The Choir Room Podcast
This podcast exists to promote and encourage two long-time traditions in our society that seem to be dwindling…The Choir and Corporate Singing. We hope to revive the excitement and joy experienced with singing in a choir, as well as inform and educate the listener on all things singing, and all things choir related.
A weekly podcast featuring discussion and interviews with choir directors, choir members, and other guests representing church choirs, college and university choirs, community choirs, show and theatre choirs, composer of choir music, and other.
Segments include tips and instruction from skilled and professional disciplines within the choir community covering topics such as choir culture and community, choir directing, vocal training, ear training, sight reading, and more. A monthly virtual live audience episode allows the listener to engage with hosts and guests during instructional and Q&A segments via the live recording, chat, email, on various social media platforms.
A production of Metromusic & Arts, Inc.
- www.metromusic-arts.com
- thechoirroom@metromusic-arts.com
- mail@mmertomusic-arts.cm
The Choir Room Podcast
Exploring the World of Gospel Choirs and Show Choirs: Different Isn’t Necessarily Wrong…It’s Different.
Let's begin by reviewing a little of our discussion from last week when we dissected our favorite choir arrangements, and digging into their intricacies…and inviting you, our listeners, to share your favorites.
Taking you on a fascinating journey, we explore the world of traveling gospel choirs that perform overseas. We also delve into the cultural reception of gospel music across different countries. The conversation takes an intriguing turn when we consider treating choir tours as a full-fledged job rather than a mission and the potential implications of this perspective. Join us as we strive to fuel the passion for singing, far beyond vocal abilities!
History buffs, you're in for a treat as we embark on an exploration of the origin of gospel choirs and their associated choreography. We trace various practices back to masonic temples, and reflect on how these gestures might have been unknowingly incorporated into church choirs. Moreover, we highlight the importance of conveying the gospel message through music to inspire change. As we wrap up, we discuss the influence of Kanye West's Sunday Service choir in popularizing gospel music in both the secular and Christian music industry. Are you ready for this enlightening exploration? Let's get started!
Perpetuating and Promoting the Christian and Positive Idea Through the Medium of Music and Other Arts.
Welcome to the choir room, season 1, episode 17 of the Choir Room Podcast. Welcome to the choir room. A production of Metro Music and Arts, perpetuating and promoting the Christian and positive idea.
Speaker 1:Welcome to the choir room Through the medium of music and other arts. I'm Greg Thomas, your host, and I'll soon be joined by my co-host, Dorian Johnson, Mihajda Stansufarar, and who we'd like to call the fourth wheel, Coleman Smart. We'd like to keep you informed with the upcoming services and programs through Metro Music and Arts, and one way to ensure that you are is that you contact us at mail at MetroMusicDashArtscom. If you want to be notified about specific programs coming through the choir room. Make sure you subscribe to this podcast anywhere you listen to podcasts, or you can simply send the words subscribe in the subject field in an email to the choir room at MetroMusicDashArtscom, and make sure that you share with a friend that you're in the choir room.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the choir room.
Speaker 1:On last week, we spent the majority of our time discussing the CRQ. Now, if you're new to this podcast, crq is an acronym for choir room questions, and these are questions sent to us by our listeners and they cover the gamut of all things singing and all things choir. Now, the CRQ on last week was directed to the team and I asking us what are your favorite choir arrangements or choral arrangements, and, as we usually do, we answered that question unscripted and unrehearsed, and it made for some interesting conversation last week, to say the least. And since we're always sharing and always learning and always growing, we want to invite you to be a part of that conversation.
Speaker 1:What's on your playlist? What is your favorite choir or choral arrangement, whether it's your church choir, your school choir, your college choir, your community choir. So join the conversation on the choir room Facebook page or you can email us at the choir room at MetroMusicDashArtscom. We want to hear from you so that we can continue this conversation of great choir arrangements. Welcome to the choir, gloria. Why don't you bring us the hymn of the week?
Speaker 3:Sure. Thanks, greg. This week's hymn of the week is for the gift of God the Spirit. In previous segments we looked at hymns that have focused on God the Father and God the Son, and now we're going to take some time to look at hymns that focus on God, the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, who is equal to the Father and Son in power, honor and glory. The Holy Spirit is as Jesus called him in John 1526, he's the helper, he is the Spirit of truth who applies the finished work of Christ to the heart and life of the Christian and applies the Word of God to our lives, making us more like Christ. And the Holy Spirit was sent on the day of Pentecost to empower the disciples, to preach the gospel on that day and to establish the church.
Speaker 3:This hymn was actually written in the 1950s and focuses on the work of the Holy Spirit throughout redemptive history as well as in the life of the Christian. And the first verse focuses in on Ephesians 1, 13-14. That says in him, you also, when you heard the Word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory. And this is how the first verse goes for your gift of God, the Spirit, power to make our lives anew, pledge of life and hope of glory. Savior, we would worship you, crowning gift of resurrection, sent from your ascended throne, fullness of the very Godhead, come to make your life our own. What a great guarantee and what a great promise that the Christian has in receiving the Holy Spirit. The second verse talks about the Spirit's work in creation, saying he who, in creation's dawning, brooded on the lifeless, deep still across our nature's darkness, moves to wake our souls from sleep. And so, just as God spoke into that void and said let there be light, we as Christians have had the Holy Spirit apply the work of Christ to our hearts and he's raised us out of spiritual death and into spiritual life in Christ.
Speaker 3:And then, in verses three and four, we see the focus of the Spirit being on bringing the Word of God to bear on our lives. He himself, the living author, wakes to life, the sacred Word, reads with us its holy pages and reveals our risen Lord. Then, in verse four, he, the mighty God, indwells us his to strengthen, help and power and to overcome the temper, our at tempter hours to call in dangers. Our Romans 8 26 says likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know what to pray for, as we ought. But the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words, and he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit. Because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
Speaker 3:And the last verse of the hymn focuses in on the promise, the blessed promise, of our being in heaven forever with God the Father, god the Son and God the Holy Spirit. And it says, and this is a prayer, this last verse Father, grant your Holy Spirit and our hearts may rule today. Reeve not, quench not, but unhindered work in us his sovereign way. Fill us with your Holy Fulness. God the Father, spirit, son in us, through us, then forever shall your perfect will be done. May we ask God to help us to not grieve the Holy Spirit living lives that do not bring honor and glory to his name, but instead to allow the Holy Spirit to do his work in our lives that conforms us to the image of our Lord and Savior, jesus Christ, and gives glory to our Triune God, god the Father, god the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Welcome to the choir room.
Speaker 1:I wonder what our CRQ is this week, mieta.
Speaker 2:Thanks, greg. Tonight we're having our CRQ and the question today is what is a show choir and how do you join a show choir? So this should be interesting tonight. Gentlemen, the first time, I will say, the first time that I had read this question, I immediately went to Broadway. I think I might have made that statement some time ago regarding this in a brief conversation. I thought about Broadway. So, because I come from a church choir background, this was somewhat of a challenge for me because we don't do a whole lot of show in the church. Well, we should not do a whole lot of show in the church.
Speaker 2:Watch it now we should not just say that. So I immediately went to Broadway. I went up trying to find well, what is a show choir? A show choir what I found? A show choir. It deals with choral vocal music as well as choreography. I'm like, oh, and then I thought about it. I said, well, we do it all in the church a little bit, yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, if you trust everything the media shows that you would think that happened in church all the time.
Speaker 2:I was like, oh my gosh, you know the more things I thought. I thought, wow, we have more things to like than we do different.
Speaker 1:But it happens.
Speaker 2:I found out oh okay, so that's what a show choir is all about. And I'm like, okay, well, well, perhaps maybe I need to rethink my my thought about it, because we do some of the similar similarities in the two. Now our dance would be considered what? The Holy dance, the spirit led dance or whatever the case, how well ever you want to phrase it. But then when I think about Broadway, there's a whole routine going on and everybody's in sync, everyone is in tandem and doing the very same thing.
Speaker 2:So that's where I made my differences. That's, you know, that's where I'm in. And again, because in the church that's not something we should be doing, it never dawned on me that that was even a possibility, that perhaps, maybe even in the the church world or the gospel world, we do touch a lot or we find ourselves falling into shell, whether we want to or not. We have people who who travel, a specific traveling gospel choir who put on shows. I know some who put on shows overseas and get paid for them. Some handsomely, handsomely, get paid to do that. And so I had to start thinking to myself well, my, is this what we're doing? Is this really what the gospel choirs are doing outside of America? That show, you know. So what do you? What are your thoughts on this?
Speaker 1:Oh boy, during scratching his head and Coleman is what is it? Dory Coleman's got his mic in his hand. Go for it.
Speaker 4:Well, let me just say I think that, as we explore this question, context is really important. So we actually touched on this in a conversation that we weren't recording a few weeks ago, and for all of my or all of our Southern listeners out there, like myself, I learned something from this conversation that I had never heard of before, and so seriously, I'd never heard of it before, and it's this concept that Mieta just briefly talked about. Is this traveling gospel choir that goes overseas to do more or less gospel shows?
Speaker 4:When I've heard them talking about this, at first I thought they were talking about a mission, a mission group or something like that or a church, a gospel choir from a church you know, going on a mission trip, you know, and of course that's that's great and I celebrate that and I understand that, but that's not what they were talking about. So apparently, the. Northeast, where yeah?
Speaker 2:I like it, northeast, I like it so Yankees yeah apparently the Northeast.
Speaker 4:That is an entirely different thing to me. Show choir was like that thing that you did in high school. You know, there was the corral, there was the chamber choir, there was the and then there was the show choir, which was more jazzy Broadway stuff, and it was choreographed and it was yeah, yeah, yeah, but this is different. Can one of you guys maybe explain a little more what this is to those of us who are out there who had no idea you talking about the show choir, the gospel show? Yeah, the gospel show choir thing.
Speaker 2:Hmm, hmm, because I've been a part of that, I have to say, jeez, yeah, I have to say I was a part of one. I don't know if Greg has ever been or Dorian has ever been, but I was a part of one. Some some years ago we took a trip to Japan. Um, and I realized in Japan, they, they their understanding of gospel, they just like the hype of it. Um, there there is the energy, is what they were drawn to, not necessarily understanding what we were doing or I should say what we were saying. Um, they didn't understand it, but they did love the energy from it, and so we were.
Speaker 2:We didn't have routines, but we did have Um. Well, I guess you would call it routine. Routine, you know, you rock a certain way, everybody rocked the certain way. Everybody did a particular thing at a particular point in the music. Um, and it was, it was loosely choreographed, and when I say loosely, I mean really loosely Um, and they liked that, they enjoyed that Um, but it would be considered a, you know, a show choir because it was. It wasn't really spirit filled, unlike when we went to Korea, which was different when you go to Korea. Well, they have a different sense of what God is and and what ministry is.
Speaker 2:And so, even though we had a language barrier we had to, definitely had a language barrier somehow the words or the music resonated with them and you saw them, um, uh, respond to it differently. They would cry. Japan, they would just jump and enjoy, but in Korea they would cry. And so we realized that, okay, this is different, this is not. This is. This is becoming more ministry than show. Here we're in Japan, it was all show.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I was gonna say I mean, as you were, you were describing Coleman. I we, greg and I, had the experience of those two things intersecting, because we had traveled to Finland With the Youth Praise Choir from Times Square and we were not going to put on a show, we were going for ministry, and yet some of the advertisements about our Appearances made it seem like we were just a show group, because the description was it's black gospel, it's a black gospel group that's coming. And when you looked at the choir Wasn't just black people and I wouldn't say we just sang black gospel either. I mean, we did all sorts of different music and so, yeah, all sorts of all sorts of different gospel, music, gospel music.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we weren't singing Broadway tunes or anything. Yeah, that's true. So so, yeah, there is that kind of context out there and and yeah, we have to really consider Is that truly Spreading the gospel? Is that the highest and best use of the Music that is, preaching of the saving work of Christ, basically to people who are just there for the hype, who aren't there for the, for the message?
Speaker 4:Yeah, if I recall correctly, I remember you guys saying something along the lines of there are groups that do this almost kind of vocationally, like it's like a job that they do this and they get hired to get together and go take a tour, or something like that.
Speaker 4:And it's to me. I see that almost in a different light than like a Christian artist who goes on tour I, because it's a choir and it's like I don't know. It's just kind of weird because I've never heard of that kind of thing. So you're saying that there are people who join these choirs. Do they audition and then they get in, or are they sought out and then they get paid to go on this tour, and it's not a ministry tour, but it really is kind of like a concert tour, right.
Speaker 1:It's a gospel music tour. Yeah, essentially, wow, I'm gonna, I'm gonna share a mouthful, so put see better.
Speaker 4:I'm gonna go grab my popcorn. Buckle up everybody.
Speaker 1:Well, the whole idea of this podcast is to encourage people to sing, is to get people singing, people who didn't feel that they had a great voice or that don't feel that they have a great voice or they've been told you don't have a great voice. The premise behind this, this podcast, is really to get everybody to embrace the reality, or the fact that you know, when scripture says, let everything that have breath praise the Lord, or sing unto the Lord a new song, or or sing unto the Lord, all you lands, it's, it's make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all you lands. That Whether people have told you you have a joyful voice or not doesn't matter. It's that God has put an innate Desire in us to sing, whether we can sing or not. That's why people who can't sing and don't sing well, you, you hear them singing all the time. You know where they said the kitchen and the shower or whatever. They're singing all the time. And and I just wanted to set that there we we are speaking primarily from a Christian or from a church choir perspective.
Speaker 1:There is a show choir that has a real reality, that has a real job, but you know me and he had on it that those show choirs are professional choirs or semi-professional choirs in that they draw an income as singers and they are. They often involve choreography and dance and in some cases, dance, theater or acting and Dead, you know, and singing. And then there are show choirs or show groups that also have people involved in them that don't sing. They're there for the dancing part of it and they're lip-sinkers, so they've learned how to lip-sync and do the choreography at the same time. And so when you want numbers For your show, then you add people who don't necessarily sing but they bring the dance and and when you want great singers, you get as many singers as possible who have the singing or have the dancing capability.
Speaker 1:Okay, so there is a such thing as a show choir, and the primary difference between the show choir and the church choir or the gospel choir or any other choir for that matter, is the fact that the show choir is usually choreograph. But when you think about what happens in many churches and what has been happening in churches for decades and I thought I was the Kid outside of the sandbox when I used to speak against this or speak about this I'm not speak against it, but speak about it because I would question it. You know what's with all the cuz we, you know, we, we, we rock when the church left to right, you know choir directors tells us when to move.
Speaker 1:So yeah, that's right, yeah and and then I've been to, and we can all attest the fact that we've been to many churches where there has been choreography. You know I look my hands and everybody lifts their hands, you know, or whatever the song is suggest Suggesting, you know the choir would then be encouraged to act that out, and so we've seen that. You know that also is what I think has introduced what we call liturgical dancing To a lot of inner city churches. And again, nothing against that. But then if liturgical dance draws more attention to the dancing and less to the message, it is fruitless. And so a lot of churches.
Speaker 1:You know when you've had the choir anniversaries. You've had the choir or the church anniversary, or the usherboard anniversary, or the missionary anniversary, or the flower club anniversary, or the pulpit committee anniversary, or the pastors anniversary. Everybody had an anniversary. But there would also be this grand march, and the grand march, which was considered a processional, was choreographed, and I've been to many of them where the choir would come in rock side to side. They would dip step, two steps back and then two steps forward. Vietta's gotta end up Completely choreographed. And so, yeah, you're not missing anything.
Speaker 1:Believe me, I don't know many churches that are still doing it. I imagine, however, there are many more in the south, especially the baptist circle, are still practicing these annual services. Now, to each his own. Now get this. A lot of the hand gestures and choreography that you would see in a lot of these services has its roots in the masonic temple in free masonry, and those are practices based on twisted and misinterpreted scripture, and so a lot of these churches have practices unknowingly, and incorporated these gestures into their grand marches, and so I guess, when you don't know better, you can't do better. So that that's just a little bit of the history, which is really beyond the scope of this podcast. The choir, the choir, rope, yep, then there's that.
Speaker 4:I wish the listeners could see my face. So like what?
Speaker 2:That's right, we'll post it.
Speaker 1:So this is really a little history lesson that this, all of this stuff is interconnected when you begin to look at how the church choir or gospel choirs have been influenced and as Embraced a lot of these practices, and so there are a lot of churches and churches that still have show choirs. There is a degree of performance and you want to present your best when you're doing especially unto the lord, and so you want to be your best, and so there's a significant difference between the show choir and the gospel show choir that we talked about. This is not to diminish the professional show choir I think there's a role and a place for that but it's also not to just sit here and rail on the churches who still are stuck in the show choir mentality. So suffice it to say, and to get off of this soapbox the show choir has a place and that is to entertain people. Uh, bring them popular music with choreography.
Speaker 1:The church choir or the gospel choir has a different responsibility and that is to minister to god with the people, to minister to god for the people, to minister to the people, minister what minister? The gospel, and to use that message to bring Conviction, present, a challenge to change one's life. Now I think there's a place for entertainment, and that doesn't mean Christians can't be entertained, but the gospel is not entertainment.
Speaker 2:Had to, having the opportunity, I guess, to do it once. I realized in that this is not for me, you know, because it's something that is just something I can't. I couldn't be attached to it. It's definitely not long term. It would have upset my Uh, yeah, it would just would have upset my spirit across the board, just, and not only that, it just. There are some other things attached to that and it's not just the choreography.
Speaker 2:Amen it's not just the Singing part of it, there are other things that that that become attached to that that I just not. I could, I know I could not Um have it attached to me. So I quickly realized like, nah, perhaps not now going overseas and ministering to these particular people, this particular group of people, was actually, it was, it was a wonderful opportunity to be able to do it. But the other things around it, let me know that perhaps this is just not the place. I could, I can do forever. And then I have. I've had some choir members who were a part of um, the show choir um, in my own group, um, they no longer do it anymore because they too found out that after a while, perhaps maybe this is not, you know, it's just not it's too much attached, too much attached. Or, colman, you all right, colman.
Speaker 4:Listen. I've learned so much. We don't have some of these things down here in the south, okay.
Speaker 1:Well, you have a different version of it but it's there.
Speaker 4:We have different versions of of things. Um, yes, yes. Yeah, there there are other things likened unto, uh, what you guys have talked about. Um, but yeah, this was new for me, so maybe, maybe, some of some of our southern listeners have learned something too.
Speaker 2:Well, and I'm shocked, I really, when you say that I'm shocked by that, I, I just assume that there you go, there I go, assuming, I assume that, um, you know most, most churches be north, southeast, west, have a, a, have an understanding of what you know, the show choir, other, the, the traveling choir, the overseas. I really thought that that happened in the same.
Speaker 4:The closest thing that I've ever encountered to that, um, and I know people who have been a part of this, so again, not knocking it at all, but the closest thing that I've encountered to that is Kanye West sunday service choir. There you go. I mean, that's not, that's not like uh, that's not the closest.
Speaker 4:That is the epitome of we just knocked it out the park. Then I've experienced that, um, um. Then I'll say that's the, that's the only experience I've had with that kind of thing, um, and not because I was in it, but just seeing it and that kind of thing.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah.
Speaker 1:That's the other part of it is that you don't have to believe what you sing. You do have to be a great singer.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 1:So this is where talent is over character. Yeah, and a lot of churches are resorted to the same practice. They put talent over character. And so and you got to give it to Kanye's marketing team it was masterful. It was masterful From a business perspective, it was a masterful plan.
Speaker 4:Yeah Well, and it wasn't set up to be a ministry group, right, it was, you know it was meant to be a show choir.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was meant to be a touring group.
Speaker 4:I don't think Kanye West ever came out and said that he was now a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ via his music. I mean, he may have. He said a lot of crazy things, but I never got that message from him, or the Sunday service choir. But yeah, they were masterful because they even made their way well into Christian.
Speaker 2:Christian circles and I enjoyed listening to it.
Speaker 4:I like modify and Apple Me, whatever it was amazing, it was amazing.
Speaker 1:I think it's phenomenal, I think they work the musicianship, the singing ability. I mean it was phenomenal, that whole package was phenomenal. You cannot take any way anything away from the presentation Now.
Speaker 2:I'll go a step further for you, greg. Our community was our gospel and church community were upset. It was backlash and they really, really expressed out about the fact that this man who is not of God this is what they say, he's not of God and he comes on and he takes our music and makes it big, it makes it great, and they were covers. And I remember saying in a circle of friends I have a circle of friends I said why are you upset with him? I said what happened is Kanye West only took music that we abandoned. He took that we abandoned years ago. He understood it's effect.
Speaker 2:We lost and dropped the ball on its back. So what he did was he reached back, because he had to reach back to get it. He didn't do anything in current, nothing new. He didn't do anything new. He reached back to the stuff that we stopped singing because we allowed the industry to tell us that it was no longer relevant. He found a way in got it, brought it back to where now, all of a sudden, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh Y'all we was singing those songs in the 80s, right, exactly, but you told us there were no longer relevant in the church.
Speaker 1:Right God is was no longer a relevant song.
Speaker 2:It wasn't right, it wasn't no longer. He went back, got it. Not only did he get them, but he won awards and he won a war on our shows.
Speaker 4:You just dropped a bomb. That was. That is such a bomb like that you just dropped. I'm thinking right now about churches that are in that conversation of we can't do things that were written or recorded over 10 years ago. You're talking about it like in the 2000s or back in the 80s, 90s, like oh, we can't sing that, and obviously that's still happening now. What music are we losing right now that we're going to regret setting down or burying one day? I mean a lot.
Speaker 3:A lot of music. So true, so true. And that's why we have the hem of the week.
Speaker 1:They never grow old. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Which is why you can talk amazing grace at any, I mean forget the second how old is it?
Speaker 2:Drop it anywhere.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Drop it anywhere Exactly.
Speaker 1:I can talk about this for days but the second part of the CRQ was how do I join a show choir? Now, the opportunity to join a show choir is more common than you realize. You have to meet a certain requirement through the audition process. Usually, in 90% of the time that means you have to be a great singer. You've got to be able to hold you apart. You've got to be able to hold you apart and remember your place. You've got to do some dance, some choreography. So there's an opportunity there If you can do those things. Sometimes in show choir you don't have to sing as much as you have to dance and act, and so, depending on the role, you might be able to get by without having to sing so well. Now, if you're looking to get involved in a gospel show choir, then I'm going to have to refer you to Miya off line.
Speaker 4:Hey bring it back around.
Speaker 1:We don't want to be guilty of talking about these topics from a negative perspective. Different is not always wrong, it's just different, and so we acknowledge the difference between a gospel choir or Christian choir, a high school choir, a college or university choir and a show choir. We don't consider any of those things wrong. They just have different purposes and different missions. We have a deeper appreciation for choir thus the choir room and a deeper appreciation for the arts. Here at Metro, music and Arts. Now. We believe that God is the giver of every good and perfect gift, and we want to see those gifts utilized and given back to him in the form of worship. Now, for those of you who are involved in choirs that are non gospel or non Christian choirs, there are many opportunities in which your talent can be used to benefit the lives of others beyond just entertainment before noble cause. So stay tuned to the choir room because in the future we'll be introducing music and arts with a mission. Coleman is going to take us out with the thought of the week.
Speaker 4:You know, as time has gone on, the once marginal practice of lifting one's hands as an act of worship can now be found in most Christian communities in the American church.
Speaker 4:At one time this practice was only found in Pentecostal or charismatic churches or movements. I don't remember now the last time I watched a Christian music video recorded at a live venue when I didn't see uplifted hands. The practice can be found in pretty much every non denominational church that you can find, and even for my Baptist brothers and sisters the same can be said. Even the most liturgical churches in our country have become more open to reverent bodily expression. Obviously, there's a reason we do this right. Well, have you ever thought about why? Over the next several episodes, I'm going to be exploring this act of worship and talking about why we do it and what it means. So I want to start with the biblical precedence of lifting one's hands as an act of worship. We find this act all throughout Scripture a lot of it in Psalms. But I'm going to invite you to buckle up because I'm going to share a lot of Scripture with you, and then we'll catch up again next week on our next podcast episode. So Psalm 63.4 says so. I will bless you. As long as I live in your name, I will lift up my hands. Psalm 28.1 says To you O Lord, I call my rock. Be not deaf to me, lest if you be silent to me, I become like those who go down to the pit. Hear my voice, hear the voice of my pleas for mercy, when I cry to you for help, when I lift up my hands toward your most holy sanctuary. Psalm 88.9 says Every day I call upon you, o Lord, I spread out my hands to you. Psalm 119.48, I will lift up my hands toward your commandments, which I love, and I will meditate on your statutes. Psalm 134.2, lift up your hands to the holy place and bless the Lord. Psalm 141.1 through 2, o Lord, I call upon you, hasten to me. Give ear to my voice when I call to you. Let my prayer be counted as incense before you and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. Hang on just a few more. Psalm 143.6, I stretch out my hands to you. My soul thirsts for you like a parched land Moving on out of the Psalms.
Speaker 4:2 Corinthians 6.12 through 13 says Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the assembly of Israel and spread out his hands. Solomon had made a bronze platform five cubits long, five cubits wide and three cubits high, and had set it in the court and he stood on it. Then he knelt on his knees in the presence of all the assembly of Israel and spread out his hands toward heaven. Ezra 9.5 says At and at the evening sacrifice, I rose from my fasting with my garment and my cloak torn and fell upon my knees and spread out my hands to the Lord, my God, just a few more. Nehemiah 8.6,. And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered Amen, amen, lifting up their hands. So it was corporate. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground.
Speaker 4:Lamentations 341 says Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to God in heaven. And then, moving on to the New Testament, here's one scripture from 1 Timothy 2.8. I desire that in every place that men should pray lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling. Like I said, we're going to explore this some more over the next several podcast episodes. But here is the biblical precedence. It's not something that we just started doing somewhere along through the Christian tradition. It's something that's been taking place as an act of worship for thousands of years, and it's something that we are continuing to do as an act of worship today. So stay tuned to hear more about this incredible, historical and powerful practice of lifting our hands to the Lord as an act of worship.
Speaker 1:And remember, if ever we put the messenger before the message, we have failed to present an unblemished gospel. I'm Greg Thomas, I'll see you in the next one.
