Ask The Pastor #13
Often I am asked questions that those of us in ministry sometimes just take for granted. The questions usually lead off with the word “WHY.” So, here are “SOME WHYS.”
Why do we stand and sing choruses and hymns? “And the Levites. . . stood up to praise the Lord God of the Israel with a loud voice on high.” And again we read in Revelation 7:9-10, “After this I beheld, and lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations and kindreds, and people, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne. . .” Paul writes to us in Ephesians 5:18-19, “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord.”
Why do we lift our hands? Let’s go to Psalm 63:4, “Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name.”
The Psalms continue to say in Psalm 134:2, “Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the Lord.”
Paul adds in 1 Timothy 2:8, “I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.”
Why do we clap our hands? God created us in His image and His image has many characteristics. One of them is displaying of emotions such as laughter, anger, sadness and others. Clapping of the hands can be an instantaneous release of an overwhelming emotion, an expression of approval or an unconscious “keeping of the beat of a song.” God knows that well, encouraging us in Psalm 47:1, “O Clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph.”
Why do people dance? The explanation given in the paragraph above gives us an insight into the release of this emotion. We notice this emotion expressed in Exodus 15:20, immediately after crossing the Red Sea. Moses began to sing a song of victory and his sister Miriam gathered the women and with timbrel in hand led the women in song and dance. The joy of the Lord is “why people in church dance.”
Note. It is important to note that music and dance were created by God for the purpose of worship. It is man’s carnal nature to corrupt God’s gifts in order to satiate his own lusts. We see the first evidence of this in Exodus chapter thirty two. As Moses and Joshua come down the mountain with the Ten Commandment Tablets the people, tired of “waiting on the Lord,” began making music, disrobing, dancing and reveling. Upon seeing them, Moses broke the Tablets. Why did Moses break the Tablets? He broke the tablets because he saw the Ten Commandments broken by their reveling, dancing and music.
Why do we prophesy? The Word tells us in 1 Corinthians 14:1, Follow the way of love and eagerly “desire spiritual gifts,and especially the gift of prophesy.” Please refer to 1 Corinthians 12:7,10, for further comments.
Why do people fall under the Spirit? We see examples of this phenomenon in both the Old and New Testaments. We see its first manifestation in 2 Chronicles 5:14. This occurred after the singers, the musicians, priests with their sons and “standing with them a hundred and twenty priests sounding the trumpets” all in one accord. It was then, as they stood in one accord that the priests “could not stand to minister.” In the New Testament we see this phenomenon on several occasions. The first instance is found in John 18:5-6. Read it! Again it happened to Paul on the Damascus Road. See Acts 9:4. We can find other instances throughout the New Testament.
