One of the characteristics of the Contemporary Christian
Music worship movement has been writing songs that express a deep personal
intimacy with God. This intimacy is expressed in lyrics that read like love
letters to the Creator and Redeemer. This is appropriate for private worship
but I question whether this type of song is best for the public worship
gathering.
The psalms of the Hebrew Bible are no strangers to
expressing desire and longing for God. Psalm 42 “As the deer pants for water,
so my soul longs for you, O God” is a beautiful picture of the desire for
intimacy with God. David’s direct address of the Divine shows his closeness
with God: “How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of
them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I
awake, I am still with you.” (Ps 139:17-18) David was intimate with God.
There is something exhilarating about being in the midst of
a group of worshipers so caught up in their private communion with God that all
else disappears from their consciousness. For them, it must be a lot like that
first teenage kiss: the feelings of wonder and joy are overwhelming; you feel
like you’re going to melt.
But I propose that the most intimate expressions of our love
for God should be reserved for the private “prayer closet” (Matthew 6:5-8) and
not be put on public display. It’s like a lovey-dovey married couple. Between a
husband and wife there are appropriate expressions of affection behind closed
doors that are completely inappropriate in public. I think that principle holds
true for public worship as well.
Public worship is just that – public. It is the gathering of
the body, the community. The corporate expression of adoration, praise, lament,
surrender requires an outlet different from personal intimacy. The actions for
corporate worship need to be actions that the group can do together. Therefore
I strive to choose singable songs and to get us comfortable with new songs; we
do all we can to provide good sight and sound and temperature – so what we do
together we can do with a minimum of distraction.
Well, those are my thoughts on the subject. We all have
different personalities with varied emotional and expressive capacities.
Whatever we do in our gatherings for worship, let us do it to the honor and
glory of Christ. (1 Cor. 10:31-33) AMEN
