Read Habakkuk 2:19–20
Imagine if Rip Van Winkle were to wake up in a modern worship service today. As he leaves the sanctuary, he might wonder if maybe the whole applause thing is tied in to a generation he almost slept through. The worshipper today has adopted a less restrained style of worship. “If so,” he thinks, “maybe it would be just as wrong to dictate no more clapping as it would be to demand no more laughing or no more weeping. Maybe what these people need is to be sure that their response in corporate worship is prompted by the Spirit and not by a small group of people who are ready to clap at anything...for any reason.” But the opposite extreme is equally inappropriate: “I will never clap at anything...for any reason.” Isn’t it more a matter of taste or personal preference than wrong or always right? How would God answer that?
To speechless stone images you say, “Rise up and teach us!” Can an idol tell you what to do? They may be overlaid with gold and silver, but they are lifeless inside. But the LORD is in his holy Temple. Let all the earth be silent before him. (Habakkuk 2:19–20)
We’re back again to the spirit of God’s truth rather than the letter of the Law. If anyone can show me from Scripture the uptight, airtight, always-right guideline for putting a stop to all spontaneous applause, I’m ready to listen. But until then, let’s all try to remember we’re not an audience in Vegas watching a show where entertainers expect applause. No offence, but I tend to agree with old Rip. I’ve seldom seen a group of people applaud a snow-capped mountain range or an exquisite, priceless painting or a breathtaking sunset, and if silence is good enough for the earth as it ponders the Almighty, it seems appropriate for the rest of us. Well, at least sometimes.
Silence befits the profound, the awesome. Every once in a while, go there.
Devotional content taken from Good Morning, Lord...Can We Talk? by Charles R. Swindoll. Copyright © 2018. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, a Division of Tyndale House Ministries. All rights reserved.
The full devotional can be purchased at https://www.tyndale.com/p/good-morning-lord-can-we-talk/9781414380681.
