The River of Praise

By Tom Booth

A Protestant preacher friend of mine studied the Bible from back to front. He did so with a special lens — worship and praise — and he discovered a "river of praise" throughout the holy scriptures.

When Moses led God's people to the other side of the (parted) Red Sea, what did they do? They sang songs of praise to the Lord! During and after the Last Supper, as Jesus and his disciples walked through the Garden of Gethsemane, they read scripture and sang songs of praise! If you look through the last book of the Bible (the Book of Revelation), you will read accounts of the singing of praise in the heavens.

Yes, there is a "river of praise" throughout the scriptures. Later, as Christianity grew and spread to places other than the Roman Empire, the early monks (the "desert fathers") tempered their love for solitude and silence with occasions of communal prayer and singing. Monastic chant (the singing of the text with a simple note structure) grew into polyphony. The use of harmony and independent melodies intertwined. As the complexity of the musical structure progressed, the reason for the singing didn't change at all: God's people need to sing. It is the response of the beloved to the Lover!

Music in itself is one of the highest of art forms. Music by itself, artfully composed with joy, beauty and an "eye to the Creator," is intrinsically praise and worship. As music and church history progressed, instruments were added to the "score." The lyre, harp, drum, cymbal, stringed instruments, brass and the "synthesizer" of the day, the organ, were all employed in the worship of God.

Things got fancy. Choirs replaced scholas (a small group of singers) and the organ could fill the space of the vast cathedrals that now dotted the landscape of Europe and beyond. In the year 1054, the first real splinter in Christendom occurred, and the Orthodox Church of the East was birthed in the process. But in the 1500s things got real divisive for the Western Church as well. Ecclesial abuses and a lust for power collided head-on with a desire for reformation and a lust for land (this is a simplification of a very complex time in history), thus leading to a serious split and splintering of the Christian faith.

All the while, people of faith (or not) continued to sing. Hymns and chants were composed — some remembered, most not. Although at this time the organ dominated the liturgical musical landscape, many instruments, especially the human voice, led the people of God in prayer through praise and song.

As you ponder the history of the singing church, listen to Let the River Flow and remember that this "river of praise" has flowed for many centuries. It is only now our turn to jump in to the flow of praise, and begin to worship God fully, with Spirit, soul and body.