Psalm 33:3 says “Play your instruments in worship skilfully, with joyful shouting.” It’s talking about how we worship God, and I would suggest that some branches of the church tend to keep the first half of the statement and other branches the second; but most of us struggle to do what God is calling for through this Scripture.
Playing skilfully means at the very least giving thought, care, attention and preparation to our corporate worship. In the main Anglicans and Presbyterians have done this, with Psalters and hymnbooks and choirs and organs and structured, thought-out forms, and with many thoughtfully written prayers for recitation by the leader or by everyone. It would seem to me that some Baptists, Brethren and particularly some Pentecostals and Charismatics could learn from this. Freedom, being real and natural and “open to the Spirit” and willing to express things, show your emotions, be spontaneous, dance, clap, shout, hug… is not everything.
But to what extent have the services of the more traditional Presbyterians and Anglicans (and indeed the conservative Baptists and Reformed!) been characterised by joyful shouting – ie. by exuberance, the expression of joy in God (so that others present are helped to feel and see his greatness and the wonder of his love)? Not a lot. The trouble seems to be that in addition to the virtues of planning, thoughtfulness, reverence and structure, these brethren have often valued predictability, control, and freedom from emotional shock – they want psychological safety at nearly all costs. Human control is being made something of an absolute.
The Lord would lead us through this Psalm to have enough reverence to plan properly using our minds, and enough faith in his ability to keep our hearts and minds that we are prepared to live dangerously when we meet in Jesus’ name, especially insofar as the Spirit pours out the love God in our hearts. No wonder that charismatic churches with good teaching tend to do relatively well, as did William Still’s church in Aberdeen many years ago – much of it was the sober Presbyterianism of 50 years ago but the dear, Spirit-filled man would more or less dance his way through most of the service, moving around on tiptoe, waving his arms around, etc.
Now we are God's children 
This is a fascinating topic. As someone who grew up in a reformed evangelical church in South Wales where public expression of worship and praise was not the norm I find myself stifling such emotions where I am now. If I were to be moved to tears during a hymn I would stop singing to regain my composure, if I were inclined to raise my hands I would cement them in my pockets to prevent this!
I am currently discussing this with my pastor – is it wrong and sinful to stifle such emotional responses? Or I am just merely missing out on an aspect of joy in the gospel?
What are your thoughts?
I tend to think there is a time to let emotions be expressed and a time not to. Normally, in a healthy church situation, some expression of good emotion to do with the Lord is a help to others. But if it really isn’t, you had better suppress for now, imo.