Clapping of Hands in Worship

Is it wrong to clap hands when we worship? Is our worship contradictory to the instructions in Psalms 150?

This is something that has been in my thought since long, especially as we live

in the midst of different Christian groups.

I recently witnessed a glimpse of the worship of the Eritrean (Ethiopian)

Orthodox Church. They use drums,use clapping and even dance while they worship. So obviously these are not forbidden. See here:

But I feel there is a valid reason why our tradition has developed this way. Andit is good. We can always look for change, but we must be careful that our zeal for change does not make us lose something very precious.

Psalms 150 written in the Old testament times gives expression to the ecstatic

and joyous celebration of God. Its an uninhibited release of praise towards the

Almighty Yahweh.

For us Christians though, everything gets colored through the Gospels. King

David did not have the image of the Cross in mind when he wrote Psalms 150. We

read the Old testament seen in the background of Calvary.

We do not see such an unrestrained emotion in the way of worship formed in the

New Testament Church (how could they, considering they were so close to, and

were so well aware of the suffering of the Lord in Calvary), nor in the works of

Fathers of the Church. Mar Ephrem is considered the harp of the Holy Spirit, his

many poems we use in our worship and prayers. In the prayers and Liturgy, we see

an emotion of pain as we identify with the Cross, calmness and silence as we try

to understand the unimaginable love at Calvary. In the New Testament, we see

"psalms, hymns and spiritual songs" but not shouting, clapping and chaos.

This sentiment shines through even in our expressions of joy of Resurrection as

we are continuously reminded to be humble and meek, always alert and ready,not

drunk in celebrations, because the Devil is always round the corner, because our

race is not yet complete.

Since our wise and Holy Fathers sought refuge in this sentiment primarily, our

music and our songs reflect the calmness, the low key and passionate tone as

opposed to the unrestrained expressions of Psalms 150.

We read Psalms 150 in every of our Morning prayers on Sundays, yet we see the

celebrations in the Psalm looking on from the foot of the Cross. Our ecstatic

celebration is given expression in the Holy Eucharist, which the Devil fears,

all other incidents pale in comparison.

This is not because we are moving away from the Bible, this is because we are

truly embracing the music, the song, the message of the Bible, I feel. I don't

think its wrong to clap hands in worship, but I feel it will be a loss if we

don't teach our children why we don't usually do that in worship.

See a section of the Holy Eucharist in Malankara Orthodox/Jacobite Church:

Src: ICON