Meditation on Psalm 150 and Instruments.

It is a certain truth, Our Precious Heavenly Father, that nothing that has been created
can contain You. Not even the heavens in all their magnificence and glory are big
enough for You. Much less can any earthly temple contain You; and yet in a great
mystery You have chosen to make Yourself known to Your people and have promised
to dwell with them. Moses built a tent for You as You commanded; Solomon build a
temple, also as You commanded, but we know, as Solomon Himself said, that You do
not dwell in temples made with hands.

So, our Father in Heaven, how shall we keep Your commandment to “praise You in
Your sanctuary?” How shall we climb up to heaven to take the place of the Holy
Angels who sing Your praises at all times? Will heaven not be defiled with the
instruments of men’s hands, the brass, the wind, the percussion, and the strings?

Where is Your sanctuary? Where is Your Temple on earth. Moses’ tabernacle and
Solomon’s temple are gone forever, but You have said that the church is Your temple,
a temple made with living stone in which spiritual sacrifices are to be offered to You.
But You have given us physical bodies and we can only sing our praises in Your
temple in a spiritual way if we offer up our bodies to You.

So spiritual service means the full use of our bodies to praise You; everything that has
breath is to praise You, O heavenly Father, and all of our hearts, souls, mind, strength
are to be given up to You in spiritual worship in our bodies in the gathering of Your
people, which is the present location of Your tabernacle among men. Jesus Christ came
to make His tabernacle among us in His flesh, but He rose from the dead and ascended
into heaven in order to send forth His Holy Spirit to unite Jew and Gentile through the
doctrine of the apostles and prophets in order to grow a temple unto the Lord, a
habitation of God through His Spirit. Eph. 2:18-22.

May our poor bodies be true instruments for Your praises and glory, dear Lord. Not
just our mouths and lungs, but our whole minds with the instruments that Your gifts
have devised for us, to amplify our praises and make a joyful sound of the Gospel to
the whole world. 

May we not copy the world in its sordid and debased use of these instruments, but may
we use them in Your solemn assembly to render the kind of praise that glorifies You,
not the tinkling and jingling and rattling that speaks of frivolity and foolishness. We
have a profound and manifold theology that speaks the splendor and majesty of God,
and may the music of our bodies and souls reflect that magnificence.

May Your praises be heard on earth even as they are in heaven.
-----------
“1 Praise ye the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his
power. 2 Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according to his excellent
greatness. 3 Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the psaltery and
harp. 4 Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments
and organs. 5 Praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon the high sounding
cymbals. 6 Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the
LORD.” (Ps 150:1-6 AV)