Notes

Talking about David and worship I came up with an analogy in response to our conversation (more of a summary pf my thoughts really:

Let say this past Christmas you gave Lucas and Jocelyn each a huge gift beyond either of their expectations; something they could never dream of receiving. They open up their gifts and their responses are immediate.

Lucas has barely shed a quarter of the wrapping paper when he screams and runs over to you and Nicole and gives a quick hug. Before either of you can respond to his embrace, Lucas, with energy and excitement that he can't contain, starts jumping on the couches, running laps around the house, while repeating, “Thank you!” 100 times a minute.

On the other hand, Jocelyn has opened her gift and looks at you and Nicole in disbelief. Immediately her face turns scarlet; she too can't believe what she's received and tears well up in her eyes, she's a mess. You try to listen to her as she attempts get a clear thought out of her mouth, but between the sobs and sniffs a full sentence never forms. She gets up, walks, towards you and smashes her face full of tears and snot into your shirt as she gives you a hug; eventually a clear, soft and one time, “Thank you” comes from her lips.

Now, at no point would you tell either Lucas or Jocelyn that their response was inappropriate, (unless the couch jumping is against the rules). You're delighted in both the screams and the snot.

If someone told Lucas that it's more appropriate to respond like his sister, and you saw him try to subdue his excitement next Christmas and poorly attempt to induce tears, you'd look quizzically and ask, “What the heck are you doing?”

Likewise, if you saw Jocelyn, forcefully trying to hold back tears and get up and run around, occasionally wiping her face, raising her voice to copy her brother, but it sounds closer to a deaf kid trying to sing as her emotion betrays her. You'd likely laugh at her incredulously while asking her, “What's going on?”

We're given a description of worship through the eyes of one child of God in Psalms in the same way that I could have only given Lucas's story and ignored Jocelyn's. But it doesn't make her response to you secondary to Lucas's. And being told that aspects of David's worship are commands, when they aren't explicitly stated as commands to Christians in the Bible, but used as descriptions in poems; it seems as silly as telling Jocelyn that she needs to learn to scream louder, or to tell Lucas that he needs to include crying to more appropriately show gratitude to you and Nicole.

Explaining and encouraging all the different forms of worship in the Bible I think is great, and letting people know that they're welcome to experiment with their expressions to God at church is wonderful as well. My concern comes when certain actions are claimed to be commanded, required or looked upon better than other actions (or non-actions), when the Bible doesn't make that distinction.

I know, from our chat, that we aren't necessarily on opposite sides of an argument here. I just thought that this analogy would help flush out my thoughts better, so that I could be confidence that I've clearly hashed out what I was attempting to communicate. Often analogies have their flaws, and this one may too.