Central Abbotsford

In my sermon last weekend on the fourth and fifth chapters of Revelation, I made the observation that I have found it challenging to worship through song over the years.

As a preface to my thoughts about worship music, consideration must be given to the fact that I am assuredly not a musician. Although I took piano lessons for nearly a decade as I child, I never progressed past the second grade of the Royal Conservatory piano curriculum, and spent more time arguing with my parents that their money would be better spent elsewhere than practicing. This is why we employ Jaden!

While I recognize that different musical styles and techniques have different ways of emotionally (and otherwise) impacting people (including myself, even!), I don’t know what they are and lack the knowledge to systematize or even identify what “works” to emotionally move me. To that end, I have generally paid more attention to the lyrical content of music (and preferred classical instrumental music only to provide a pleasing and distraction-free background for reading, studying, or relaxing).

Tim Keller, in his chapter in D.A. Carson’s collection Worship By The Book, makes this observation about art and Christian art in general (including worship/praise music), raising some of the challenges inherent to doing art (including the art of worship music) well:

Sentimentality is subtle. C. S. Lewis once told a young writer: “Instead of telling us a thing is ‘terrible,’ describe it so that we’ll be terrified. Don’t say it was a ‘delight,’ make us say ‘delightful’ when we’ve read the description. You see, all those words (‘horrifying,’ ‘wonderful,’ ‘hideous,’ ‘exquisite’) are only saying to your readers, ‘Please, will you do my job for me.” Lewis complains that authors of gushy and sentimental words are tyrannical because they tell the readers how they must feel rather than letting the subject work on them in the same way it did the author. Sentimental worship leading works in exactly the same way that Lewis describes. With typical comments—“Isn’t he just wonderful?” “Isn’t it such a blessing?”—the leader tells people how they ought to feel about God instead of telling them about God.

To that end, I have found that the most edifying worship music is one that has strong lyrical content that is descriptive of God and His attributes. However, I have noticed a subset of praise/worship songs in recent years (perhaps this trend is older than that, but I haven’t done the historical analysis) where the subject of the song is seemingly intended to be the singer (and, by extension, the hearer). I am torn about these songs. 

On the one hand, a song that begins with an honest assessment of one’s own failures (prone to wander, Lord I feel it) and then provides the gospel answer to these problems is one that can be used for discipleship. A song that speaks of God’s greatness is based in truth and also can serve as an encouragement, speaking of His wondrous deeds and being. A song that bears a plaintive cry echoes so many of the Psalms and serves as the minor key backdrop of the gospel. A human frailty – a symptom of life under the sun in this fallen world – is met by God’s goodness and provision. This is worthy of praise!

These types of songs do not seem to dominate the genre, though. There is a recent popular praise song that I have heard on the radio that bothers me, that begins with the following lyrics (I’m not intending this as a call-out – as far as I know, this is not a song that is intended for corporate worship, and certainly not one that we have used as such at Northview):

It’s not hard to give the glory

To the One who changed my life

It’s like a river running

And it won’t run dry

Oh, it’s simply overflowing

From the joy deep down inside

It’s not hard to give the glory

To the One who changed my life

 

Hallelujah, my song for all my days

Hallelujah, all to the God who saves

Jesus Christ, my savior

I’d be lost without Your grace

You make it easy, easy

So easy to praise

My concern with lyrics such as these is that the person who is finding it hard to give God glory hears this song and feels like a failure. In that end, it is not genuine, because instead of being centered on the eternal truths of our God, its primary focus is our fickle humanity (not to mention that it also runs afoul of C.S. Lewis’ sharp words). 

About two years ago, there was a study done into the most sung worship songs in North American church services. While the main takeaway from the study was that the overwhelming majority of popular worship songs of the past 20 years have come from a tiny number of creators, there was an interesting comment from one of the researchers picking up on this trend:

Ongoing research by Shannan Baker, a postdoctoral fellow at Baylor University, will focus on the lyrics used in the most popular songs. Although her work is not due to be published yet, she says she has already noticed a significant trend. “A lot of it is, what is God doing for me now? And what has God promised to do for me in the future?” she said.

If this is the focus of our worship music, then we should expect that our people’s relationship with God will be shaped accordingly. Music is an expression of praise, emotion, and belief, but it is also a powerful mnemonic device, and we shouldn’t overlook that. Good songs are memorable – so the things that we should be remembering from them should be good, true, and beautiful – and moreover, they should be eternally so. Since we are called to worship, let us be encouraged that the content and object of our worship is the One that is worthy of it.