A Holy Hush

‘If you endeavour to bring a holy hush upon people in a worship service, you can be assured that someone will say that the atmosphere is unfriendly or cold. All that many people can imagine is that the absence of chatter would mean the presence of stiff, awkward unfriendliness. Since they have little or no experience with the deep gladness of momentous gravity, they strive for gladness the only way they know how – by being light-hearted, chipper, and talkative’.

(Piper, John. The Supremacy of God in Preaching. 1998. Kingsway Publications, Eastbourne. P. 51.)

Is it not for this reason that many churches seem to think it is compulsory that any possible periods of silence should be covered by having someone playing music or singing? Silence is threatening - we feel exposed, so we quickly move to fill it. But in worship we are exposed: exposed before an all-seeing God, and that's how it should be. We need to lift our minds up to great thoughts of God, rather than moving quickly to remove any potential unease with the all-pervasive music.