Now let me get up on my soapbox (Part 1: Worship Music)

One of my major soapboxes is worship music. For those who have known me for any length of time, the probability is that I've suggested you check out music by Indelible Grace, Sovereign Grace, and Red Mountain Church among others. I am also an incredibly lyrically-driven music listener. I generally don't like a song unless it's lyrics: 1. make sense, 2. are redemptive or at least convey a real experience in a meaningful way, 3. have some sense of art behind them (that is, they don't use the same phrase eight million other songs have used before). Now worship music is an even more specific case where lyrics gain an even greater importance. In a worship song, it is the lyrics that set it apart as a specifically God-directed activity. Thus, worship music lyrics ought to also: 1. make sense, 2. be redemptive (i.e. point me to Jesus and not myself), 3. have some sense of art behind them.

These don't seem to be too high of standards, yet so much contemporary worship fails to meet one or all of them. I was listening to a song by Hillsong United the other day titled "All I Need is You." (Disclaimer: this is not a generalized criticism of all Hillsong, just this song. There are a couple of their songs that really do point me to the gospel). Good premise, right? Let's check the lyrics:

Verse 1:

Left my fear by the side of the road
Hear you speak
Won't let go
Fall to my knees as I lift my hands to pray

Let's break down verse 1 a bit. We are invited to sing "left my fear by the side of the road" which sounds pretty good, and it begs the question: why? Apparently because we "Hear you speak", in which the you is presumably God, but what he's saying remains a mystery to us. Perhaps we are just supposed to know how hearing God say something makes us leave our fears behind, but it all seems a bit too vague for me. The verse continues with the phrase "won't let go", which again begs the question: of what? Again it is presumably God who we will not let go of, but again with no explanation of why. And how does hearing him speak lead me to not let go? Finally it concludes with the phrase: "fall to my knees as I lift my hands to pray". At this point we have managed to combine four classic spiritual phrases "left my fear", "hear you speak", "won't let go" and "fall to my knees" with no particular explanation as to how any of this relates to Jesus, or how or why these things connect with who God is in Scripture. Now don't get me wrong, every song doesn't need to be an in depth exposition of the a specific element of the gospel, but when vaguery and incoherence dominate the first verse, it doesn't bode well for the rest of the song.

Eventually we get the chorus (which in true Hillsong fashion is repeated at least a dozen times):

All I need is you
All I need is you Lord
Is you Lord

Again, there's certainly nothing wrong with the claim of the chorus. But apart from some reason why all we need is Jesus, is this just mere sentimentalism? I mean does repeating these words over and over actually meet us in our dissatisfaction and longing for redemption? Perhaps it makes us feel better for a moment, but in the end we must know how Jesus is our complete satisfaction.

Eventually we get to some gospel in the second verse:

One more day and it's not the same
Your Spirit calls my heart to sing
Drawn to the voice of my Saviour once again
Where would my soul be without your Son
Gave his life to save the earth
Rest in the thought that you're watching over me

So why is all we need "you Lord"? Because he's the "Saviour", without whom where would our souls be, and he "gave his life to save the earth." So we have at least something pointing us to the work of Christ, though it remains thoroughly unexplored (the phrasing that he "gave his life to save the earth" sounds a bit too Captain Planet for me, but we'll go with it). At this point you might be thinking, "Kyle, you're being way too analytical about this. It's just a song." But of course that gets at the most central problem we have with how we worship: most of the time we don't think about what we're singing.

And that's the real kicker: generally when we sing worship songs we aren't thinking about what we're singing. When we're singing most songs we aren't thinking about what we're singing. That's why Christians listen to Dave Matthews and Jay-Z (two very good musical artists in their own genres) and say "I don't pay attention the lyrics" (which of course is somewhat ironic given the fact that they could most likely sing along word-for-word with the lyrics). The problem is, when we don't think about what we're singing with regard to worship music, then corporate worship is really no different than a Coldplay concert. I've been to both. Both can give you chills and this amazing subjective experience of oneness that is almost spiritual. But it isn't worship. Or at least it's not worshiping Jesus. Worshiping Jesus means that we actually think about who he is and what he's done more than that sweet guitar riff that sent chills up my spine. Now the two aren't necessarily mutually exclusive, but you can't have the riff without the work of Jesus. Then it's just Coldplay's "Fix You". I used the Hillsong song above because it really is one of those songs that is musically pretty engaging; you could sing it without ever thinking about what you're singing.

And my guess is that's what most of us do. We measure worship based on whether it gave us musical chills in our spine which we call the Spirit, instead of whether it preaches the gospel to us. But the call of worship, whether it be through music, preaching, the Lord's Supper or prayer, is a call to look to Jesus, to make him the center, to hear the great Story of his work on our behalf so that we don't have to work. Or in the words of the great hymn:

Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe.
Sin had left a crimson stain he washed it white as snow.