Thursday, October 26, 2006

Why Worship? (Part II)

     Having brought to light this true definition of worship in Part I, I wish to address some key points about our own worship in hopes of revealing its importance as well as help give greater clarity and purpose to your own worship habits so that the full benefit is realized and your worship experience is deepened. As you read on, ask the Holy Spirit to open your heart and mind and let him speak to you through what I have written.

                                     Music, Power, Purpose

     A popular form of worship in the Christian community is, of course, worship music. David is probably recognized as the leading worshiper in the Bible. We know that David, in addition to being a king, was a musician, prophet, psalmist, songwriter, and worshiper. He used music as a vehicle for worship, as we can easily see from his writings in the book of Psalms. The tradition of worship set to music has been carried on through the ages, bringing us to where we are today. In the paragraphs that follow I wish for the reader to understand why David was such a passionate worshiper, even to the point of stripping down to his undergarment in public to dance before his God. But we should also take a moment to understand why he so often combined music with his worship. Music is something most every human can relate to. It has the ability to move our emotions from joy to tears or from celebration to anger. David learned this at a very young age. We see in I Samuel, chapter 16, that Saul requested David to come and play his lyre to drive away the evil spirit that was tormenting him. So we know that music also has the ability to affect things in the spiritual realm.

     There are many people in congregations everywhere who would really prefer we “skip all the music and just have the preaching of the Word”, as I’ve heard them say. (Explaining why they feel that way would require a separate chapter altogether, but that is not the purpose of this text.) Perhaps these people simply don’t have an appreciation for music, and that’s okay. As long as a time exists for the purpose of worship, whether or not there is music to accompany it is not quite as important. To be clear however, music and songs are mediums, or tools, of worship. They are not worship in and of themselves. We don’t have to sing songs to be worshiping God. In fact, if we wait until the songs begin on Sunday morning before we worship, then we have missed it completely. However, since the first 20 to 30 minutes of the average church gathering is taken up with worship music, why not receive the full benefit of its purpose? The purpose first and foremost should simply be to worship God. After that, if we understand the power of music, we can impact the heavenlies with a sound of worship that pushes back the spiritual darkness in the atmosphere. The sound of true worship is not a man-made sound. This sound is described in Revelation 19:6 as “the shout of a vast throng, like the boom of many pounding waves, and like the roar of terrific and mighty peals of thunder.” This is what drives away the enemy in the spirit realm. My desire is that we make this kind of sound with our worship as congregations--lifting up one voice of worship unto God rather than just have worship music and sing praise and worship songs.

     As a musician, I play, write, sing, listen to, and enjoy music in many different forms. I certainly enjoy being able to create my own expression of worship through the music I make. I do not wish to change the tradition of opening our gatherings with music. What I would like to change is the tradition of doing it for the sake of tradition. I remember visiting the downtown area of a popular tourist destination where there were many horse-drawn carriages available for hire to take tours of the city. We noticed that each carriage had a Dalmatian sitting in the seat along with the driver. Being curious, we asked one of the drivers the reason all the carriages had this thing in common. He couldn’t accurately answer the question except to say that it was ‘just tradition’. My fear is that this would be the same answer from many church attendees if asked why we sing and have music at the beginning of our gatherings.

     Since most mainstream churches use music in their gatherings, I simply want to lay a proper foundation for how we utilize this time and ensure there is a sound understanding of worship and music and how the two can have a powerful interaction. For a firm foundation, our worship and worship music should serve two primary purposes: 1) That God alone would receive the honor and praise that is due Him; and 2) that the church would fall completely in love with the One we worship, rather than the worship itself. If we’re choosing to sing songs which we call ‘worship songs’, then we should also be choosing to use them according to their purpose, not just because of tradition. If you want to drive a nail, use a hammer; if you want to drive a screw, use a screwdriver. Reversing the use of these tools will achieve nothing but frustration and wasted time. To put it bluntly, so it is with our worship music if we are not using it for the right purpose.

This concludes Part II. Chew on this a while and let it sink in. Ask the Holy Spirit to speak to you concerning it. In Part III, we'll talk about our destination in worship.

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