movement throughout salvation history because we’ve become so thoroughly “modern.”  My lament is for the “worship arts” tracks and programs at Christian universities and seminaries which have done much to train worship leaders in the pragmatics of modern worship-leading, but little to train them in history, hymnody, liturgics, and the theology of worship (and yes, I do believe that even if you’re leading in a thoroughly modern worship context, you should strive to have this training…formal or informal).  My lament is for churches which settle for a strong singer/guitar-player without any pre-requisite or subsequent training or knowledge in the above areas.  How will modern worship leaders in Protestant evangelical churches lead their congregations in remembering and celebrating one of the great revivals in Church history?  Do they know enough about the reformation—its ideas, theology, and music—to infuse some creative, thoughtful reflection into Sunday morning?

The irony in all of this is that, if it weren’t for the Reformation, modern worship would probably look very different.  Almost singularly from the influence of Martin Luther, the church after the Reformation became a singing church.  If you’re in a church on Sunday where a choir isn’t doing most or all of the singing, or where you’re not merely a bystander to what the pastors are doing “up there on stage,” you’re an heir of the Reformation. 

The drum that I beat whenever I teach on worship and the Reformation, and the drum I will beat on Sunday, is that the Protestant Reformation was just as much a biblical reforming of worship as it was of belief.  Check out Bryan Chapell’s new book, Christ-Centered Worship, if you want a compact yet thorough treatment. 

Wake up, worship leaders!  You have a job because of the Reformation!  Don’t forget it! 

why it's sweet to wear robes in worship

Our church is a hybrid of "high church" and "low church" practices.  Our services have both a liturgical feel and a "free church" feel.  For these reasons, we tend to have a hodgepodge of people with a diversity of backgrounds in and out of the Christian church.  We get asked by some who aren't from high church traditions why we pastors wear robes.  Here are 5 brief reasons:

1) It highlights the office of the pastor while de-emphasizing the person. A simple robe covers much of the person, helping to conceal that which distinguishes his or her personality. It reminds us that we lovingly submit ourselves, not so much to the person and their personality, but to the role they have been called to by God—pastor.

2) It fights against us viewing the pastor as a “CEO” figure. In American culture, a suit and tie are the “uniform” of business professionals, lawyers, etc. A robe de-emphasizes any cultural “uniform” and reminds us that the pastoral office described in the Bible is in many ways different from our society’s concept of a business leader.

3) It reminds us that, when they preach, they bring to us the very Word of God, as opposed to the thoughts and opinions of one person. Scripture is God’s unique, unparalleled revelation of Himself to us. It is like no other book.

4) It reminds us that we are clothed in Christ’s righteousness. The pastor, wearing a piece of clothing that both covers over and is distinct from their own clothing, offers to us a symbol of how we approach God in worship, “clothed with Christ” (Galatians 3:27)—it is His righteousness that makes us acceptable to God.

5) Wearing robes is part of our heritage. As Christians, it is part of our ancient Israelite heritage. The priests wore robes to distinguish their office (Exodus 28). It is also a part of my Reformed/Presbyterian heritage (robe-wearing is also a part of other Christian traditions as well). From the time of John Calvin, Reformed pastors would don the garb of a Renaissance scholar (a black robe called the “Genevan robe”) to legitimize their credentials as someone who was studied and learned in the Scriptures. This was important during a time when the Catholic church would have accused the churches of the Reformation of being unbiblical in their Christian expression.

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