The Spiritual Song - Exploring Prophetic Worship by Mike Herron

Jubilation- The Sound of Many Waters

Jubilation was practiced in the early church and was part of the corporate praise that was like ‘the sound of many waters.’ “ Numbers of music historians, in their attempts to understand the roots of Western music, have researched the common practice of congregations and individual Christians of the period using wordless singing as a means of praising God. Most of the Church Fathers laud this practice. Jubilation (Latin- jubili-shouts or sounds of joy) , “wordless praise,” “wordless psalms,” and the “singing of alleluia,” were some of the terms used to describe this singing of wordless hymns. Augustine, perhaps, defines it best. He states that Jubilation is a breaking forth into a singing of vowel sounds. He furthermore states: “What is jubilation? Joy that cannot be expressed in words; yet the voice expresses what is conceived within and cannot be explained in words: this is jubilation... He who sings a jubilus does not utter words: he pronounces a wordless sound of joy; the voice of his soul pours forth happiness as intensely as possible, expressing what he feels without reflecting on any particular meaning. To manifest his joy the man does not use words that can be pronounced and understood, but he simply lets his joy burst forth without words;