-Lyrics-

The most crucial of all four points is that of the lyrics. Why is this? Think of it this way. One can know much about a church without even hearing from the pastor or following the order of service by simply assessing the songs that are sung there. In the message of the song you will see what they truly believe in regards to Christ, His Word, the Gospel, and man. You can easily see where the focus is and if the gospel and the cross centers around man or the Supremacy of Christ and glory of the Father. More times than this is where the tension lies. You can have an excellent worship band that creates excellent music but if the theology of the songs they sing aren't grounded in Scripture and promote a correct understanding of the gospel than there is no hope and what they sing are lifeless melodies and not life changing Truth. It is so important church that you understand what I am saying, whether they are timeless hymns or contemporary worship chart toppers, an emotional reaction to the melody or music can do nothing more than create a pretentious and even self convincing front that there is some type of heart change happening. The fact of the matter is that only the Word of God changes the heart and if there is going to be some type of emotional reaction (which there should be and we will discuss that in the post on emotionality) it needs to be from the understanding that man is utterly depraved and God is far beyond our highest thoughts. So we stand in awe of the fact that a Holy Self Glorifying God would see fit to redeem for himself a remnant of people and that we are graced enough to be apart of that remnant, being set free from the bondage of sin and counted slaves to Christ under the obedience of His Lordship. The lyrics in the songs we sing must be held to the highest priority because we hold the Word of God in the highest priority as Psalm 138:2 says, "...for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name." So the point being God takes His Word extremely seriously so we must not take it lightly. It is the lyrics that change the heart of man because they should be Christ centered and Biblically centered. "Worship songs should serve the church as take-home theology, reinforcing God glorifying doctrine and teaching through Christ-centered lyrics and memorable melodies. – C.J. Mahaney

Lyrics+Musicality+Emotion+Response=Singing

So often there is a great misunderstanding when it comes to musical worship. I say musical worship to differentiate or rather specify this form of worship, because obviously everything about us is to be an act of worship (Rom. 12:1). But in the realm of musical worship we often see a great lack in the true sense of Biblical worship. We face two very real extremes. One of those extremes is what we would see as a lifeless liturgy, a group of people unaffected by the gospel and rather worship the seat they sit in for weekly tradition's sake than the creator God who saved them from His wrath through the killing of His Son for the glory of His name an the salvation of men (Isaiah 53). We become frustrated because there is a lack of passion for Christ and the things of Christ and therefore see a great deficit in musical worship in the church. The other extreme we often see is on the other end of that spectrum. That is an intense emotionality or "passion" in regards to musical worship without any backing or understanding as to what they are being emotional about. There is no sound theological stance towards the gospel. Rather theology has been replaced with good musicianship and emotional manipulation to make one feel as though they have "encountered" or experienced the true living God. It is as though we are a pendulum people swinging from one extreme to another and our praise is a pendulum praise doing the same. The problem with both is that both may be attributed to a misunderstanding of what true Biblical worship looks like in a very practical way. Psalm 117 is very clear in what it says pertaining to our worship: "Praise the LORD, all nations! Extol him, all peoples! For great is his steadfast love toward us, and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever. Praise the LORD!" We see that there is no pulling of punches here we are demanded to praise the Lord! And why according to Psalm 117, for His steadfast love and enduring faithfulness. In the following post we want to look at how we don't fail to swing to one extreme of that pendulum or the other but rather fall Biblically centered in light of what God has in mind for true Biblical worship.