Music & Worship
Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens! Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness! Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals! Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!
1 Psalm 150:1–6
On August 25th, our church had one of our worship nights. These special Sunday nights have taken different forms, and in recent years, we have started doing what is called worship in the round.
This is where we worship together as a church, yet rather than everyone looking forward towards a stage, we are seated in a circle around the stage. The evening focuses on praising God through song while also giving the element of community an elevated presence. We can see, hear, and connect with others through this experience as we face one another in the round. We see our brothers and sisters in Christ engaged with our God in worship, and we have used these times for special moments of payer, testimony, and communion.
Nights like this are unique in how they revive the soul and knit our hearts together over a communal expression of praise to our God, singing and reflecting on the goodness of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
These moments also raise interesting thoughts and conversations about the musical elements of worship, the emotional responses, and how those weave together.
I used to be a worshiper of emotions. I once weighed the value of a time of worship by the musical quality and how I felt during the experience. In my error, I saw genuine worship as requiring an overflow of emotion.
As God has worked on me over the years, I have come to see this in a different light. Where once I used emotions to test the validity of worship, I now see how genuine worship begins with truth, not feelings. We must start by acknowledging who God is and who we are and see our desperate need for a savior and his gracious love to provide our rescue through Christ. Then, when emotion flows from living in the reality of who we are and who God is, that is the truest form of glorifying God with the emotional reactions he created us to experience.
Aside from the emotional experience of reflecting on the words we sing, I feel the need to comment on music’s ability to impact our emotions. Some would say music manipulates people into an emotional experience rather than true worship. Some would even go so far as to say that emotional expression in worship or towards God’s word is unhealthy for the believer.
Is this true? It can be. I’ve been there. I have faked my way through worship services, raising my hands trying to fabricate an experience as I chased an emotional high. I have also kept my hands down when I felt as though those around me would judge me, as well as being the one standing in stoic silence with no heart engagement with the truth before him. But let’s be honest, anytime our focus becomes on our emotional experience, the thoughts of others towards us, or judging the response of others, we are no longer worshiping our God.
Now, when it comes to feelings, people will say that our feelings are deceptive because the heart is desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9). That is true. Yet, at the same time, for those born again, our lifeless heart of stone has been replaced with a heart of flesh. Where once we had no ability to feel and experience the spiritual realities taking place in our lives, we have been redeemed, and our hearts can align with truth and feel emotions that correspond with it. Our emotions, even from the redeemed heart, do not define reality, yet the redeemed heart can align with reality through God’s word to feel correctly.
But what does this have to do with music? Undoubtedly, music alone, in some mysterious way–I would add a God designed way–can impact our emotions with minor scales vs major, soothing tones vs dramatic, dynamic shifts vs repetitive structure. It all can affect how we feel. I don’t deny that. However, when musical dynamics accompany the truth conveyed through scripture-saturated lyrics, I do not think there is a reason to shy away from that experience.
I want to share why through some analogies I have considered recently.
Let’s use the image of food. The truth is we eat to sustain our bodies and lives. However, the experience of dry toast and raw vegetables differs from a complete fine dining experience. We can be grateful and truly enjoy both, but one elevates the experience by sustaining our bodies while pairing flavors and textures God designed our tastebuds to experience.
What about art forms outside of music? When someone wants to paint a picture that portrays something joyous and exciting, they will not use all tones of grey. However, they will use colors that evoke a feeling in alignment with the painting's visual. The color does not distract from the experience but enhances it. It also does not degrade the value and beauty of a simple pencil sketch.
If someone is writing a speech, they use vivid language, hand motions, and rhythm in their words to carry you along with them. If they use pauses and dynamics in their tone of voice to emphasize something, either by raising their voice or quieting down to a slow, deliberate pace, it helps us feel the weight of what is being communicated. However, it does not remove the worth of a one-on-one conversation with simple straightforward words.
Music in worship is similar. The act of remembering God’s goodness to us and proclaiming praise to God takes many forms. Auditoriums with musical accompaniment performed with excellence and care can elevate the experience, but not to the exclusion of the sweetness in humming "Be Thou My Vision" to myself on a morning walk.
Both have their place.
In closing, I do feel it's worth saying that there is a balance in the corporate worship setting. Just like someone may overseason their food to the taste of others but still enjoy it themselves, or an artist is invested in their personal expression through their painting to the point that it becomes ambiguous to others, or an orator's voice becomes erratic with a vocabulary that sores over the audience’s head, our worship music can do the same.
Some expressions of worship are best in a private setting, one-on-one with God. Some are geared for the performance or concert stage, where a certain expectation is already formed upon entry. While some are better designed for the church family corporate space.
On this topic, for a corporate church service, I find these questions helpful. Is the goal of those leading to point me to Jesus or themselves, and even more so, is my motive for being there to worship or doubt the validity of the worship of others? When my thoughts are focused on my Savior, and the music mingles with those thoughts and becomes a palatable experience that aligns with that truth, it is a beautiful experience with my God and his family.
Grace,
Shawn
