Sorry to say, if this is how you see worship singing, you’re the problem, not the song. It’s similar to any sermon, devotional, prayer, etc. offered up before the congregation—you get out of it what you put into it. If you’re negative to start, don’t pay attention, don’t think about what’s being said, and instead just seek out only the weaknesses or shortcomings of the presenter or message, then of course it won’t mean anything to you. One of the best ways to benefit from and enjoy a public prayer, for example, is to repeat the phrases in your head immediately after the praying person says them, and see if you don’t agree or feel the same as what is being prayed. But if you just listen for the mispronounced words, bad syntax, or poor grammar, and make fun in your mind or to others of the prayer or praying person, then you’ve destroyed the prayer’s purpose and power altogether. The same is true for a song. If you’re not participating—actively also singing or considering the words in your own mind as they’re sung—then you’re not worshiping—you’re not expressing the joy in your heart, or your gratefulness for what God has done for you, or stating your hope or encouragement for another, etc. No, you’re just idly observing, and extremely passively so, and probably poorly at that.
Yes, music and songs and lyrics are repetitive, at times. So are people. So are sins. So are hopes, and doubts, and prayers. But there’s just something in our DNA that music and singing resonate with, and repetition, and complex beats, and predictable rhymes, words, or notes, and even those expected to occur but are amazingly and unexpectedly omitted, really soothe our soul and create pleasure in us. That’s true for secular music as well as worship songs. But worship songs are to give thanks to God, to praise Him, and to speak encouragement to our brothers and sisters in Him, not for our enjoyment, not for spectators. So how nice is it, how smart of God to set it up, that we can do all that God wants us to do with worship singing, and at the same time still really really enjoy it, and even make it better worship for humans, by letting songs follow natural laws that make humans like it? Such as repetition. Such as choruses, bridges, competing alternate tunes or words, or periods of changing tempo, key, or volume.
Get your heart right, and the music will flow from your heart to join with the worship songs, and then all the songs will seem too short!
I appreciate your comments. Truly.
But forgive me if I personally object to music whose lyrics stray from Scripture or that is that has no highs or lows and is therefore lukewarm.
Rev 3:16 “So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of My mouth.”
Ok, we get it.
Your a highly righteous and erudite Christian with no sense of humor who likes to pass judgment on others over a text conversation, trying to divine their dedication to god and the purity of their very soul.
Did I get that about right?
Just because someone writes a worship song with the purest of intentions doesn’t mean its going to be premium work of art or that it might even suck in some cases.
Your log is showing, you might want to look into that.
Seriously, lighten up.
(sigh)
Yes, yes, I am so obviously the problem. If my heart was “right,” then I’d just love the CRAP MUSIC.
Even though the CRAP MUSIC is literally unsingable for me and many others, which tends to confound the very participation you demand.
Maybe the CRAP MUSIC is the problem, not the weekly victims of it.
“Get your heart right, and the music will flow from your heart to join with the worship songs, and then all the songs will seem too short!”
Nope. Sometimes stupid IS STUPID. If I join it, I’m just dumber.
Amen.