The Right Way to Worship God 2

The Right Way to Worship God 2

Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs

According to the Regulative Principle, whatsoever God has not commanded in worship, he has forbidden. “From whence does such an idea come?” you may ask. Where is such a statement in all of Scripture? Although there are more than the following instances, we may contemplate the examples of Nadab and Abihu, and the example of Uzzah.

Beginning in Leviticus 6, God mentions several times that the fire which was originally on the altar was not to go out. It was not to be neglected, but was to continually burn. Which brings us to the unfortunate flap of Nadab and Abihu in Leviticus 10:

1 Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective firepans, and after putting fire in them, placed incense on it and offered strange fire before the LORD, which He had not commanded them. 2 And fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD. 3 Then Moses said to Aaron, “It is what the LORD spoke, saying, ‘By those who come near Me I will be treated as holy, And before all the people I will be honored.’” So Aaron, therefore, kept silent.

What was their sin that God would immediately strike them dead? Had they verbally profaned the Lord God’s Name? Had they come to the altar as drunkards? No! What does it say? Nadab and Abihu “offered strange fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them.” Many have made this point before, and I can do no better. So I would like to include a section from Jeremiah Burroughs’ Gospel Worship, with this particular part being entitled, The Right Manner of Drawing Nigh to God in General…

They [Nadab and Abihu] were Aaron’s sons, the sons of a godly man, the sons of the High-Priest. They were his eldest sons, for Aaron had other sons besides Nadab and Abihu. He also had Eleazer and Ithamar, but these were his eldest sons. They were two young men. They were struck in the very prime of their age. They were two that were newly consecrated in the priest’s office, for so you find in the 9th chapter. They were two men of renown in the country and before all the people of Israel, two men that God had greatly honored theretofore, as you shall find in the beginning of the 24th chapter of Exodus.

This Nadab and Abihu were men of great reputation and great renown whom God honored in former times. When God called Moses and Aaron to come up to Him with the elders, He singled out Nadab and Abihu among the rest and named them. He said, “Come up unto the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and 70 of the elders of Israel.” Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu alone are named, and then 70 of the elders in general, but Moses, Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, as if these were the four eminent men of renown among all the people of Israel. He named none of the 70 elders but these two, besides Moses and Aaron. Therefore, these two that were consumed by strange fire were renowned men and newly consecrated into their of-fice.

What was their sin?

Their sin was offering strange fire, for the text says that they offered strange fire which God had not commanded them. But had God ever forbidden it? Where do we find that God had ever forbidden them to offer strange fire or appointed that they should offer only one kind of fire? There is no text of Scripture that you can find from the beginning of Genesis to this place where God had said in so many words expressly, “You shall offer no fire but one kind of fire.” And yet here they are consumed by fire from God for offering strange fire.

I find in Exodus 30:9 that they were forbidden to offer strange incense, but I do not find that they were forbidden to offer strange fire. In Lev.6:13, and divers verses in that chapter, we find that God had appointed that they should constantly keep the fire on the altar burning and never let it go out. It seems that it was God’s intention that they should make use of that fire and that fire only. God would have them to pick out His meaning. God sent fire down from heaven upon the altar. In the latter end of the 9th chapter, God sent down fire from heaven and gave them a charge to keep that fire on the altar constantly and never to let it go out. So that it seems that God would have them to pick out His meaning that because He had sent down fire from heaven upon the altar and gave them power to keep it constantly, God would have them understand, therefore, that what incense or sacrifice He would have the use of should be only that fire and no other. It should be noted, though, that God never did say to them directly in these words, “You shall make use of this fire and no other,” but God would have them to understand this. That’s their sin, therefore, in offering strange fire.

Another example would be that of Uzzah, and his sincere, yet sincerely wrong, handling of the Ark of the Covenant. There are many passages that talk about the uniqueness of the Ark of the Covenant in that it was to be handled by only the Levitical priesthood. Here are a few to consider (my emphasis added):

Deuteronomy 10:8 At that time the LORD set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the LORD, to stand before the LORD to serve Him and to bless in His name until this day.

Deuteronomy 31:9 So Moses wrote this law and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and to all the elders of Israel.

Deuteronomy 31:25 that Moses commanded the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD, saying,

But we see in 2 Samuel 6, Uzzah goes beyond what God has commanded and despite his sincerity in not wanting to see the Ark of the Covenant made muddy, God still renders the due consequences of his sin:

6But when they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached out toward the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen nearly upset it. 7 And the anger of the LORD burned against Uzzah, and God struck him down there for his irreverence; and he died there by the ark of God.

And so we see the principle of God’s regulation of worship in these two instances. Shouldn’t they apply? If God, as He says, will be regarded as holy when we draw near unto Him, then He has a standard. I think we would all agree on that. Now, the question is: What is that standard? I particularly want to address the much heated/debated topic of Exclusive Psalmody.

Now, before I began to type out my thoughts, doubts, and questions which show my finiteness as a sinful, fallen, man I do want to say this: Whether or not we are to sing only the Psalms in our corporate and private worship of God is one question, but whether we’re to sing them at all should not be a question. There is no doubt a command for God’s people to sing the Psalms in worship, both privately and in corporate settings. That being said, however, we find that in most our churches today, not even that is being done. There are songs from the Trinity Hymnal being sung, there are praise choruses and other “performances”, but where are those soul-expressing hymns that are found in the book of Psalms? I pray that the Church would find her way back to singing the Word of God, so that we can

1) Praise God in the way He has commanded,

2) Educate one another by singing His Word, and

3) Find true comfort in worship, as we sing His Word which brings solace to the suffering Christian.