Blessed is the Nation

Psalm 33:12 reads
“Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD,
the people whom He has chosen for His own inheritance”(NASB).
It seems that in our post-Christian(some say pre-Christian),
pluralistic society, that we will certainly cease to be
blessed by God as a nation. The United States now has
the third highest number of non-Christians of all the
nations of the world (behind India & China). Considering
our continent of North America, there are an estimated
258 million people who are without Jesus Christ (lost and headed
for eternity separated from God)! But this verse causes me to
ask, “What is the inheritance for God’s people?”
Psalm 2:8 reads, “Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations
as Your inheritance, and the very ends of the earth as Your
possession.” We may still have hope to receive the inheritance
God intends(and continue to be a blessed nation), if we keep
our eyes on the result of the Great Commission, reaching
every people group ("ta ethne") on earth. This is a continued and
sharpened focus of Dr. Jerry Rankin and our International Mission
Board. It was overwhelming to SEE the display of all the world's
people groups at the Southern Baptist Convention in Orlando
(June 2010). If we have the heart of God at all, we cannot help
but be moved to tears and action in finding a way to reach every
last one of those language and cultural groups in the world.

I believe North America (and Southern Baptists) will be blessed
by God as we continue to (or perhaps actually start to) make
disciples of all the nations. Making disciples must be more than
just preaching the Gospel and seeing people make a decision and
praying a prayer. We cannot make disciples until we know what
a disciple really is. We need a good working definition of the kind
of disciple (pupil or student) into which Jesus turned His twelve
chosen men. Check out this: "A disciple is a lifelong, radical
learner and radical follower of Jesus Christ." Until we begin
the process(through repentance leading to right action) of becoming
a radical learner & follower ourselves, we could not possibly lead
anyone else to become such a person. This is not about transferring
information or mentoring or holding someone else accountable only
(though it is all of those things). It is completely about life
transference. (I encourage you to read Dr. David Platt's new book
"Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream", then
take the one-year challenge at the end of the book!)

We cannot allow a decrease in sending career & short-term
missionaries to the ends of the earth. We desperately need a
Great Commission Resurgence that will follow a true revival
in the Church. We cannot fail to make disciples of the nations
as they come to us (and as we go to them). The glory of God
in the nations (and in the U.S.A.) depends on our faithfulness!

Being Skillful

When we consider the model of scripture for worship ministry, we must look at the whole scripture for the profile. The leaning today for many is to look primarily at the New Testament. That is not a bad approach, after all we are supposed to be "New Testament Churches". However, because to a greater degree in the Western world, we function as local church bodies with a "house of worship" in which to gather for corporate worship, it is completely valid to consider Old Testament tabernacle & Temple structure for worship. While doing this, we should remember that WE believers are the temple of the Holy Spirit, not the building.

With this in mind, we look back to the Temple in the days of King Solomon. As the Temple was first built and prepared, musicians were set apart as part of the tribe of Levi (priests). I Chronicles 23-25 records this. In Ch. 25, we learn of the families of musicians. Verses 6 - 7 read, "They were all under the direction of their father in the music in the house of the LORD with cymbals, harps, and lyres for the service of the house of God. Asaph, Jeduthun, and Heman (the fathers) were under the order of the king. The number of them along with their brothers, who were trained in singing to the LORD, all who were skillful, was 288.(ESV)” Our goal does not have to be literally 288 choir members (that wouldn’t be bad). I don't care what the setting may be, it is a powerful experience to hear a choir of 288 people. But can you imagine a choir of 288 SKILLFUL singers, all singing to worship and glorify the LORD God Almighty! God set up worship in the temple in such a way that a great number of people would gather and use their skill to bring ultimate praise and glory to Him.

Another aspect of this passage sheds light on our preparation for worship. Did you notice that all the musicians were from the tribe of priests, the Levites? That fact alone has some serious considerations for us as lead worshipers. Do we consider our own preparation for worship as seriously as the priests of the Old Testament? Are we clean before the Lord when we enter corporately to offer up our sacrifice of praise? Are we cleansed by the washing of water through the Word? Are we fully prepared through prayer to stand before God, as our Audience of One, to worship Him? Or are we just bringing a song to be seen by others? Are we worshiping Jesus or are we just worshiping worship or music? May we examine ourselves as priests before offering our sacrifice in worship.

In case our instrumentalists think they might be off the hook, let's consider a related scripture. The book of Psalms is the greatest book ever written on worship. We should be challenged to study and know it well as lead worshipers. Psalm 33:1-3 reads, "Sing for joy in the LORD, O you righteous ones; Praise is becoming to the upright. Give thanks to the LORD with the lyre; Sing praises to Him with a harp of ten strings. Sing to Him a new song; Play skillfully with a shout of joy." (NASB) So we see that everyone who plays an instrument is also challenged to play skillfully (and with joy). This is the model for playing an instrument in worship as well. What does skillful playing mean? What does skillful singing mean? It means that we do our very best, in the Lord's strength and power of the Holy Spirit, to know our instrument (guitar, piano, drums, trumpet, flute, voice, etc). It means that we know musically what is happening in the specific pieces we are presenting before the Lord, so we can give our best to Him. It means that we have our minds sharpened and alert to play and sing every note accurately and with the right spirit. We should be constantly seeking to develop and hone our craft, in whatever instrument. Our goal should be to improve and grow as a singer or instrumentalist every year.

God would have our goal be that every singer and player be skillful to bring Him glory (not for ourselves to be recognized; not to brag on our skill). May we each be challenged to develop our skill musically & spiritually, with humility, to lead in worship as a powerful tool in His hands.