Astonishing Grace: Studies on Gospel Centered Worship Leadership

Thinking Theologically about Worship 5
MORE THAN WORDS: Worship as Emotional Expression

READ: Psalm 95

DISCUSS:
1. As we look back at ‘worship as remembrance’, how does the psalmist call the people to remember salvation history in the psalm?

2. What is the emotional response that we see in this psalm? How do we see that expressed? What other emotional responses in worship have you noticed in the Bible? (read Psalms 10:1, 12:1-2, 22:1-8, 44: 23-26, 130)

3. What is unique about music and singing in expressing our deepest emotions? How do you see this happening in worship?

4. Do you view worship as a ‘sacred space’ to share our deepest emotions, thoughts, fears, longings, and hopes to God? Why or why not?

5. What are some ways that we can create an environment where people can feel safe to express their whole lives to the God of Grace?? What are the obstacles?

6. How does music and singing in worship focus us and put us in a right frame of mind to encounter God?

REFLECT:
All of worship is response, as Ralph Martin writes: “All worship of God finds its origin in the objective ‘moment’ when God acts and comes into our world in free love. From that ‘moment’ worship becomes the human response to divine revelation.” As we discussed last week, we respond to God in worship when we remember God’s work and orient our lives on Him. This week we are discussing how we respond to God by expressing our whole lives to God in worship.

1. Worship is Emotional.
Worship of the triune God is inherently emotional, because worship cuts to the core of our very being. Worship is encounter with the living God, our creator, lover, redeemer, friend, and Lord, so worship naturally evokes our deepest longings, fears, hopes, frustrations, insecurities, gladness, doubts, and joys. We see this throughout the scriptures, but it is especially portrayed in the Psalms. Walter Brueggeman, Old Testament Scholar, writes this: “The surprise of Israel’s prayer and worship is that the extravagance of praise does not silence or censor Israel’s need but seems to legitimate and authorize a second extravagance, the extravagance of complaint, lament, accusation, petition, indignation, assault, insistence.”

I know from my own life and from many, many people that I have talked to about issues of faith that we have a hard time giving God the hardest and most vulnerable parts of our lives. We have a hard time sharing our doubts, insecurities, worries, and deepest fears, and sometimes we even have a hard time sharing our joys and triumphs, maybe worrying that God does not delight in them with us. The Psalms, though, show us a different understanding of worship, As Brueggeman writes: “The Psalms draw our whole lives under the rule of God, where everything may be submitted to Yahweh.” The Hebrew people understood this, so they felt comfortable bringing to God all that they were feeling, from every aspect and movement of their lives, whether they were praising God or yelling ‘my God why have you forsaken me!’, and they trusted that God was listening and responding.

2. Music and singing in worship are unique languages of emotional expression.
Music has a unique way of helping us express our deepest emotions, and that is why most of the Psalms were meant to be sung in call and response style. We all know how music has impacted and shaped our lives. And we all know how we look to music to echo or express our frustrations, anger, sadness, and joys. This is why music and singing have always been a part of worship, in both Old Testament and New Testament worship, because they are natural responses to ‘divine revelation’.

When we experience God’s mighty works and goodness it is a natural response to “sing for joy to the Lord” and “extol Him with music and song.” (Psalms 95.1) Music is a universal part of the human experience and reflects our non-cognitive feelings and emotions. It captures emotion, mood, feelings, and gives expression to what can’t be said through speech alone. “Consequently,” Stanley Grenz argues, “it is fitting that the people of God express their Christian consciousness through music. In doing so we offer to God our emotions in addition to our creeds, our feelings as well as our beliefs. We offer to him the joy we sense because of His goodness; we share in the sorrow and pain Christ bore on the cross; and we anticipate the day our Lord will return.”

3. Worship is a safe, ‘sacred space’ to give our whole lives to God.
Worship is also safe ‘sacred space’ for us to give our emotions, thoughts, fears, longings, and hopes to God. Johannes Reidel comments in his book ‘Soul Music’ how this tenet has been foundational historically in the worship of black churches in America. Since all musical, artistic and emotional expression was oppressed and squelched by white slave owners, Christian hymns, music, and songs became the “legal place to use up the spiritual and emotional reservoir dammed up by the experience of slavery.” In worship they could be reminded of their history, traditions, and humanity while putting their fears and hope in God.

We also need the church in general, and our worship services specifically, to be ‘sacred spaces’ where we can come to express our deepest emotions, pains, longings, hopes, dreams, doubts, worries, joys, and fears to a real God who encounters us in the real world. Through worship God has provided these safe places for the community to cry out and encounter the living, resurrected Christ in a way that is transformational. This kind of ‘sacred space’ can’t be expressed through preaching and liturgy alone, so that is why sing together, have moments of silence, prayer, waiting, and provide other spaces for people to respond with their whole lives.

4. We need preparation and adjustment to give our whole lives to God in worship
A common frustration among worship leaders is that we just don’t see our congregation responding emotionally enough. This may not be true if you are a Pentecostal/Charismatic worship leader (maybe you want them to be less emotional and focus on the message more!) but if you are in a Reformed church, or another denominational church often we look out at our congregation and see may stoic looks and even some that look outright bored!

Even if we see these types of responses at times, we need to be reminded that we and our congregation can’t just flip a switch to focus on God and give their whole lives to Him. We all need to turn out thoughts and feelings from what we have been focusing on unto God. This is why music and singing serve an essential purpose in worship. No element of worship can put us in the right frame of mind like worship music and singing. Approaching God and being in a worshipful spirit requires preparation and adjustment, and worship music has the ability to lift our spirits to new heights of contemplation and expectancy so that we can give God the honor that He deserves.

Singing and sacred music are the most popular elements of Christian worship because of their ability to put us in safe place to respond with our whole being to God and prepare fully to meet Him in worship. Worship also has a communal dimension that explains its popularity and necessity. As Geoffery Wainwright argues that “familiar words and music…unite the whole assembly in active participation to a degree which is hardly true of any other component in the liturgy.” Yet often our music and singing are used in churches merely as garnish for the liturgy and sermon. This is especially true in traditional mainline denominations where most of the ‘worship wars’ are waged. Worship music is a corporate expression of praise and needs to be central to the churches service for there to be true worship. Music and song are not just ‘fillers’ but, as Wainwright says: “divine worship demands and must receive the concentrated attention of all concerned.” Any less is not worship but entertainment.

Hopefully this has helped to you to be encouraged that what you do as worship leaders and musicians is vitally important and I also hope this has spurned some ideas of how we can help our congregations express their whole lives to God in worship and why it is important. If you have any ideas of how this can be done, please post them on the blog!

ADDITIONAL SCRIPTURES (to read throughout the week):
Psalm 22, Psalm 40: 1-3, Psalm 130, Colossians 3:12-14

REFERENCES (for further reading)
I’ve got a lot for you to check out. All are worthy reads:
1. The Message of the Psalms, by Walter Brueggemann
2. Soul Music Black and White by Johannes Reidel
3. Worship: its Theology and Practice, by J.J Von Allmen
4. Doxology, the Praise of God in Worship, Doctrine and Life, by Geoffery Wainwright
5. The Worship of God, by Ralph P. Martin
6. Theology for the Community of God, by Stanley J. Grenz