Deuteronomy 12 Authorized King James Version (AKJV)
32 What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.
The sermon above – “In Spirit and in Truth” [John 4:19-26] Was delivered in May 2004 at the Annual Meeting of the James Begg Society. This is what they wrote then –
Brian Bradley is the minister of Bryn Seion Reformed Congregational Church, Cynheidre, Llanelli, South Wales. He shows here that the worship of God is conditioned on both (1) our acceptance of God and (2) the acceptability of the content of our worship to God. Throughout Holy Scripture, the true worshippers of God are said to fear and obey Him precisely in the substance of their worship – they offer him nothing of their own devising, but only what is in accord with what is God’s revealed will. Mr Bradley proceeded to show how the Book of Psalms is a suitable and sufficient manual of praise for the Christian church.
Recommended reading;- “The Singing of Psalms in the Worship of God,” G.I.Williamson and, “Make His Praise Glorious,” Roy Mohon
Singing, by Christopher Nesse
Sing unto the Lord, all the earth; shew forth from day to day his salvation. 1 Chronicles 16:23 [AKJV]
David did not only raise himself up from his indisposing drowsiness (going out with Samson to shake it off from him [Judges 16:20]) but he reckoned God’s statutes, which he made his songs in the house of his pilgrimage, to be better to him than ten thousands of gold and silver. They were the rejoicing of his heart, as his best inheritance. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly” (Col.3:16). Indwell in you: it must be in you and in you again, well digested and turned into juice and blood, and this cannot be so well affected by a brief and cursory reading of the Word, as it may by the singing of it. Wherein there is a distinct and fixed meditation upon it, and upon every syllable of it while it is leisurely sounded out by the voice; the longer that you ponder it in your mind, the more likely may it have a strong influence on your affections; this pausing and pondering does chase, supple and work the Word into your spirit, and so makes it both a refreshing and a ravishing ordinance to you, having a more intense violence upon your heart than bare reading; for hereby God’s Word makes a deeper impression on you, and those things that you did know before, come to be better known and more graciously understood, the Spirit of God sealing them upon your soul. Then does the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, and you give rich and liberal entertainment to it, and you will account all other but trivial trash to this true treasure.
… he made his songs in the house of his pilgrimage to be better than gold or silver.
from – “Day by Day with the English Puritans,” Hendrickson Publishers ISBN 1-56563-834-4