Music Forms What we Think

“We must take seriously the content of the songs we are singing, realizing how formative they are in the life of the church. Every word we sing ought to be weighed and measured for biblical faithfulness, theological weight, God-centeredness, singability, and effectiveness. There is no right praise without right doctrine.” - Matt Boswell.

It is so important to consider what thoughts and messages the music we sing is putting into our heads, especially when it comes to what we sing about God, because the theology of the songs we sing in church will affect us in our daily lives.

Music is so hard not to think about. When you listen to contemporary worship music, you probably get it stuck in your head, because either the lyrics are memorable or the melody is catchy. This is why it is the duty of worship leaders and Christian songwriters, through their singing, to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ for the enrichment of their listeners’ hearts.

Because music is memorable, it can teach us so much about the character of God, and we will have truth to carry with us as we go about our lives throughout the rest of the week. This is such a blessing we have as Christians, but this can go directly the other way, because there is the danger that songs with incorrect theology would contradict the truth in the sermons of a gospel-preaching church. It is inevitable that the music we put into our mouths and heads will impact what we believe, so it is important that we are careful what we listen to.

Something I’ve observed about many of the top 100 worship songs today is that there are fewer and fewer songs praising God for His righteous character and what He has done for sinners, and more and more songs proclaiming the power of the individual (what I’m going to do to praise God, the power He has given me, etc.). Now this isn’t the case for all of them, but I’m sensing a trend here.

One of the songs that made the top 100 CCLI lists in 2022 is called Surrounded by Upper Room Music. This song references self 48 times, while there are only 12 references to God. There are only 18 individual words in phrases that are repeated over 12 times (and that is only the radio version). The 12 references to God in this song were the pronoun “you” and never an actual name of God.

This song may sound or feel powerful and moving in a worship service surrounded by loud music and lights, but the lyrics, when separated from the music, are underwhelming. Is there not so much more to worshiping God than repeating the same phrases over and over again?

“Contemporary Christian music is the catechism of today’s evangelical church. So we must always ask what message is being conveyed through a song’s lyrics” - Doug Geivett and Holly Pivec. Music must be grounded in Truth, so we ought to be like the Bereans in Acts 17:11, who “Examine the scriptures daily, to see if these things were so.”

We must examine the scriptures and hold everything up to it to make sure it aligns before we proclaim it in song. In doing this, we honor God by taking care to worship Him rightly.

If we choose to sing Christian music that aligns with Scripture as it should, it would be a way to not only bring joy to our Sunday mornings, but also inform our minds of the truth found in Scripture and the richness of the gospel.

This post is the first in my new series about Christian worship. Check out the series introduction to learn more!

Photo credit: James Barr on Unsplash