googlef5df56a28f2e4c4f.html Harps and the Heart of God: Worship in Heaven - Does God sing??

Friday, February 22, 2008

Worship in Heaven - Does God sing??

Does God sing? Zephaniah 3:17 says he does. There is only one NT passage that describes worship before the throne of God (Rev 5). In this one passage of a visual image of the kind of worship that obviously pleases God, the song leaders (elders) are holding harps: Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints, and they sang a new song” (Rev 5:8-9). Some of the description is symbolic and some of it is not. John explains the symbolism of the bowls of incense. He does not imply that the throne, the elders, or the harps are symbolic. In fact, what we have here on earth should only be a copy of the real worship in heaven (Heb 9:11ff). Some scholars argue that harps are authorized in heaven but not here on earth. One has to wonder about the supposed logic of God’s approval of harps in the OT, disapproval in the NT, but then approving of them again in heaven. Surely the God who is one (Deut 6:4; Heb 13:8; Jas 1:17) is consistent throughout Scripture regarding worship that is pleasing to him. Again, polemics have caused an unnecessary contrast between the OT and the NT.

Another way the “silence of the Scriptures” is presented as an argument against instruments is by asking for authority to use instruments: Show by the New Testament that the instrument is authorized in worship.[1] The above passages show authorization by both example in Rev 5 and by command in Eph 5 and Col 3. The point is that the use of instrumental music is not a sin and should not be thought of in that context. The critical issue is our attitude towards the music. Is it entertainment or authentic worship of God and his Son Jesus Christ?



[1] Lewis, Jack, A Cappella Worship in the Assembly, Harding Graduate School Bulletin, Jan. 1998. One could ask the very same question about the current four-part harmony in churches of Christ.

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