Investigating Modern Worship Lyrics

Issue 5

“There is no reason for any church to sing songs that are misleading or even questionable.”

- John Piper

I had this past week off from my salaried job, so I ended up having very little time for developing additional topics. However, it was mentioned last week that my comments on bad lyrics in modern worship had very little source material. Which is entirely correct—it got out of hand in terms of length and time. So today, just for you, I hope to roust up a few sources for last week as well as some additional thoughts on the subject which I had in my head but didn’t have the time to dig up.

The theology of modern worship songs tend to emphasize God’s love—specifically, God’s love and His emotional, reckless abandon with which He pursues us. I don’t have to introduce this one…

Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God

Oh, it chases me down, fights 'til I'm found, leaves the ninety-nine

I couldn't earn it, and I don't deserve it, still, You give Yourself away

Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God, yeah

-Cory Asbury, Reckless Love

Or this one…

Your love never fails

It never gives up

It never runs out on me

Some digressions from this template are made throughout the song, but not many. It eventually ends with…

Never fails

It never fails

It never fails

Never fails

Yeah

-Jesus Culture, One Thing Remains

I have left most of the song out because this is about the extent it. It contains 434 words, which can be condensed down to 108 words of unique thoughts. That amounts to 25% of the song having something to say, while the most repetitive Psalm in the Bible weighs in at 50%. But I’m getting away from myself—repetition is another topic.

Again, though God is indeed loving in an immense fashion beyond our comprehension, it is not purely emotive and un-orderly. On the contrary, His mind and His perfect plan were decided before the world was created (Ephesians 1:4)

Jesus has overcome

And the grave is overwhelmed

The victory is won

He is risen from the dead

And I will rise when He calls my name

No more sorrow, no more pain

I will rise on eagles' wings

Before my God fall on my knees

And rise

I will rise

-Chris Tomlin, I will Rise

I’d give this song maybe a three out of five. It is not straight heresy, but it’s typical along with countless other similar songs in that it leaves out why Jesus has overcome, why the victory has been won, and why there is no more sorrow and pain when Jesus calls us. It simply states that we are forgiven—actually, scratch that. It doesn’t even mention that. It only mentions a vague “victory”. Who knows why we are forgiven! It is all sunshine and roses with no clue of a need for repentance. I’ll redact my statement and make it a two out of five.

No, our sin was fully dealt with by God pouring out His just wrath on His own Son, who took each of our sins upon Himself, becoming sin in our place (2 Corinthians 5:21). But in modern worship music this isn’t presented. Instead of Christ’s atoning death and resurrection, we are told of God’s unrighteous dismissal of sin through a lack of specificity.

Let no one caught in sin remain

Inside the lie of inward shame

We fix our eyes upon the cross

And run to Him who showed great love

And bled for us

Freely You bled, for us

-Matt Maher, Christ is Risen

In this song we find the modern view of shame—apparently, it’s a lie. Now, I have been told before that I am misunderstanding this verse. Obviously (they say), the author is summoning those who have already been forgiven and justified to leave the shame of their sins behind—which is good. And maybe you can read it that way. But if that’s the case, the preceding and next lines do not make sense, because they are a call to come to Christ—meaning (though of course he doesn’t mention it) repent of your sins. This implies that forgiveness and regeneration has not yet occurred. In which case, shame is most definitely not a lie. Even if it wasn’t Maher’s intent to promote this false view of shame, he is a career songwriter who makes a living with the words he writes, and it’s an uncharacteristically poor choice of words considering the way our modern culture will naturally choose to read it subconsciously. Therefore, it is not my opinion that this is a mistake—it’s an unfortunate misunderstanding of the nature of guilt.

This is a common song at our church, and though I have heard this idea of false shame in other places, I could not easily locate a specific song. I invite you to send in your forages in this realm.

These have been some examples of theological inaccuracies. For examples of poor quality lyrics, read on. I’ll classify the two main attributes of poor lyrics as meaningless vagueness and meaningless repetition. As mentioned last week, Psalm 136, 148, and 150 also have repetitive styles. But unlike the vast majority of songs in our modern worship style, the repetitive Psalms are still filled with unique phrases and details between the repeating lines. They are still richly eloquent. Though pretty much all modern worship songs (with a very few exceptions) are universally vague, the two following examples are vague in a uniquely unfortunate way.

All of you is more than enough for all of me

For every thirst and every need

You satisfy me with Your love

And all I have in You is more than enough

-Chris Tomlin, Enough

In the context of a worship service, it is assumed that this song is addressed to God. And that’s all it has to stand on—otherwise, it would not be a stretch at all to assume that it was some damnable work of Taylor Swift. This is very sad—our worship has become impotent enough that it is indistinguishable from pagan songwriters who worship demons.

Ooh, and…You beckon me

You draw me gently to my knees

And I am lost for words, so lost in love

I'm sweetly broken, wholly surrendered

-Jeremy Riddle, Sweetly Broken

I left out three words which will put this verse into context. The top line consists of “At the cross You beckon me”. “Cross” is the only word which grounds this song into some sort of Biblical framework. If it wasn’t for that one word, this song could also have been mistaken for something written by Taylor Swift.

Your love never fails

It never gives up

It never runs out on me, oh, Lord

In death, in life

I'm confident and covered by

The power of your great love

-Jesus Culture, One Thing Remains

This is the only point in this song where any reference is made to God. And even then, you might interpret this as an exclamation of taking the Lord’s name in vain. That’s not what the author is attempting, but with as vague as the song is, the interpretation could easily work. There is not much other substance to the song apart from these lyrics, which leads us into the other side of poor lyrics.

Repetition is often utilized because people don’t have to memorize or read as many words, and additionally, the songwriter can spend less time putting thought into the words and more into the experience given by the song in general. Here are some examples.

Christ is risen from the dead

Trampling over death by death

Come awake, come awake

Come and rise up from the grave

-Matt Maher, Christ is Risen

In a song containing two verses, this chorus is repeated a total of eight times.

Your praise will ever be on my lips

Ever be on my lips

—Aaron Shust, Ever Be

This phrase is repeated roughly 14 times throughout the song. Which doesn’t seem like much, but it has to be experienced to truly understood what is happening. Once again, we definitely see repetition in the Psalms. What we do not see is repetition on the level seen above. We do not see repetition as a filler to make up for the fact that the songwriter has nothing of importance to say.

Then the king said to the Cushite, “Is it well with the young man Absalom?” And the Cushite answered, “Let the enemies of my lord the king, and all who rise up against you for evil, be as that young man!”

The king was deeply moved and went up to the chamber over the gate and wept. And thus he said as he walked, “O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!”

Then it was told Joab, “Behold, the king is weeping and mourns for Absalom.” The victory that day was turned to mourning for all the people, for the people heard it said that day, “The king is grieved for his son.” So the people went by stealth into the city that day, as people who are humiliated steal away when they flee in battle. The king covered his face and cried out with a loud voice, “O my son Absalom, O Absalom, my son, my son!” Then Joab came into the house to the king and said, “Today you have covered with shame the faces of all your servants, who today have saved your life and the lives of your sons and daughters, the lives of your wives, and the lives of your concubines, by loving those who hate you, and by hating those who love you. For you have shown today that princes and servants are nothing to you; for I know this day that if Absalom were alive and all of us were dead today, then you would be pleased. Now therefore arise, go out and speak kindly to your servants, for I swear by the Lord, if you do not go out, surely not a man will pass the night with you, and this will be worse for you than all the evil that has come upon you from your youth until now.”

-2 Samuel 18:23-19:7

In this passage, we have a striking irony being presented: one of the most eloquent songwriters in history has been reduced to a blubbering infant. There is no eloquence in his speech—all he can do is cry out with a loud voice the same phrases over and over again. And the result is far from constructive—Joab, far from a Godly man himself—has to step in and tell David to straighten up lest he bring further calamity upon the people of Israel.

To what shall we compare the repetition of our modern style? It is like adding water in a vain attempt to stretch a small amount of coffee far beyond its design limits. Repetition means that a catchy line can be repeated over and over again without further effort expended on the part of the songwriter. Furthermore, it facilitates quick and easy memorization on the part of the listener in concerts, car rides, and passive, showy worship settings. But whether the songwriters realize it or not, repetition does something far more insidious.

There is a stark divide between Christianity and any other pagan religion by what their worship results in. Take a run through Proverbs and you will see countless applications of truth resulting in productivity. Solomon’s wisdom granted to him by God resulted in tremendous wealth and prosperity for the entire nation. When the gospel began to spread throughout the gentile nations, people stopped eating each other and began to build things. Wherever the gospel goes and takes root, man takes dominion and fruitfulness is established, growing the Kingdom of God like a tree from a mustard seed. This is because proper worship of God is an active aspect of warfare to further God’s kingdom on earth.

Worship to God can be done in many ways. Abraham and Isaac did not go up to Mount Moriah to break out the guitar and sing a few choruses. They went up there to worship God by obeying Him, which in their case was by sacrificing Isaac. Worship can be done by properly planting potatoes, being hospitable to one’s neighbors, and by serving customers well. When Christians worship God well, they are immensely productive. They employ their minds to create things, following God’s example during the week of creation.

Contrast this with all other established religions ever thought up. Hinduism, for instance, is a religion whose purpose it is to empty one’s mind to obtain ultimate purity. This is obtained through “meditation”, which is ironic given that nothing productive is being accomplished within the mind.

This emptying of the mind can be seen across a wide range of pagan religions which consistently use chants and long strings of repetition to aid in the releasing of one’s mind. Many native tribalistic rituals involve this, as well as, oddly enough, the Catholic Church. Vishtal Mangalwadi’s Book that Made Your World further explains the divide between paganism and Christianity in a wonderful amount of detail.

In this light, why would we celebrate such mindless repetition coming into the church, especially if it has the same result as the pagan rituals? Repetitive music within the church generally goes two ways—either the song begins quietly and gradually works up the tempo, the volume, and the tone to an eruptive overflow of good feelings, or the song stays in a relatively low-key, soothing flow of nothing in a river of pacifying words. In both cases, Christians coming to church on Sunday morning are soothed and quieted into a mental state comparable to that of a dead person—very similar to typical pagan worship, in which the human mind and creativity is not only devalued but actively killed by the means of monotone chanting and psychedelic drugs.

We get our word for music from the Greek “Muse”. In Greek mythology, muses were the inspirational goddesses of literature, arts, anything involving creativity. If some fella made something particularly ingenious, it was the muse who inspired him. Similarly, the objective of good music is to awaken our minds, to inspire us, to get us thinking productively.

Now if we take the word “muse” and add an “a” onto the front, we get “amuse”, which in Greek is the exact opposite. To amuse someone is to temporarily cause a disconnection from the muse so that he has a rest from inspiration. Instead, with his mind unplugged, he temporarily enjoys a loss of consciousness from the outside world, lost in the entertainment provided by the amuser.

Today, the music we use in worship has been transformed from being music which inspires us and gives us weighty matters to meditate on, and it has turned into nothing but a source of entertainment—amusement, the exact opposite of music. Can music be entertaining and not be bad? Certainly. But it has no place in corporate worship, especially not if it actively assists us in losing our minds. Such is the result of this type of repetition.

Last week I mentioned the fact that Christians often do not hold the same high standard to old hymns as they do to modern worship music, noting specifically Charles Wesley and Fanny Crosby. I must backpedal this a little—Charles Wesley wrote decent hymns. He was not entirely reformed in his view of irresistible grace, though the hymn “And Can it Be” seems to support the doctrine more than its own author does. There may be other hymns of his where this has more of an effect, but in reviewing Wesley’s hymns I have more issues with his liberal use of sentimentalism in hymns such as “Love Divine, All Love Excelling” and “Jesus, Lover of My Soul”.

Fanny Crosby is another matter. While she didn’t write straight heresy into her hymns (from what I have seen) she did have a very fluffy, sentimental style. She wrote many, many hymns without saying a whole lot. Here are some excerpts from her hymns.

Thou the spring of all my comfort,

More than life to me;

Whom have I on earth beside Thee?

Whom in heaven but Thee?

-Pass me Not, O Gentle Savior

Perfect submission, perfect delight

Visions of rapture now burst on my sight

Angels descending bring from above

Echoes of mercy, whispers of love

-Blessed Assurance

With numberless blessings each moment he crowns,

and filled with his fullness divine,

I sing in my rapture,“Oh, glory to God

for such a Redeemer as mine!”

-He Hideth my Soul

Great things He has taught us, great things He has done

And great our rejoicing through Jesus the Son

But purer, and higher, and greater will be

Our wonder, our transport, when Jesus we see

-To God be the Glory

Near the cross! I'll watch and wait,

Hoping, trusting ever;

Till I reach the golden strand,

Just beyond the river.

-Jesus, Keep me Near the Cross

Believe it or not, these are all from different songs. But they all have the same train of thought: how we are enraptured (she really liked that word) and overcome with emotion when we realize the goodness of God. In fact, they are very similar to our modern worship songs in that they focus almost exclusively on how we feel about salvation. Unlike modern worship songs, they are well thought out in terms of their application to corporate worship, not to mention they actually reference Jesus frequently. But like our modern travesties, Crosby’s hymns are very man-centered.

Lest I unduly rake the poor woman over the coals, here is a song which, instead of talking ad nauseam about our own emotion, actually focuses on God in praising Him. Since this is a decent hymn written by someone who didn’t usually focus on such things in the majority of her writing, we’ll end on that note.

Praise Him! Praise Him! Jesus, our blessed Redeemer!
Heavenly portals, loud with hosannas ring!
Jesus, Savior, reigneth forever and ever.
Crown Him! Crown Him! Prophet and Priest and King!
Christ is coming! Over the world victorious,
Pow’r and glory unto the Lord belong;
Praise Him! Praise Him! Tell of His excellent greatness,
Praise Him! Praise Him! Ever in joyful song.

-Praise Him, Praise Him!