Why Are Hit Worship Songs So Different From The Psalms?
A bible is open to the Book of Psalms. Unsplash photo by Aaron Burden.
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(OPINION) It’s hard to read the Book of Psalms without encountering one of the 65 references to the Hebrew word “mishpat,” which is usually translated as “judgments” or “justice.”
The term appears 23 times in Psalm 119, in passages worshippers have sung for centuries, such as: “I will praise You with uprightness of heart, when I learn Your righteous judgments. I will keep Your statutes; Oh, do not forsake me utterly!”
But when Old Testament scholar Michael J. Rhodes dug into the top 25 worship songs listed by Christian Copyright Licensing International, he found symbolic trends in the lyrics. For starters, “justice” was mentioned one time, in one song.
“The poor are completely absent in the top 25,” he wrote in a Twitter thread. “By contrast, the Psalter uses varied language to describe the poor on nearly every page. The widow, refugee, oppressed are completely absent from the top 25. ...
“Whereas ‘enemies’ are the third most common character in the Psalms, they rarely show up in the Top 25. When they do, they appear to be enemies only in a spiritual sense. Maybe most devastatingly ... not a SINGLE question is ever posed to God. The Top 25 never ask God anything. Prick the Psalter and it bleeds the cries of the oppressed pleading with God to act.”
That’s a long way from a Vespers Psalm promising that “the Lord sets the prisoners free; the Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down; the Lord loves the righteous. The Lord watches over the sojourners, he upholds the widow and the fatherless; but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin. ... Praise the Lord.”
When these issues surface in social media, they often veer into debates about politics and social justice, noted Craig Greenfield, author of “The Urban Halo” and “Subversive Jesus.” A former dot-com entrepreneur, he leads the global youth ministry Alongsiders International, based primarily in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
The question, he said, is why do so many worship songs focus on personal experience and feelings alone? This has been true with new hymns for several generations.
“We, in the West, tend to be very individualistic. ... The whole approach to worship music uses a Jesus-is-my-boyfriend metaphor,” said Greenfield, reached by telephone.
“That may work for people in the United States and, as the United States goes, so goes most of the West. ... But God’s heart for the poor is at the center of the gospel. There’s no way to miss that in the Psalms and the Gospels.”
Observations by Rhodes about blind spots in worship music products offered by major publishing companies are crucial, added Greenfield. Thus, it would help if more songwriters and church leaders embraced a global approach to their work. In an online essay entitled “Worship music is broken. Here’s what we can do about it,” he urged:
— A stronger emphasis on corporate worship. “Worship can be a beautiful intimate moment of love between you and God. ... But that’s not ALL it should be,” he said. After “trying to worship awkwardly on Zoom” during the coronavirus pandemic, “we all know that there is something powerful that happens when ... we sing ‘We worship You’ instead of ‘I worship You.’”
— Embracing “worship as lament,” as well as celebration. Churches need to be more than “a place we go to get our regular fix, our weekly high (which has to get more and more intense in order to give the same satisfaction). ... That’s not a healthy or balanced way to live our lives with God. God calls us to mourn with those who mourn — and sometimes WE are those who mourn. Sometimes the world is all messed up.” There are times to celebrate, he added, but “going to a party, when your best friend just died of cancer, just feels awful.”
— Focus on participation more than professional-level performance. “We serve a God who was deeply encouraged by the pathetic offering of an impoverished old widow,” noted Greenfield. “We serve a God who loved the broken prayer of an outcast more than the confident eloquence of a pharisee.” In other words, “God doesn’t care if our songs are off-key. ... Our drive for excellence can end up excluding those who God calls us to make central.”
Terry Mattingly leads GetReligion.org and lives in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. He is a senior fellow at the Overby Center at the University of Mississippi.