For God alone my soul waits in silence;
from him comes my salvation.
–Psalm 62:1
In preparing for an upcoming seminar on Selah service worship, I’ve been thinking about David’s “waiting” in Psalm 62. The psalmist’s notion of waiting is quite different than the way we often think of it. We think of waiting as the way one waits for a bus or for the microwave to finish heating up some left-overs. David, on the other hand, waits as one ’struck dumb,’ which is what this word really implies. That’s a very different kind of waiting, indeed. Rather than being defined by a period of time, David’s waiting is more a state of the mind and heart. It has at its core an understanding and conviction of God’s holiness and righteousness which contrasts greatly with our sinfulness and unrighteousness. One who waits for the Lord is struck dumb with his mercy and love towards us.
This sense of waiting has some helpful implications when we discuss the idea of worship. It seems that in the current Christian subculture, we have limited our idea of worship relegating it to times during the week like Sunday mornings, Wednesday night Bible study or a Friday evening Selah service. Yet, we limit the idea and significance of worship to a “wait for the bus,” time-oriented concept when we think of worship only occurring during these set times.
When I introduce Selah service worship, several related terms often need to be defined:
Contemplation
To contemplate is to consider with continued attention; to ponder or meditate on. Part of its Latin origination is com – templum – which is where we also get our word for temple, the ‘sacred precinct’ or space marked out for the observation of auguries – the pagan practice of prophetic divining of the future by observing birds and other animals and their entrails and other parts.
Meditation
To meditate is to enter a process of organizing one’s thoughts on a particular subject. The word has its origins in similar words like medicine or medical. Historically, meditation has been thought of in two distinct ways which are similar, yet subtle in their differences. One form emphasizes the intuition and trusts that what one is seeking can be found within themselves. The other emphasizes a process of ordering one’s thoughts on the basis of that which is already known through reading and learning. The Biblical form of meditation seems to combine the two through a process that considers and ponders based on that which has been revealed to us by God in direct and natural revelation.
Prayer
Prayer is the natural outcome of contemplation and meditation. Its origins imply to entreat or implore. It is the logical response of adoration, confession, supplication and thanksgiving that results from a true consideration of the true reality of God, the creator and author of all.
Worship
Worship originates from words meaning to revere that which is worthy of our most true and genuine respect. It is not just singing praises or reciting a creed or ritual but rather a description of the complete process of contemplation, meditation and prayer, as defined previously. In this understanding of the term, true worship is not limited to a period of time set aside during the week, but rather a moment to moment, faith and life-sustaining activity of our minds, hearts and souls.
These ideas offer some interesting implications for us as we think about preparing for times we come together to worship the Lord – particularly something such as a Selah service. Those who come already in a mindset of the moment to moment awareness of the sustaining mercy and grace of God, enter corporate worship differently than the person who practices it as a once a week activity. The main difference being that the first person looks to participate and bring something to the service while the second person often looks to take something from the experience.
For God alone my soul waits in silence;
from him comes my salvation.
Christian contemplation, meditation and prayer offer each of us disciplines towards worship that is not just limited to certain times of the week. But at the heart of true worship is a God-given dumbness that has been born from meeting Him, “whom all power belongs to” and “who is steadfast in His love towards us. “(Ps. 62:11a-12b). Kyrie eleison!
November 27, 2006 at 10:35 pm
Hey Jeff,
I very much enjoyed the selah the other night. One of the reasons was the intimate setting. I find that the place of the service is as important to my experience as the music.
Another thing that greatly affected my experience was the quality of the musicians. This is a tricky topic. As an amateur musician who dreams of participating musically in a selah some day, I’m of two minds. On the one hand, homegrown musicians increase the sense of intimacy and familiarity, but musicianship could be questionable. On the other hand, listening to professionals like Josef and Brian is simply rapture. On the other other hand, would you want to have paid musicians just doing another church-gig? I don’t think so. On the other other other hand, if you choose to use art as a visual aid in the service, you wouldn’t use the scribblings of any Joe, but the images of classic artists and professionals. So why be any less scrupulous about choosing musicians?
And that brings up the question as to whether live music is better than canned. I would have to say that even live mediocre music is better than that which is professionally recorded and played during the service through speakers.
How do you separate yourself for worship and meditation if the setting and the musicians are less than optimal? Is that a spiritual disipline?
February 8, 2007 at 5:37 am
I could write quite a bit about this subject but I don’t intend to here. For better and often for worse, I am a perfectionist when it comes to the choice of music used in a service and how it’s played. It’s critical that a musician picks material that is at a level that they can attain to as a performer. I’ve noted that often church choirs and instrumentalists attempt to perform music that is simply above their abilities. This is true for classical musicians, but it’s also true of contemporary musicians who often choose songs that neither they nor the congregation can sing. Yet, much of one’s tolerance of what’s offered at a given service can be helped by coming better prepared personally to enter into worship. I’ve been profoundly inspired by the scripture reading or communion time on a given Sunday or at a Selah service when things didn’t go all that well musically, yet I had arrived in a more prepared state of mind and heart.
February 12, 2007 at 4:57 am
Here’s a quote from one of Søren Kierkegaard’s journals (1834 – 1854) that I thought I’d add to this discussion on waiting…
The “immediate” person thinks and imagines that when he prays, the important thing, the thing he must concentrate upon, is that God should hear what he is praying for. Yet in the true, eternal sense it is just the reverse: the true relation in prayer is not when God hears what is prayed for, but when the person praying continues to pray until he is the one who hears, who hears what God wills. The “immediate” person, therefore, . . . makes demands in his prayer; the true man of prayer only attends.