Day 30: Is a Worship Song Too Emotional, Too Repetitive, Too Self-Focused, or Too Commercialized? So Are the Psalms!

So, here we are at the end. Day 30 or my 30 Day Worship Challenge. If you haven't seen the rest, I recommend starting at Day 1.

Is a Worship Song Too Emotional, Too Repetitive, Too Self-Focused, or Too Commercialized?

Have you noticed that criticism, especially on the internet, is a way of life. The way to get views, and therefore clicks, and eyeballs and ad revenue is to be controversial, critical, and get comments. I'm sure this article won't do that and I don't plan on getting any ad revenue because I am not interested in being controversial. I'm interested in Grace and speaking the Truth in Love. So, I'd like to look at how worship songs from Bethel, Hillsong, Elevation, Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, John Newton, etc... have been characterized as too emotional, too repetitive, too self-focused, too commercialized, and more by looking in the Word of God to say, guess what! So are the Psalms!

A careful analysis of Amazing Grace could lead to many of the same conclusions. It is centered on the Christian experience not on who God is. It is not word for word scripture. It has been commercialized and even used for political gain. All these things can be said about one of the most beloved hymns but are never mentioned. However, when these things are said, by a social media "influencer," about a new song, doubt is cast in the mind of many Christians, and the worship that could have been had through that song is sullied by people thinking about the article that they read or the video they watched.

So Are the Psalms!

I have seen, especially over the past few years, a steady stream of worship-song-analyzers that come to conclusions about worship songs based on these criteria. I would contend that the same conclusion could also be made about the Psalms, which, if you haven't noticed, are in the Bible, the Word of God. So, I think we should look at the Psalms carefully as our guide to see what is and is not worship-material. Does the Bible ever have a sentiment like Jesus is my boyfriend? Song of Solomon anyone? Are any Psalms more about the writer than about God? Are there Psalms with massive amounts of repetition or emotional language?

Too Emotional

I will be the first to admit that I am not a very emotional guy. But I see that as a problem not as a Stoic philosophy to be emulated and encouraged. Most men are uncomfortable with emotions. Does that make worship songs wrong in being emotional? Well, when you look at the Psalms, there is plenty of emotional language in almost every single one. The reason many worship songs are uncomfortably emotional is that the words were taken from the Psalms. “As the deer pants for the water so my soul longs after you” in Psalm 42 is just one example. Check out my post on As the Deer by martin Nystrom and Don Moen. Here’s a nice activity for you, and perhaps this should be my next series of posts, go through the psalms and make a note of the emotions involved.

Emotions are created by God and are to be used to worship Him. If you have some time right now and want a taste, check out my devotional study on Psalms 34. Or check out Psalms 6,10,13,77,142, or 143 and make note of all the emotions involved, then if you still think a contemporary Christian worship song is too emotional, read through Song of Solomon and try not to blush. I think that saying a song is too emotional means that you don’t prefer the song for whatever reason. Maybe you are emotionally stunted like me but I wouldn’t wear that as a badge of honor. The Bible is full of emotion and we should be too.

Too Repetitive

A song being "too repetitive" might not seem like that big of a deal, but this often goes along with songs being too emotionally charged. The criticism goes something like this: a song that is overly repetitive is like a hypnotic chant getting people to repeat the same wording over and over again lulling them into a belief-system and emotionally charged connection with the song. The argument even quotes Jesus in the sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6:7:

"And when you are praying, do not use thoughtless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard because of their many words."

However, notice that Jesus said thoughtless repetition as the Gentiles do, not that all repetition is bad. Thoughtless repetition is bad. Let's look in the Psalms and easily see that repetition is a major way of praising the Lord. There are many examples but the first that comes to mind is Psalm 136:

1Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.
His love endures forever.
2 Give thanks to the God of gods.
His love endures forever.
3 Give thanks to the Lord of lords:
His love endures forever.
4 to him who alone does great wonders,
His love endures forever.
5 who by his understanding made the heavens,
His love endures forever.
6 who spread out the earth upon the waters,
His love endures forever.
7 who made the great lights—
His love endures forever.
8 the sun to govern the day,
His love endures forever.
9 the moon and stars to govern the night;
His love endures forever.
10 to him who struck down the firstborn of Egypt
His love endures forever.
11 and brought Israel out from among them
His love endures forever.
12 with a mighty hand and outstretched arm;
His love endures forever.
13 to him who divided the Red Sea asunder
His love endures forever.
14 and brought Israel through the midst of it,
His love endures forever.
15 but swept Pharaoh and his army into the Red Sea;
His love endures forever.
16 to him who led his people through the wilderness;
His love endures forever.
17 to him who struck down great kings,
His love endures forever.
18 and killed mighty kings—
His love endures forever.
19 Sihon king of the Amorites
His love endures forever.
20 and Og king of Bashan—
His love endures forever.
21 and gave their land as an inheritance,
His love endures forever.
22 an inheritance to his servant Israel.
His love endures forever.
23 He remembered us in our low estate
His love endures forever.
24 and freed us from our enemies.
His love endures forever.
25 He gives food to every creature.
His love endures forever.
26 Give thanks to the God of heaven.
His love endures forever.

26 times the exact same phrase is repeated. Can you imagine the person who is so put off by repetition that they don't want to sing Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna with the angels in Heaven? It is biblical to use repetition in worship. Other examples [not exhaustive] would include Psalms 9, and 10 which repeat each other, Psalms 42, and 43 which do the same, and Psalms 119 which has almost the same phrase expressed many times in order to form an acrostic poem.

Repetition and meditation go hand in hand. This, in fact, is an important part of memorizing scripture and meditating on it day and night. This can't really be done without repetition.

Too Self-Focused

Modern worship music is often described as "Meism" and criticized as too self-focused and therefore not God-focused. I would contend that the Psalms are even more focused on the writer and their reaction to God than modern songs are. Read through the first 20 Psalms and you will be hard-pressed to find that the author's personal life experience is not on display. Does this mean that they are not worship? I think that the critics of this type of worship song simply do not appreciate what I would label as "devotional worship."

These songs are about the personal experience of faith and that is why they resonate with believers so strongly. Take a good hard look at the two most-loved Psalms, Psalms 23 and 51. Can you honestly say that these are declarations only about who God is, as some would suggest is the only way to worship? Or, are these Psalms about the human experiences of fear and sinfulness and our need for a Savior? Does this make them any less capable as a worship song in either a corporate or personal setting? How about Amazing Grace? Consider the words carefully and notice the first person narrative of the song.

"I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind but now I see."

You can't get more self-focused that this, so if you are going to cancel a worship song for being self-focussed "meism" then I would suggest cancelling Amazing Grace as the first victim. [of course this is ridiculous, don't cancel Amazing Grace]

Too Commercialized

I must admit, commercialization bothers me too. Some songs with large production budgets and music videos seem showy and when you read about the "staging" of a worship session for video it can be really dis-heartening to think that the people near the stage are all hand-picked to be "easy on the eyes." That seems about as far from the heart of worship as a person can get. However, I kind of get it, and her's why.

During the pandemic my church closed for a while and our worship team decided to start putting out videos of worship songs to continue to worship with our congregation online. The first few were pretty terrible. We didn't know anything about lighting, sound, or video editing and there was a steep learning curve. When we started to improve the process and therefore improve the product we were putting out we inevitably had lighting, more equipment, multiple cameras and camera operators and even staged a worship session around a campfire where all the equipment involved was off-camera so it wasn't seen. Does this make it "fake?" I would say definitely not. We still worshipped and people watching the videos were and still are led into worship. So, I have some experience in staging and producing things with a heart of worship intact with a small country church making a small YouTube channel.

When that grows into a "mega-church" with multiple campuses and an enormous online presence with tens of millions of views on an individual video, shouldn't there be more time, effort, and money put into the production of that content? I would say yes. We began to find that our videos [during the pandemic] were getting hundreds and sometimes over a thousand views. There is nothing wrong with wanting to put out even better content to help people worship, to do things at the highest quality for the Lord that you can. When Elevation worship or another large production makes a video it will be seen by a million plus people over the first few days. A good example of this would be The Blessing, which currently has over 75 million views. There is an expectation of quality that takes some commercialization and I get it.

Now, to the Psalms, in David's reign over Israel, worship was big business. There were singers, trumpeters, lutes and lyres, cymbal crashers, dancers, and writers and scribes for the songs as well. This was all without any amplification or video systems or projection and with multitudes of worshippers trying to follow along. See 2nd Chronicles 5:13 and 29:28. Don't you think the best singers, trumpeters, etc... were sought after and paid accordingly?

I think if David was alive today he would put on an amazing show and be dancing out in front, ridiculed for his audacity and commercialization like he was by his wife Michal. See 2nd Samuel 6. God did not take kindly to the way that Michal approached worship. Would you rather be on the side of Michal saying it is embarrassing how loud and wild worship has become? Or be like David known as a man after God’s own heart?

Too Misunderstood

I’ve heard a criticism repeated a lot lately that sounds good on its surface. It goes something like this: a worship song is like a mini-sermon. It will play on a persons emotions and stick in there head so if there is anything in the lyrics that can be misunderstood or is unclear theologically then it is as bad as false teaching. This sounds like such a righteous position of protecting people. However, I would counter that things needing further explanation and clarification is a strength of a song and not a weakness. If your theology consists of song lyrics, no matter how great the song, I would say you have a very shallow Christianity. Even to base your entire life on the book of Psalms, which is scripture, would not be enough to truly know Jesus and be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Some Examples of this that I've written about recently:

The Christian life is molded and developed in community with others, sitting under teaching, discussing the Word of God with others, and having real fellowship working side by side. If understanding the biblical background and meaning behind a song is important to you, then search it out and lead others to go with you. Write blog posts about songs that you want people to understand more deeply, like I have. Don’t just complain that they can be misunderstood. Could you misunderstand the Psalms? I’m sure many cults have been started through such misunderstandings of scripture but that doesn’t make the Psalms false teaching.

Final Thoughts

If you’ve made it this far and you’re offended then read this clearly and carefully. All these things can be taken too far. A song could be a money making gimmick of hypnotic repetition that promotes a false gospel. What I’m saying is be careful. Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. The Psalms are full of examples of emotional, commercialized, repetitive, and often misunderstood worship songs that are God-breathed and God-inspired. Have a bucket full of Grace and get worshipping. Thank you for joining me on this 30 Days of Worship. I’ve learned a lot and I hope you have too.

Bucket Full of Grace

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