Singing Through The Bible

In one the uncomfortably probing episodes of the series South Park, Cartman forms a Christian band by taking love songs and replacing "girl" with "Jesus". Christians have made similar critiques of modern Worship music but there is often a rebuttal and justification. If you look at the Psalms and Song of Songs, they are extremely romantic.

While this is true, Psalms has a great depth to it that includes more than as I heard one person put it, "Jesus is my girlfriend" songs. There are songs that describe different aspects of God's character, that talk about his protection, his glory, his justice, his mercy. There are also songs of lament that cry out to God in pain and confusion which sometimes end in confidence that God will deliver but other times dwell in that questioning.

Theology in our Singing

The head of our Worship teams has pointed out that our songs may be the main theology our congregation hears. While we may listen keenly to a sermon on Sunday, few listen again later in the week and an even slimmer percentage will listen again and again.

Songs are different.

We often sing the same songs at Church and members of the congregation will listen to songs at home, at work and on the go. The theology in our songs may be more remembered than our sermons.

Singing through the bible

So we're focusing on songs that aren't just "it's lovely to be in your presence", although they certainly are part of what we sing. We're seeking to avoid focusing exclusively on God's love but his whole nature, character and attributes.

It is no coincidence that we're reading through "Incomparable" by Andrew Wilson which looks at attributes of God's character including the names that he uses for himself throughout the bible.

Sing a new song

A final part is to write new songs that take these classic truths for our context. Perhaps I'll be able to share something with you.