The Heart of Worship

A few years back, Matt Redman wrote the song “Heart of Worship”, which is at its core an apology for making worship just “a song”, and this song is lyrically right on the mark.

The terms ‘praise’ and ‘worship’, as used today, almost always bring to mind a particular style of music in a church service. We often hear questions like, “what is the worship like at your church?”, or “how was worship today?” Sadly, some of most bitter disagreements in the Church as a whole have been concerning music, and these typically miss the point of what worship really is.

When searching the Scriptures for the true meanings of these two words in context, we are faced with something that shows that ‘praise’ and ‘worship’ are not synonymous with music, and are actually themselves two very distinct and separate ideas.

The word ‘worship’ as used in the Old Testament is most often translated from the Hebrew word shachah, meaning literally to depress, to bow down, or to prostrate oneself by falling flat. The Greek word proskuneo, translated as ‘worship’ in the New Testament, often carries a similar meaning. It is also the root of the word “prostrate” in our language, and it goes so far as to suggest “to kiss toward”.

The Biblical concept of worship then is one of complete prostration and submission to a Holy God. It is the purest form of reverence.

It is important to acknowledge that this word is not necessarily linked to singing; worship may be found in a lifestyle of humility and prayer, and in silent awe. Worship is at its core the realization of how great a chasm exists between us and God, and the great lengths to which our Messiah went to eliminate it.

The word ‘praise’, on the other hand, is used in a very different way. The words most typically found in the Old Testament are halal and yadah.

The word halal carries the connotation of joyful singing, boastfulness, and goes so far as to suggest acting foolish. It is the action of glorifying God, who is worthy of all honor, without any concern of what others may think. It is shouting from the rooftops, it is proclaiming Him loudly and without inhibition. It is a celebration of our Creator from the overflow of the heart.

Yadah carries a similar meaning of celebration, but is derived from a word that means ‘hand’, and oddly suggests throwing or the shooting of arrows. These two words help define praise as a celebration where the body of believers figuratively “throw” our praises towards a deserving Father.

And so praise and worship are two very distinct and different ideas.

We lift our hands to God in a physical expression of praise, and we bow silently in worship.

We celebrate in such a way that our voices shout in praise to Him, and we fall to our faces in worship, inspired and in awe of all that He is.

We enter His presence with joyful singing, and we reflect on his divine authority in complete submission.

We dance as David danced, and we cry out for mercy as David cried out.

And so the way I see it, when Matt Redman exclaimed that worship is “more than a song”, he was right on the mark.

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A Coffee Culture

Hello.  My name is Jason, and I drink coffee.

On Monday morning, my coffee is bold and black.  By mid-week, sugar and creamer are standard fare, and by Friday night, coffee resembles an ice-cream sundae, topped with cinnamon, chocolate and whipped cream.

But it wasn’t always that way. 

As a kid I was intrigued by coffee.  This drink was not recommended to the young or faint of heart. It was a ‘grown-ups only’ beverage. But even then there was no denying the allure of the Coffee Culture, or that I would someday join it.  Everyone had a coffee pot in the kitchen, and everyone had a coffee table in the living room.  Coffee was brewing over cinematic campfires, keeping cowboys warm on those frosty mornings on the range. It was brewing on Saturday mornings, when my grandparents would invite friends over to talk and partake of the mystic beverage.  It was plentiful every Sunday at church, and it was even present at school, where every teacher had a cup on their desk.   

As an adult it beckoned from the corner donut shops, and it was placed prominently in each break room of every place I have ever worked.  Every one of those jobs even came with government mandated ‘coffee breaks’.  Eventually I gave in to the alluring aroma and I haven’t looked back. 

Simply put, coffee is everywhere.

From a musician’s perspective, coffee shops are great places to perform.  Coffee people appreciate good music, and free coffee is always good payment.

Coffee is both comforting and invigorating. A freshly-brewed pot of coffee assures us that Juan Valdez is still out there somewhere sending us the finest beans in Columbia, that Peter will be home for Christmas, and that all kinds of meaningful conversation can still be had ‘over a cup of coffee’.  No matter what is going on in life, we can always talk about it over coffee.  

Coffee is the quiet player behind our national political heritage.  President Obama’s historical 2008 inaugural speech was written on a laptop at Starbucks in Washington D.C., and even Thomas Jefferson deemed coffee “the favorite drink of the civilized world”.  I can just imagine Jefferson writing the Declaration of Independence at a Philadelphia café.  Over a cup of coffee.  And do we really think the rest of the Founding Fathers got through those late-night Congressional meetings without it?  

The great composer J. S. Bach was well-known as an avid coffee aficionado.  His whimsical piece, “The Coffee Cantata” was a satirical look at coffee addiction, which was apparently a scandalous social problem in 1732.  The unusual cantata contains memorable quips such as "How sweet coffee tastes! Lovelier than a thousand kisses, sweeter than Muscatel wine!", and" Without my morning coffee, I'm just like a dried up piece of roast goat." Admittedly not his finest work, and the roast goat analogy is indeed a bit disturbing, but what kind of lyrics do you expect the man to write after four cups of coffee?

Take a drive around most American cities, and you will notice there is a Starbucks on nearly every corner these days. Of course, most people prefer the ones with free wi-fi.  Because the morning brew of Ward Cleaver has even made itself a staple of our fast-paced technological world.   

Coffee is everywhere.

We celebrate over coffee, we wake up with coffee, we fall in love and break things off over coffee, we seek solitude and friendship over coffee. We pray, read, think, laugh, cry, work and play over coffee.   

Love it or hate it, we are a Coffee Culture, and coffee is not going away anytime soon. 

At least that’s the way I see it . . .

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Ever Heard of Carl Boberg?

         
         Ever Heard of Carl Boberg?

Our family is in the habit of having a daily worship time together, and one of the important parts of our worship time is to sing a hymn together.  Each Sunday night we sing a hymn and read about the story behind the song.  In a world filled with modern worship music, where a song from ten years ago can be deemed as “old”, it is refreshing to sing songs that have been around for so many years, and in some cases centuries.  The stories of how these songs came to us are amazing and often exciting.

For example, did you know that the song “I Know Whom I Have Believed” was written by a Union soldier during the Civil War, who was held as a prisoner of war and became a believer while praying for a dying soldier?

 

Or that the prolific hymn writer Fanny Crosby (over 8,000 hymns!) was blind from infancy, yet was able to memorize the first five books of the Bible, the four Gospels, the Proverbs, and most of the Psalms?

Which brings us to Carl Boberg.

Carl Boberg had recently quit his work as a sailor and was working as a lay-minister in his native Sweden (he would later go on to be a newspaper editor and a member of Swedish Parliament).  In 1885, he was inspired by the sound of church bells ringing during a wild thunderstorm, and penned the poem “O Great God”.

Although it was published, Boberg’s nine-verse poem didn’t really catch on, and it seemed destined to be all but forgotten.   However, someone out there liked it enough to match it with a traditional Swedish melody in 1888, and when Boberg found out, he published the poem and the music in his own newspaper in 1891. 

Fast forward to the 1930’s - English missionary Stuart Hine heard the song being sang (in Russian) while in Poland.  Deeply moved by the song, he translated it into English, changed the musical arrangement, some of the wording, and took it home with him to England.  In English, the song was called “How Great Thou Art”.     

On to the 1940’s - Evangelist Dr. Edwin Orr heard this new version of the song being sung by native tribal people in Assam, India, and inspired by it, he brought the song back to the States. 

In 1954 the song found its way into the hands of George Beverly Shea, who sang the song nearly 100 times during Billy Graham’s 1957 New York crusade. In 1959 it became the theme song for Billy Graham’s weekly radio broadcast, bringing “How Great Thou Art” into the national consciousness.

In 1978, the performing rights organization ASCAP named the song as “The All-Time Outstanding Gospel Song” in America.   It has consistently been listed as one of the greatest hymns ever written, usually falling at #2 (right behind Amazing Grace).

How astonishing that this song, recorded over 1,700 times in the last 50 years, had its origins as a poem in a small town in Sweden and somehow wound its way around the globe.  Carl Boberg would never know the influence of his song.  He died in 1940 – over a decade before “How Great Thou Art” became famous in New York City.  Like Carl, we also may never know which of our words or actions will influence the next century.  But we can bet in some way, large or small, they will.    

Such are the stories of hymns.

In our increasingly myopic world, songs like these and the stories behind them are an inspiration. The lives of those who penned them, how they penned them, and the reasons why help to build a bond of legacy with those who have gone before us, and those to come.  These songs now cease to be “old and boring”, but become suddenly relevant and filled with life; meaningful expressions of worship written by real people that we can relate to, understand, and appreciate.     

At least that’s the way I see it . . .

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