Another excerpt from John Price’s excellent work Old Light on New Worship. This is from chapter 5, entitled The True Glory of Gospel Worship…
“The eyes of men have never seen a more glorious worship than that of Solomon’s Temple: all the splendour of the Temple and its surrounding buildings; the interior made of the most intricately carved cedar wood overlaid with gold; all the gold and silver furnishings, the priests dressed in their bright blue and white garments with their shining breastplates, the smoke of the sacrifices ascending, the Levites with their silver trumpets, the choir singing, and all the musical instruments being played; many thousands gathered for the joyful scene; the shekinah glory descending and filling the house of the Lord so that the priests could not stand to minister. The outward sight and sounds of such a worship would stir all the human senses and emotions. Never have the eyes of men seen a more glorious and majestic worship than that of Solomon’s Temple.
But as glorious as the Temple worship was, it has been replaced by a far more glorious worship in the gospel. We now enter, not into an earthly Temple but into the holy place, the heavenly sanctuary itself. We come not through the blood of bulls and goats, but through the blood of the Son of God Himself. We have full and free access into the presence of Go9d through faith in Jesus Christ and by the Holy Spirit (Eph. 2:18). WE have communion with all three persons of the Trinity (2 Cor. 13:13). ‘We have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens,’ and we ‘draw near with confidence to the throne of grace’ (Heb. 4:14-16). We are led into the throne room of God our Father as blood-washed souls by our elder brother, Jesus Christ. And when we worship, ‘we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory unto glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit’ (2 Cor. 3:18). There is nothing more glorious or excellent in all the earth than the worship of the gospel. No greater privilege could men on earth ever have than this worship. All the glory of Solomon’s Temple simply fades away when compared with the glory of gospel worship. ‘For indeed what had glory, in this case has no glory because of the glory that surpasses it’ (2 Cor. 3:10).
But all of this glory of gospel worship is spiritual and unseen. All of these glorious realities are invisible to human eyes and cannot be known by the outward senses. We enter into this worship, not by any outward sights or sounds, n ot by earthly or material aids, but only by faith in Jesus Christ and by the presence of the Holy Spirit. This glory is completely hidden and indiscernible to the natural minds of men; it cannot be seen with human eyes; it cannot be touched with human hands; it cannot be heard with human ears. The glory of gospel worship can be known and expereinced only by those who have the Spirit. The excellence of our worship is found in the inward and spiritual realities that take place between ours souls and the God of heaven.
The outward and carnal ordinances of the Temple worship are contrary to the inward and spiritual realities of gospel worship. Jesus and His apostles always saw a contrast between the earthly worship of the Temple and the spiritual worship of the gospel (John 4:21-23; 2 Cor. 3; Eph. 2:14-22). The two were inconsistent with each other…All that outward worship of the Temple, including its musical instruments, had to be abolished in order to bring in the spiritual worship of the gospel. All the musical instruments of the Temple can never add a single ounce to the glory of gospel worship. However pleasant musical instruments may seem to be, however appealing to the emotions and stirring to the affections, they can never add any power to the true spiritual worship of Christ. They may give a sensual pleasure and be attractive to the ears, they may leave us with very grand and elevated impressions, but they can never aid in drawing near by faith into the holy place of heaven. They cannot sanctify our hearts and bring us more under the power of the truth. They can never show us more of the glory of God in the face of Christ. Musical instruments, and all other sensual elements of worship, can only distract the mind from the true and heavenly objects of worship.”
I am not sure a more powerful statement has ever been made on the topic, outside of the Bible, of course. Paul said it more succinctly, of course – “Sing, and make melody in your heart to the Lord.”
