Worship songs
My friend Van's criticisms of
contemporary worship songs and my thoughts
My good friend Van (you might remember him from
this
post) wrote me and a few friends a well thought out email on worship
music, after attending a men's retreat that featured a lot of worship music.
Since I can't seem to convince Van to blog, I thought I would post his thoughts
here on my blog, along with my
response.
First off, Van's thoughts:
I know I've beaten this horse over the head until all that's left is a bloody puddle, but I'm going to continue to do so. Our men's retreat last weekend (which was great, by the way) got me thinking again about these songs and why nobody really seems to have a problem with them.
Open the Eyes of my Heart has always bothered me. ("Always," meaning after I stopped and thought about the lyrics for a while.) Elder Bakke pointed out to me that the phrase "open the eyes of my heart" is based on a passage in Ephesians. Apart from using the key words "eyes" and "heart," I would say very loosely based on it because, other than those particular words, the passage bears no other resemblance to this song.
Ephesians 1:18 says:
"having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.."
Of course, this passage is about understanding (not "seeing") how great a salvation has been secured on our behalf by Christ. Quite different from the lyrics of the song. Minus all the repetition, the song says: "Open the eyes of my heart, Lord...I want to see you." Despite the fact that God has repeatedly warned us "Man shall not see me and live" (Ex. 33:20b), this song seems to be asking to really see God and His glory. What else can it mean?
To be fair, the song does go on to say: "To see you high and lifted up, shining in the light of your glory." This is clearly an allusion to Isaiah 6:1, where the prophet says that he "saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up." But, the song has already taken the metaphor of Ephesians 1:18 out of context. So we also ought to consider the context of Isaiah's statement:
"In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!" And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!"
What does this passage teach? First, it is an historical account of something Isaiah saw. As a narrative, Scripture does not teach that this is something we can expect or should desire to experience. In fact, Scripture teaches us quite the opposite, as indicated previously.
Next, the passage describes the awesome holiness and terrible power of being in the full presence of God. Our Lord is described as the most holy of all ("holy, holy, holy"). Even the angels cannot bear to look upon Almighty God's holiness, and they shield their faces.
Finally, we note Isaiah's response. Isaiah is confronted by his sin and God's holiness and exclaims that he is doomed because he has seen God. Isaiah anticipates his immediate destruction, knowing full well that "man shall not see Me and live." The fact that Isaiah is immediately consolled and given pardon to continue to stand in God's presence is also a point of historical fact--not something we should expect.
Isaiah's response to seeing God should be our response were we ever in his shoes. And yet, "Open the Eyes of My Heart" repeatedly cries out "I want to see you! I want to see you!" While I submit that it is possible that the author of the song means that he wants to "see" God in a non-literal way (e.g., "I want to 'see' your kingdom come, your will be done."), I have no reason to believe this is the case. The song makes no distinction between Isaiah's personal experience as a matter of history and our normative personal experience (i.e., what we can and should expect to happen). Remembering also that this song has already taken biblical concepts out of context and I see no indication of a level of theological or poetic sophistication that would indicate that the author intends anything other than to personally experience God's glory through an immediate, supernatural experience that God has already forbidden.
One final complaint with this song is the amount of repetition. The Hebrews used repetition to convey the superlative (e.g., "good, better, best," or "holy, holier, holiest). Because English has the ability to express the superlative, this manner of speech is atypical. However, "Open the Eyes of my Heart"--like vast numbers of other modern praise choruses--sings the same words over, and over, and over. This isn't even done in the Hebrew. Rather, this endless repetition has much more in common with pagan mantras, used to illicit an alterered state of consciousness in the participants. Knowing that "praise and worship" time is often experientially-driven, this is not so hard to see. But the rhetorical question must be asked: what part should pagan mantras have in the worship of the One True God? And yet, it's present in this song. It's common for the congregation to sing the word "holy" 18 times or more! Enough already!
Christ has told us that the Father is seeking people who will worship Him "in spirit and in truth." If our worship music cannot accurately express Truth as it is revealed in Scripture, then the best of intentions do nothing to excuse us. The fact is that there already exists heartfelt worship music that captures the Truth of God's Word--both inspired Scripture and non-inspired hymnody. Modern musicians had better belly up to the Scripture and strive to become astute theologians, capable of conveying Truth in good poetry with melody that captures the mood of the lyrics, else I want none of it. Instead, give me the hymns of Newton, Toplady, or Watts--or, better yet, give me the Psalter.
and here's my response:
I have to agree with you, and I'd add that it is not unreasonable to conclude that this song is about a personal, emotional experience because it is written by a culture that is intentionally focused on the personal, emotional experience. It's no stretch, in fact, its really taking the author at face value.
The question is, why do people who know better keep singing these songs, and why does it seem so controversial to question them? Why is it that we are so slow to question what we include in our worship when God seems to be very specific about the way in which He is to be worshipped (see Korah's rebellion or the well-intentioned move of Uzzah)? I think a lot of people who would read what you wrote would agree on the face of it and then sorta shrug and say "so?" or worse yet, be mad at you for making a big issue out of something so trivial or contentiously reading something into a basically good song. In short, I think most people value the ease (these songs are often easy to play and most people know how to sing them) and unity these songs bring, and are simply unconcerned about any of the consequences.
I guess it all really illustrates two major cultural problems that we have as Americans - gnosticism (reflected here in the obsession with the individual's personal tastes and experiences over any idea of the corporate nature of worship) and an obsession with individual freedom that can tend to elevate the will of man to equality with God's sovereign will. Americans need to be told that even if there was no governmental rule to bind them, they would still be nowhere near truly free - you can choose what you want to do from a limited subset, but your will is always contingent on God's will and you really have quite a small subset of choices.
David, at A Physicist's Perspective, has a slightly related post that is also worth checking out.
First off, Van's thoughts:
I know I've beaten this horse over the head until all that's left is a bloody puddle, but I'm going to continue to do so. Our men's retreat last weekend (which was great, by the way) got me thinking again about these songs and why nobody really seems to have a problem with them.
Open the Eyes of my Heart has always bothered me. ("Always," meaning after I stopped and thought about the lyrics for a while.) Elder Bakke pointed out to me that the phrase "open the eyes of my heart" is based on a passage in Ephesians. Apart from using the key words "eyes" and "heart," I would say very loosely based on it because, other than those particular words, the passage bears no other resemblance to this song.
Ephesians 1:18 says:
"having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.."
Of course, this passage is about understanding (not "seeing") how great a salvation has been secured on our behalf by Christ. Quite different from the lyrics of the song. Minus all the repetition, the song says: "Open the eyes of my heart, Lord...I want to see you." Despite the fact that God has repeatedly warned us "Man shall not see me and live" (Ex. 33:20b), this song seems to be asking to really see God and His glory. What else can it mean?
To be fair, the song does go on to say: "To see you high and lifted up, shining in the light of your glory." This is clearly an allusion to Isaiah 6:1, where the prophet says that he "saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up." But, the song has already taken the metaphor of Ephesians 1:18 out of context. So we also ought to consider the context of Isaiah's statement:
"In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!" And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!"
What does this passage teach? First, it is an historical account of something Isaiah saw. As a narrative, Scripture does not teach that this is something we can expect or should desire to experience. In fact, Scripture teaches us quite the opposite, as indicated previously.
Next, the passage describes the awesome holiness and terrible power of being in the full presence of God. Our Lord is described as the most holy of all ("holy, holy, holy"). Even the angels cannot bear to look upon Almighty God's holiness, and they shield their faces.
Finally, we note Isaiah's response. Isaiah is confronted by his sin and God's holiness and exclaims that he is doomed because he has seen God. Isaiah anticipates his immediate destruction, knowing full well that "man shall not see Me and live." The fact that Isaiah is immediately consolled and given pardon to continue to stand in God's presence is also a point of historical fact--not something we should expect.
Isaiah's response to seeing God should be our response were we ever in his shoes. And yet, "Open the Eyes of My Heart" repeatedly cries out "I want to see you! I want to see you!" While I submit that it is possible that the author of the song means that he wants to "see" God in a non-literal way (e.g., "I want to 'see' your kingdom come, your will be done."), I have no reason to believe this is the case. The song makes no distinction between Isaiah's personal experience as a matter of history and our normative personal experience (i.e., what we can and should expect to happen). Remembering also that this song has already taken biblical concepts out of context and I see no indication of a level of theological or poetic sophistication that would indicate that the author intends anything other than to personally experience God's glory through an immediate, supernatural experience that God has already forbidden.
One final complaint with this song is the amount of repetition. The Hebrews used repetition to convey the superlative (e.g., "good, better, best," or "holy, holier, holiest). Because English has the ability to express the superlative, this manner of speech is atypical. However, "Open the Eyes of my Heart"--like vast numbers of other modern praise choruses--sings the same words over, and over, and over. This isn't even done in the Hebrew. Rather, this endless repetition has much more in common with pagan mantras, used to illicit an alterered state of consciousness in the participants. Knowing that "praise and worship" time is often experientially-driven, this is not so hard to see. But the rhetorical question must be asked: what part should pagan mantras have in the worship of the One True God? And yet, it's present in this song. It's common for the congregation to sing the word "holy" 18 times or more! Enough already!
Christ has told us that the Father is seeking people who will worship Him "in spirit and in truth." If our worship music cannot accurately express Truth as it is revealed in Scripture, then the best of intentions do nothing to excuse us. The fact is that there already exists heartfelt worship music that captures the Truth of God's Word--both inspired Scripture and non-inspired hymnody. Modern musicians had better belly up to the Scripture and strive to become astute theologians, capable of conveying Truth in good poetry with melody that captures the mood of the lyrics, else I want none of it. Instead, give me the hymns of Newton, Toplady, or Watts--or, better yet, give me the Psalter.
and here's my response:
I have to agree with you, and I'd add that it is not unreasonable to conclude that this song is about a personal, emotional experience because it is written by a culture that is intentionally focused on the personal, emotional experience. It's no stretch, in fact, its really taking the author at face value.
The question is, why do people who know better keep singing these songs, and why does it seem so controversial to question them? Why is it that we are so slow to question what we include in our worship when God seems to be very specific about the way in which He is to be worshipped (see Korah's rebellion or the well-intentioned move of Uzzah)? I think a lot of people who would read what you wrote would agree on the face of it and then sorta shrug and say "so?" or worse yet, be mad at you for making a big issue out of something so trivial or contentiously reading something into a basically good song. In short, I think most people value the ease (these songs are often easy to play and most people know how to sing them) and unity these songs bring, and are simply unconcerned about any of the consequences.
I guess it all really illustrates two major cultural problems that we have as Americans - gnosticism (reflected here in the obsession with the individual's personal tastes and experiences over any idea of the corporate nature of worship) and an obsession with individual freedom that can tend to elevate the will of man to equality with God's sovereign will. Americans need to be told that even if there was no governmental rule to bind them, they would still be nowhere near truly free - you can choose what you want to do from a limited subset, but your will is always contingent on God's will and you really have quite a small subset of choices.
David, at A Physicist's Perspective, has a slightly related post that is also worth checking out.
Posted: Sat - March 12, 2005 at 12:11 PM | | | | | | |
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