A nice long work day gave me lots of time to think about some different things that seem important in these days. For years I have wondered what worship must have been like for the prophets. They wrote these songs that are amazing insights into the heart and spirit of God. Their songs literally utter freedom and God's will into the world in a new way. Then, as I was thinking about the prophetic voice, I remembered that poetry is often thought of as retelling the old in a new way. Look at most any modern poetry, at least anything that is worth reading, and their themes are perennial, almost timeless echoes of what has come before...put in a new form of expression.

Looking back again at how the prophets sang, they did something very similar. They expressed their awe and appreciation for God's love and majesty in a new way. Indeed, that is one of the things that has always drawn me to the prophetic scriptures, their poetic nature. To avoid getting sidetracked, I'll just point out that realizing we can worship in a similar way helped me breakthrough my own limitations. I'm not a songwriters, and I'm certainly not a poet. Nonetheless, I do have the same heart, a desire to sing to God a new song, to create something new that reflects him.

As I meditated on this circle of thoughts it came to mind that there are no songs that speak of this prophetic praise...at least not many that are popular. I know in my dream interpretation I have learned to begin thinking of things in a new way, a more metaphorical, symbolic manner. Taking this further, putting old scripture into new song could connect with people. In the Old Testament the priest was to sprinkle the holy of holies with blood from his hands. (I'll have to check on the exact protocol to be sure I have the details right.) We don't do this today, seeing as, 1) it's not needed with the new covenant and 2) people are turned off by such practices. However, that is no reason to stop us from worshipping symbolically this way.

In dream interpretation, we are taught to understand that certain things are merely representative in dreams, though there can certainly be times where the dream is literal. For instance, hands are often thought to symbolize relationships. Blood can symbolically considered to be the blood of Christ. So, instead of sprinkling blood on the altar with our hands, we can spread the sanctifying power of Christ through our relationships as a form of modern worship. By applying the symbols to old practices we can identify new ways to worship God. Reaching out and finding these types of new worship is a poetic expression, a prophetic expression I think God would find pleasing and the world would be blessed by.