In a Word, Silly
Last Sunday while I am at my church that I love very much, I noticed myself singing one of those unscriptural “praise and worship” songs. Disappointed with myself for singing something to God that was – well, stupid – I decided to refrain my tongue from lyrical heresy and instead focused on what my relationship with God is really like.
For Christians not familiar with praise and worship is in the popular vernacular, it is basically what “contemporary” Christians sing instead of hymns. If and when contemporary believers sing the old hymns, the tempo is usually changed so that one barely recognizes it as the original song. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not opposed to either brand of music and really see value in both insomuch as they are scriptural in their approach and actually magnify God. It’s just that some of these new songs are downright corny. I can scarcely sing them without laughing, thinking to myself, “Am I actually going to sing this song to the Creator of the universe?” Here’s an excerpt from a popular one:
A grateful heart I give
A thankful prayer I pray
A wild dance I dance before You
A loud song I sing
A huge bell I ring…
A huge bell I ring? I can’t even type that without wanting to reduce myself to embarrassing hilarity! Look, I’m not against thankful prayer or even dancing wildly. Heck, I’m not even against ringing huge bells if that’s your thing. But if I’m going to sing a song to the Lord and mean it, I can’t honestly sing stuff like this. It just brings up too many images of The Gong Show or Sanford and Son with Redd Foxx calling someone “big dummy” or Aunt Esther calling him a “heathen” or a “fish-eyed fool.” Then it isn’t long before my mind wanders even further and I’m singing the Welcome Back Kotter them song again – definitely not conducive to worshipping God. And just so we’re clear I believe in rejoicing “with joy unspeakable and full of glory” (1 Peter 1:8). I just see a major difference between the joy of the Lord, and the comedy that results from letting my quirky imagination run wild when I sing cheesy churchy songs. I mean you might expect kids to sing songs like this (maybe), but when we are singing the adult equivalent of If the devil doesn’t like it he can sit on a tack (ouch!), I think we really have to evaluate what we are singing to God here.
Some Basic Standards
I don’t presume to be the world’s foremost authority on praise and worship, but I think the following guidelines would help us.
- Worship songs should be scriptural. Technically it is not even praise to sing about our relationship to God. But if we are going to sing that, it just makes sense that such songs should reflect ideas consistent with the Bible.
- Worship songs should be more truth than emotion. The truth never changes, but feelings are fickle. We may not always relate to the emotion the songwriter may have experienced when he wrote the song, but we should all be able to relate to a number of things related to our salvation for which we can be thankful.
- Worship songs should ideally seek to minister to God rather than simply minister about Him or our relationship with Him. I don’t mean to say that there is no place for singing about Him, but that should not be the greatest emphasis.
- If a song is going to sing about God or our relationship with Him rather than directly to Him, it should not minister condemnation. Condemning songs are NOT praise or worship! God is not impressed, and in fact is rather insulted, by songs that tell us how worthless we are. People who are justified by faith in Jesus Christ cannot be worthless. God never made a worthless new creation.
- Praise and worship is not entertainment. Dance teams, streamers, and the like should probably be voluntarily retired. Dance as a way to praise is not unbiblical, but when it is choreographed as a means of entertainment it isn’t praise. If this kind of action demands your attention as a spectator, it isn’t praise.
Biblical Praise and Worship
Aside from what is commonly known as “praise and worship” there is a such praise and worship from a biblical point of view. What is praise? Here is a basic dictionary definition: the offering of grateful homage in words or song, as an act of worship. Beyond this basic agreed upon meaning, Hebrews 13:15 gives us a good description.
Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.
We could paraphrase this by saying praise is verbal thanksgiving to God done through Christ. However, I think we could even extend the definition of praise to include other instruments besides the human voice. Psalm 150:1-5 expands the definition for us.
1 Praise the LORD.
Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty heavens.2 Praise him for his acts of power;
praise him for his surpassing greatness.3 Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,
praise him with the harp and lyre,4 praise him with tambourine and dancing,
praise him with the strings and flute,5 praise him with the clash of cymbals,
praise him with resounding cymbals.
Praise as a Lifestyle
I think to most Christians, praise is something done in church on Sunday morning. Certainly corporate praise is biblical, but God never intended that praise should be limited to a weekly exercise. Let’s examine Hebrews 13:5 again.
Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.
Notice the word continually. Praise to God should be continual. How can one do that? The answer is in the opening phrase of this verse: Therefore by Him… Many of us have conditioned ourselves to think of this sacrifice as something hard to do continually. Why? Because we have failed to realize that we do it by the power of Christ and not sheer human will. I think a little more meddling will help to illustrate this fact. Let’s look at more of the lyrics to the song I quoted earlier.
But I will not forget you
You are my god, my king
With a thankful heart I bring my offering
(Okay so far, but watch out because here it comes)
And my sacrifices are not what you can give
But what I alone can give to you…
I don’t think most people realize it, but believing and singing this will absolutely cripple a person. The “I alone” phrase is particularly troubling to me. You may think that I am being too critical here, but I have to ask - why the emphasis on independence here? Someone may ask, “But aren’t we supposed to offer ourselves as a sacrifice to God?” Yes, but even this we do not do apart from the awareness of God’s mercy. Consider Romans 12:1:
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.
Rather than saying “in view of God’s mercy” the King James and New King James versions render it, “by the mercies of God.” So for us to say that we are offering a sacrifice to God in and of ourselves is just false. It is only because of His grace and mercy that we have been reconciled in the first place. Our approach to God in all respects is based on this principle. Have we who begun in the Spirit perfected by the flesh? I think not.
The Personal Effects of Real Praise
Praising God should affect us in a number of positive ways. Not only should our praise bless God, but it should also bless us. The word magnify is often used in the Bible in connection with praising God. Of course this word means to cause to seem greater or more important. So when we are magnifying the Lord we are enlarging our capacity to see God as greater than any adverse circumstances we may encounter, and generally brings us into a greater consciousness of God’s presence.
Many people run into a problem and immediately begin to magnify the problem; it becomes the sole object of their attention to the extent that it robs them of the one sent to indwell them and counsel them on the matter. Although He hasn’t left them or forsaken them, they feel as though He has because they have actually robbed themselves of God consciousness by focusing on “the wind and the waves”. Paul and Silas had a perfect opportunity to do this in Acts 5 when they were beaten and thrown into prison, but instead they took a different approach.
But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them (Acts 16:25).
Paul and Silas knew that things never can get so bad that you cannot praise God. In fact, the worse things get, the more we should praise him. We’re not praising him because of our trouble but in spite of it. Paul knew very well the power of praise, instructing the Ephesians to cultivate a lifestyle of thanksgiving while conveying to them how to maintain consciousness of the Holy Spirit.
Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 5:18-20).
Where Do We Go From Here
First of all, we should acknowledge that many people are ignorant about praise. You may fit into that category. I know I once did, and still don’t claim to know everything about it. People only know what they’ve learned, and someone probably (ignorantly) taught them that singing unbelieving songs was somehow praise. I feel that many songs are being sung from a pre-Christ perspective, not a righteous perspective. This is the result of not knowing one’s identity in Christ. Personally, I refuse to sing songs like this – not because I’m being rebellious or defiant – but because I understand that the purpose of singing songs is to praise God. If it isn’t accomplishing that, then what good is it? However, it doesn’t help the situation to try and make the worship leader appear to be wrong or to criticize him personally.
The best thing Christians can do is to begin to cultivate a life of praise themselves. Begin your day by saying, “I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth” (Psalm 34:1). In this way, they will never be unfulfilled by any songs your church sings that are weak, and you’ll never have to rely on your worship leader to uplift you by selecting the right songs.
I’ll be honest, there are some “worship” songs that I absolutely detest, but I’m not upset at people for singing them. Nor will it affect my fellowship with God one way or the other. I think it is perfectly right to judge songs that exalt human experience and feelings above the knowledge of God; we just shouldn’t judge people, especially when their actions result from legitimate ignorance. If you have knowledge they don’t have, that just makes you more responsible to act on what you know; it certainly doesn’t make us better than others who do not know.
You can try to educate fellow believers about what worship actually is, but without the proper approach this could blow up in your face. People can be very sensitive about these things, and if you come off as judgemental it could really do damage to your relationships. And it probably isn’t worth that. Forums such as these are non-confrontational and can function as a teaching tool or as a place for civil (well, most of the time) discussion and debate, but people participate voluntarily. People can read it or not read it. And even if someone strongly disagrees, we will probably never meet face-to-face.
Chris,
I really liked this article. But then again I can be a bah-humbug about worship sometimes. I know I get a little grouchy about certain songs that I think totally miss the point, get hung up on emotion, glorify men or just have nonsense in them.
As a worship leader, my position affords me the luxury of editing songs that maybe are otherwise great, but have a couple useless phrases. I have no idea how the body feels about this, but I know that my pastor agrees with the practice. I don’t care how popular the song is, but if it needs some tweaking then it gets done.
Strange fire in worship songs is very, very subtle. We’ve got to be on guard during worship and keep our wits about us. I don’t think people are trying to deliberately deceive - but I do think it is a tough temptation not to get caught up in making a song more appealing to our fleshy elements.
I have a feeling that King David wouldn’t pass your test. At least, most of his Psalms sure don’t. I guess they’re not Scriptural.
That said, I agree with the general idea of your article. I know that I get tired of the repetitive “I am a Friend of God”-type songs. I would emphasize though that during worship on a Sunday morning isn’t the time to worry about such things… in fact, this is sin (something I catch myself doing too much of the time). It’s pharisitical of us to be holier-than-thou about songs while others sing with uplift hearts to our God.
Your list:
1. I agree, or at least a song should not be ANTISCRIPTURAL. For example, “I am a Friend of God” is, to me, an annoying song. And it is dangerously close to being unscriptural, but it is definitely not anti-scriptural. What I mean is this… Jesus told us that we are friends of God if we obey His commandments. The song only says that we are friends of God. A unrepentant sinner could sing this and unwittingly believe that God is the friend of all, while in fact He is the enemy of anyone who doesn’t believe in Him and obey Him. The song isn’t denying Scripture, but it is leaving out an important part.
2. Songs should be EQUAL parts truth and emotion (or spirit if you will). John 4 doesn’t give more weight to either.
3. Agreed, Psalms gives us a decent template for this.
4. I disagree strongly, since Psalms routinely talks about the singer’s worthlessness. And this isn’t new to contemporary songs, hymns like Watts’ “Alas! And Did My Savior Bleed” referred to the singer as a “worm.” Now, I would say that while it is okay to affirm one’s worthlessness before God, a song should also affirm the worth that we have via Christ’s death on the cross.
5. While I am definitely not a charismatic or “dance team” kind of Christian, I don’t see how those can’t be praise. David danced naked and wild in the street, and God honored that. We organize our sermons, why can’t we organize our praise? We have choirs, are they also wrong?
Darius
Darius,
Many of the Psalms are good for praising God, but not all of them were intended that way. There is a worship song based on Psalm 34 that I really like. Some of the Psalms were personal between David and God, but would not have been sung by a group of people back then and really shouldn’t be now. I mean, you wouldn’t want to sing the song where David is repenting from his sins with Bathsheba and stuff like that.
Sorry, you appear to be misunderstanding me. I didn’t mean to say that we should sing the Psalms verbatim in our worship services today (though many of them could be). I meant that the spirit and style of the Psalms are still applicable today, and indicate styles that God is pleased with. Your article denies certain styles that are found throughout the Psalms. I don’t think we should sing the song about David and Bathsheba, but we should sing a song where we repent of our own sins.
Darius,
But this is the burden of mature Christians and leadership. We aren’t just to tow the line, whether on sunday morning or ever. And how is it sin to be concerned about the quality of the worship songs on Sunday morning?
You seem to be confusing the Holy Spirit with “emotion.” That is a significant problem. Emotion can be an effect of the Spirit but it should never be confused with the Spirit himself. Songs should be entirely scripture-based, whether in litteral word or theme. They should also be cented on the gospel, to remind us why we worship God. This in turn, opens us up to the Spirit of God, by whom we minister to God and God ministers to us. God is not praised by our fleshy emotions.
I suspect that Chris is referring to those kind of “pity party” songs. These kind of song are merely attempting to illict an emotional response from believers rather than the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
Many of the Psalms are personal Psalms of David, not all of them for singing corporately to worship and praise God.
You don’t see how they can’t be praise? Because I can easily see how they can’t. They can be praise, but they also cannot. David’s dancing is not a formula to say that all such dancing can honor God.
I think there is a lot of room for disagreement in this article. I’m not laying down any legalistic rules, but let me address the disagreements.
2. Emotion does not equal spirit, but maybe I could have better stated it this way: Worship songs, regardless of emotional content or emphasis, should be predicated on the truth and thankfulness of who God is and what he has done.
4. I’m glad you brought up the worm thing. Throughout the Old Testament and even today there is a worm consciousness in so many people. My point is that anyone who maintains that same mentality after receiving remission from sins by the blood of Jesus has failed to appreciate what that really means. I could go into detail explaining this, but the best way to get an understanding is to read Romans and allow the Holy Spirit to teach you. Our righteousness is of Christ; we are just as righteous as he is because it is his righteousness. Here is one verse among many that may shed some light on the topic:
Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
(1 John 3:9)
5. Dancing is scriptural as a means of praise (Psalm 150:4). The difference between David’s dancing and dance teams is that David’s dancing was a spontaneous act of praise expressed because of the return of the Arc of the Covenant. Anyone present could have joined in and danced too. Imagine you are in a church service and the dance team is dancing. You (Darius) decide you want to join in so you jump on stage and do the funky chicken. Would that be appropriate? They’d probably have the ushers escort you back to your seat. Why? Because it is a spectator sport for entertainment purposes only. When a choir sings on the other hand, you are generally welcome to sing along. If not, you are either being ministered to in song or you are being entertained. A song can minister truth just like a sermon, but even then it is not praise unless it is directed to God.
“Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart TO THE LORD, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 5:18-20).
Let me respond to Colin first, then Chris. First of all, I doubt that we actually disagree much, I think we’re mostly involved in semantics.
Colin:
What I meant is that it is wrong to get all worked up about songs DURING the singing. I have no problem with “being concerned about the quality” or Scriptural-ness of music. I am just saying, as my pastor recently said, that Sunday morning in the middle of a worship song is not the place, since it is distracting you from what you should be doing. For example, almost all songs sung in the modern evangelical church can be sung with a full heart even if you or I would nitpick on a word or sentence. Chris’ “grateful heart” song is a great example of this. Technically speaking, he’s right that the wording could have been more careful about sacrifices to God and who gives what. But seriously, he should be able to sing it wholeheartedly with the knowledge that God has given us the ultimate sacrifice and we have to be willing to sacrifice ourselves to Him.
Colin, you confuse Spirit with spirit. John 4 refers to small-s spirit (our own spirit, which undoubtedly involves emotion) whereas the Holy Spirit is a big-S spirit, which is removed from emotion. I prefer using “spirit” instead of “emotion,” but I thought perhaps Chris meant both.
If Chris meant “pity party” songs, he should have been more clear about it or given an example.
The onus is not on me regarding dancing, it is on Chris. He said that should be dropped and that organized dancing is always wrong. I merely pointed out that I can imagine times where organized dancing IS praise. Obviously, plenty of times this is not the case, but you should be careful not to condemn the whole bowl of oatmeal because of a couple bad grains.
Chris:
Again, you’re talking about improper use of organized dance, not that organized dance ITSELF is wrong. Does a song have to be praise or can it minister truth? I believe that telling about the truth of God is a form of praise, as it is pointing the hearer to the Father.
Regarding “worm theology”… Again, read what I wrote: “Now, I would say that while it is okay to affirm one’s worthlessness before God, a song should also affirm the worth that we have via Christ’s death on the cross.”
We bring nothing to the table of our salvation, and any song that affirms that should be commended. However, we also are counted worthy by the shed blood of Jesus, so songs should also affirm that aspect of our spiritual nature. If we only affirm the latter, works-based religiousity can creep in.
“Chris:
Again, you’re talking about improper use of organized dance, not that organized dance ITSELF is wrong. Does a song have to be praise or can it minister truth? I believe that telling about the truth of God is a form of praise, as it is pointing the hearer to the Father.”
To be clear, I think organized dance under the guise of praise is wrong. That’s my opinion. You can disagree, and that’s fine with me. There are three different kinds of songs mentioned in Ephesians 5 - psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. I believe a song can minister truth to the hearer and not be praise, just like a sermon can minister truth and not be praise. Some songs can do both. They minister truth to the hearer and offer praise to God. At any rate, if a song only ministers encouragement to the hearer that doesn’t make it wrong. It just isn’t praise.
“For example, almost all songs sung in the modern evangelical church can be sung with a full heart even if you or I would nitpick on a word or sentence. Chris’ “grateful heart” song is a great example of this. Technically speaking, he’s right that the wording could have been more careful about sacrifices to God and who gives what. But seriously, he should be able to sing it wholeheartedly with the knowledge that God has given us the ultimate sacrifice and we have to be willing to sacrifice ourselves to Him.”
I can understand that people think I am nitpicking, but I don’t think so. Words are very important. They convey ideas. People are believing all sorts of things about God that aren’t true. Why? It could be because a song suggested something about God was unbiblical and their minds have been subconsciously programmed that way. I purpose not to say things (whether by way of song or regular speech) that are incorrect about God. I just refuse to do it. Why should I? Am I going to confess ignorance after receiving the knowledge of the truth? Not me, buddy. That doesn’t mean I’m going to look down on people that don’t know any different, but I know better. To whom much is given much is required. And I am accountable to God about what I say or sing (it makes no difference) about Him.
“Colin, you confuse Spirit with spirit. John 4 refers to small-s spirit (our own spirit, which undoubtedly involves emotion) whereas the Holy Spirit is a big-S spirit, which is removed from emotion. I prefer using “spirit” instead of “emotion,” but I thought perhaps Chris meant both.”
I know this wasn’t directed at me, but I’m going to offer a comment anyway. People are made up of spirit, soul, and body. The spirit is the real eternal you, the born again you reflecting the image of God. The soul is the psyche, the will, emotions, and intellect. The soul, though eternal, is also eternal but should not be confused with the “breath” or spirit. Of course, the body in its present condition is just a temporary earth suit. One day it will be glorified, but until then it is liable to do silly things like interpretive dance and such. I think the reason people associate the word “spirit” with emotion is because it is used in ways like “team spirit”.
Darius, I think I understand your argument a little more now.
I would just speak a little more to what Chris is saying here:
I think this is really the crux of the issue. I would highlight these principles:
- We need to take God a lot more seriously than conformity in church
- We need to be aware of the power of suggestion
- We need to be aware of the power of emotionalism
Of all the places to practice these, church is definitely a top priority. We should not suspend these biblical instincts for the sake of fitting into a worship service or teaching (not saying you are saying this Darius, but I want to make sure I say it).
Maybe it is the worship leader in me speaking, but I view worship as a tremendously serious and important ministry that is critical to a believer’s relationship to God. I hope that I don’t create arbitrary rules about it, but I also hope that I do not have a casual attitude about the worship of God himself!
My own bias (and where I am coming from) is that I have seen lots of church services co-opted by cult-like techniques and subtle suggestion / mind-control phenomena. When rock concerts and worship services are identical - we have a problem.
“We bring nothing to the table of our salvation, and any song that affirms that should be commended. However, we also are counted worthy by the shed blood of Jesus, so songs should also affirm that aspect of our spiritual nature. If we only affirm the latter, works-based religiousity can creep in.”
A song can talk about the life before Christ with an emphasis on praising God for what he has accomplished in saving one from those things; Amazing Grace would be a good example of that. It says, “I once was lost and now am found…” The dominant emphasis is on the “now” part and is rightfully thanking God for cleansing someone who was a “wretch”. But any song that emphasizes estrangement from God (unworthiness) after salvation is just wrong as is based on ignorance of Christ’s redemption. Works-based religiosity is impossible in an environment that acknowledges we are made righteous by the blood of Jesus. That cancels out any opportunity to have confidence in the flesh. We are not worthy because of our accomplishments; we are worthy because Jesus made us worthy.
“I think this is really the crux of the issue. I would highlight these principles:
- We need to take God a lot more seriously than conformity in church
- We need to be aware of the power of suggestion
- We need to be aware of the power of emotionalism”
Yes, yes, and yes. Much better than I could have put it. And I would add that this applies in many more areas than just praise and worship.
Since I pretty much agree with the last few comments, it is quite apparent that we’re mostly discussing semantics. Again, what I was saying regarding “worm theology” is that songs and sermons need to emphasize that our flesh (old self) is worthless and all the good works done from the flesh are chaff to God, having no worth whatsoever. If we fail to affirm the idea that “we all like sheep have gone astray,” it is possible that thinking seeps into the church where we begin to think that our flesh is not so bad (something that remains with us, which means that part of us is still worthless) and God merely died to show us a better way to love. This type of theology is rampantly spreading throughout the church, so we need to combat it. At the same time, we need to preach that God does all the work in our salvation… He calls us, saves us, acquits us, and glorifies us. We don’t do a thing, except live our lives in thanksgiving.
I guess I’m not sure what song “emphasizes estrangement from God (unworthiness) after salvation.” Could you give a couple examples?
“I guess I’m not sure what song “emphasizes estrangement from God (unworthiness) after salvation.” Could you give a couple examples?”
Well, I’ll try. But if it seems that I am nitpicking it will partly have to do with the subtlety of some of these lyrics. The easiest way for me to do this is to pick one song and show all the problems with it, rather than take snippets of many songs. Here we go…
We bow our hearts
We bend our knees
Oh Spirit come make us humble
*Alright, wait up. It isn’t the Holy’s Ghost’s job to “make” you humble. It’s not in his job description. In fact, you don’t want God to make you humble because that only comes with humiliation resulting from judgment. We are to humble ourselves (Philippians 2:8; James 4:10; 1 Peter 5:6) with God’s help of course. At any rate, he doesn’t “come” (because he is already here) to “make” us humble.*
We turn our eyes
From evil things
Oh Lord we cast down our idols
*Here we go. Notice the presumption of idolatry here. Are you focused enough on how much you a worthless heathen yet? This isn’t the picture of the righteous. It’s a picture of godless idolaters. Stay tuned, there’s more*
So give us clean hands
and give us pure hearts
Let us not lift our souls to another
Oh give us clean hands
and give us pure hearts
*Oh, so you’re not clean enough even after being washed in the blood of Jesus? This song actually presumes uncleanness on the part of the redeemed! So far there is no praise in this song. Let’s see if we can find some.*
Let us not lift our souls to another
Oh God let this be
a generation that seeks
Who seeks Your face, Oh God of Jacob
Oh God let us be
a generation that seeks
Who seeks Your face, Oh God of Jacob
*More human-centered drivel. Still no praise. In fact, I’m not going to post the rest of the lyrics. Take my word for it, there is not an ounce of praise in this entire song. Look it up if you don’t believe me. Can you believe that?! God is not thanked or praised at all!
I used to be in a worship band where we played this song. I hated it. I still hate it. I would play the guitar, but there is no way I could bring myself to sing the lyrics. No one ever asked why and I didn’t tell them. They were not in a position to understand, and I wasn’t in charge so I went along with their ignorance just a little.
Colin made a comment about worship services resembling rock concerts. This isn’t what he meant, but when I was done singing this song I wanted to break my guitar into a thousand pieces and set it on fire! Its like, “You wanna see what a godless and idolatrous heathen I can be?!” I’m being facetious of course. But that’s how frustrated that song made me.
“…but when I was done singing this song…”
CORRECTION: I didn’t actually sing the song. I played the guitar.
Wow, you are amazingly anal.
And I don’t mean that in a mean way, you just really nitpick things. By your standard, a large portion of the New Testament isn’t Scriptural. I’m sorry, but this is lyrical legalism. Is there no room for poetry in your world? I’ll play the devil’s advocate for this song (though not literally, I hope). I know the song well, as I sang it multiple times in college.
First of all, this song is based on Psalm 24.
“Who may ascend the hill of the LORD ?
Who may stand in his holy place?
“He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
who does not lift up his soul to an idol
or swear by what is false.”
- Regarding humility, the song implies that the singer is already humbling himself (bowing knees and heads), he is just asking for God to humble him further (perhaps with a better understanding of what Christ did for him). You say that God isn’t supposed to humble us, but in the very next sentence you say that He does help. Which is it? As for the Spirit “coming,” again you’re just being way too nitpicky. When I ask you to “come show me how to play this guitar” and we’re in the same room, it’s merely asking you to work in a certain way, it’s not implying that you’re not in the room.
- Regarding idolatry, are not many Christians today idolatrous? We have a prosperity gospel and a social justice gospel which seek to replace Christ as God, plus in the West, Christians struggle mightily with materialism. Recognizing this fact doesn’t mean that we are regular heathens or idolaters, just that our flesh struggles with the chains of idolatry. Paul himself regularly wrote on the sins that so easily entangle.
- Regarding cleanliness, you seem to misunderstand what Jesus did for us. He did NOT purify our flesh and make it impossible for us to sin. What He DID do was wipe our slate clean before God so that on Judgment Day, we will be found pure because God will look at Christ, not us. Our flesh is corrupt, and will remain so until it perishes and we are given new bodies. So when the song asks for pure hearts, it is asking that Christ continue the work He began by continuing to renew our minds and hearts. The Bible says that Jesus is faithful to complete the WORK (implying an ongoing process) that He started in us all. That work entails replacing our old sinful habits with new, God-glorifying ones.
- Regarding “human-centered drivel,” why does a song have to always have praise (though as a general rule songs should go in that direction)? Cannot some songs be mere paraphrases of Psalms that discuss our position before the Almighty God? I wouldn’t call this a “praise” song per se, but I also wouldn’t call all Psalms “praise.” I do agree that the song is a bit too me-oriented or man-centered, whereas I would prefer a more God-oriented song. That’s part of why I am not a fan of “I am a Friend of God,” because the focus is on me in it.
Yeah, this song is based on Psalm 24. But it is a prime example of how even the use of scripture can be perverted to construct an unbiblical song. Read the Psalm to get an understanding of the context, and then see if you think this song in any way resembles it. It, in fact, does not. But I don’t have time to go into all that.
Without addressing all of your comments individually, let me say that you are probably missing the greatest point I am trying to make - which is there is no praise here. Is it true that Christians have to crucify the flesh, and resist temptation? Absolutely. But what good does it do to sing a song about it. Do some Christians engage in idolatry? I think we can agree that they do. But I’m not going to worship an idol and I’m not going to sing a song about that to God. The reason I said that this song has so much human-centered drivel is because the whole song focuses on the human condition from the weakness standpoint - the flesh in other words. That will neither empower Christians nor encourage them, and it certainly doesn’t praise God. I understand you wanting to argue the other side of it, and that’s fine. But if we are truly going to praise and worship God, there is no way we can sing songs like this and say that’s what we are doing. Instead of calling it “praise and worship” we should call it, “focus on your human weakness and pre-Christ position so you can feel bad about your unworthy self time”.
I guess I wouldn’t argue against limiting the amount that this song is sung, but at the same time, I think there is a place for it. I know personally I need to focus on my weaknesses and unworthiness occasionally. Another song that says very similar things is the song “Create in Me a Clean Heart” by Keith Green. It is taken verbatim from Psalm 51 (King James, I think).
“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence, O God, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. And renew a right spirit within me.”
This is almost exactly what “Give Us Clean Hands” is getting at, and it is also me-centered. Do you think God was mistaken for putting this in His Word? I’m sure you don’t, but you seem willing to hold humans to a higher standard than you would hold the Scriptures.
Just scanning through the comments, I must say I’m in disagreement with Chris. It seems your trying to say only one emotion is appropriate for praise and worship, but when we do praise God we bring the whole of our human experience and emotions to it. We do this individually, and we do this corporately. The psalms have been used historically by the church in worship for, among other reasons, the fact that they address both God and our fellow worshippers. It’s been the Christian position that both are dimensions that should be touched in worship.
I would recommend the book, “Worship In Spirit And Truth” by John Frame
“Just scanning through the comments, I must say I’m in disagreement with Chris. It seems your trying to say only one emotion is appropriate for praise and worship, but when we do praise God we bring the whole of our human experience and emotions to it. We do this individually, and we do this corporately. The psalms have been used historically by the church in worship for, among other reasons, the fact that they address both God and our fellow worshippers.”
That’s not what I’m saying, Bryan. I know many songs are based on the Psalms; many of them are good and right. But like any other scripture they can be misused. The Psalms, like any other Old Testament scripture, must be applied in light of the New Testament because the Bible is progressive revelation. Its not as if we should do away with the Psalms or the Old Testament, but it is very easy to bring ourselves back into a “before Christ” mentality if we emphasize limited revelation at the expense of more perfect revelation.
So am I to sing, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me” after my spirit has been born of God and recreated in the new birth? After Jesus said he would never leave me nor forsake me and he sent the Holy Spirit to abide with me and in me, am I then to sing, “Cast me not away from thy presence, O God, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me”? Those lyrics were appropriate in their proper historical place, and they are written for our admonition, but if we apply them to our Christian experience we frustrate the grace of God. Don’t get me wrong. I love the Psalms. But we must understand that the Lord allowed David and other prophets to see into the time we live in but they weren’t born again. They were allowed a very limited glimpse into the riches of the grace that would be bestowed on us while they were living under the Law. We have a better covenant based on better promises (Hebrews 8:6).
Colin has made some comments from a worship leader’s perspective. I would now like to comment from a minister’s perspective. Darius seems to think that I am nitpicking, and perhaps I am, but let me explain why.
As I said before, words are important because they convey ideas, and wrong ideas can be developed by believing and singing songs that are not consistent with a biblical Christian experience. A song may be 80% sound with just a bit of doctrinal deviation in it. Someone may say, “Well, that little bit won’t hurt. It’s mostly good.” However, that little bit of leaven is liable to go a long way towards undoing the teaching coming from the pulpit, particularly if there are similar compromises consistently taking place with other songs. I have seen this happen.
Suppose as a pastor with a congregation of people young in Christ, you are trying to teach them the importance of knowing that they are in Christ and Christ is in them. Then every Sunday they are led into a chorus of something like “Come Holy Spirit”. You are allowing your teaching to be undone. These young Christians are very attached to the new songs they have learned, and this particular song is one of their favorites. Being immature in their faith, they are likely to allow their emotional attachment to this song to override the truth they are taught. This brings confusion and contradiction into their Christian experience. Every time they face a spiritual challeng, they long to “feel” the Holy Spirit like they did when the were “on fire for the Lord” upon first getting saved. So how are they going to pray? “Lord please send your Spirit to comfort me. I feel so alone without you. Have I upset you?”
Now imagine you have a situation where both your teaching and singing is 100% in agreement. And there are plenty of good new songs and old hymns, so that would be easy to do. When these young Christians sing these songs, not only are they able to express themselves emotionally in adoration to Christ, but they are confessing the Truth at the same time. Thus their emotional attachments to these new Christian songs isn’t a hindrance to their faith, and they are better equipped to build on a secure foundation. They are taught to pray, “Father, I know you are with me every hour of every day. I thank you that you lead and guide me into all truth and I am relying on you to do that. My personal experiences will have no bearing on my faith in you because with you is no variation or shadow of turning.”
Look, I know the Holy Spirit manifests himself in remarkable ways at times, and I know what people mean when they say they feel the presence of the Lord. I know those kinds of expreriences personally. Once when I was in Bible school, my roommates and I prayed and the presence of the Lord was manifested in the form of a weighty cloud in our apartment. I’ve been in places where the atmosphere was so charged with the presence of God, it almost seemed like you were moving through a thick heat. These experiences and many others like them are dear to me, but even though God doesn’t manifest himself like that to me every day, I know that I know that I know he is with me. That is the truth - period. Why would I sing anything to contradict that?
“Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. And renew a right spirit within me.”
Chris, I don’t believe you’re reading this Psalm correctly. Restore/renew are the words David used. Both imply that he had something originally that he may no longer have had at the time he wrote those words. In other words, like a Christian today, David had salvation (via faith) and he was asking God to give him back the joy that he originally had over the knowledge of that salvation. You are incorrect in saying that David (and Abraham and others) were not saved. The New Testament explicitly tells us that they were. Perhaps that salvation wasn’t fully completed until Jesus came and died, but it was already in place. “[Faith] was counted to Abraham as righteousness.”
But we must understand that the Lord allowed David and other prophets to see into the time we live in but they weren’t born again.
And this gets to the core of the disagreement. Your taking a very dispensational approach to this with next to no continuity between the covenants. I very much disagree with that approach. The saints of the OT were as born again as any of us are today. They may not have had as much knowledge as we do, but their status before God, and their relationship with God is the same as we have now (although many in the OT misunderstood this). This allows us to sing what they sung.
So where you keep seeing discontinuity between the Old and New, I see much more Covenant Continuity…and that will take us far afield from this post…
Exactly. You put it better than I, Bryan. I’m a bit weak on my memory of this issue, but if I recall, the problem with the Old Covenant was twofold. The first and primary issue was that the Gentiles generally were not included (some exceptions, but rare). The second was that the Jews kept screwing it up , so God had to put his Spirit into us so that we could actually remain faithful. He spiritually chose a people with Jesus whereas in the Old Covenant He chose a physical or ethnic people. He knew it would fail, but He had to allow it to show that the only way salvation could be assured to His chosen ones was if He provided everything involved.
Way to isolate this Bryan! It’s funny because I have been trying to determine where I stand on the various dispensational/CT positions. I can tell you that I am strongly in line with Chris on this issue. So many I am more of a dispensationalist.
Anyway, I would like to say that while I am not bothered by the same things Chris is, I think his logic is sound. I would think that it could be appreciated that what he is trying to do is seek consistency in teaching and purity in worship.
It seems brazenly apparent to me that churches are taking a far too liberal/casual attitude towards worship these days. I’ll never forget the shock, for example, of stepping into a reformed church and hearing only gospel-centered worship and realizing immediately that there was a major lacking in my own worship song selection - and I would consider my church’s worship very biblical. But I realized it could be better - that is, more biblical.
And I thought I was overly cautious about which songs I will sing for God. Not that I think you’re being overly cautious, Chris, ’cause that’s not the case. And I thank you for pointing out the song with the line about bringing a sacrifice. That one never even occurred to me.
Mostly, when I’m looking for errors in praise music, I just focus on who the song is being sung to. I’m not bashing here, but the Catholic songs are the worst for singing to each other (We are one body, one body in Christ…) or singing words that belong to God (I am the resurrection, I am the life…). They are no doubt Biblical truths, but they’re just a bit off from what should be sung in a worship setting.
“You are incorrect in saying that David (and Abraham and others) were not saved.”
I didn’t say that. I said they were not born again. We often use those two terms synonymously, and that’s not exactly incorrect when we are using that term in the context of the New Covenant, but Old Testament salvation is very different from New Testament salvation.
“The saints of the OT were as born again as any of us are today.”
No, they were not. The born again experience was prophesied about by Ezekiel in the 36th chapter of that book, but the Holy Spirit did not indwell people in the Old Testament the same way he does in our present covenant. Ezekiel was looking into a time when God would indwell man via the new birth.
26A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
27And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.
The first born again experience is recorded in John 20 after Jesus rose from the dead.
“And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost.”
John 20:22
Here are some other scriptures to consider:
“But as many as received him [Jesus], to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
(John 1:12,13)
“Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him.”
(1 John 5:1)
Born again or saved, what we’re talking about is whether or not the OT folks had salvation, since that ties back directly to that Psalm. I say most definitely, thus we should also be able to sing that Psalm in a very similar fashion.
Well, I think Moses is burning
j/k!
I’m late to this discussion (grandmothering just takes up all my energy these days :dance:), but a couple things.
1. Not much was said here about music in its more generic use. I mean, music in the church is for far more than just praise and/or worship and music leaders need to realize that. Music is, or can/should be, used as a vehicle for teaching, storytelling, memorization of scripture, and I dare say even confession of one’s sins.
2. I am, like others here, extremely nit-picky about words and analytical about meanings. So much so that I sometimes find myself analyzing the semantics of a song’s lyrics and/or analyzing the music’s chord and rythym structures instead of listening for the still small voice of the Spirit while assembled with my fellow believers. I expect I’m not the only person here guilty of that.
3. Perhaps because of #2, I do find music to be a good way to be emotional; that is, music can be used to pull out the emotions that I bury inside of me (buried because I know being logical works better in this world than being emotional). Music can sooth the savage logical beast within me and help me find the buried emotions, softening up a hardened heart into one that is a bit more ready to listen to God.
“1. Not much was said here about music in its more generic use. I mean, music in the church is for far more than just praise and/or worship and music leaders need to realize that. Music is, or can/should be, used as a vehicle for teaching, storytelling, memorization of scripture, and I dare say even confession of one’s sins.”
First of all, thank you for your thoughtful comments. You are correct in that the article did not address music in its generic use. This article was about praise and worship. I thought it necessary to define praise from a biblical perspective in order to compare what is called “praise and worship” with the actual biblical New Testament standard. There are some songs that are “Christian”, such as those belonging to the contemporary popular music genre that are obviously not praise and worship so that’s a completely different animal. I wanted to talk specifically about songs used to praise God.
I agree that songs make great teaching tools. They can indeed help us memorize scripture. But I don’t think songs should generally be used for the confession of sins, at least not in a corporate setting; if one wants to sing to confess personal sin, that would be his choice. The exception to this would be when prayer is being offered and one is identifying with the sins of others as a means of intercession, or when all are collectively repenting from the same sin. But whether a song is sung to confess personal sin, or the sin(s) of a group for which they are collectively repenting, the song should only have to be sung once. Why? First John 1:9:
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
Why on earth would someone continue to sing a song that confesses a sin that God has already forgiven and forgotten about? Such behavior indicates that the one singing doesn’t really believe the Lord cleansed him. (Of course, if he committed the same sin later on that is different.) True righteousness through Jesus Christ is both freedom from sin and sin consciousness. We should not be overly zealous to take upon ourselves the burden of sin that Lamb of God has already, by way of redemption, taken away. This is where the emotionalism element comes in. People confess their sins, and God purifies them, but they still “feel” dirty. So on the basis of that feeling, rather than the Truth of God’s word, the reinforce an image of themselves that is opposes the righteousness of God.
“3. Perhaps because of #2, I do find music to be a good way to be emotional; that is, music can be used to pull out the emotions that I bury inside of me (buried because I know being logical works better in this world than being emotional). Music can sooth the savage logical beast within me and help me find the buried emotions, softening up a hardened heart into one that is a bit more ready to listen to God.”
So true, and I can definitely identify with this statement. In fact, I don’t think music can exist absent emotion. We are emotional creatures, but I would caution people against being governed by emotional whims. Many good-sounding and emotional songs just lack spiritual content. That isn’t good. So just so everyone is clear I am not arguing against emotion, just emotionalism.
First, I fully agree that the singing portion of many church services is not only invalid, but outright blasphemous. We are speaking to and about God, and often do so in a mechanical half interested way. The purpose of corporate worship is to as a body of believers to focus on God, who He is and what He’s done for us. Doing so distractedly and repetitively is sinful. The Bible teaches us not to pray in vain repetition like the pagans, yet this is often what we do in song.
Moving on though, only a small subset of songs are actually a problem in themselves. Repetition in a song CAN be meaningless ritualism, or it can be used to focus on the meaning of what is being said. Regardless of musical style, the content of the song is what really matters when it comes to corporate worship. Do some songs induce excitement? We SHOULD be excited to glorify our God. Are some emotionally powerful? There is nothing wrong with reminding us in an emotional way what God has done for us.
Even many songs which have slightly inaccurate terminology have a valid point. As with any communication, the words themselves aren’t nearly as meaningful as the ability to understand what the speaker means. To use one of my favorite movies, when Wesley in “The Princess Bride” tells Buttercup “As you wish”, what he really means is “I Love You”. Does this mean that his usage is wrong? Not if his hearer is able to interpret it he isn’t. In many hymns, the exact terminology may be inaccurate, but the intent is valid. Even if you feel you cannot sing the words for fear of violating your integrity, it should be possible for you to quietly pray in parallel with the intended meaning of the song.
Of course, there are the songs which have no discernible Scriptural meaning, and those songs should be discussed with the worship leader as being wrongful teaching to the church (just as the membership should discuss any wrongful teaching from the pulpit with church leadership).
“Even many songs which have slightly inaccurate terminology have a valid point. As with any communication, the words themselves aren’t nearly as meaningful as the ability to understand what the speaker means…Even if you feel you cannot sing the words for fear of violating your integrity, it should be possible for you to quietly pray in parallel with the intended meaning of the song.”
I agree. There are a lot of songs that are good enough so that the imperfect stuff causes no harm one way or another. Then there are those that are mostly good, but could be changed a bit. I like Colin’s idea about changing the lyrics to improve the content. If I were in his shoes, I might be tempted to do the same. There are a lot of songs that I really like, but then there is maybe a line or two that just really isn’t biblical at all. I will generally sing the good parts and not sing the bad parts.
It’s really a good way to salvage songs.