“I want to touch you. I want to see your face. I want to know you more.” I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I want to touch the most holy, the most powerful God of the universe. We should desperately want to know Him more, but should we really be singing about wanting to touch Him?
Lately (as in like the past few years) I really have been thinking a lot about the flippancy which many Christians approach worship music. Some people myself included sometimes have a really hard time engaging in real, meaningful worship because of the errancy of Scripture embedded in many of the worship songs we sing today. What is so troubling though is that it is oftentimes very difficult to recognize unbiblical lyrics because of the power of music.
Music has the ability to tap into the still, mysterious deep well of our emotions. Music can color our mood, affect our perceptions and generate a behavioral pattern. It’s easy to get caught up in the aesthetically pleasing melody of a song before you realize: “what the heck am I singing about?”
We all have our complaints about some worship songs, and here are some of mine: some are too simplistic, banal, lacking in depth, shallow, doctrineless, and repetitive. Then there are some that focus too much on us and not God (one reason my church changed the “Above All” song’s verse “you took the fall, and thought of me” to “you took the fall instead of me”).
Also, not everyone in the congregation will be able to relate to the same song. If you're not in the frame of mind or don't have the emotional state in question (e.g. a desperate longing for God), then what are you doing lying and singing it? Worship leaders who encourage that sort of thing are making their congregations sing falsehoods. However, I do not put the blame solely on worship leaders. It is our responsibility to choose what we want to sing. Corporate or not, worshipping through song is ultimately a matter between us and God.
My purpose here is not to dissect every worship song but to call attention to how we go about praising God through song. So many blogs can be written on this topic or even on a sub-topic of this topic such as: “What do you think when people applaud at the end of a song, during a worship service? Do you encourage it, ignore it or correct it?” But I guess that will have to be a blog for another time.
Pointedly, I have been thinking a lot lately about how I worship through song. Sometimes it’s hard for me to escape that self-conscious trap. If you’re like me, you may feel forced to sing every corporate worship song or else you feel judged for not singing even if your heart is not in it or you do not agree with the unbiblical lyrics….or worse, maybe you do not even understand what you are singing. Obviously, if someone chooses to judge you for not singing a particular song then really the judgment is upon themselves for who are they to think they can take on the role of a judge when they are simultaneously trying to give the greatest Judge their praise? Personally, I feel most able to give God my utmost praise through song when I am by myself with the lyrics in front of me and I can really meditate on them without having to worry about how the song is to be sung or if I am even on key. Learning to engage whole-heartedly in corporate worship through song is something I am still learning.
Right now I am listening to “Outloud” by Dispatch. I don’t know about you, but sometimes I find myself worshipping through songs not intended for worship –but don’t worry I am not worshipping to Dispatch right now (it just got me thinking about this topic). Based on what I believe constitutes worship, I think any and every song can provoke worship…although maybe not always the kind of worship I am referring to here. But one has to be very careful because musical style can communicate so much culture, that all it does is take profound gospel truth and pull it down rather than the truth elevating the music. It’s kind of scary when ambiguous, secular songs such as Vertical Horizon’s “Everything you want” (“He’s everything you want/need/ect.”) get turned into worship songs.
One danger I have observed involves the heavy emotional aspect of music. Weeping, crying out loud, joyful noises, and fear are some responses worship music may trigger; but the purpose of corporate worship is not the glorification of an emotional response, it is the glorification of God and what He has done for man. There is danger in looking for an emotional high every time we come to worship. I do not believe emotionalism negates true worship, but I do believe irresponsible emotionalism is something we need to be careful of. As John Piper would say: “Truth without emotion produces dead orthodoxy, but emotion without truth produces empty frenzy.”
Before we engage in worship of any kind, we must ask ourselves: "where is my heart?" Amos 5 says, "Stop your songs, your hearts aren't right." We also must not let fear of judgment or fear of disapproval stop us from not singing than to let unbiblical words flow from our mouths.
If you aren’t familiar with a particular song, look at the words before trying to put them to a melody. Take the title of this blog –“a bulwark never failing” –I am pretty sure when I was younger I thought I was singing about a bird as we sang “A Mighty Fortress is our God” in church. Now I am resolved to teach my kids at a young age that God, in this song, is like a bulwark as in a defensive fortification not so much a warm-blooded, egg-laying, feathered vertebrate.
