The Forbidden Clap

Clap your hands, all of you; raise your voices joyfully and loudly. Give honor for the True God of the universe; Here’s why: The Eternal, the Most High, is awesome and deserves our great respect. He is the great King over everything in this world.—Psalm 47:1-2

It is one of the mysteries of this walk that while we are called to meditate on and quietly marinate in what God says, when we actually speak or sing or do aloud what God has said, is saying, and will always say, something life-giving and life-renewing and life-changing happens. To us, to those around us, to the atmosphere of despair.  Sometimes significant, sometimes a gentle nudge, but almost always, strangely, faith-buildingly noticeable.  

The reason is that the Word is letters and phrases, yes, but primarily, the Word is a Person—One who spoke the universe into existence, breathed life into the first man, and Who uniquely in all of history has the power to bring light into the darkest places of our week, our circumstances, our world. (John 1:1-5)

Sometimes, though, the Word itself or the lyrics to a hymn or song of praise set to the Word, can challenge the comfort zones. There are commands we'd rather make suggestions. Things like clapping. And shouting with a voice of triumph. All well and good if you’re an extrovert, or if it’s part of your culture and family tradition. Great for concerts and performing artists, and sporting events, and your child’s first artwork. But surely not for introverts or the spiritually reserved.

Psalm 47 blows all of that hemming and hawing out of the water. But one popular song of worship in recent years, which has stood the test of time because it is the Word of God set to melody, seems to give us an "out" by changing one significant word from the Truth of Psalm 47 with this opening line to its chorus:

Raise your hands, all you nations, shout to God all creation,

how awesome is the Lord Most High.

Someone else must have felt awkward about the whole clapping bit, so this happened. But instead of being bad theology, the editorial license of the lyric is a Biblically sound shock treatment to our penchant to go through the motions of worship. How often we willingly give men and their performances a hearty applause, shout, and bravo, and yet will give “the great King over everything in this world” what amounts to a close-to-the-vest, polite golf clap. Actually, or quietly in our minds. This lyric actually provides the complete picture of what applause to God should look like.

Football fans, after all, know exactly why they clap loudly with arms raised. Their heart and mind are responding with exuberance to what they see and feel and know—their team is winning. But then, the moment is gone and fades into a mere highlight reel. All the more reason for us to follow suit as we celebrate the everlasting Reason, Whose winning never quits: How awesome is the Lord most high...the great King over everything in this world!

Lord, wherever we happen to be worshiping you this week, help us get over ourselves. No golf claps allowed.

 

“We might be wise to follow the insight of the enraptured heart rather than the more cautious reasoning of the theological mind.” –AW Tozer