Last year I mentioned people telling us what big hearts they had, giving to charities while exchanging no presents among themselves. A letter to the Straits Times today confirmed my worst suspicions.
Please, everyone. We don't have to know what great world citizens you are--a brief mention here, an advertisement for Oxfam there... that will do a lot more than you telling everybody how many you helped and putting an air of self-righteousness in every Christmas season.
These actions for the less fortunate are fine and good. I'd like to join in. I'd like everyone to join in. But there's no need to tell the whole world how you filled boxes with presents, how you joined a tree-planting initiative, and the fact you spent all that gift-giving money on charity work. To me it just smacks of the need to be noticed doing good things--hamming, in other words.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but God is quite capable of seeing what you do without resorting to the old newspaper-trumpet every Christmas. Remember what Jesus said about doing good deeds to be noticed by men.
Enough on humbugging with me. Have a merry Christmas, and happy new year!
Now if I can just figure out what to say...
Saturday, December 23, 2006
Sunday, December 03, 2006
Music to His Ears
[Remember when I mentioned an essay I'd put up here with my church's permission? Here it is. ;)]
I promise you, if I hear the chorus of How Great is our God one more time I will start running in the opposite direction… and I won’t accept any blame for sound equipment I damage on the way out.
OK, maybe I’m exaggerating (I'd probably just head to the toilet). But the fact I’ve stopped singing along many, many times, shuffled my feet, and looked at my watch has to count for something. Let’s face it—time was when you actually got music that glorified God and combined it with information that challenged your head as well as your heart. Are today’s Christian songwriters doing the latter?
(The trouble is that everyone has a different idea of what constitutes GOOD Christian worship music. As one old commentary on the “perfect church service” goes, the songs should have “more of those soaring, majestic hymns and less of those stupid dead old hymns”. You can’t please everybody—and I’m not for one moment saying I deserved to be pleased more in church than any other child of God. We exist to bring glory and honour to Him, not the other way around.)
John MacArthur has put together an excellent book with a chapter dealing with this, and many other, issues, entitled Fool’s Gold?: Discovering the Truth in an Age of Error. An in-depth review of this fascinating book is beyond our scope, so I’ll focus on what MacArthur has to say about gospel songs today, and how this seemingly developed-world trend makes me yawn and look at my watch week in and week out.
The modern trend of the ‘gospel song’ was begun in the late nineteenth century by singer-songwriter Ira Sankey, who wrote and performed music during the British and American rallies of Dwight L. Moody. He wanted to create an evangelism-centred style, and wrote songs to that end in line with the pattern of his day: verse one, a refrain (or chorus), a second verse, the refrain again, and so on. And in general they tended to be shorter and simpler than hymns of earlier ages.
And they worked! Most new music written from that time on were gospel songs in the new genre… and MacArthur points out that in today’s hymnbooks, the only one with a copyright date past 1940 was How Great Thou Art. I think it goes:
No prizes for guessing what music we as a church have embraced. How often have I heard an actual hymn in the main service? There was last Christmas, that year two Good Fridays ago, and Pastor Neivelle Tan’s visit, and… give me a minute…
Could it be that we are neglecting—no, throwing aside a large, rich body of Christian hymnology simply because of the mistaken belief that they are no longer contemporary and attention-attracting? We don’t want music that ties in with biblical truth and glorifies God above all else—we’re willing to settle for lesser substitutes that fit in with the pop-music culture of the world around us. Now I’m not slamming the gospel song—some have lyrics that speak to God as much as the great hymnwriters. Consider Casting Crowns’ Who Am I:
But the trouble begins when we replace ALL our hymnology with today’s lighter, fluffier ‘feel good’ songs. Most are too repetitive to sustain attention for more than a few seconds, frankly, How Great is our God being one of them. True, its simple four-line verses are easy to do… but we’re treated to unending repetitions of how “great” God is, time being in His hands, darkness fleeing from His light, etc., something even the most green Sunday schooler would have heard. Why regurgitate when we should be showing them how the Lord’s attributes can be fully honoured in our worship? Many other gospel songs and hymns do this, so a little variety is in order.
Just listen to all Pastor Aaron says about the great Christians of the past, and compare that with the monotones we feed our ears with before every sermon. I remember an occasion he spoke about Fanny Crosby, the great hymnwriter. I was pleasantly surprised to learn some of my favourites came from her pen: Blessed Assurance, Jesus Keep me near the Cross, All the Way My Saviour Leads Me and many others I can’t immediately recall.
Oh, and she was blind.
MacArthur quotes Leonard Payton with another compelling point. 1 Kings 4:31 says of King Solomon: “He was wiser than all other men, wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman.” Now the irony isn’t lost on him—if Solomon’s divinely-ordained wisdom hadn’t come into the picture (and it probably hasn’t since), the wisest men in Israel would have been two musicians… and not just ordinary poets. 1 Chronicles 15:19 goes on to describe them as Levite appointees, the tribe of Levi having been the one dedicated entirely to the priesthood. In short, they were respected handlers of the Word of God, teachers and pastors first and songwriters second. And what record have we got of their work? The book of Psalms, for one.
The point MacArthur tries to make is this: Songwriters are actually more of teachers than their church pastors are, since the melodies and words they write stick in more Christians’ heads, and for longer, like it or not. It’s funny how we read books and listen to sermons about the lives of Crosby and the like, but keep them simply as memories and nothing more… like kids, they’re to be known and seen once in a while, but not heard.
Would it make us dull and backward to revive some of the music from their time, to keep their hallowed-to-God creations alive? What would be dull and backward would be using the same oft-repeated, shallow and—I dare say—insipid pop-wannabe stuff every week. Let’s face it, many of these songs simply can’t compare to the secular music I often listen to, Who Am I being the exception rather than the rule. Maybe worship leaders should take a little more care in choosing songs so they don’t all sound alike, and more importantly provide the level of Scriptural insight so highly prized by the hymnwriters?
Speaking of secular music, there’s another danger I feel I must point out. The border between songs of praise to God and songs of the heart can and does blur—did it occur to anyone that Morning Has Broken was intended to be a Christian song when Yusof Islam covered it? It sure didn’t to me.
You Raise Me Up is, as we Singaporeans would say, lagi worse. Have a look at the lyrics, and don’t worry if you don’t find anything Christian in them. I sure as heck couldn’t; and why may you ask, am I suddenly referring to a Josh Groban song?
OK, now the kicker. If you are asking why Josh Groban, I’ll fill you in; You Raise Me Up was written and first performed by Christian band Selah, and is included in the compilation Fresh Praise by Authentic Music. Strange, right? There isn't any particularly Christian substance in the lyrics, and amounts to just a plain, mawkish affirmation of an anonymous 'you' filling a role a mortal human also happens to be capable of.
Now when a secular artiste can cover a supposedly “Christian” song and spawn cover after cover from it, (and for it to be murdered many, many times on Singapore Idol auditions) something is very, very wrong. Maybe I can blame it on the increasing secularisation of the American church, where every denomination seems to have a political bent up its sleeve, and “seeker-sensitive” worship contributes to warm, fuzzy messages that conveniently leave out the “more advanced” stuff like condemnation, salvation from sin and God’s hatred of all that is evil.
Of course, the irony is that we import worship styles, songs and messages wholesale from the very culture that is growing to mock our faith in the name of art and tolerance (Madonna’s ‘crucifixion’, anyone?) more and more. Anyone who speaks up for biblical truth and inerrancy is labelled “intolerant”, “fundamentalist”, and “bigoted” while the REAL bigots go about trashing anyone who doesn’t agree with them. Now I’m not for an instant saying there aren’t godly leaders and messages from there, but practices should be adopted with discernment. The apostle Paul described music composed of “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs”—he never intended for one style to eclipse any other, all pretensions of being “modern” aside. This isn’t a struggle to be contemporary and relevant—it’s one for the very soul and purpose of praising God in song.
Can we really take praise and worship addressed to the most majestic, beautiful Being in the universe... and bore listeners to the point they count the minutes going by? Or would we rather give the Lord all the creativity, all the poeticism, all the musical skill we possess and sing before Him the way He intends—praising God and edifying man?
Now excuse me while I trawl for hymns to sing in the shower. Until the church revives the great hymns of old and sings them alongside more modern compositions that continue their legacy, contain solid theology and give praise to the One who hears the most of all, I see little reason to join in what passes as “worship” these days. Even if I don’t like the tune, the content may be worth singing to a great God… and I hope it will be the case once again.
© 2006, Lu Zheng Ping
I promise you, if I hear the chorus of How Great is our God one more time I will start running in the opposite direction… and I won’t accept any blame for sound equipment I damage on the way out.
OK, maybe I’m exaggerating (I'd probably just head to the toilet). But the fact I’ve stopped singing along many, many times, shuffled my feet, and looked at my watch has to count for something. Let’s face it—time was when you actually got music that glorified God and combined it with information that challenged your head as well as your heart. Are today’s Christian songwriters doing the latter?
(The trouble is that everyone has a different idea of what constitutes GOOD Christian worship music. As one old commentary on the “perfect church service” goes, the songs should have “more of those soaring, majestic hymns and less of those stupid dead old hymns”. You can’t please everybody—and I’m not for one moment saying I deserved to be pleased more in church than any other child of God. We exist to bring glory and honour to Him, not the other way around.)
John MacArthur has put together an excellent book with a chapter dealing with this, and many other, issues, entitled Fool’s Gold?: Discovering the Truth in an Age of Error. An in-depth review of this fascinating book is beyond our scope, so I’ll focus on what MacArthur has to say about gospel songs today, and how this seemingly developed-world trend makes me yawn and look at my watch week in and week out.
The modern trend of the ‘gospel song’ was begun in the late nineteenth century by singer-songwriter Ira Sankey, who wrote and performed music during the British and American rallies of Dwight L. Moody. He wanted to create an evangelism-centred style, and wrote songs to that end in line with the pattern of his day: verse one, a refrain (or chorus), a second verse, the refrain again, and so on. And in general they tended to be shorter and simpler than hymns of earlier ages.
And they worked! Most new music written from that time on were gospel songs in the new genre… and MacArthur points out that in today’s hymnbooks, the only one with a copyright date past 1940 was How Great Thou Art. I think it goes:
Then sings my soul,
My Saviour, God, to thee!
How great thou art,
how great thou art!
My Saviour, God, to thee!
How great thou art,
how great thou art!
No prizes for guessing what music we as a church have embraced. How often have I heard an actual hymn in the main service? There was last Christmas, that year two Good Fridays ago, and Pastor Neivelle Tan’s visit, and… give me a minute…
Could it be that we are neglecting—no, throwing aside a large, rich body of Christian hymnology simply because of the mistaken belief that they are no longer contemporary and attention-attracting? We don’t want music that ties in with biblical truth and glorifies God above all else—we’re willing to settle for lesser substitutes that fit in with the pop-music culture of the world around us. Now I’m not slamming the gospel song—some have lyrics that speak to God as much as the great hymnwriters. Consider Casting Crowns’ Who Am I:
Who am I, that the Lord of all the earth,
Would choose to know my name,
Would to care to feel my hurt
Who am I, that the bright and morning star
Would choose to light the way
for my ever wandering heart…
Would choose to know my name,
Would to care to feel my hurt
Who am I, that the bright and morning star
Would choose to light the way
for my ever wandering heart…
Not because what I’ve done,
But because what you did,
Not because of what I am,
But because of who you are
But because what you did,
Not because of what I am,
But because of who you are
I am a flower quickly fading,
Here today and gone tomorrow
A wave tossed in the ocean,
A vapour in the wind…
Here today and gone tomorrow
A wave tossed in the ocean,
A vapour in the wind…
Just listen to all Pastor Aaron says about the great Christians of the past, and compare that with the monotones we feed our ears with before every sermon. I remember an occasion he spoke about Fanny Crosby, the great hymnwriter. I was pleasantly surprised to learn some of my favourites came from her pen: Blessed Assurance, Jesus Keep me near the Cross, All the Way My Saviour Leads Me and many others I can’t immediately recall.
Oh, and she was blind.
MacArthur quotes Leonard Payton with another compelling point. 1 Kings 4:31 says of King Solomon: “He was wiser than all other men, wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman.” Now the irony isn’t lost on him—if Solomon’s divinely-ordained wisdom hadn’t come into the picture (and it probably hasn’t since), the wisest men in Israel would have been two musicians… and not just ordinary poets. 1 Chronicles 15:19 goes on to describe them as Levite appointees, the tribe of Levi having been the one dedicated entirely to the priesthood. In short, they were respected handlers of the Word of God, teachers and pastors first and songwriters second. And what record have we got of their work? The book of Psalms, for one.
The point MacArthur tries to make is this: Songwriters are actually more of teachers than their church pastors are, since the melodies and words they write stick in more Christians’ heads, and for longer, like it or not. It’s funny how we read books and listen to sermons about the lives of Crosby and the like, but keep them simply as memories and nothing more… like kids, they’re to be known and seen once in a while, but not heard.
Would it make us dull and backward to revive some of the music from their time, to keep their hallowed-to-God creations alive? What would be dull and backward would be using the same oft-repeated, shallow and—I dare say—insipid pop-wannabe stuff every week. Let’s face it, many of these songs simply can’t compare to the secular music I often listen to, Who Am I being the exception rather than the rule. Maybe worship leaders should take a little more care in choosing songs so they don’t all sound alike, and more importantly provide the level of Scriptural insight so highly prized by the hymnwriters?
Speaking of secular music, there’s another danger I feel I must point out. The border between songs of praise to God and songs of the heart can and does blur—did it occur to anyone that Morning Has Broken was intended to be a Christian song when Yusof Islam covered it? It sure didn’t to me.
You Raise Me Up is, as we Singaporeans would say, lagi worse. Have a look at the lyrics, and don’t worry if you don’t find anything Christian in them. I sure as heck couldn’t; and why may you ask, am I suddenly referring to a Josh Groban song?
When I am down, and though my soul so weary,
When troubles come, and my heart burdened be
Then I am still, and wait here in the silence,
Until you come and sit awhile with me…
When troubles come, and my heart burdened be
Then I am still, and wait here in the silence,
Until you come and sit awhile with me…
You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas
And I am strong, when I am on your shoulders
You raise me up, to be more than I can be…
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas
And I am strong, when I am on your shoulders
You raise me up, to be more than I can be…
OK, now the kicker. If you are asking why Josh Groban, I’ll fill you in; You Raise Me Up was written and first performed by Christian band Selah, and is included in the compilation Fresh Praise by Authentic Music. Strange, right? There isn't any particularly Christian substance in the lyrics, and amounts to just a plain, mawkish affirmation of an anonymous 'you' filling a role a mortal human also happens to be capable of.
Now when a secular artiste can cover a supposedly “Christian” song and spawn cover after cover from it, (and for it to be murdered many, many times on Singapore Idol auditions) something is very, very wrong. Maybe I can blame it on the increasing secularisation of the American church, where every denomination seems to have a political bent up its sleeve, and “seeker-sensitive” worship contributes to warm, fuzzy messages that conveniently leave out the “more advanced” stuff like condemnation, salvation from sin and God’s hatred of all that is evil.
Of course, the irony is that we import worship styles, songs and messages wholesale from the very culture that is growing to mock our faith in the name of art and tolerance (Madonna’s ‘crucifixion’, anyone?) more and more. Anyone who speaks up for biblical truth and inerrancy is labelled “intolerant”, “fundamentalist”, and “bigoted” while the REAL bigots go about trashing anyone who doesn’t agree with them. Now I’m not for an instant saying there aren’t godly leaders and messages from there, but practices should be adopted with discernment. The apostle Paul described music composed of “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs”—he never intended for one style to eclipse any other, all pretensions of being “modern” aside. This isn’t a struggle to be contemporary and relevant—it’s one for the very soul and purpose of praising God in song.
Can we really take praise and worship addressed to the most majestic, beautiful Being in the universe... and bore listeners to the point they count the minutes going by? Or would we rather give the Lord all the creativity, all the poeticism, all the musical skill we possess and sing before Him the way He intends—praising God and edifying man?
Now excuse me while I trawl for hymns to sing in the shower. Until the church revives the great hymns of old and sings them alongside more modern compositions that continue their legacy, contain solid theology and give praise to the One who hears the most of all, I see little reason to join in what passes as “worship” these days. Even if I don’t like the tune, the content may be worth singing to a great God… and I hope it will be the case once again.
© 2006, Lu Zheng Ping
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