My assumption is that most of you who chose to follow a Facebook link here are pretty familiar with the idea of 'worship music'. In the event, though, that a few of you haven't been to a Protestant Christian church, here's a brief summary: in most modern church services, one staple is a time of musical worship in which congregants, under the direction of a 3-to-8-piece rock band, sing songs to/about God with varying levels of liveliness, key changes, gestures, and flag-waving.
On the one hand, it's a simple enough process. As a group, we join together to give praise to God. We could (and at other times do) accomplish this same end through a group prayer, free of instruments or melodies. But since musical worship is common in the Bible, it's fun, and music is a medium that is emotionally engaging, we have today's world of "How He Loves Us" (and 1999's world of "The Heart of Worship").
But what really happens when we worship God in this way? What's happening in the unseen realm? What are the relationships among the words we sing, the thoughts in our heads, and God's response to us? Are the words we sing important, or just the state of our hearts? Could we just as easily worship Him with a song of "La La La"s or animal noises?
I don't know the answers to these questions. Maybe share your thoughts in the comments below. But for now, I offer you the one thing I have thought about in this area, and that's the words of our worship songs and the purposes they serve.
What's in a worship song?
For those times we're able to think about the words and not our voice or the person next to us
The phrases in worship songs seem fall into one of three categories:
1. True statements about God and/or me
Examples:
"You are good when there's nothing good in me"; "I need You"; "You are mighty to save"; "Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe"
Purposes:
These are crucial, and ultimately I think songs can be made up entirely of these thoughts. Thinking rightly about God is one of the many ways we honor Him, and by singing these words, we reinforce our belief in them. It's natural to sing these things with a loving and grateful heart, which increases our intimacy with God. And if all else fails, simply honoring God with positive, true words about Him is worshipful.
2. [Admittedly false] statements about me that I'd like to be true (resolutions)
Examples:
"I will worship with all of my heart, I will praise you with all of my strength, I will seek you all of my days, I will follow all of Your ways"; "Giving all I am to seek Your face, Lord all I am is Yours"; "Where You go, I'll go... I will trust in You alone... I will live for You alone"
Purposes:
There is always in the Christian life a healthy desire to look ahead. And while it will be completely by God's transforming power that our future will be more godly than our past, we still (again by His grace) bring to the table willingness, submission, and surrender. And so, these sung phrases allow us to express that future-looking surrender-- I will follow, I will obey, I even now give You all that I am.
3. Requests from God
Examples:
"Give me faith to trust what You say"; "Refine me, Lord, through the flames"; "Let Your glory fall as You respond to us/ Spirit, rain/ Flood into our thirsty hearts again"
Purposes:
This is very similar to the purposes of the previous category. But these lyrics, serving as requests, focus not on our role of surrender, but the much more essential role of God as the one who actually brings about the things we want to see in our lives-- transformation, contentment, hope, etc. Note that while we greatly benefit from these blessings, they're ultimately all for the sake of God's glory.
This observation is probably not very profound. But I've already found it somewhat helpful in evaluating worship songs and, more importantly, to understand them while I'm singing them and thus worship God with more mental presence.
In terms of evaluating, I simply am realizing I prefer songs that focus on the first or third categories, but not the second. Sure, it's important to make spiritual commitments and to be resolute, but that's not the sort of thing I feel the need to gather 'round and sing about. As for understanding what I'm singing, it's really nice for me to understand the connection between the different components of the song. Otherwise it can seem like a random connection of unrelated lines!
For instance, I can start to see the "big picture" of a song when I see what its various segments are and what they each mean. So a song's meaning might take on one of the following forms:
"God, in light of these truths about You and me [lyrics in category #1], I need You to work in certain ways [category #3]. As You do those things, may I become more of the person You want me to be [category #2]."
-or-
"God, I really need to work in this area [category #2]. Please provide all I'm lacking in this area [#3]. This whole process is worth it because of certain great traits of Yours [#1]."
Now, I'm not dissecting these songs phrase for phrase while I'm singing along in church. But once I've taken a little time to study the lyrics and understand more of how each line works toward the overall message, all future instances of singing that song seem to be enhanced. This may not be the case if you try this-- I know not everyone has my weird, analytic brain.
The Heart of Worship
I still think 'warship' for worship is one of the best typos possible
Please comment on anything in this post. If you need more direction, note the several questions at the beginning. Failing that, there are tons of YouTube links you could comment on. If you aren't understanding what's happening right now, I'm begging you to comment.
Jon
Todd Agnew used to (and maybe still does) have a segment during his concerts where he would sing an old hymn, but pause after every couple of lines to explain what the words mean. I started really enjoying the whole song of Come Thou Fount (instead of just the last verse) after that. Just one of many reasons why I have a celebrity crush on him!
ReplyDeleteOn a related note, I thought of a suggestion for a future blog post: Different types of crushes (celebrity crushes, man crushes, schoolgirl crushes, etc.)
Great blog idea!!! Thanks!
DeleteHey Buddy!
ReplyDeleteI have always enjoyed Church music.
I am curious if you have ever heard any Orthodox music. In the Orthodox Church music has been an integral part of the Divine Liturgy since the very beginning. Most of the words in the Liturgy are either chanted (prayers, readings, etc) or sung by a choir. Originally this was done by the entire congregation. Liturgical music invites us to prayer and are prayers themselves. Some of these ancient works have been written by Saints that have dedicated there entire lives to glorify God and are amazing spiritual role models to everyone (e.g. Roman the Melodist, Joseph the Hymnographer, Cosmas of Maiuma). Their words are absolutely beautiful and truly glorify God in all things.
This is one thing that I love about Orthodoxy. Constantly trying to come up with prayers on my own never quite reached these deep levels of amazing prayerful words that clearly these prayerful people have been gifted with. And as you said, as we get to know these words these beautiful glorifying prayers have even more meaning to us, even if we have heard it before! Above this what can be more amazing than to sing and pray the very words our Lord and Savior taught us in the Lord's prayer.
Other than singing there is are bells. Church bells summon the faithful to the Divine Services, express the triumphal joy of the Church and Divine Services, and announce to those not present important moments in the services. Because of early persecution bells did not come into use immediately. Here is a cool peal:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7-pf6YyBo4
Hey Nate! Glad to hear from you; thanks for the insightful reply. You've reminded me of something C.S. Lewis wrote in his Letters to Malcolm about reciting prayers written by others. He said he preferred praying his own prayers, but made the case for the recorded prayers' usefulness too:
Delete"First, it keeps me in touch with 'sound doctrine.' Left to oneself, one could easily slide away from 'the faith once given' into a phantom called 'my religion.'
Secondly, it reminds me 'what things I ought to ask' (perhaps especially when I am praying for other people). The crisis of the present moment, like the nearest telegraph-post, will always loom largest. Isn’t there a danger that our great, permanent, objective necessities—often more important—may get crowded out?
Finally, they provide an element of the ceremonial... A few formal, ready-made, prayers serve me as a corrective of—well, let’s call it 'cheek.' They keep one side of the paradox alive. Of course it is only one side.”
Neat find Jon! I am curious of what C.S. Lewis thought as well. In The Screwtape Letters, Screwtape says
Delete"...The best thing, where it is possible, is to keep the patient from the serious intention of praying altogether. When the patient is an adult recently re-converted to the Enemy's party, like your man, this is best done by encouraging him to remember, or to think he remembers, the parrot-like nature of his prayers in childhood. In reaction against that, he may be persuaded to aim at something entirely spontaneous, inward, informal, and unregularised; and what this will actually mean to a beginner will be an effort to produce in himself a vaguely devotional mood in which real concentration of will and intelligence have no part...."
It seems like Lewis advocates formal and regularly planned prayer, but I could be wrong. This of course is consistent with the Holy Scriptures in our pursuit to be in constant prayer ("Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer" [Romans 12:12] and "Pray without ceasing" [1 Thessalonians 5:17]).
There are some unfortunate modern translations that cover some of these details and seem to promote a translation consistent with the translators own views. For example, the NIV translation of Romans 12:12 is "Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer." Fortunately the NIV translation of 1 Thessalonians 5:17 retains "pray continually".
One thing that people seem to point to about repeated prayer seems to be Matthew 6:7 -
"But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking." However, I think the reason may again be poor modern translations. For example, the NIV version of Matthew 6:7 reads "And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words." The absence of "vain repetitions" and use of "babbling" is very striking here. It seems to promote the translators own view. Even Christ prayed the same prayer three times in Gethsemane "And he left them, and went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words." (Matthew 26:44) Of course this prayer was not vain repetitions! Who is a better role model for us than God Himself?
We should be like the Publican "God be merciful to me a sinner" (Luke 18:13). Also in encouragement of constant prayer "And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint" (Luke 18:1) there is a parable of the persistent widow who kept repeating "Avenge me of mine adversary." (Luke 18:3).
DeleteFormal, regular and ordered prayer has always been a part of the Church. The book of Psalms is an amazing book of prayers and even speaks of the tradition of prayers throughout the day even within one of the prayers "Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice" (Psalm 55:17). "I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth." (Psalm 34:1) These prayers through the daily hours were part of the ancient church (a component borrowed from the Jewish traditions clearly) and still exists today, especially in Orthodox monasteries.
This theme is definitely continued in the ancient church, for example in a letter from St. Ignatius of Antioch to St. Polycarp, Ignatius writes "devote yourself to continual prayer" (both were disciples of the Apostle John, Ignatius being the Bishop of Antioch and Polycarp Bishop of Smyrna). Another example is the Didache (The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles), which is an early text that says to pray the Lord's Prayer three times each day. These traditions clearly carried on and it is clear why certain prayers are an essential component to our morning and evening prayers and the Divine Liturgy. Another great prayer is the Jesus Prayer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_Prayer).
Even the angels pray unceasing "And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come." (Revelations 4:8) And hopefully we too will do the same "For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels which are in heaven." (Mark 12:25)
Glory be to God in all things! Christ Is Risen! Χριστός ἀνέστη! Хрїстóсъ воскрéсе!
P.S. It would be interesting to discuss how in some translations of the Holy Scriptures the words “teaching” and “traditions” are used interchangeably in modern translations for the same exact Greek word, but the word tradition will only appear with a sense of negativity surrounding it. This would probably be a whole new can of worms but actually quite important (see for example 2 Thessalonians 3:6 and 2 Thessalonians 2:15).
Interesting stuff, Nate. Too much for me to respond to. As for Lewis, the moderate in all things, I'm sure his practice was a mixture of self-made prayers and recited ones. I left out the part of the letter in which he essentially starts the section with, "Like you, Malcolm, I prefer saying my own prayers, but there's also value in..."
DeleteI don't know about the adequacy of "La la la," but I think that Hillsong has provided for abundant and extravagant worship using powerhouse refrains of "Whoa-oh-oh." Also.. added bonus, I love seeing how each church I visit has a different spelling for this refrain. "Whoa-whoa-whoa" (alarmist, but okay), "Whooo-oo-oo" (owl-ish), "Woah, oah oah (?)."
ReplyDeleteWhile we're talking about Hillsong, like 76% of your lyric examples come from their corpus. Which delights me. Man, I love Hillsong. Anyway.
I used to think about all of these things in the lyrics of my worship, but then I stopped because...my stars, aren't you exhausted?!? For old times' sake, though, I'll say that I actually really enjoy #2 warship lyrics. If you'll allow me a little old-timey Pentecostalism here, I appreciate the sense of claiming those kinds of things for myself, of speaking them over my life. I feel as though when I sing them in community, I sing them with accountability. Obviously, no one has ever come to me to discuss the fruits of the time Leeland and I promised to frequent the homes of the broken. But still...