Why Look to David?

One thing I have learned the HARD way - don't head over to any worship forums for a 'quick' look just before bedtime. The questions and thoughts I get can have me so excited I can't sleep!

One recent example is this question Peter Goh brought up on Worship the Rock. He pointed out that many Christian leaders teach worship from the Old Testament models of worship, such as Levitical worship or David's materials instead of looking at the New Testament. In John 4:23 Jesus revealed that there would be a massive change in the nature of worship "... a time is coming and has now come (NIV)" so why look at the older models of worship if God doesn't think they are good enough?

John 4:23 (NIV) - Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.

To start we first need to look at what it means to worship in spirit and in truth. I wrote about it in detail before but to quickly sum up, to worship in spirit is to relate to God on the basis of our relationship with him through our new birth (John 3:5-6) rather than what we can achieve out of our flesh (Phil 3:3). And to worship in truth is to realize that there is nothing for which we can claim any credit or glory for, since every good we have done, including our worship, all came from God and was done through God in the first place (John 3:21).

This is a simple definition of spirit and truth, looking at John 3 and letting Scripture interpret Scripture. We can also say that to worship in spirit and truth is to relate to God based on the new covenant. And the new covenant means that all our sins are forgiven (Heb 8:12) and therefore we have a very good reason for total confidence and boldness in approaching God (Heb 10:19-22). Therefore praising God is a very natural fruit of such revelation (Heb 13:15).

The contemporary worship scene is more influenced by the Davidic model than the Levitical model (many people aren't keen to go back to sacrificing animals) so for now let's just consider: Why Look At David? I'll give a couple of reasons.

Firstly, David had an understanding of God that far exceeded what the Scriptures available to him revealed. We can see him as being very much a new covenant worshipper in the following areas:

1) He saw himself as a son of God - He will call out to me, 'You are my Father, my God, the Rock my Savior.' (Psalm 89:26, NIV)

2) He knew he needed the forgiveness of God and that God was willing to forgive - Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD "-- and you forgave the guilt of my sin. (Psalm 32:5, NIV)

3) He knew that he had nothing in and of himself to offer God, and that whatever he had came from God in the first place - Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand (1 Chron 29:14, NIV).

People can argue over whether David was worshipping God in spirit and in truth. But what is obvious to us is that David, because of the faith he displayed in worshipping God, shows us very clearly how we ought to relate to God as new covenant believers. David was so confident in God that he believed his songs were more precious to God than even the animal sacrifices required by the Levitical priesthood.

I will praise God's name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving. This will please the LORD more than an ox, more than a bull with its horns and hoofs. (Psalm 69:30-31, NIV)

How many of us have THAT level of confidence when we sing to God? Or do we come to God with trepidation, not believing in the fullness of the finished work of Christ? Remember, without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb 11:6). David definitely had the faith that pleased God. We would do well to learn from him.

Secondly, the New Testament points us towards the Davidic model of worship. We know that the whole of Scripture is God-breathed by his Spirit (2 Tim 3:16) and yet there are three specific parts of Scripture explicitly tied to the Spirit of God. They are

1) The Words of Jesus (the words in red) - The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. (John 6:63, NIV);

2) Old Testament prophecies - For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.(2 Pet 1:21, NIV); AND

3) The Psalms - be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs (Eph 5:18-19, NKJV).

And God considers the Psalms, the fruit of the Davidic model of worship, so important, that we are admonished twice (Eph 5:18-19, Col 3:16) to feed on them, to talk to God and each other about them. And we have a direct endorsement of the Davidic model given us in Acts 15:16, when James declared that the Gentiles (non-Jews) turning to Jesus is a fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy announcing God's intention to rebuild David's tabernacle (Amos 9:11-12). If God likes the David model of worship so much that he wants to restore it, and even ties the salvation of non-Jews to its restoration, it must be something VERY important to God.

And that means it ought to be important to us also.

Disclaimer: I'll be the first to admit that there are problems with the way some people look at the David model of worship. I personally disagree with using the Davidic model of worship to justify a song-and-dance routine that is based on professional worshippers rather than the entire body of Christ. And that's because of 1 Peter 2:9 which teaches us that ALL of us are royal priests, called to declare God's praises.

But even though there are people who misunderstand the Davidic model of worship, there will always be something useful for us to glean from it (as from ALL Scripture, 2 Tim 3:16). And I believe that we will understand the Davidic Model more and more in the future, as we continue to humble ourselves before God and ask that he open our eyes that we may see wonderful things in His law (Psalm 119:18).

May God himself teach us from His word and make us fruitful in His service!

P.S. if you are not yet on my Invisible Worship Musician mailing list, get over to my page and get in now! I'm going to hold a special sale to celebrate my upcoming California ministry trip. Stay tuned!

Stepping Out

1 Chronicles 29:5 “… who then is willing to consecrate himself this day to the LORD?” (NKJV)

This is the season of the year when I listen through “Prosperity” by Randy Gage

This is a CD series on the spiritual principles that he used to transform his life from bankruptcy, dysfunctional relationships and horrendous health to being a multi-millionaire with great health and joyful relationships in his life.

Now, Randy Gage is comes from a Mind Science church, one of those pseudo-Christian movements. He is very New-Age in his mindset and he is quite dismissive of evangelical Christianity. Having said that, his explanations of spiritual laws that correspond to Scripture principles are very clear and fresh.

And he pulls no punches, calling things the way they are. And sometimes, that’s just what we need at times.

Here is something that he taught that really struck me. He had this chapter called “the Return to the Creator” law of prosperity. This is what he called tithing. And he expanded the idea to more than just money. He said that we are to tithe our Treasure (money), Time and Talent.

The first time I heard that was during the season when I was running away from worship ministry. And when Randy Gage spoke about tithing the Talent (which for me was playing for and leading worship), that made me VERY uncomfortable.

Can you imagine? How could I ever let myself be out-tithed by a New-Ager?

That is what I wanted to bring up with you today. If we expanded our concept of tithing to include Time and Talent as well as Treasure, how different would our lives be?

Or in another sense, as King David asked in the passage from 1 Chronicles quoted above, who then is willing to consecrate himself this day to the LORD?

“JJ, you don’t understand. You’ve been playing for worship for many years. It’s so much easier for you than for me to get started…”

Actually, God seems to delight in keeping me in a position where it’s not easy for me either, so I actually DO understand. Just on Sunday I was playing for worship at a church where I may be doing worship training for their worship teams.

• To start with, I was on my WEAKEST instrument, drums. Common sense would dictate that if you are going to some place new, start off with your strongest instrument so you leave a good first impression.
  
• On top of that, I was playing on Electric Drums, not the acoustic ones I was used to. Lots of my secret techniques just suddenly became impractical. Oops…
  
• I was playing with people I don’t know. I didn’t know who was gonna cover any slips I make or what I’ll have to do to cover theirs.
  
• And finally, I was already introduced to the congregation as a music/worship instructor. So the congregation’s expectations were raised higher. And thus I had even more to lose if I flopped.

So, in a sense, it NEVER gets easy. Therefore, you get to see whether you REALLY trust in God more than your skills and experience.

Now, if your music skills are not up to par yet, you of course shouldn’t be rushing off to play for service or cell group this coming week. That goes without saying.

But talk with one of the worship leaders in your church or your cell leader. Tell them of your decision to play or serve in worship and make a firm commitment to begin within the next 3-9 months.

Notice I didn’t tell you to wait till you are ready before you talk with them. Why? Because the biggest struggle many of us have is with our mindset. At our core we don’t really see ourselves as worship ministers, skilled and equipped to serve the congregation with music instruments.

So if we wait till we are ready, what will almost always happen is that something will crop up. Our kids will start acting up when we are going to practice, or our jobs will suddenly have a burst of work requiring OT, or something like that. All these events will delay us and become excuses for us to not pursue the equipping and training we need. So we end up not serving at all.

That’s why I urge you to make a firm commitment to begin serving in worship. Talk with your leaders about it (submission to authority is crucial as a worship musician) and give a definite date.

And once you do that you will tell your subconscious that you ARE committed to serving, and that it is to submit itself to you and work with you to obtain ALL the equipping and training you need.

Now on my part, I am in the midst of compiling and defining what are the music skills needed to play in an average church setting. This will be useful both to those who are interested in serving but need to know if they are skilled enough or what they need to work on, as well as to Worship leaders who are actively trying to recruit new musicians, because potential candidates would want to know what is expected of them before they subject their music skills to scrutiny.

But YOU can just email me about what skills you are gonna need at which level and I can give YOU an answer straight away. And if you are actively taking lessons from me I’ll tell you what else you’re gonna need to be ready.

And by the way, in case I haven’t mentioned it yet, after you start playing for worship, that’s when we can start moving on to the REAL training. Not that you’ve not been receiving real training from me before, but everything I share suddenly seems to take a deeper share of meaning.

Those of you who are actively serving in worship right now, whether at a cell group/small group level or for church services will understand what I mean.

Pray about the question I shared from King David “who then is willing to consecrate himself this day to the LORD?” May you be in that number, and experience the exciting and blessed journey that such a decision will bring.

Be blessed!