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Spirit & Life
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version 4.0
•••"The
words I have spoken to you are spirit and life"
-- Jesus, John 6:63
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| Hollow Praise, Hallowed Name | | Date Created: May 13, 2005, 09:32 AM |
 I've been making my way through Klemet Preus's recent volume "The Fire and the Staff." Preus writes in a light, easy-reading and almost ambling style about a theology of real substance. There are times I get frustrated with the simplicity of the style, and others when this very simplicity strikes me as almost poetic and profound, as if he's but held out his staff, separated the deep waters, to walk and lead people effortlessly right through theological jargon and intellectual complexities to bring the reader straight to the meat of a matter.
Here follows what I believe to be a nice example of this sort of thing, explaining plainly how so much of the "praise" being given to God is but a hollow heaping of self-centered words, and what is the nature of true praise which truly hallows God's Name and proclaims His marvelous deeds: |
...The greatest praise of Christ is to list the things that He has done for our salvation. Hymns, then, will not really balance praise with the telling of the story. They will praise by telling the story of Christ. In the process of praise, doctrine is taught.
I have three daughters. Suppose a young man is dating my daughter and I'm talking to him about her. I ask, "What do you think of my daughter?"
He answers with words that describe his affections. "I just love her. I think so highly of her. I admire her. I am so taken by her."
I have to say as a father that I would not be impressed with this answer no matter how sincere. What does the guy even know about my daughter? Nothing that I can tell.
Let's try again. I ask, "What do you think of my daughter?"
He answers this time with adjectives, "What a nice young lady. What an elegant creature. What a lovely woman. She's wonderful, she's marvelous, she's beautiful, and she's fabulous."
I'm still not impressed. The young man is improving, but he still hasn't overwhelmed me with his understanding of my daughter.
I try a third time. "What do you think of my daughter?"
He answers with verbs. "I love her because she stops what she is doing to talk to you. I love her because she thinks of me and gives me presents for no reason. I love her because she works so hard and won't let anything get in the way of her goals. I love her because she loves her family and values them highly. I love her because she trusts Christ."
I would tell my daughter to marry a guy like that. He knows her. He loves her.
Our praise and love of Jesus should be the recounting of His verbs for us.
Some hymns are meatier than others. Some teach simply as though to children. Some accent the narrative features of the Gospel--they give the details of Christ's story. Others focus on a doctrinal theme taught by the various stories of Jesus. Some will interpret a text of the Bible and show how Jesus is taught by a specific passage, some will function as liturgical Ordinaries, but all good hymns will praise God by talking about what His Son has done.
Unfortunately, the same emphasis on the teaching nature of hymns is not apparent in most contemporary song collections. The distinguishing feature of most praise songbooks is the focus on the sentiment or feelings of those doing the singing. |
| Nicely said, Pastor Preus. |
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