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It’s really odd when you’re sitting in church, somebody speaks or sings or something and then a round of applause breaks out, don’t you think?
Why do we do that?!
Well, I imagine it’s an emotional expression much like any other.
We are in some way moved by what has just happened and we want to show approval, appreciation or gratitude.
It’s something we do normally in some contexts … in others it is almost required, as in the theatre or concert hall … but in church it seems to some of us to be a bit anomalous. Nice, but … we’re not used to doing there.
Clapping - what’s that ABOUT?!
Behaviourist Desmond Morris reckons it’s a sort of ‘pat on the back’ from a distance. I’ve never thought of it like that myself.
No-one knows when we started to clap, but it seems to be a learned behaviour rather than a natural one.
Monkeys do it, but when THEY do so, it seems to mean the absolute opposite of approval … which is odd because it’s when people are being (let’s say) ‘unwise' in the Bible ... for example in the book of Job that ... clapping is derisive in the Bible too … Job 27:23, 34:37 … and you get the same in Lamentations 2:15.
When Jehoiada took Joash, son of Ahaziah who had been rescued from mass slaughter of all his sibblings in a palace coup and anointed him King ...
“Jehoiada brought out the king’s son and put the crown on him;
he presented him with a copy of the covenant and proclaimed him king.
They anointed him, and the people clapped their hands and shouted, ‘Long live the king!’”
2 Kings 11:12
Clapping happens in Scripture, but it’s a bit special, a bit exceptional.
Romans
It was the Romans who really got going with it because in Latin plays you get the command ‘plaudite’ at suitable points indicating that approval should now be shown by the audience.
Professional ‘clappers’ were paid to get it going, and in Roman politics this was important as it seems to have functioned as an informal sort of poll rating.
Plane passengers
It used to be customary for passengers to clap when their plane landed too … this seems to have started in 1948 when the passengers clapped in relief on landing at Cincinnati airport when the landing gear on their plane malfunctioned!
It's possible that clapping is being phased out, though, in Western society.
Is clapping being 'phased out'?
There’s been a recent movement to replace clapping with ‘Jazz Hands’ … which is sign language for clapping anyway … as the sound of clapping can disturb people with acute anxiety or whose cognitive style places them somewhere significant on the autistic spectrum.
So what’s going on in our Verse for the Day?
“Clap your hands, all you nations; shout to God with cries of joy.
For the Lord Most High is awesome,
the great King over all the earth.”
Psalms 47:1-2
Well, undoubtedly this is about applause not derision or primate hostility!
This is what’s known as a 'Royal Psalm’ and the psalmist is giving us a song of exuberant and joyful praise to God for Who He is and what He has done.
Noticeably, it is both Israel and the other Nations of the world that are being called upon to rejoice and cry out to God in joyful praise.
It is a psalm rejoicing in the re-unitng of all the people’s of the earth … what a great thing that is given how broken and messed up the world is with nation set against nation and civilian populations around the world suffering terribly from inter-communal and international strife.
The Point
How is joy and unity restored in this psalm?
It happens when the peoples of the world are united in exuberant and joyful praise and worship of God.
And that is precisely the vision of what the Christian Gospel achieves in the world in the New Testament - as the Lord himself puts it:
“I have other sheep that are not of this sheepfold.
I must bring them also.
They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.”
John 10:16
Or as Paul phrases it to the Ephesian church:
“he made known to us the mystery of his will
according to his good pleasure,
which he purposed in Christ,
to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfilment
– to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.”
Ephesians 1:9-10
The Takeaway
Exuberant praise is FINE!
But the point and purpose of the Gospel, in fact of the work of Christ itself, is that the people of the world should be brought together in exuberant, spontaneous and joyful praise of God.
The believer has got a part to play in bringing that about by holding out the Gospel to the World.
And the non-believer (as yet) is invited to climb aboard with that Gospel and the mission of this vision.
So the question for us this morning has got to be:
what am I going to do to further the world’s unifying destiny in Christ today?
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