Matt.21:15,16 – But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that He had done, and the children who were shouting in the temple area, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they became indignant, and they said to Him, “Do You hear what these children are saying?” And Jesus *said to them, “Yes. Have you never read, ‘FROM THE MOUTHS OF INFANTS AND NURSING BABIES YOU HAVE PREPARED PRAISE FOR YOURSELF’?”
It’s quite a learning experience to watch children sing and worship the Lord. They are not afraid to sing loud even if it is off tune, they are just expressing their joy to the Lord. Children will absolutely let their bodies get involved with things like dancing, jumping for joy, and even running around in circles. Loud shouts of joy will also characterize children worshipping, it seems shouting is just part of the worship experience for a child. That is probably what was going on when Jesus came into Jerusalem while the people waved palm branches and sang, “Hosanna to the Son of David”, in that atmosphere children are going to respond. Here is what Maclaren said about the children singing and the Pharisee’s response.
“Nothing makes men more insensitive to the ring of real worship than being accustomed to the dull decorum of formal worship. Christ answers their ‘hearest thou?’ with a ‘did ye never read?’ and shuts their mouths with words so apposite in their plainest meaning that even they are silenced. To Him these young ringing hosannas are ‘perfect praise,’ and worth any quantity of rabbis’ preachments. In their deeper sense, His words declare that the ears of God and of His Son, the Lord of the temple, are more gladly filled with the praises of the ‘little ones,’ who know their weakness, and hymn His goodness with simple tongue, than with heartless eloquence of words or pomp of worship. The psalm from which the words are taken declares man’s superiority over the highest works of God’s hands, and the perfecting of the divine praise from his lips. We are but as the little children of creation, but because we know sin and redemption, we lead the chorus of heaven.”
The tendency for many when they get older is to come into more of a restraint when it comes to worship. This restraint comes from the fear of man. Afraid of the scorn and displeasure of modern day Pharisees we tend to put a lid on our worship. The joyful celebration, dancing and leaping for joy, and shouts of praise are no where to be heard. Our worship is kind of an afterthought and treated as just a preliminary exercise at church. The ring of authenticity is gone and the drone of mediocrity takes its place. That is why the sound of children celebrating with joy was just too much for the religious leaders. This reminds me of the joyful sound of music in the 70’s from the Jesus Movement. It was like the young people had become children again and worship was fun, spontaneous, and real. Maybe its time to join the children and learn how to worship the Lord with joy.
1 thought on “LEARNING WORSHIP FROM CHILDREN”
Unbridled heart worship, I experienced a taste of this as a teenager at the CYO led Catholic mass. An acoustic guitar instead of the “traditional church organ” It really was that simple going from stale to fresh. Everything else was exactly the same but the worship, it sparked inside of me. Unfortunately it only occurred a few times a year. For me it was preparation for my Jesus encounter at 21. I’m so happy to say the years have continued to liberate my worship response. No shyness here.