Praise: Can Words Express?

She had just finished her music degree. For vocals. She had just spent six weeks on a mission trip. She was one of the "go to people" for this 'worship leading' business. She loved to sing & play her guitar for a quiet time, but was very conscious about how well she sounded - if someone else was in the room. She had a growing feeling that her attention to the musical elements - and her own performance - were distracting her from actually worshiping God. So she gave up music.

How often do you find yourself just singing along?

Why? Is it a problem of clichés? Are we failing to sing "a new song"? What does "a new song" even mean? If there is "nothing new under the sun" then it's probably not up to us to come up with something that has never been done before. What does the psalm even say? "Tell of his salvation from day to day." It's not an issue of seeing something that the world has never experienced; it's an issue of seeing today something that God has done for you.

I love many of the songs we sing in church, but I would go insane if I listened to them on my playlist at home - I love these songs when life primes me to get them stuck in my head. If that doesn't make sense to you, think about this:  Do you sing because you think it's the right thing to say, because you like the music, or because you sing a song about the new things God has done for you today? When I'm at home, I'm listening to "Christian music". It's songs about everyday life - yet songs that I've never heard at a church service.

Am I just being picky about using abstract principles about God in the lyrics, instead of using more specific everyday examples? Maybe. Some songs might just be written in a vague and generic way so that each person can attribute the examples of their own life to the principles - and maybe that sells better. You could argue that the Bible has a lot of generic principles in parts of its poetry. Okay. The Bible is also filled with stories that give a context of specific examples.

But how do you communicate that to someone who is just checking out Christianity for the first time at your church today?

My concern is that our witness is weak because we've become bad at articulating what God is doing in our everyday lives.