Raising Mine Ebenezer

Based upon the comments from last week, I gather that many readers here believe with me that neither one generalized type of "church music" nor the other is of itself better or worse than the other, but that the intrinsic value of the music is dependent upon how it enables a person to express worship, thanks, praise, repentance, etc.

While I'm not an advocate of dumbing down the lyrics of our music to make them universally accessible on a sixth-grade level (which used to be a rule of thumb for songwriting in Nashville), I believe that it can be counterproductive in some cases to pack a mass of deep theology or Biblical narrative into a song.

I know what it means on the rare occasion that I sing, "Here I raise mine Ebenezer," which is part of the second verse of "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing." I had to look it up. "Ebenezer" means "stone of help" and is from 1 Samuel 7:12. I'd argue that the music/worship leader must explain exactly what this means before singing the verse, and it's not a particularly quick explanation. Not that all explanations must be short to be good, but to be honest, it still doesn't give the song's verse much more meaning than it would if I didn't know about what the phrase meant, and sang right through it and thought, "Hm. I guess this is something in the Bible..." The verse has been rewritten over the past few years to say, "Hitherto Thy love has blessed me," and I think that's a justified change (although I'd still never speak like that).

On the opposite side, I've heard from people (not a part of our church fellowship) who say that some modern worship songs could be sung to a person's spouse or boyfriend or girlfriend. I'd give this opinion some weight if that were all that were sung in a church. Oddly, I've never been directed to a specific song when this argument has been presented, and the only song I can think of that's been publicly lambasted like this is "Draw Me Close," by Chuck Colson, and I fully am not in agreement with his argument nor the disruptive way in which he expressed his disdain. Would like to know what song(s) you feel will fit into this category.

But if that really were the case, wouldn't the setting -- a worship service -- dictate that we are, by definition, singing the song to God? And if so, wouldn't that make the song all the more intimate as an expression of love and admiration? Again, the proper use of a song is very important, so continually filling worship services with only abstract, could-be-to-your-wife (or "nightclub" songs, as Colson opines) songs is not Scriptural...

Colossians 3:16 says,"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord." I do not take this to mean that we're to communicate Sunday School lessons through our songs, nor are we bound to musically raise our Ebenezers. The verse says that we are to be singing to the Lord; not to one another. As we sing to Him (including singing His Word back to Him), His Word is what's going to do the teaching and admonishing (cautioning or reproving gently).

Posted in: Music, The Church, Worship