One common thought and problem that I have been running into for the last couple months is the issue of the lyrical content of our modern day “worship” songs. I have come to the conclusion that our lyrics fall into three main (general and broad) categories: songs of prayers, songs of surrender/abandonment (of our lives), and songs of praise to God. While I believe we are missing an enormous amount of possible lyrical content in our modern (or post-modern) worship settings – for example: songs of world-wide missions, and songs of corporate confession – these three main categories are enough for supporting my point I will try to make.
In of themselves, songs of prayer, surrender, and praise are perfectly fine, but if not used in balance with each other, they can cause a confused or blinded view of correct praise. The Oxford American Dictionary defines praise as “expressing one’s respect and gratitude towards someone (usually a diety).” In the context of our lyrical discussion, praise would be expressing our respect, thankfulness and awe towards (of) our God, which is Jesus Christ. So, when we sing “take my life and let it be…” or “I surrender all to you, all…” or “you can have all my hands can hold…”, we are really offering ourselves to the Lord. We are talking about what we are going to do for the Lord and how we want Him to have all of our being. This is called surrender, or living in abandonment to Jesus Christ and his way of life. Surrender is critical to following Christ. Christ was the one who said, “If any man would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Lk 9:32). I’ll even make the obvious statement that living a life of constant surrender to the Lord is living a life of praise (ie: we praise Him in our surrender). In the same manner, when we sing “Lord, let your glory fall…” or “Fire fall down…on us we pray” or “Show me Your heart…” or “Dwell in the midst of us” or “Christ be the center of our lives..”, we are really asking, praying or petitioning something from the Lord. It is rather self explanatory; we desire to see Him or focus on Him, so we write songs asking the Lord to reveal Himself, live amongst us, and be our focal point.
Yet, if when we gather together as disciples of Christ to “praise” Him, all we sing about is giving ourselves to Him and sacrificing ourselves for Him (over and over) I believe we lose sight of what praising God through song and word is all about. For if I only sing of giving myself to God, I go in circles constantly asking Him to take me, and never actually end up singing about God or praising Him. How long until we realize God has saved us, taken us, made us sons and daughters of God, and we sing about His saving (praising Him for His rescue)? Likewise, if all we sing about is petitioning and asking the Lord to reveal Himself (or something similar), we never really get around to praising (expressing our thanks, respect, and awe) our God. We get so caught up in looking for the Lord (“send your glory” “dwell here” “come Lord Jesus”) that we miss His presence right in us. His Spirit rests within us and will never leave us.
So what then is praise through song and word? I believe it is voicing our thanks and respect for who God is and what he has done. Who is God? He is merciful. He is all-knowing. He is supreme – above all things. And I could go on with a very long list…… What has He done? He has rescued us from death when we did not deserve it. He has chosen us to have eternal life with Him. He has given us His Holy Spirit. He guides us. He saved us through the death of His son Jesus Christ. And so on….. Praise is all about God, nothing to do with what I want to give Him or do for Him.
I hope I am making some sense. I cannot completely vouch for the rest of the Western Church, only because I have not been everywhere, but my experience with the Western Church has been many songs of surrender and prayer, with little if any songs of actual praise. Usually 50% of the songs I encounter deal with surrender, 25% with prayer, and 25% with actual praise. I know that this “percentage” will vary throughout different places, but look at the songs the “worship” artists are producing these days. What type of songs are they? Rarely do I find CD’s or composers where the majority of their songs are true praise songs. I think this reflects the confused state of much of the Western Church right now.
So how then am I trying to fix this problem? Balance. Songs of surrender are not bad. Songs of prayer are not wrong. (neither are songs of confession or missions wrong – which I wish we had more of) Yet, if we never (or rarely) actually sing about the Lord, we miss the whole point of praise. That is why balance is needed. For a good example of this balance I suggest looking up the wonderful author David. His book(s) is called Psalms. Yes, let us sing songs of abandonment to the Lord and songs petitioning unto the Lord, but more than ever, let us give thanks and respect to the Lord for who He is (His attributes) and what he has done in our lives.
Write me your thoughts/experiences with this issue of praise songs – even if your view differs from mine.
“Great is our lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit” – Ps 147:5
1 response so far ↓
Wilky // November 11, 2007 at 7:06 am
I agree that the essence of praising God is focusing on both who He is and what He’s done. Many Psalms start out with an imperative to praise the Lord, and following that imperative are the reasons for doing so; God’s attributes and God’s actions. I’ve been confused when I hear worship leaders talk like it’s better to praise God for who He is and not as worshipful to focus on what He’s done. That distinction is just simply not made in the Bible. The both are intertwined.
I’ve been thinking about cultural biases a lot lately. An extremely individualistic culture creates individualistic songs. Similarly, the western belief that we are masters of our own destiny infuses the very way we think, and thus the songs we write. We sing about what we feel our deepest needs are, and this is natural and ok. However, if we stay there, and refuse to explore our blind-spots, then we stagnate. This is why we can’t only sing contemporary songs. We have to keep the “clean sea breeze of history” (Lewis) blowing through our minds in order to be exposed to different emphasis. Old hymns are great for this.