Psalm 92
According to the annotation this is a song for the Sabbath which makes me think about other songs that we sing on the Sabbath. I cannot speak for all of Christendom, but as for the churches I have been in, and there have been a fair few, most of the time we sing selfish songs corporately. By that I mean pick up a hymnal or a song book or put in the popular worship CD and you will notice that the vast majority of the songs are first person, I me mine, mainly we sing together about ourselves. The worship song Above All is, in my opinion, one of the worst culprits of this, with the idea that Jesus died and "thought of me above all."* But we don't have to go nearly that recent, how about the hymn In the Garden, "and he walks with me, and he talks with me, and he tells me I am his own; and the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known."
Over and over again we have been brought up and continue to live a life of worship that worships our own importance more than our collective importance, and that my friends is nothing but a bad idea. The Bible, and Jesus, seems very clear that I am not a bride, but that we are, that Jesus didn't die for just me, but for all, that we are to be selfless not selfish, yet whether it be by culture or human nature we continually focus on the individual instead of the collective. It is of utmost importance that you come to an understanding that God loves you so much that Jesus was sent to live and breathe and die and live again so that you might truly understand how big that love is. It is of equal importance for you to realize that it wasn't just for you, that God's love spreads to every corner of the globe from throne rooms to neighborhoods to slums to underpasses and every space in between, and that everyone who accepts that love is a member of your family and everyone who rejects that love is still a potential member of your family. So, maybe it might be time to start rewriting some lyrics to make corporate worship corporate.
+ Have you ever analyzed the lyrical content of the songs you sing in corporate worship? If so how did you feel? If not, go ahead and give them a look this Sabbath.
+ How can you better shift the focus from yourself to the whole both in worship and in your daily life?
* I wrote a blog all about Above All some years ago, here's the link should you be interested in reading it Rescuing God from Praise Songs Part 1
I am not saying that you are wrong... this is how I see it... as individuals traveling the journey (maybe because I am single and maybe not) each one of us gets bogged down. Sometimes I need songs that are written about just me and God.
ReplyDeleteMy “real” dad’s mother was married to a man that beat her all the time. One of her favorite songs was the one you mentioned In The Garden. She had a hard life and I imagine it was a song of safety for her, just her and God. God taking care of her. I often need that singleness of comfort as well. And who is God? Many things but to each of us he is our Wonderful Counselor. A counselor doesn’t share things across the many but it is intimate with the one. Yes, there is a place for our congregational worship to be about the whole bride.