LEADERSHIP
In times of loss, challenge and conflict it is essential to have both the psalms of lament and the psalms of joy in your heart.
M O R E
T H A N
M U S I C
THE PSALMS OF BY
W.
DAV I D
O .
TAY L O R
D
uring my years as a pastor in Austin, there was a young man whom I will never forget. His name was Tim. At the time, he was an MBA student at the University of Texas and had joined our congregation during his sojourn in college. As I remember him, Tim was the perfect image of the conservative business student: khaki pants, button down dress shirt (either white or blue), soft spoken, polite, gentle, measured, a clean haircut and smart as a whip. But Tim was also a complete surprise of a human being. While our church was theologically charismatic, we were practically a moderate charismatic bunch. Hand raising and the occasional holler of praise to God would not be uncommon. We were not, however, the typical nonstop tongues-speaking, miracle-generating, Spirit-slaying, pentecostal-two-step hopping congregation. People rarely, if ever, danced extravagantly. Tim did. At a certain point during our extended time of congregational song, Tim, standing usually at the end of a pew, would launch out into what can only be described as part hopscotch,
44 W O R S H I P L E A D E R | W O R S H I P L E A D E R .C O M | VO L . 29, N O. 4
part hand windmill-movement, part Maria von Trapp-singingher-heart-out-at-the-hills-that-were-alive-with-the-soundof-music. It was an utterly un-self-conscious and pure-hearted expression. I would often watch Tim with a combination of delight and envy. I thought to myself, “That’s how praise goes, uninhibited by others’ judgment; that’s its free and full-hearted spirit.” I never once joined him, much to my regret today. But I did eventually ask him why he danced. His answer humbled me. He danced, he said, out of obedience. Dancing this way did not come “naturally” to him. It was instead his sacrifice of praise to God. “In singing praise,” writes Walter Brueggemann, “all claims for the self are given up as the self is ceded over to God.” This is why in the psalms the sea “roars,” the field “exults,” and the trees “sing” (Ps 96:11-12). Such is the nature of self-abandonment, as the unqualified response of our lives to God. Tim understood this fact well. And it is why, with the psalmist, that he laughed often, because the goodness of God overwhelmed him. The entire Psalter is called the Tehillim, the “Book of Praises,”