Songs vs. Psalms (Essentials Blue)

For: The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, in St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Blue Online Worship Theology Course with Dan Wilt

So why the sudden blog then? Well, it’s a required part of a course I’m taking – “Essentials Blue” which, so far, has been very thought provoking, and not a little nerve-wracking. The last time I did anything academic-like was c. 20 years ago and, let’s be honest here, I was never the model student (well, that’s not entirely true – I was a good boy in primary skool and for possibly a year at secondary.)

Anyway, I want to expand a little on a comment I made on my recent posting which you may or may not be able to see on Facebook, depending on whether or not you’re part of the right group (it’s all very technical!)

When considering how well the current pool of “worship songs” our church draws from deals with various issues (Justice, Spirituality, Relationships and Beauty,) I thought I’d do myself a little survey, using an Excel spreadsheet and some really l33t formulae wot I made.

I scanned through the lyrics of fifty of these songs, initially looking for those that were calling on God to address, or help us to address, these issues, but I quickly noticed a trend and added a couple more criteria to my sheet, namely, was the song in question a prayer (i.e. begging God for something) or praise (the meaning of which I’m sure is self-evident.)

I was rather surprised to find that only twenty percent (ten) of the songs were asking God for anything, which probably sounds nice at first – give God a bit of a res t ‘n’ all that. (In case you’re interested, only four of these ten even mentioned “justice”, the topic I was most interested in, the rest falling into the “Spirituality” category.) But then I thought “Surely the Psalms were songs, weren’t they? And they made it into the Bible, didn’t they? So oughtn’t we to be daring to write a little like them?”

Take a look at Psalm 1, which might be summarised by it’s last verse:
“The Lord protects everyone who follows him, but the wicked follow a road that leads to ruin.” Psalm 1 v6 CEV
I’m probably wrong, but I don’t recall ever singing a song that issued a warning to the wicked.

Consider the first verse of Psalm 10:
“Why are you far away, Lord? Why do you hide yourself when I am in trouble?” Psalm 10 v1 CEV
Now I really don’t think the Lord hides when we’re in trouble, and I also don’t think that the author actually believed that either. I think he was being honest in expressing how he felt. I certainly don’t remember singing anything so honest as that!

Ok, final example:
“Only a fool would say ‘There is no God!’ People like that are worthless; they are heartless and cruel and never do right.” Psalm 14 v1 CEV
Now I’d say that, despite containing nothing vulgar, that’s pretty strong language, and I’d be very leery indeed to suggest that we sing lyrics like those in our church, so what’s my point? (hang on, I’ve got it here somewhere…)

Ah yes, this is my point. Are we (the global community of followers of Joshua bar-Joseph) being entirely honest in our writing, or have we absorbed a little too much of this good ole P.C. stuff that’s doing the rounds? Are we compromising for fear of offending? Are we afraid that something we sing will make its way out into the Big Bad World and they’ll be mean to us?

I’d better shut up now – I’m making myself a rather scary bed.

Please bear in mind that these are thoughts I have which may (perish the thought!) be completely wrong – so why don’t you tell me what you think?