Tag: The Poetry of Worship

The Poetry of Worship: Engaging the Heart and More (9)

The Poetry of Worship: Unity and Focus (4)

November 10, 2018 / Trent / 0 Comments

Photo by Rachel Lynette French on Unsplash

Purpose

A praise and worship song must have a purpose. This seems obvious. Of course, they all have one general purpose: to bring a group of people into the praise and worship of the triune God. For a song to effectively achieve this general purpose, it needs to have a narrower one as well.

[click_to_tweet tweet=”An excellent praise and worship song will hold together; it will be unified around a purpose–a very specific purpose.. #worshipleader #praiseandworship #worshipsong #praisesong #worshipsongwriting” quote=”An excellent praise and worship song will hold together; it will be unified around a purpose–a very specific purpose.”]

An excellent song will hold together; it will be unified around a central purpose.

All our songs are generally about God and the Gospel as it intersects the Christian life. If you are writing a song that praises God, narrow it to praise just one of the persons of the Trinity. But you can be still more specific. If you are writing about God the Father, narrow it to one which praises God as a father, or for his Creation, or for his strength to overcome what opposes us, or his grace to save us, or his providence, or his love, or any number of specific things for which we could praise him. Of course, this narrowing of purpose might mean your song won’t be sung as often, but it will be sung longer because it will lead to more meaningful worship.

Once you’ve settled on a narrow purpose, everything in the song will serve it. Music and instrumentation will serve the purpose and most songwriters have a good handle on this because they are musicians. But every aspect of the lyrics will serve this purpose as well. We’ve already discussed diction here and here; diction serves the central purpose. But there’s more. Rhyme, sound, imagery, figures of speech, rhythm, and meter, and everything else that constitutes the song, will contribute to this central purpose, or at least not detract from it.

Why a narrow focus?

After we sing a song a few times and get past the worshipful feelings it generates, the words of an excellent song will take us more deeply into worship. It will do so because it will guide our thoughts and imaginations to specific ideas and images upon which to meditate.

If I ask you to think about water, your mind can go in a thousand different directions. You might think about the ocean, or a glass of ice water, or the rain running down the road, or about that time the dishwasher hose burst. These are all interesting, but because they are undirected, your thoughts flit from one to the other and never settle anywhere.

Now imagine a small stream in a misty forest, flowing through, and over, and around grey rocks and pebbles. Some are covered with dewy moss and strewn with yellow and red leaves. With this specific manifestation of water, I have a directed an imaginative experience. Hopefully, you saw the beauty, a particular kind of beauty, for this was my purpose. Particular kinds of water can evoke ideas of peace, or awe, or fear, or cold, or discomfort, or cleansing, or sadness, or any of a hundred other ideas and images to experience.

Singing in church certainly will involve emotions, but worship should be about more than feelings. A specific focus directs engages minds and imaginations more effectively than do generalities.

[click_to_tweet tweet=”Singing in church certainly will involve emotions, but worship should be about more than feelings. A specific focus directs engages minds and imaginations more effectively than do generalities. #praiseandworship #worshipleader #worship'” quote=”Singing in church certainly will involve emotions, but worship should be about more than feelings. A specific focus directs engages minds and imaginations more effectively than do generalities. “]

Is “Holy Spirit” too General?

“Holy Spirit” by Francesca Battistelli brings praise to the third person of the Trinity. Musically, it will serve well to bring congregants into the worship of God, but I wonder if it is too unfocused to result in the deeper worship we’ve been talking about. You can decide for yourself and leave a comment.

Verse 1

There’s nothing worth more, that could ever come close

No thing can compare, You’re our living hope

Your presence Lord

Verse 2

I’ve tasted and seen of the sweetest of loves

Where my heart becomes free and my shame is undone

Your presence Lord

Chorus

Holy Spirit You are welcome here

Come flood this place and fill the atmosphere

Your glory God is what our hearts long for

To be overcome by Your presence Lord

Your presence Lord

Bridge

Let us become more aware of Your presence

Let us experience the glory of Your goodness

While singing this song we praise the Spirit for his worth and glory and goodness. We also sing about the longing we feel and the hope he gives. We also celebrate the freedom from shame and our own loving feelings toward him. We also confess he is the presence of God, both within and outside of me. And, lastly, we offer a prayer for awareness of his presence.

There is a lot going on in this song, so much so that my thoughts don’t settle on one idea because they are rapidly rushed off to the next one, and then the next.

We can sing about all of these things, but we might need four or five songs to do it in such a way that brings people into more holistic worship–one where the mind and imagination have a particular idea, story, feeling, object on which to meditate or experience.

To review last week’s lesson: this song also has one word that doesn’t quite work. Did you see it?

“Blessed Be Your Name”

A song that illustrates the benefits of a more focused purpose is “Blessed Be the Name of the Lord” by Matt Redman:

Verse 1

Blessed be Your Name in the land that is plentiful

Where Your streams of abundance flows
Blessed be Your name

Blessed be Your Name when I’m
Found in the desert place

Though I walk through the wilderness
Blessed Be Your name

Pre-Chorus

Every blessing You pour out I’ll turn back to praise

When the darkness closes in Lord, still I will say

Chorus

Blessed be the name of the Lord, blessed be Your name

Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name

Verse 2

Blessed be Your name when the
Sun’s shining down on me

When the world’s all as it should be
Blessed be Your name

Blessed be Your name on the road marked with suffering

Though theres pain in the offering, blessed be Your name

Bridge

You give and take away, You give and take a -way

My heart will chose to say, Lord blessed be Your name

This entire song is unified around a single idea found in Job 1:21: God is worthy of our praise in both the good times and the bad times. The bridge proclaims the first part of the verse: “You give and take away.” The title and refrain carry the central idea–“Blessed be the name of the Lord.” The rest of this song does nothing but imaginatively expand on this theme.

The first verse is about praising God for the good times and the bad times. The second verse repeats this pattern. The pre-chorus gives two lines to blessing God in the good times and two lines to doing the same in the bad.

There is not a line or a word in this song that doesn’t clearly serve the specific purpose.

I have sung this song in times when it felt as if I was alone in the wilderness and other times in bountiful circumstances. It’s like it’s a different song. Its claim is that both the good and the bad times are blessings for which we praise God. Meditating on the nearly spontaneous movement from receiving to praising has brought me into deep worship. The act of singing itself becomes a testimony to the song’s truth.

I believe that the simple unity and specific focus of this song is one of the main reasons this song has been sung so often, and for so long in Christian gatherings.

My thesis in this series on The Poetry of Worship is that most of the songs we regularly sing in church are good songs. But with repeated singing, a great song will bring us into deeper worship. A specific focus can direct the hearts and minds of those who sing the song to a particular aspect of the nature and character of God, or of the Christian life. This leads, of course, to an edification that lasts far longer than the Sunday service. Perhaps a week. Perhaps a lifetime.

Posts in this series:

The Poetry of Worship: The Sacrifice of Praise (1)

The Poetry of Worship: Engaging the Heart and More (9)

The Poetry of Worship: Developing a Poetic Ear (3)

November 4, 2018 / Trent / 0 Comments

Photo by James Coleman on Unsplash

I have had the privilege to act as a consultant for aspiring praise and worship songwriters. It was a great experience. I was inspired by the creativity and passion that the writers brought to these songs, and I was happy that I could help to make these already good songs even better.

When giving “cool feedback,” I found that one of the hardest things for me to communicate was why a particular word made the writing sound awkward and amateurish.

I read a lot of artless writing.

I do it professionally. The amateur writer doesn’t know that the monosyllabic and ordinary word, “shows,” is sometimes the best word, as in this quote from the last lines of Hamlet:

such a sight as this
Becomes the field, but here shows much amiss.

In this case, as in almost every case, “shows” is always better than “exhibits,” often better than “displays,” and usually better than “reveals.” When I encounter the word “discloses,” I know that someone has been abusing their thesaurus. It all depends, of course, upon the poem, and the line within the poem, but these words, usually, don’t quite make it. Amateur writers will use them for various reasons–to make a nice rhyme or to maintain a rhythm, or because they think it “sounds” better. It doesn’t.

And it’s hard to explain why. Most simply, it’s because it’s just not the perfect word.

It’s not too difficult to say why the use of the term “desire” is better in “It is my desire to honor you” than it is in, “You are the love of my desire.”

But it is not so easy to explain why the word “ransom” is better in the line, “His wounds have paid my ransom” (“How deep the Father’s Love”), than it is in the line, “He is the ransom for my life” (“King of my Heat”)?

How do I know that one way of saying something is a lot better than another way of saying something? I don’t know, I just know. And it’s not just me. Many other people also have this mysterious power. And you can have it too.

Developing a “Poetic Ear”

If you want to use words powerfully and beautifully you need to develop a poetic ear. Teaching literature for over 30 years has trained my ear. I read a lot. I read the work of amateur writers, and I read the best writers of poetry and prose in the English language. Consequently, I know where a piece of writing is on the continuum. It is no surprise, then, that I am sensitive to lyrics in our worship songs that more closely resemble my students’ writing than it does that of Robert Frost.

You too can develop this poetic ear. Read and study great poetry. My guess is that the poetry with which most praise and worship lyricists engage is that of other praise and worship lyricists. Even the big songwriters are often writing with unremarkable diction. Reading these won’t help to develop the poetic ear. If you really want to develop a sensitivity for good diction, read the very best wordsmiths–Seamus Heaney, Robert Frost, the Brontes, Jane Austin, Thomas Hardy, Christina Rossetti, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Percy Bysshe Shelly, John Keats, etc.

[click_to_tweet tweet=”If you want to write great praise and worship lyrics, don’t use other praise and worship songs as your model. Develop a poetic ear by reading the best poets and writers of prose and poetry #praiseandworship #lyrics” quote=”If you want to write great praise and worship lyrics, don’t use other praise and worship songs as your model. Develop a poetic ear by reading the best poets and writers of prose and poetry “]

It will take time, but if you start reading the best novelists and poets, in ten years’ time, you will be writing much better lyrics than you would if you didn’t. “Ten years?!” you cry. Well, if you are 36 now, I’m telling you that by the time you are 46 you will have moved a long way down the spectrum toward being a poet. That gives you 30 years to write great songs. That’s lots of time.

Lyricist or Poet?

Good writers never compromise diction for the sake of rhyme or rhythm, or anything else. They strive to use the perfect word in every instance–they don’t settle. The perfect word will have the precise denotation and connotation, and serve the rhythm and rhythm perfectly. If they just can’t make it work, the poet will rework the line or the whole verse, or even the whole song. They don’t stop until it is perfect.

You can’t start here, however. Before you know what the perfect word is, you need to have developed the poetic ear. Even then, it will tie you into knots at times, but that’s the challenge of poetry–and I don’t think we have any choice.

[click_to_tweet tweet=”If we aspire to write songs in praise of our King, they need to be excellent. We need to strive to be poets, not just lyricists. #praiseandworship #worship” quote=”[tweetshare tweet=’If we aspire to write songs in praise of our King, they need to be excellent. We need to strive to be poets, not just lyricists. “]

What I am asking is not easy, but if we aspire to write songs in praise of our King, these songs need to be excellent. Not for his sake, but for ours, and for those whom we lead in worship. We need to strive to be poets, not just lyricists.

And becoming a poet takes at least as much time and effort as it takes to become a great musician, and how long did that take?

Posts in this series:

The Poetry of Worship: Sacrifice of Praise (1)

The Poetry of Worship: Engaging the Heart and More (9)

The Poetry of Worship: Diction (2)

October 29, 2018 / Trent / 1 Comment

Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash

In my last post, I introduced my project to help songwriters and worship leaders to write and select more meaningful songs for corporate worship.

Words are the poet’s primary tool so let’s start with diction–the author’s choice of words.

Denotation and Connotation

Words can carry meaning beyond the definition(s) we find in the dictionary, the denotations. Many words also have strong connotations–the associations, or imaginative meanings they carry. Connotation can be a very effective tool for writing powerful lyrics, but they can mess up a song too. When choosing words for your song, consider not just what the words mean, but also what they suggest.

Word Choice: A Literary Example

What can a sensitivity to diction do for my songwriting?

We will start by looking at a poem and discussing the effect of diction. Then we will look at a popular worship song that does a pretty good job with diction.

“Desert Places” by Robert Frost

Snow falling and night falling fast, oh, fast
In a field I looked into going past,
And the ground almost covered smooth in snow,
But a few weeds and stubble showing last.

The woods around it have it–it is theirs.
All animals are smothered in their lairs.
I am too absent-spirited to count;
The loneliness includes me unawares.

And lonely as it is that loneliness
Will be more lonely ere it will be less–
A blanker whiteness of benighted snow
With no expression, nothing to express.

They cannot scare me with their empty spaces
Between stars–on stars where no human race is.
I have it in me so much nearer home
To scare myself with my own desert places.

In this poem, the speaker is walking past a field on a winter evening. But the speaker is lonely. The words of the poem don’t simply explain the speaker’s loneliness–they allow us to imaginatively experience them.

In the first line, the words “falling” and “fast” are repeated. Consider the effect of repeating these words in such close proximity–doesn’t it hint at a sense of alarm, even panic? The rest of the first stanza partially allays this impression with a peaceful description of the snow-covered field. But we can’t shake the disturbing effect of the first line, even in the peaceful context of a snowy evening.

[click_to_tweet tweet=”When selecting worship songs, look for where the words are used in unexpected or unusual ways–these can make think again about what we know and reconsider meanings. #praiseandworship #worshipleader” quote=”When selecting worship songs, look for where the words are used in unexpected or unusual ways–these can make think again about what we know and reconsider meanings. “]

After the first line of the second stanza, where the trees take possession of the field, we read, “All animals are smothered in their lairs.” This line really shows the power of diction in the hands of a master. Consider how different the effect would be if Frost had written, “All animals are cozy in their dens.” Big difference. The connotation of “smothered” is to murder someone by suffocating them with a pillow. A “lair” where beast and monsters live. Frost’s lines are disturbing, and this is the work of his choice of these particular words.

After this comes “The loneliness includes me unawares.” This line, occupying the central position of the poem, carries the central idea. The waves of loneliness come in four recurrences of the words lonely or loneliness. Then, another group of words reinforces the idea of absence: “absent-spirited,” “blanker,” “no expression,” “empty,” “desert.” It is clear, the speaker doesn’t just lack friends. We are talking about existential loneliness.

The word “scare” is an intriguing word near the end of this poem. It lacks the sophistication of the other words–it’s like he’s scoffing at the vastness of space, (“You can’t scare me!”) claiming his interior loneliness is far more profound.

This is not all we could say about this poem, but it’s enough to illustrate that the author’s choice of words can have a tremendous effect in bringing the reader into an imaginative experience, even while they sit in the wingback chair before the fire.

[click_to_tweet tweet=”The best praise and worship songs will have words that excite our imaginations. #praiseandworship #worship” quote=”The best praise and worship songs will have words that excite our imaginations.”]

Word Choice: A Worship Song Example

When I went looking for a praise and worship song that provided a good example of diction, I went to the list of most popular songs from CCLI. I found very little until I got to the twenty-second on the list. And this contained lyrics from an old hymn. I did not expect to find anything close to the density of effective word choice that we find in Robert Frost’s poem above, but it is clear that selecting words for effect is not a priority for praise-and-worship songwriters.

Here are some lines from Stuart Townsend’s “How Deep the Father’s Love for Us.” This song provides us with some examples of how diction can be used in a worship song.

How deep the Father’s love for us
How vast beyond all measure
That He should give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure

How great the pain of searing loss
The Father turns His face away
As wounds which mar the Chosen One
Bring many sons to glory

. . .

Why should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom

In the first stanza, we find the word “wretch.” The connotations of “wretch” are not simply that of a pathetic victim, but of a deliberately villainous rascal. Words like ingrate, knave, liar, and lowlife, are synonyms. But in an amazing reversal of expectation, this villain is considered the Father’s “treasure.” Here the connotations are of heaps of gold and jewels. Meaning pulses at the intersection of “wretch” and “treasure.”

The second stanza shows us Christ’s suffering from the rejection of his Father on our behalf. The pain of loss is “searing.” It’s not just pain that this word communicates, but a very specific kind of pain. The connotations of this word suggest the deliberate burning of flesh associated with medieval torture. In spite of being ungrateful lowlifes, he pays our “ransom,”–another word loaded with meaning.

The first several times we sing this song, the music or some of the lines will bring us into worship quite easily, but after we sing it five or six times, we begin to experience a deeper conviction through the power of these words. The gratitude that results will likely increase with the repetition, as will the volume of the singing as these meanings enter the imagination.

My desire is that almost every song we sing in church gets more powerful every time we sing it, rather than less. Diction is the first, but it is not the only step toward this end.

Posts in this series:

The Poetry of Worship: The Sacrifice Of Praise (1)

The Poetry of Worship: Engaging the Heart and More (9)

The Poetry of Worship: The Sacrifice of Praise (1)

October 22, 2018 / Trent / 2 Comments

Occasionally, during corporate worship, my focus is taken away from the God who is deserving of all my praise and drawn to the words upon the screen. Although I try to resist the distraction, it’s not easy. Sometimes I am diverted by a bit of bad theology. Yesterday, I chuckled because a line was just weird. Other times, it’s because I notice the words don’t really mean anything or are cliche. And then there’s the mediocre, or even bad, poetry.

It is clear from their enthusiasm that the worship leaders and many of the worshippers either don’t notice or don’t care. They seem to be able to look past the lyrics, to the recipient of our praise. I am not always able to.

Does the whole worship song thing need to change because of me? No, I don’t think so.

Might the whole worship thing be improved in such a way that the experience of the participants is enhanced in a way that they never before imagined? I think, yes.

The Test of Repetition

I too am able, for a time, to ignore unremarkable lyrics. When we sing a new song in church, I don’t begin by scrutinizing every phrase, word, and rhyme to see if it is worthy of my voice. Unless the words are truly silly or empty, I can be led into worship several times with almost any song. It is only at that point when the repeated singing of a truly great song begins to open up deeper worship through its inspired lyrics, do I notice the inadequacies of those of an inferior one.

[click_to_tweet tweet=”It is at that point when the repeated singing of a great song opens up deeper worship through inspired lyrics, do I notice the inadequacies of those of an inferior one. #praiseandworship #worshipleader #worship” quote=”It is at that point when the repeated singing of a great song opens up deeper worship through inspired lyrics, do I notice the inadequacies of those of an inferior one.”]

After this happens, every recurrence of the so-so song impedes, rather than enhances worship.

Is it My Problem?

Some have told me that I have a problem, that I shouldn’t be so critical. This may be true, but I believe I have three legitimate defenses against this accusation:

Does not our creator deserve the best that we can offer up? As we bring the sacrifice praise to the altar of the Lord, don’t we want it to be the best of the flock? Should we not strive to present songs of praise that are excellent, not just musically but lyrically as well?
God gives good gifts for the edification of the church and the world. One of his gifts is the ability to create beautiful things–this includes poetry. Some have only the gift of appreciation, but even so, I think we need to take this gift seriously so as to honour the Giver.
My third argument is more complex, and it is contained in the series of posts that follow. In essence, better lyrics lead to deeper worship, even if you don’t care about the lyrics.

It is certainly true that God probably doesn’t notice the difference between our best attempts and our blemished ones, for they are all offerings of a sincere, but fallen people. God needs neither our sheep nor our songs. When God’s people are commanded to sacrifice the best lamb, grain or ox, it is for our sake. It is a reflection and a reminder of how we are to think of him.

The Poetry of Worship

In an attempt to edify the church, I will write a series of posts to help would-be lyricists take some steps toward becoming poets. These posts will also be useful for those who choose the songs we sing each Sunday, as they too will be equipped to better judge the poetic from the prosaic.

[click_to_tweet tweet=”As we bring the sacrifice praise to the altar don’t we want it to be the best of the flock? Should we not strive to present songs of praise that are excellent, not just musically but lyrically as well? #praiseandworship #worship #worshipleader” quote=”As we bring the sacrifice praise to the altar don’t we want it to be the best of the flock? Should we not strive to present songs of praise that are excellent, not just musically but lyrically as well?”]

My assumption is that most of those who write the songs we sing in corporate worship started as musicians. Some of the more passionate and gifted move on to writing their own music. It is natural that some of these would, then, try their hand at writing a song, lyrics and all. What they may not realize is that developing the skills to write great lyrics takes at least as much time as it takes to master an instrument. If Malcolm Gladwell is to be believed, the typical worship leader took at least 10,000 hours to develop their skill at playing the piano or guitar. To write the lyrics of that song will require another 10,000 hours to develop the poet’s skill.

It is sadly obvious that many would-be praise-and-worship songwriters are uploading songs to YouTube before having made the time investment in the poetry of worship.

[click_to_tweet tweet=”Developing the skills to write great lyrics takes at least as much time as it takes to master an instrument. #praiseandworship #worship #worshipleader” quote=”Developing the skills to write great lyrics takes at least as much time as it takes to master an instrument. “]

This series of posts, called The Poetry of Worship, is designed to challenge would-be lyricists to consider some principles of poetry that will start them on a journey toward writing songs that will evoke, not just the emotions of worshipers, but their imaginations as well. These posts and plus the 10,000 hours of practice might one day lead to a lyrically decent worship song.

Posts in this series: