Several years ago, there was a fascinating discussion of the use of “praise songs” in worship at Mere Comments, the blog of Touchstone Magazine that I was just alerted to. Timothy Striplin, a young church musicians, had this to say:
Seizing on the idea that “He inhabits the praise of His people,” those who advocate this style of worship attempt to compensate for the loss of the catholic center of worship by emphasizing above all else an experience of the Real Presence of the Third Person of the Trinity (in each worshipper, individually, I might add) IN SUNG PRAISES.
The man or woman in the pew is supposed to “get into the mood” and let the songs “carry them away, into a personal experience of the Spirit.” The simple, repetitious words of the “worship chorus” take on the function of a mantra that can carry one into an altered state; charismatic writers have gone so far as to actually say that this is their aim, though I doubt many Evangelicals are aware of this aspect of the “Praise and Worship” tradition.
I have heard a worship leader invoke this concept–that “he inhabits the praise of his people”–as a way to get people “prepared” for worship, and I thought at the time he was using it in a Real-Presence kind of way. (The notion comes from Psalm 22:3, though only the KJV and its derivatives say “inhabits.” The others say that He is “enthroned on the praises of Israel,” which has a completely different meaning.
The “mantra” charge–the practice in Hindu and New Age meditation of repeating words over and over again to induce a sort of trance–is serious, and one that I had not thought of.
Mr. Striplin goes on to say that Christian worship requires some notion of God’s presence and he urges Christians to recover “some form” of sacramental presence in the Eucharist, if not Luther’s, at least Calvin’s.
I understand that traditions that don’t even have that must substitute something. But why would traditions that do have a sacramental understanding of Christ’s true presence go after this pale substitute? (As I recall, the worship leader that I heard go on about how God “inhabits” the praises of the people was a Lutheran.)
HT: Shane Ayers
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In