Do You Sing Or Play An Instrument? | Psalm 34 | Blake Jenkins

So, do you sing or play an instrument?

If you wonder why there is that kind of outburst uh from a simple question, uh then you have not given us your name or phone number before.

Because if you fill out one of these connect cards, if you let us know uh who you are and how you can get involved, then most assuredly you have received a phone call, a text message, an email from one Dr.

Rick McCollum asking if you sing or play an instrument.

It's all done in an effort to hopefully get you involved with your greatest purpose in life.

And that is to praise the Lord.

It doesn't have to be done through just through singing, it doesn't have to be done just through playing on a musical instrument, it doesn't have to be done just in gathering together with a local body like we are here today.

But it's a great way to be able to tap into the purpose for which you were made.

And I, very soon after getting here, about three and a half years ago now, very learned, very quickly learned that this question was asked all the time to virtually every person that came through the doors.

It's become kind of a talking point of sorts.

I mean, all of our choir that are up here, they're wearing different shirts that are represented from different events or different efforts throughout Rick's tenure here.

But you'll notice they're all wearing this kind of turquoise tealish button on their chest, and on that button it says, Do you sing or play an instrument?

And so Rick, he has done this.

He is helping to activate and engage people.

That was one of the things I learned.

As we were uh going through the first month, my first month here, and I was asking Rick, what is your greatest passion in ministry?

I was just trying to get to know the staff.

How the Lord has worked in and through them, how he had brought them here.

And Rick, at that point, who had been here for over 25 years, is like, why?

What is your most uh like important thing?

What gets you up in the morning?

What makes you want to come in and serve the Lord?

And it was to engage and activate people in service to the Lord for his praise and his mission.

And I was like, Rick, are you also the missions pastor here at Spring Valley Baptist Church?

Like, because he talks about missions and going with the gospel and serving neighbor all the time.

And he wanted to be able to engage and activate, plug people and connect them to being able to serve.

And so here on his last day in this role, not on our team or a part of our church, but just in this role, want to be able to come to God's word and to be able to share briefly with you a verse that I think encapsulates what I have seen of Rick's ministry here.

And really what the Lord calls each and every one of us to.

One of my favorite pictures of Rick that I think encapsulates the verse I'm going to share with you this morning is this image right here.

This image was taken this past year at our 45th anniversary celebration here at our church.

As Rick was leading our over 200-person choir on that day.

And as I saw this image for the first time, I had to stop what I was doing as it popped up on my phone.

And to be able to see, this encapsulates Rick's ministry here at Spring Valley Baptist Church.

Because what he is doing is, yes, he is instructing in this moment.

He is instructing the choir and what it is they are to be doing, right?

Hey, this is a high moment.

I need you to bring it all out of you.

This is the peak, this is the climax, this is where I need you to get loud, right?

But Rick is also in this moment pointing away from self and pointing to Christ.

And showing, and it's one of the things is Rick, he is so worthy of honor in so many ways.

And as we've honored him throughout this past year, every time there is some sort of adulation, some sort of applause, and we turn and we look to him, Rick, he's pointing to the glory of God alone.

It's the first song we sang this morning.

To God be the glory.

And in serving him, he gets to do it with people that he loves and in God's providence.

You're able to see right here, just a little bit to the left of the image, you're able to see Alex, his son, who's up here singing with us this morning.

And just right next to Alex, you're able to see our next minister of music and worship, Jason Burley.

And how God in this image brought so many things together.

People that Rick loves, things that Rick loves, and the goal of every single one of our lives to magnify the Lord.

The verse that I see that encapsulates so much of Rick's ministry in all of our lives is Psalm 34, verse 3.

Psalms 34:3

Where there David writes this Oh magnify the Lord with me.

And let us exalt his name together.

Oh, magnify the Lord with me.

And let us exalt his name together.

Let's go to God in prayer.

Gracious Heavenly Father, as we come to your word this morning, I pray that you would give us eyes to see.

God, that you give us ears to hear.

God, we pray that you would speak.

For we your servants are listening.

It's through Christ we pray.

Amen.

This morning I'm going to tell you why you should sing or play an instrument for the glory of God.

In short, why you should worship him, why you should take up the invitation to magnify the Lord with me, and why we should exalt his name together.

Well, the first reason is this, you can fill these in.

The first reason is out of design.

Out of design.

You were made to praise your Maker.

And when we realize that we were made, we were designed fearfully and wonderfully made, we well up with praise.

The psalmist would write this in Psalm 139, verses 13 and 14.

Psalms 139:13

In talking directly to the Lord, for you formed my inward parts.

You knitted me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you.

Why?

For I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works, O Lord.

My soul knows it very well.

Every single one of you here this morning needs to know this.

You were not an accident.

You were created on purpose and for a purpose.

God made you, and this purpose that our Maker has for us is to praise Him, to magnify Him.

Last week, as we were in Psalm 150, we saw that let everything that has breath praise the Lord.

If you have breath, we are to give that breath back to Him in praise, to magnify, to glorify, to praise, to lift up God.

The Westminster shorter catechism.

So if you're coming from a Presbyterian background, you already know the answer to this, right?

In the catechism, and some of you, I just say the word catechism, you start twitching a little bit, right?

Because of what you went through when you were a kid.

But catechism, as you are learning these questions and answers, drilling these theological points deep into your mind and hopefully making its way into your heart and your soul.

The very first question is you start with what is the chief end of man?

And the answer is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.

This is our purpose.

This is our design to glorify God and enjoy him forever.

This is the design.

It makes me think about if you had a guitar, right?

We're talking about singing and playing an instrument.

If you had a guitar, now I played guitar in the youth band in high school, but don't worry, that's not impressive.

That was like early 2000s Christian worship music.

It was all G, D, E, minor, and C, okay?

That was the four chords I knew.

And you just worked everything around in different variations on that, okay?

Played acoustic guitar, I played bass, but we were truly awful.

Uh, you know, it was one of the things.

Bless our hearts, right?

We gave it the good old try.

But in that, I loved gear.

Just because we were bad, it didn't keep me from liking gear, right?

And liking the different kinds of instruments and everything like that.

Kind of becoming obsessed and looking at how could I get gear that would make me better?

But we all know that a lot of times it's not the instrument, it's the one who's playing it, right?

But like, think with me.

Like, I mean, the guitar, the acoustic guitar.

I think sometimes back to like the first person to make some of these instruments, and I'm like, how on earth did they think of this, right?

How on earth did they refine and perfect the design for it to make such beautiful and repeatable sounds for us?

I mean, you think about like an acoustic guitar.

Like, I mean, this is this is a beautiful guitar up here, right?

You know, there are other guitars.

And a ludier would have to take the find the right tone wood, shape the neck, create the resonance, make the strings, everything on the fretboard, putting it all together so that it produced a beautiful sound.

Okay, now imagine with me if somebody got a Martin D28, right?

They drop about three grand on a guitar, okay?

And they get this beautiful instrument, right?

And they take it and they just hang it on the wall.

I mean, it's beautiful in and of itself, but right, it's less than in that moment.

Like it at that point, it is a piece of art and not as much of an instrument.

But even worse still, imagine if somebody had this Martin D28 and they weren't just displaying it up on the wall, but rather they had it on a little stand by the front door so that people could hang their coats and purses on it when they came inside.

We'd say that's foolish.

We'd say you could get a whole lot cheaper of a coat rack right there.

It is less than a why?

Because it is being utilized apart from its design.

And each and every one of you here this morning are worth infinitely more than any sort of guitar.

And when your life is just hanging up on the wall, or when your life is being utilized for a purpose, anything less than glorifying and praising and giving your breath back to God, it is less than in that moment, and you were made for so much more.

You were made for so much more joy and purpose than you could ever imagine.

But it's not too late.

You can tap into that, you can course correct, you can be made new and brought back into the fold, and you can walk in the way that you were designed for great joy and peace.

That you were made to worship out of design.

But we are also to worship God, number two, out of obedience.

Out of obedience.

Psalm 149, verse 1 says, Praise the Lord.

Psalms 149:1

Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise in the assembly of the godly.

Church, we are commanded to sing.

It's a command.

But when the command is to do something enjoyable, it's more like an invitation, is it not?

I mean, okay, so Thomas, my firstborn, he is a great eater.

He is a great eater.

His younger brother Will, not so much.

But Thomas, he is a great eater.

It has not always been that way, though.

I still remember at one point, you know, when he was about six years old, we were down at the outback, right?

No rules, just right.

And we were over there, and you know, he was getting something off the kid's menu, and I get the Rebbe, right?

And it's at one point throughout the course of the meal that I take my steak knife and I cut off a small piece and I put it over onto his plate, and I say, hey, buddy, eat this.

I don't like it.

You don't know you don't like it.

Eat it, right?

I didn't say it like that.

We were in public after all.

And so I'm just like, son, I really think you will enjoy this.

Go ahead.

Take it, eat it.

And it's in that moment that Thomas kind of hesitantly takes his fork and skewers the meat and he brings it to his mouth and starts to chew, and his eyes close and open again.

And he's like, that's incredible.

And that was the last day Thomas Jenkins ate off the kids' menu.

And so my wallet's hurting for it, right?

So, but my goodness, he like that is tasting and seeing that the Lord is good, like that we, in that moment, like when we are receiving the command to praise God, it is because it is enjoyable for us to do that.

He is inviting us in to live in accordance with our purpose, to not go against the grain of the way that we were designed, but to live into that.

And when we do that, there is great enjoyment.

And so we have this command, but the command is enjoyable, and so it's more like an invitation.

And so from here, opening God's word, commanding you to sing, hear that as the invitation that it is.

But some of you, when you hear the command to sing and to give praise to God, it's it's like you turn up your nose like a kid who's at the dinner table who only likes macaroni and cheese and French fries.

But for us to have our palates expanded, to have the experience and to know the nourishment, the goodness, the depth, the enjoyment of singing praise to God.

So we sing out of design, we sing out of obedience, and third, we sing out of joy.

Out of joy.

With as much as we're talking about it, how fundamental praise is to being a human, it's no surprise that the longest book in the Bible is the book of Psalms, the song book of God's people.

And here there are different types of psalms, psalms of adoration and confession, thanksgiving, even lament.

But there are many songs, great singing of joy.

Listen in to some of these.

Psalm 63, 7.

For you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.

Or Psalm 67, 4.

Let the nations be glad and sing for joy.

For you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon the earth.

Or Psalm 149, verses 5 and 6.

Psalms 149:5

Let the godly exalt in glory.

Let them sing for joy on their beds.

Let the high praises of God be in their throats.

You know, sometimes we are just so elated and so overjoyed that like just a squeal or a shout is necessary, and then we break into sing song.

We talked about it a little bit last week, and we're in the midst of the World Cup, right?

America, USA playing again this week, right?

As we are getting, hopefully, to move on further and further into this World Cup.

But after a goal takes place, what happens?

You have the initial eruption of the crowd, and then you have everybody breaking into coordinated song.

And for us, like we see what happens, and in response to what has happened, joy bubbles up and overflows out of our mouths and in our bodies.

And so for us, each and every single week, as we see what God has done.

And what has he done?

God in his son has paid fully and finally for your sin and my sin, for the sins of the whole world.

That they have been removed from us and have been placed on his son as a substitute, as a sacrifice for sin and for sinners.

That Jesus stood in our place.

And he has now made it possible for us to have access to the Father, to be in the presence of the Holy One.

Something that we can never do on our own.

Something we always devolve back into sin, into depravity, that we are degraded.

We could never work ourselves up enough, straighten ourselves enough out for us to be acceptable in his sight.

But praise God, we don't have to.

Jesus has done that on your behalf and my behalf, and now all we do is repent and believe.

We turn aside from the sin and the sin-dead ways of living.

And we receive freely His gift, his new life.

And it changes everything about us.

What we were pursuing before, we no longer pursue.

How we were living before, we no longer live.

But all of our life is reoriented around him.

Are we gonna be perfect?

No.

Is everything gonna instantly go better and be better in your life?

No.

But we have his promise of his presence with us.

And that your sins, my sins, have been removed from us as far as the east is from the west.

And even though we still stumble and fall as we seek to follow him, repentance isn't just something done one time at the beginning.

It's not just the first stepping stone in the longer path of Christianity.

No.

But the gospel is good news, and repentance in response to the gospel is from beginning to end in our lives.

And we can come again and again to Him.

That's why Jesus taught us in the Lord's Prayer.

They said, Lord, teach us to pray.

And there in the Lord's Prayer, Jesus bakes in forgive us.

Forgive us our trespasses.

As we forgive those who trespass against us.

He knows that we will still sin.

He knows that we will still fall.

But we have a Savior who said, It is finished.

Not, it's almost finished.

Not it's somewhat finished.

It is finished.

Jesus, he has paid it all.

When we see this, when we're reminded of this, when you know what has been done on your behalf, that's better than any goal.

It's better than anything that we could see here in this life.

And it causes us to well up in praise and enjoy.

And then it draws us into great loyalty.

That's the next reason, number four, why we are to praise.

We're to praise out of loyalty.

Now, some of you have um fight songs, alma maters, right, that you sing to express your loyalty, right?

Like after a game, you link up, you put your arms around everybody, you start swaying a little bit like this, and you start singing, right?

Or I thought about, you know, getting a track of sandstorm going in here a little bit this morning, you know, really living the place up, okay?

Right?

That there are certain things that just get us to bond people together, get people moving in the same direction.

And when we sing these, when we take part in these, we are demonstrating our loyalty to that which we are singing.

And this is but a shadow of the reality of what happens when we sing to our creator and our redeemer.

When we sing to God, it is an act of loyalty that takes us mentally and physically.

And we demonstrate this loyalty despite the circumstances, despite what's going on.

We sing both when things are going well and when we have reasons in the world's eyes to never sing another note.

We sing through the tough times and in moments when all joy seems to have evaporated.

We sing out of loyalty to our God.

This is what the prophet Habakkuk did at the close of his book in the Old Testament.

You can see there in Habakkuk chapter 3.

Habakkuk 3 · chapter mention

Listen to this.

He's talking about all of the things that are going wrong and could go wrong.

There in verse 17 Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit beyond the vines.

The produce of the olive fail, and the fields yield no food.

The flock be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls.

Do you get the picture?

We're not as much of an agrarian society anymore.

We have some farmers here in the room.

This is a bleak picture.

No crops.

No livelihood.

No means for providing for, feeding your family, or making it through the difficult seasons.

No animals in the stall.

Everything has been cut off.

Utterly desolate.

Nothing.

All of this is taking place.

But you get to verse 18.

Yet, yet I will rejoice in the Lord.

I will take joy in the God of my salvation.

That word yet is a demonstration of our loyalty to Him.

Maybe you came here this morning with a long list of reasons in the world's eyes why you should not praise God.

Why you shouldn't lift up songs to him.

We're going to sing some more here in a little bit, but maybe you need to start off that song by saying in your mind or even out loud, yet, yet I will rejoice in the Lord.

And y'all, I love watching the people of God sing.

I love it when we get together.

It was never meant to be like some worship leaders say, you know, just get alone, you and God in this moment.

There's a time and place for that.

But I can do that at home.

I can do that in the car.

But when we are called together, we are to let the word of Christ dwell in us ritually.

By singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with thankfulness in our hearts to God.

Like we are meant to be together and to see one another.

And I love to be with one another and to see the people of God sing, especially my older brothers and sisters in the faith.

The ones who have seen a lot.

The ones who've suffered a lot.

The ones who hurt a lot.

And yet still sing with frail but faithful voices to the Creator and Redeemer.

I see it in the faces of the choir.

You're the easiest to see.

As I sit out there, and as I look up here, there are others in the congregation individually who probably know some of you much better than I do.

But as I've gotten to know you and gotten to know you and the stories and the hardship and the prayer requests and the things that the Lord has brought you to and has brought you through, not everybody here in this room knows what you're going through.

I don't know the depth of what you're going through.

I probably know just the scratching the surface level, know what you're going through.

But when I see God's people sing through tears, sing through hardship, sing with joy despite the circumstances, that is a testimony to me.

That is an encouragement to me.

That even though A, B, and C, X, Y, and Z have happened and are happening in my life, yet I will praise the Lord.

I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.

We praise him out of loyalty to him.

And there's a flip side of loyalty.

It's the next reason why we praise him.

We praise him out of defiance.

Out of defiance.

We sing to loyalty to God, but we're actually singing in defiance of something else, namely everything else that sets itself up against God.

Right?

We sing in defiance of our situations and our circumstances.

We see it in the New Testament with the Apostle Paul.

In Acts 16, Paul and Silas, they were thrown into a Philippian prison for exercising a demon from a fortune-telling young girl.

But rather than stalking in their cells, rather than crossing their arms and furrowing their brows, rather than cursing in their chains, they did this.

Look at Acts 16, verse 25 and 26.

Acts 16:25

About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God.

And the prisoners were listening to them.

And suddenly there was a great earthquake.

So that the foundations of the prison were shaken, and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone's bonds were unfastened.

They were not bending the knee to the Philippian regime.

They weren't conceding the mission of God, but no, they were loyal to Him and they defied those who would stop the mission, not with violence, but with singing.

Makes me think about the civil rights movement here, even in our own country.

With the nonviolent protests, and you start to look at the songs that were used on the marches, on the bus rides, on the sit-ins, and in the jail cells.

The singing in defiance, regardless of what was happening in the world around.

And maybe you haven't been in an actual jail cell, but maybe you have felt constricted or constrained or imprisoned in other ways.

Maybe there was a divorce that deeply affected your family.

Or maybe there was a diagnosis that you didn't want to hear, or rumors that spread about you or about a loved one, or maybe there's anxiety and insecurity layered one on top of the other.

Maybe it's a death, someone close to you or someone that you deeply loved.

We sing to God out of loyalty to Him and in defiance of other circumstances or forces or people that would seek to stop us.

Makes me think last year, last summer, I was at the Southern Baptist Convention out in Texas.

And my wife and I, we were there, and it was one of the concluding sessions, and we were beginning that closing session with a time of worship, and it was a deeply moving time.

And we were singing one song in particular, we were singing in Christ Alone, one of our favorites.

And as we were in this room with thousands and thousands of people, we were looking, we were sitting on the aisle, because I like sitting on the aisle, and I could see down the aisle in the next section up, and just a little ways over, I could see a preacher that I greatly respected standing there with his wife.

His name was Steve Gaines.

And some of you know the name Steve Gaines, others of you don't.

Steve, uh good Alabama fan, right?

Uh so we we we had that uh kinship right there.

He pastored at First Baptist Gardendale, not too far away from where I grew up.

And then Steve Gaines would go on to be the pastor at Bellevue Baptist Church, where Adrian Rogers pastored faithfully for so many years there in Memphis, Tennessee.

And Steve, not too long before that, had received a very difficult cancer diagnosis.

And he was undergoing treatments, and it was very evident that his life, his earthly life, was coming to a close.

But he was there, he was standing with his wife, he was singing praises to our God out of loyalty to him and out of defiance of what was going on around him.

And I still remember at that point where it says, No guilt in life, no fear in death.

This is the power of Christ in me.

From life's first cry to final breath, Jesus commands my destiny.

I'm standing back there, he has no idea who I am.

He has no idea that I'm watching him.

He has no idea, though, how much that moved me and how I am standing there trying to suck back tears as we get ready for this last part of a business meeting.

Steve would go on, and he passed away not too long ago.

But he has received his reward.

He led men to Jesus.

He led women to Jesus.

Boys and girls, young and old, and others, and praising God because he is worthy.

Out of loyalty and out of defiance for what was going on around.

And then we can see really the reason that undergirds all of the other reasons.

Why we sing to God.

It's number six.

We sing out of imitation.

Zephaniah 3.17 says this.

The Lord your God is in your midst.

A mighty one who will save.

He will quiet you by his love.

He will exult over you with loud singing.

Have you ever thought about it?

That we have a God who sings over us.

We've been called to rejoice, but we have a God who rejoices over us with gladness.

We have one who is mighty to save.

We have one that we can rejoice in, but we have a God who rejoices over us, and we have a God who will quiet us with his love.

Like a mother's lullaby to her child, he quiets the anxious thoughts that we have with his love.

Like I read this, and the picture that comes to mind is that of my mother.

Like I go to my parents' bedroom as a child when I'm growing up, and I have a bad dream.

I have something that seems so real and something that is creating so much fear in me.

But then you have the song of a mother, the song of a father that quiets you, that stills your heart.

And God quiets us with his love.

There is a quiet calming that the Lord sings over us, and then he will exult over you with loud singing.

Soft and loud.

The lullaby and the call for praise.

We have a God who sings over us.

We sing because our God sings.

And we see this in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

That Jesus, after he celebrates the Last Supper with His disciples, as they go out into the night and on their way to the Garden of Gethsemane, what does the scripture say that they go doing?

Singing.

And as Jesus is there on the cross, arms stretched wide, bearing the sins of the world, he calls out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

He didn't just come up with that there in that moment, but he is quoting from Psalm 22.

I wonder if Jesus sang that on the cross to a tune that he knew.

And there will be singing surrounding him in the new heavens and the new earth because he didn't die and just stay dead, but he rose up again and has ascended and one day will come back for his own, where all who want his presence, all who have trusted in Jesus, will be gathered around the throne and where we will sing his praise for all eternity.

We will sing because we have a God who sings.

We sing because of who he is, we sing because of what he's done, we sing because of the great salvation that he has worked on our behalf.

We have a God who sings over us.

And we will have the opportunity, the invitation, the command, the joy to sing back to him here in this last song for today.

And in this song, let us remember.

Let us sing knowing that our God is singing over us.

And so in a beautiful turn of events, we can actually look to the Lord and we can say, Lord, do you sing or play an instrument?

And based on his word, he would say, Yes.

I sing over you.

And yes, you are my most beautiful instrument that I play.

Let us pray.

Gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you for your singing, your rejoicing over us, for your making a way where there was no other way.

God, for your saving us.

God, I pray that we would come to you, that we would sing out of design, out of obedience to joy and loyalty and defiance and imitation.

That you and you alone are worthy.

God, you are so good.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

We'll move into a time of response here in this.