It wasn't long ago that I wondered, "Where has all the good Christian music gone?" Afterward, turning on the local Christian radio station, I heard a song whose lyrics were, "It's all about love, love, love, love, love, love, love."
It is?
As our worship vocabulary increases, our heart for worship expands as well. If our only words for worship are "love" and "awesome," our growth in worship will be stunted. There is a need for originality in worship music, which should be creative rather than packaged.
Our worship vocabulary includes several forms of expression: words, music, ideas. Thus, our worship vocabulary expands by gaining new words, new or improved forms of musical expression, and even new theological concepts.
My favorite contemporary worship songwriter is Matt Redman. While not above reminding us that God is awesome, his songs consistently remind us of much more. A musical friend told me that he likes to use Redman's "Blessed Be the Name of the Lord" in worship because there aren't many contemporary songs that put words like these in worshipers' mouths:
"Though there is pain in the offering, blessed be Your name!"
and, simply,
"He gives and takes away, he gives and takes away...my heart will choose to say, blessed be the name of the Lord."
These words, taken from one of the oldest books in the Bible, shouldn't seem new. But in a Christian subculture that's "all about love, love, love, love, love," it rings original. Oh, how we need the Lord to truly be our worship leader, that we might be led to streams of living - rather than stagnant - water! Revive us, O Lord.
2 comments:
we sing Blessed be your name in church a good bit. I dig it.
Ken - a bit of balance for the love love love.
Psalm 133:19-24
If only you would slay the wicked, O God!
Away from me, you bloodthirsty men!
They speak of you with evil intent;
your adversaries misuse your name.
Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD,
and abhor those who rise up against you?
I have nothing but hatred for them;
I count them my enemies.
Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
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