A walk of faith as a psalmist

 

It had been a long hard journey for the 35 vocalists and musicians travelling across the Irish Sea as part of a nationwide musical tour. Owing to our schedule we had elected to travel on the Liverpool – Belfast route and drive down to Dublin , our eventual destination, by road. The 100 mile or so journey had been more than a little tense travelling in our coach with English markings and numberplates through the infamous border on route to Dublin . Just a few miles out from the fair city I leaned over to talk to the tour manager to enquire where exactly we were bound for in Dublin .

 

“I’m afraid I’ve not been sent a map, Dave” he replied.  I was stunned.  “Well how do we know where to go?” I said incredulously. “He just told me to look out for a white Renault car parked by the roadside en route waiting to guide us on.”  I just couldn’t believe it.  The prospect of spending the little time there was left of the night in search of a white Renault was almost too much to bear.  But sure enough, somewhere on the outskirts of Dublin at 2.45am we came across our trusty white Renault, complete with sleepless driver ready to take us on to our well-needed abode for the night.

 

Although perhaps not quite so bizarre; for the worship leader the experience of leading worship can require a faith and dependence of a similar vein as we learn to discern and trust the Holy Spirit guiding and moving us on in our corporate worship together.  To devalue the worship leader’s task as merely to provide a selection of songs topical to a theme is surely to rob the church of the potency and exhilaration of prophetic worship in our walk of faith.

 

In pursuit of God’s best, his job is to believe for the anointing of the Spirit to fall upon the congregation and true worship to rise.  At times this will mean laying aside the predictable, sometimes polished techniques and patterns that may have brought past blessings, for faith is the key to true worship leading.

 

In the early days of what we now call charismatic worship a new era heralded in of songs, music and devotion to God that, although at times lacked sophistication, bore many of the hallmarks of true spiritual creativity and discovery.  Now as ever, the danger that lies before us is to allow that glorious new life to congeal sacrificing faith for the security of the predictable and the acceptable.  We need leadership that gives room for the Holy Spirit to change or redirect the course of our gatherings to interpret the burden of God’s heart and to be sensitive to His moving.

 

One of the first things David did as king was to commission three prophets to organise the praise and worship before the Ark of the Covenant.  The musicians were selected because they were “skilful”.  The word skilful here means much more than having a good technique, it has to do with understanding and discernment.  While it is important to strive after technical excellence, this must always be subject to one’s ability to discern the heart and mind of God.  Our faith must be active, laying hold of the truths and aspirations that we are singing and expecting him to release an awareness of His presence and power, for indeed powerful things do happen as heartfelt worship rises from a congregation.  Sadly our corporate worship is still seen in many quarters of the church as merely a prelude to the preaching of the Word.  Almost without realising it the worship leader can become an entertainer/personality whose job is to create an expectancy for the main event.  Preaching is important, teaching is important, yet I long for us to catch a vision of the centrality and importance of worship.  At the dedication of Solomon’s temple, so dynamic was the praise that the glory of God came in the form of a cloud filling the temple.  So overwhelming was this that not even the priests could stand to minister.  The running order was abandoned.  God had visited his people.

 

 

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