What is it with music leaders and their love affair with the trite songs of Chris Tomlin and Matt Redman? Songs by these are rife in the assemblies, and they have come to replace solid, meat-filled hymns while manufacturing emotion.
A perfect example of this happened in our assembly this past Sunday. Our worship service opened with Redman’s “Let Everything That Has Breath” followed by Tomlin’s “Forever.” Let’s take a look at the lyrics (and although the overhead stated that these men are the writers, I see on the Internet that others are stated to be so).
Let Everything That Has Breath
Let ev'rything that, ev'rything that
Ev'rything that has breath praise the Lord
Let ev'rything that, ev'rything that
Ev'rything that has breath praise the Lord
Praise You in the morning, praise You in the evening
Praise You when I'm young and when I'm old
Praise You when I'm laughing, praise You with I'm grieving
Praise You ev'ry season of the soul
If we could see how much You're worth
Your power, Your might, Your endless love
Then surely we would never cease to praise
Praise You in the heavens, joining with the angels
Praising You forever and a day
Praise You on the earth now, joining with creation
Calling all the nations to Your praise
If we could see how much You're worth
Your power, Your might, Your endless love
Then surely we would never cease to praise
Let ev'rything that, ev'rything that
Ev'rything that has breath praise the Lord
Let ev'rything that, ev'rything that
Ev'rything that has breath praise the Lord
Let ev'rything that, ev'rything that
Ev'rything that has breath praise the Lord
Some mindless repetition here. Give me Charles Wesley’s “Oh, For a Thousand Tongues to Sing” any day of the week over Redman’s drivel. The music for this one is certainly not good for congregational singing.
Forever
Give thanks to the Lord our God and King,
His love endures forever.
For He is good He is above all things,
His love endures forever.
Sing Praise, Sing Praise.
With a mighty hand and outstretched arm,
His love endures forever.
For the life that's been reborn,
His love endure forever.
Sing Praise, Sing Praise.
Forever God is faithful,
Forever God is strong.
Forever God is with us,
Forever
From the rising to the setting sun,
His love endures forever.
And by the grace of God we will carry on,
His love endures forever.
Sing Praise, Sing Praise
Forever You are faithful,
Forever You are strong.
Forever You are with us,
Forever and ever, forever.
His love endures forever,
His love endures forever,
His love endures forever.
Again, look at how much repletion there is at the end. Of course there was also an obligatory bridge for the musicians to “strut their stuff.” At least the music for this one was a bit easier for congregational singing.
As the service continued we later sang the hymn “Sing Praise to God,” by Johann Schutz, and then before the sermon we sang “Ancient Words” by Michael W. Smith. After the sermon we again went into high gear repetition with the band, singing “I Will Celebrate,” by Rita Baloche, another emotion-driven piece:
I Will Celebrate
I will celebrate
Sing unto the Lord
Sing to the Lord a new song
With my heart rejoicing within
With my mind focused on Him
With my hands raised to the heavens
All I am worshiping Him
I will celebrate
Sing unto the Lord
Sing to the Lord a new song
With my heart rejoicing within
With my mind focused on Him
With my hands raised to the heavens
All I am worshiping Him
I will celebrate
Sing unto the Lord
Sing to the Lord a new song
With my heart rejoicing within
With my mind focused on Him
With my hands raised to the heavens
All I am worshiping Him
Three times around is enough to make anyone dizzy! Of course Rita is married to Paul Baloche, the guy who mangles old hymns so he can make money off of someone else’s talent. He also writes repetitious drivel lacking substance but which manufactures emotion.
The Church continues to sound more like the world as it leaves doctrine-filled worship and praise songs/hymns in the dust so as to appeal to the world.
2 comments:
Hi Glenn,
It's obvious how much pain and destruction of worship these songs are causing.
Matthias Loy (a "conservative" Lutheran from the 19th Century) spoke exactly to the cause in The Doctrine of Justification. Pardon the long quote - hopefully you'll find it germane.
- Alec
"Fanaticism, which makes the natural faculties a criterion of spiritual things, is a more dangerous foe to Christianity than many sincere persons are willing to admit. It leaves the soul at the mercy of ever-changing human opinions and human whims, and sets aside the only reliable guide that man possesses in things unseen. And the very root of fanaticism is the baseless notion that God deals immediately with men. This assumes that He has appointed no external means of communication with them, but makes known His pleasure by direct impressions upon the human intellect or sensibilities. Those who entertain this notion can acknowledge no channel by which grace is conveyed. The result of such error has been sufficiently exhibited, in the history of the Church, to prove a warning to all who are willing to learn. Its products are terrible. On the one hand, we see growing out of it the wild extravagancies of those sects who mistake their feelings for the voice of Jehovah, many of whom have been driven by their impulses into sordidness that disgraces humanity, while in their strong delusion, they thought that they were doing God service. On the other hand, we see springing from it the heartless and profane speculations of those rationalistic parties who identify the voice of blinded reason with the voice of God, many of whom have enunciated dogmas at which angels weep and devils rejoice, while, in their strange perversion, they thought them divine."
Alec
That is an excellent citation. Thank you!
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