Music and lyrics as a form of worship

[Pteriax]

I posted a topic earlier regarding Christian music of varying genres such as metal or rap, and there seems to be a general consensus that it is two things that allow music to be acceptable or used for worship as a Christian.

1: The lyrics must be godly

2: The music must speak to you on a spiritual level or be uplifting

This is by no means exhaustive or absolute, but rather a general rule in my observation.

I thought it would be interesting to share some of our favorite Christian music lyrics and a bit about why they speak to us, or what they mean to us, why they are uplifting and so forth. I personally love music. Music is very spiritual to me, it expresses things that words alone cannot. It expresses emotion that cannot be given words.

But lets not just take turns sharing, lets comment on and discuss each other's songs!

Okay, to start, I want to share the song "The world is a Thorn" by Demon Hunter.

The gavel has fallen, along with the rest.
Are we expected to settle for this?
Bring us the plague, lead us away.
Blacken tomorrow with ash of today.
Can't you see the fabric of our standards wearing thin?
See your world in its grave at the hands of the enslaved.

Won't bow to man. Won't bow to government.
Won't trust in a failed system of self-fulfilling lust.
Won't love a world where my God is mocked.
I defy.

Oh, a kiss on the serpent's head.
We walk in the line of deceit, the walking dead.
Can't you feel the ground of our discretion giving way?
Refusal of hope, solution demise.
Bury the truth in a mountain of lies.

Won't bow to man.
Won't bow to government.
Won't trust in a failed system of self-fulfilling lust.
Won't love a world where my God is mocked.
I defy.

This is what you try to sell me.
Subjective nothingness.
Pull your sickness from my throat.
Let me breathe the truth.
Let me breathe the truth.

Won't bow to man.
Won't bow to government.
Won't bow to greed.
Won't bow to false hope.
Won't bow to self.
Won't bow to modern code.
Won't sell my soul to a dead world. I defy.

Okay, to me this song reminds me of Jude 3 and "earnestly contending for the faith" but it goes deeper. It is about how and why Christians should set themselves apart from any worldliness, and how worldliness is in direct opposition to godliness. It also speaks of dying to the 'self' which is very important to the Christian. The self wants to be worldly, you see, and it is that desire that we are purging when we (as Paul said) "put away the old man". The process of becoming godly may start overnight, but after that it takes the rest of our lives to do. We must strive daily with the world - selfish desires, temptation, pride, hedonism, and things of this nature. Anyone get anything different from the song? I think you could listen to it on youtube or playlist if you want to hear it rather than just reading it.

 

[Pteriax]

Anyone at all?

 

[TamaraLynne]

I can't hear the music part

But I agree with you...both are important.

One day when I was feeling quite low when i lost my job and had to work as a temp with low pay and bills piling up and then my mom died I heard a song on the radio that soooo spoke to me in that moment and it was as if God was talking to me through a song letting me know he knew.. and he was there and my flame would not go out. He knew I was tired inside.

This Little Light of Mine - Addison Road - YouTube

 

[TamaraLynne]

I can't hear the music part

But I agree with you...both are important.

One day when I was feeling quite low when i lost my job and had to work as a temp with low pay and bills piling up and then my mom died I heard a song on the radio that soooo spoke to me in that moment and it was as if God was talking to me through a song letting me know he knew.. and he was there and my flame would not go out. He knew I was tired inside.

This Little Light of Mine - Addison Road - YouTube

 

[TamaraLynne]

oops a double post ...

 

[TamaraLynne]

As far as worship to God I really like how Jesus Culture brings that right out in me...wow...like I'm right in the arms of God...Love that kind of worship music I can't help but let how I feel for him come from my heart and mouth. It is different then the song I posted above.

 

[TamaraLynne]

The song you posted above sounds angry as far as the words...I haven't listened to the music part yet or how the person says it....but it could be an angry song...or it could be sad and longing with a touch of determination I'll go listen

 

[TamaraLynne]

Owww...so sorry...I could not make it through the song...its the kind of music my husband likes but I just ...can't...make myself...listen.

 

[Pteriax]

The song you posted above sounds angry as far as the words...I haven't listened to the music part yet or how the person says it....but it could be an angry song...or it could be sad and longing with a touch of determination I'll go listen

Owww...so sorry...I could not make it through the song...its the kind of music my husband likes but I just ...can't...make myself...listen.

It's not for everyone, that's for sure. But I love it.

 

[Iosias]

Music and lyrics is a great film

The Way Back Into Love - Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore - YouTube

 

[Pteriax]

Music and lyrics is a great film

Really?

 

[Iosias]

Well my wife likes it...so I like it too!

 

[Pteriax]

Well my wife likes it...so I like it too!

rofl

 

[Pteriax]

The song I get my title from, as well as part of a quote in my sig.Enjoy!

"Someone To Hate"

A figure for the closing of time, the antagonist divine
Void of vacant word, one final answer to be heard
I will carry my decree into a storm of lead
This is total war, my want for tolerance is dead

To my last breath
I am someone to hate
I will spit upon the idol for which you stand
I will carry the weight
I will bury your deception with a wrathful hand

Heart is cold, and my weapons are washed in blood
I avow to the call on high
My resolve in the blessed above, in this ever-consuming divide

A figure for the closing of time, the antithesis defined
Threat to faith untrue, I am the enemy of new
All you advocates of Hell, you corruptors of free will
The culling is nigh, better get your fill

I am the cry for the falling of time

Born into the lust within our eyes
Taught to write the scriptures for our lives
We inherit the lies

To my last breath, to my final day

This is one of my favorite songs by Demon Hunter and it has a special place in my heart (and music library!).
This is Christian metal at its finest.
To me metal (including a lot of secular metal) is angry music. Anger primarily at some injustice, whether that injustice be personal, political, religious, or things of that nature. In this case it is a righteous anger directed at false Christians, exemplified by Christ Himself driving money changers from the temple with a whip.

Here is a good snippet from an article on the subject of metal:
Metal 101: What is heavy metal all about? - Los Angeles Metal Music | Examiner.com

Once upon a time, it was obvious what heavy metal was all about. It wasn't just denim and leather, neither was it purely a guitar tone, a riff, or a lead line, although all of these things are definitely manifestations of what we call metal, and helped to define it as a subculture in its youth. Underneath it all, however, was something greater than this -- almost like an attitude, but that isn't quite the right word. Blues, rock-and-roll and punk also have attitude, but these aren't genres of metal, even if all three left their mark on it.
More than attitude, metal is a worldview that encompasses all of life around and within. It isn't necessarily an individual rebelling against society, but it affirms (by its very hellish existence) that our so-called enlightened modern world might not be as perfect and pure as we'd like to think, but also that using our imaginations a little, we can fight it by creating and celebrating music that's loud, aggressive, tormented, and beautiful all at once, just like us. It's not all about me and what I want, but it is about what the world is really like, and likes to hammer home the perennial truth that it's always been this way, and probably will always be this way. After all, like Heraclitus said, the "thunderbolt steers all things," and so conflict is a feature of our existence. War, insanity, inequality, pain, loss, and death will always be with us, according to metal, and these very themes constantly reappear in the lyrics to metal songs. And as you've probably noticed, metal recognizes its own boundaries. X isn't metal while Y is, and if such discrimination is too "elitist" for you, well, you probably don't belong here in the first place, and chances are you'll have left metal behind long before we do.
...


If your only experience of metal is Slipknot, you might not believe me. But if you have ever experienced wonder at seeing city streets flooded with rain or at hearing the cry of wolves at night, or lain awake at night pondering the mysteries of death and existence, or even just felt the pleasure and pathos of good Romantic literature and music, then in a sense, you already know what metal is all about.

Seems to me that Christianity and metal mesh together very well.

 

[Rev Randy]

Orthodox hymns Great Doxology (Arabic / English / Greek) - YouTube

 

[seeingeyes]

I don't find the lyrics to either of those very 'uplifting'. Really it just 'me against everyone else' with a bit of Christianese thrown in there for good measure, but I don't see Christ in there.

Can you picture Jesus saying, "I am the enemy of everything new'? Or even 'the gavel has fallen' for that matter?

These are certainly counter-cultural songs, but I don't know that they point to the culture of the kingdom of God. It's easy enough to hate everyone else for Jesus. Much harder to follow in his steps.

 

[seeingeyes]

This one I like a bit more:

We lay face in pale solitude.
To save face, we pulled our walls in front of you.
To the same place where we danced in front of you.
We fell from grace and watched the hope'fall from your face.
This isn't me i used to say.
All the love was so gone.
It feels good to be alive.
I've been dead for so long: and all the broken promises. I can't face.
Afraid if someone notices, I lose my place.
Fractured, broken, paralyzed.
I need some space, tear me open, analyze.
This isn't me i used to say. All the love was so gone.
It feels good to be alive. I've been dead for so long.
Wake up screaming, I'm awake and dreaming, And i won't stop breathing until my heart stops beating.
This isn't me, i used to say.
All the love was so gone, It feels good to be alive, I've been dead for so long.
-Demon Hunter, My Throat is an Open Grave

This one seems self-reflective, rather than just p***ed off at everyone.

 

[bornofGod888]

The song you posted above sounds angry as far as the words...I haven't listened to the music part yet or how the person says it....but it could be an angry song...or it could be sad and longing with a touch of determination I'll go listen

I'm with you. The lyrics do sound angry and not in a righteous manner. Jesus wept for His enemies and was willing to lay down His life for them and I don't detect that same type of Spirit in those lyrics and I'm all for "earnestly contending for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints" myself.

Besides, the word "worship", as used in the Bible, conjures up the image of those prostrating themselves before God or bowing down humbly at His/someone's feet. Personally, I couldn't imagine doing that with those lyrics going through my head. Quite frankly, it sounds more like something that an Army Drill Sergeant would pump into His soldiers heads before sending them out to kill...

 

[Joykins]

I don't find angry music/lyrics like that personally uplifting, but I can see how others might relate to it that way.

I personally find the hymns of Charles Wesley very uplifting.

 

[Pteriax]

I don't find the lyrics to either of those very 'uplifting'. Really it just 'me against everyone else' with a bit of Christianese thrown in there for good measure, but I don't see Christ in there.

Can you picture Jesus saying, "I am the enemy of everything new'? Or even 'the gavel has fallen' for that matter?

These are certainly counter-cultural songs, but I don't know that they point to the culture of the kingdom of God. It's easy enough to hate everyone else for Jesus. Much harder to follow in his steps.

Yes, I sure can. He said similar enough things. Did you read my thoughts on each song? I get that it's not for everyone, but just because you don't get it does not mean that it is simply a counter culture song with some Christianity thrown in, because that is a far cry from the reality of it.