What’s with all this noise?
Why is the preacher asking us to lift our voice?
These are some common responses that many unfamiliar with Pentecostal churches have had when attending a service. These are fair questions when asked with the right attitude. Why do we lift our voice? Why do we clap, shout, and make a general effort to raise the volume of the worship and voices of the congregation? Why do we push for unity in these efforts? Let’s find out!
The Biblical Backdrop
In I Chronicles 16:15, David excitedly gathered together the Levites and the Priesthood for the monumental task of bringing the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem. After letting the Levites know that they were to carry the ark upon their shoulders, he then spoke to the chief of the Levites and asked that their brethren be appointed as singers who would play loudly with instruments “raising sounds of joy.” Then, after all instructions were put in motion, the bible tells us: “so all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of the Lord with shouting, to the sound of the horn, trumpets, and cymbals, and made loud music on harps and lyers”(15:28, ESV).
At the heart of this loud, joyous event was a unity that centered around the journey of the King (symbolically enthroned upon the ark of the covenant) to Jerusalem. The King of Kings deserved an entrance into the city that clearly portrayed the joy that filled the hearts of the people. One is instantly reminded of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem and the fervor of the people who began to wave palm branches and shout “Hosanna: blessed is the King of Israel!” (Jn 12:13).
The sound of joy is contagious. The sound of victory is overwhelming. Something about the unified voices of people lifting their voices as one brings about a supernatural response that, in my opinion, is nowhere captured better than at the dedication of the Temple during the reign of King Solomon.
According to II Chronicles 5:13-14, after the levites were set in order and singers and musicians were appointed, “the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord; and when they lifted up their voice…” (along with the instruments)… “the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord.”
Did you catch that? As they lifted up their voice as one, to make one sound to be heard in praise and thanking the Lord, the glory of God filled the newly erected temple. This moment was so powerful that the “priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud: for the glory of the Lord had filled the house” (vs. 14). God responded to the unified sound of their loud, joyous praise by filling the house with His glory!
The Joyful Noise
While there is a place for the voice of mourning and repentance (we can look at that another time), there is a clear theme in the bible that establishes the power of a joyful noise. Psalm 66:1; 81:1; 95:1; 95:2; 98:4; 98:6; and 100:1 all agree and call us to “make a joyful noise” unto the Lord. Time and again, we see Israel shouting with a great shout (Ezra 3:11) in celebration of God and events associated with God’s glory, power, dwelling, and goodness.
The Power of the Shout
At Jericho, standing before impassable walls, God told Joshua that on the seventh day after six days of walking in silence that, “when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat…” (6:5). Unity was the key to this victory and the shout was the means by which the wall fell flat! All the people shouted, whether it made sense or not! There was a power in the unified shout of the people!
In II Chronicles 13:15, as the men of Judah stood in battle against Jeroboam, it happened to be that “as the men of Judah shouted, it came to pass, God smote Jeroboam.” This scripture reminds us of Psalms 5:11, “but let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because thou defended them…”. There is a power in the shout!
The Sound and Activity of Praise
Praise is certainly a repetitious word in the book of Psalms and is often connected to a call to action for its readers. “Praise ye the Lord, praise God in his sanctuary…” (150:1). “Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the name of the Lord; Praise him, O ye servants of the Lord” (135:1).
When we take a look at this call to praise we come to find that praise is often demonstrative and vocal.
- Psalm 109:30 “I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth…”
- Psalm 147:1 “Praise ye the Lord: for it is good to sing praises to our God…”
- Psalm 149:1 “Praise ye the Lord. Sing unto the Lord a new song…”
- Psalm 47:6 “Sin praises to God, sing praises…”
- Psalm 66:8 “O bless our God, ye people, and make the voice of his praise to be heard”
- Psalm 149:3 “Let them praise his name in the dance…”
The final Psalm (150) is a continuous call to the sound of praise with both voice and instrument. When we arrive at the New Testament, this call to vocal praise has not been relegated to the dustbin of Old Testament antiquity. Hebrews 13:15 admonishes us to “offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.” (see Ps. 34:1). In contrast to this call to vocal and demonstrative praise to God is the sobering statement from Psalm 115:17 “the dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence.” As one who is not dead, I pray that my “mouth be filled with thy praise” (Ps. 71:8) so that I can fulfill the call from Psalm 150, “let everything that hath breath praise the Lord…” (6).
There are many reasons people may choose not to engage in demonstrative or vocal praise like others around them. As someone who has preached many places, domestically and internationally, I have observed many different scenarios where people responded differently to shouting, singing, praising, and other forms of joyful and liberating expressions of thanksgiving.
People are different and sometimes personality played a role in the differences among the people’s response throughout services. Some had physical handicaps that did not allow for the same degree of movement that others enjoyed. It is important to understand that God does not demand uniformity but He does demand unity.
Unity is one of those words in the bible that doesn’t always sit well with the base nature of carnal man. While we know that unity among the brethren is considered “good and pleasant” (Ps. 133:1), it seems that it is something that requires effort on the part of God’s people to keep (see Eph. 4:3, endeavoring). Paul understood this when he admonished the Corinthian church to “speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment” (1:10). Unity is not easy and it takes work, but nowhere have I seen more disunity than when it comes to the subject matter being discussed in this newsletter.
I remember being in one church and watching a sour looking man with earplugs in his ears. He had his arms crossed and had a scowl on his face during the worship service. He didn’t appear to like anything to do with loud noise or demonstrative praise at church. The irony of this individual was that he was well-known for listing to very loud music in his car and was often seen driving around town juking and jiving to the beats being played-even singing loudly along with the tunes.
So, what was the problem? Was it that the volume was too loud at the church or that the praise was too demonstrative? Or, could it be that this individual had picked up a critical spirit somewhere on his journey past Calvary? Was it a sermon he heard that he found fault with? Was it stubbornness? Who knows, but one thing always came to my mind when I saw him; King David’s wife, Michal.
From the Window
The same story I started with that shows David bringing the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem with the fanfare of shouting and singing, is the story we now end with. Every six steps, David would dance before the ark of the covenant while the singers sang, music was played, and shouting heralded the return of God’s glory to Jerusalem (II Sam. 6:15).
Yet, as the ark of the Lord came into the city of Jerusalem, David’s wife Michal (Saul’s daughter) was looking through the window awaiting David’s return. One the streets the people shouted and joy filled the air. It was a day of unity among the people. Everyone was shouting, praising, and lifting their voices in celebration. Well, everyone except the window watcher Michal.
According to the Bible, when she saw David “leaping and dancing before the Lord”, she “despised him in her heart.” (II Sam. 6:16). Later, when David returned to the palace, she confronted him with bitter disdain: “how glorious was the king of Israel today…”, her words dripping with cruel mockery.
In her opinion, his worship was vulgar and unsightly for someone of his royal position. David’s response to this vehement resistance to his worship was quick and measured. He reminded Michal that God had chosen him as king in the place of her father and because of this great honor he would, “be merry before the Lord” (vs. 21), promising to worship God more extravagantly in a way that would surely cause him to become more insignificant and base in her sight.
God forbid we ever find ourselves on this side of the praise perspective!
The Takeaway
As we have seen, vocal praise, a joyful noise, the power of a shout–all have a powerful place in the kingdom of God. Being in one accord–of the same mind and spirit–lends a gravity to such gatherings and, as seen in Acts 2, invites the glory of God to fall upon those in such a mindset of unity.
Psalm 34:3 invites us to “exalt his name together,” and in Isaiah 52:9, those who are facing the wilderness moments were to “break forth into joy, sing together” in anticipation of God’s divine assistance. In Romans 15:6-7, Paul called us to be “likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus: that ye may with one mind and one mouth praise God…”
As I recently preached on Saturday evening during our normal prayer time, we must conquer the mute spirit that seeks to silence our praise. I want God to fill our mouth with laughter and our tongue with singing (Ps. 126:2). Oh that my “mouth be filled” with God’s praise (Ps. 71:8).
Remember, Psalm 115:17 “the dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence.”