You have stolen my heart.
I'm captivated by you.
Never will you and I part.
I've fallen deeply in love with you.
*~*~*
This is the chorus to one of my favorite songs. You know as both a teenager and a piano player in training, I practically eat sleep and breathe the music in my life. Music is a form of expression, a thing of great beauty and grave power. Music inspires where ordinary words fell short. It calls to action where the speech of persuasion failed. It touches a place where all other attempts to melt a heart were in vain.
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I love my music almost to the point of obsession sometimes, this song included. However, I have found a serious problem entering our youth groups, churches and personal worship times as well. Read that chorus over again, and what feeling does it give you? Ahhh, it is a love song. How sweet! Any girl's heart would skip a beat at having this sung to her, would it not? Mine would. Yet my church and a great many others sing this song to God, the All-powerful Maker and Creator of the Universe. Sure you can change all the "you"s to "You"s and call it worship, but in reality what truly distinguishes this from a love song between a boyfriend and girlfriend or married couple? I won't say nothing, I cannot in honesty say nothing does. It is the heart of the worshiper that God looks at in musical worship, verbal prayer, and silent praise. The depth of your words are not what matters, but the offering and surrendering of your soul. This I believe with all my heart and is why I continue to vote this catchy tune as one of my favorite worship songs.
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All the same though, think of how far most modern worship has fallen from the solemn and majestic words of the hymns of old. Consider one of my favorite hymns, Abide With Me...
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Abide with me; fast falls the eventide
The darkness deepens; Lord with me abide
When other helpers fail and comforts flee
Help of the helpless, O abide with me
Thou on my head in early youth didst smile
And, though rebellious and perverse meanwhile
Thou hast not left me, oft as I left Thee
On to the close, O Lord, abide with me
*~*~*
I copied only a couple verses out of the eight that Henry F. Lyte penned in 1847, just before dying of tuberculosis. Yes, some of the words are outdated. Yes, the song in its entirety carries the exact same tune throughout, no catchy guitar solo or keyboard interlude, no funky or dramatic bridge to break up what seems to be monotony. But very few things in this world other than God's own precious Word, still have the power after all these years to bring such rippling waves of hope faith and repentance over the sea of believers and even unbelievers that hear these inspired words of truth. Even I, who have read the lyrics to this song many many times before, still get shivers when I realize how freakishly it is speaking to me and about me. And here it is, well over 150 years later. I wonder if Mr. Lyte or Miss Crosby or Mr. Newton knew the powerful affect that these simple show-less verses would have on the world over 100 years in the future. Their songs speak of God's majesty, His pure redeeming grace, His Godliness, His unrelenting forgiveness and mercy. Their songs cry out of personal weakness, rebellion, failure, backsliding, but always the fear awe and ultimate praise of the All-knowing, All-powerful God of creation.
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In comparison, what do the majority of our praise songs have to say? "I love you, yes I love you." Funny, I remember crooning those exact same words to my cat...and a piece of beef jerky (yum). "You are holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy..." Yes, the angels may sing "holy, holy, holy" for all of eternity but somehow I think it will sound less chantish than this does.
*~~*
Still do not get me wrong. There are some incredibly gifted worshipers and songwriters today that God has truly inspired to write beautiful and touching music. Only, when I personally am praising God, I like to know that not only am I singing to my Lord and Savior, but that every word and thought behind that song no matter who it is being sung to will point directly to God, no guessing required. Early hymn writers were by no means sissy Christians. They endured hardships, sicknesses, and oppositions that many of us will never know in our lifetimes. They knew what kind of God they worshiped (and still worship to this day) and their music reveals this in a way that very little music has dared to come close to since. Where modern day worship leaves a sort of emptiness, almost a certain lacking in itself, the words of hymns proclaim in pure beauty and simplicity such lines as...
*~*~*
When Christ shall come, with shout of acclamation,
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart.
Then I shall bow, in humble adoration,
And then proclaim: "My God, how great Thou art!"
