I really appreciate Matt Redman’s honesty in this clip. I applaud his admission about searching Scripture and finding it hard to find the romantic imagery used in many modern worship songs.
I don’t know if you are the type of person who finds it a little challenging to sing songs that seem like love songs to God. When I talk about love songs, I’m talking about the ones you hear on the radio for lovers.
One of my favorite Southpark episodes is Christian Hard Rock from season 7.
What I really like about this episode is that it makes fun of Christian songs by saying the formula is easy. Just replace words like “baby” with “Jesus” and you have a Christian hit. For example “I love you, baby” becomes “I love you, Jesus.”
The problem with lyric writing like this is that it is self-focused. There are good things about acknowledging the thought and feelings we have about God, but they have to be based on the truth.
God doesn’t ask us to be in a love relationship with Him that is analogous to a man and woman falling in love. Though there is the image of the church as the bride of Christ, we are to love God by obeying His commands.
Jesus is not my boyfriend and He’s not supposed to be my boyfriend. He is my Lord, my Savior and my God. Did we ever consider that maybe God created a special love feeling for human beings that is similar but not exactly like the love we should have for God?
What is interesting to me is that when people encounter God in Scripture, they don’t go on about how beautiful or lovely He is. People usually are stunned, blown away by His holiness and His power. There is an awesomeness about God that cannot be described. It doesn’t cause gushy feelings in our hearts, but instead makes us fall to our knees.
I’m not saying that He is not beautiful or lovely, what I am saying is that it is not the emphasis of Scripture. Look up “beautiful” and “lovely” with “God” or “Lord.” Then look up “holy” and “mighty” with “God” or “Lord” and you will find many more hits.
This is what I am thinking: Scripture’s emphasis should be reflected in the lyrics of the worship songs we sing.
thoughts on worship 