Blogotional

The Upward Call is asking a question.

I'm serious. If anyone of you knows a pastor or elder, or theologian, be it armchair or professional, (and she could be female!) who could give me an opinion, I'd appreciate it. If you aren't one of those people, but you know someone like that, could you ask?

What do you think about this statement: "Music is the language of worship."

Rebecca gives a nice short answer

I think Paul is telling us that a worshipful attitude works itself out in service to God, doing all those things listed in the rest of the book of Romans. You know, like renewing our minds, loving the brethren, living peacably, submitting to our governing authorities, etc., etc...

So I'd say the "language of worship" (whatever that means) is right conduct. We communicate our worshipful attitude by living our lives rightly.

Rebecca is absolutely correct, I'd just like to add some background and source material. The American Heritage Dictionary defines worship this way

The reverent love and devotion accorded a deity, an idol, or a sacred object.
The ceremonies, prayers, or other religious forms by which this love is expressed.

Accepting that definition then the phrase Kim is asking about must mean that "music is the way we express our love to God." Since this seems to be mostly a ladies discussion, I'm going to ask this question in response to that -- Ladies, how do you know a gentleman is sincere in his devotion to you? Is it when he declares his affection, or when he acts on it?

Let's look at a Bible dictionary definition -- from Unger's Bible Dictionary

WORSHIP. The act of paying honor to a deity; religious reverence and homage. The rendering of the following Heb. and Gk. words:

1. Heb. shaha (to "bow down"), to prostrate oneself before another in order to do him honor and reverence (<Gen. 22:5>; etc.). This mode of salutation consisted in falling upon the knees and then touching the forehead to the ground (<19:1; 42:6; 48:12; 1 Sam. 25:41>; etc., often rendered "bowed"). It is, however, used specifically to bow down before God; spoken of worship rendered to God, and also to false gods <Gen. 22:5; Exo. 24:1; 33:10; Judg. 7:15; Job 1:20; Pss. 22:27; 86:9>.

2. Aram. segid (to "fall down"), spoken of in connection with idol worship; to fall down in adoration of idols <Dan. 3:5-6,10-12,14-15,28>; in honor of a man, as of <Daniel (2:46>).

3. Heb. `asab (to "carve, labor"), to serve an idol, as in <Jer. 44:19>; or according to others, to fashion her, i.e., the image (see Orelli, Com., ad loc.).

4. The Gk. words thus rendered are: proskuneo, properly to "kiss the hand to (toward) one," in token of reverence; also by kneeling or prostration to do homage-- the word most frequently used in the NT; sebomai, to "revere" a deity <Matt. 15:9; Mark 7:7; Acts 18:13; 19:27>. Proselytes of the gate are called worshipers of God (sebomene ton theon, <16:14>; <18:7>), or simply "devout persons" (tois sebomenois, <17:17>, "God-fearing"). Latreuo (to "serve") in the NT means to render religious service or honor and in the strict sense to perform sacred services, to offer gifts, to worship God in the observance of the rites instituted for His worship <Heb. 10:2; 9:9>. Ethelothreskeia ("voluntary worship"), i.e., worship that one devises and prescribes for himself, contrary to the contents and nature of the faith that ought to be directed to Christ; used for the misdirected zeal and practices of ascetics <Col. 2:23>. Therapeuo to "do service," as in <Acts 17:25>.

All of this points to worship being far more than simply a declaration of our love for God -- worship is in fact a demonstrated devotion to God. Thus language is a secondary concern. Another interesting thing from all of that is that of all those passages cited, only Daniel 3:10-12 mentions music and it mentions it relative to a false God.

10 You have issued a decree, O king, that everyone who hears the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes and all kinds of music must fall down and worship the image of gold, 11 and that whoever does not fall down and worship will be thrown into a blazing furnace. 12 But there are some Jews whom you have set over the affairs of the province of Babylon?Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego?who pay no attention to you, O king. They neither serve your gods nor worship the image of gold you have set up."

So, it appears that the genuine language of worship is action, whether it be symbolic, which involves bowing or prostrating, or genuine action is service. That does not mean that music is not an acceptable part of worship, but it is not defintionally a part of worship, and if not joined with action, it is empty and void and meaningless.

That is true for other Sunday worship forms as well. Any declaration of affection is void and meaningless apart from service and action.

Now some personal observations. I have heard statements like those Kim is asking about made numerous times. I generally run into them as justification for changing the Sunday morning worship service - the now fairly common jettisoning of a standard and liturgical order of worship for the "free-flowing" use of contemporary music, sometimes punctuated with prayer, and culminating in a sermon of some sort.

In my opinion such "contemporary" worship is not best - I don't think it asks the participant to grow in any fashion, I think that it is designed to not challenge, which fills the pews, but I have serious questions about how it makes disciples. It probabaly works well for existing disciples, but I don't think it calls anyone forward to MORE. But let's set that aside for a minute, let's assume a more neutral position that it is all a matter of taste, and contemporary worship is just a switch to more contemporary taste. In that situation, the statement "Music is the language of worship" is an ineffective arguement because it does not specify the type of music, at best it says "let's sing more."

But the real problem with the statement in that context is that it negates deeper and more meaningful forms of worship. It says -- what happens in this service; that is real worhsip - what happens the rest of the week is secondary. Is that really a message we want to give? I certainly don't think so.

Worship flows out of our devotion to Christ -- It expresses itself in our committment to Him. It is easy to say (or in this case sing) one is committed to someone -- it is another thing altogether to live out that committment. It is the living out of the committment that lends truth to the statements. Otherwise we can make the statements in any language and they are simply unimportant.