Fake Worship Is a Problem Everywhere

It’s a thoughtful article. A lot of good points.

Is it biblical to say emotions are “incidental” though? Like the author, I’ve seen some worship music disasters (from my point of view) that resulted from “emotions-first” assumptions. Worship as a feeling, etc.

But since my personal musical reboot a few years ago, I’ve been thinking a bit differently. Why is there music at all? Why are worship poems set to music and sung at all? One seemingly obvious answer is that singing unites text with beauty and feeling. So, worship is not a feeling, but we are supposed to feel when we worship—especially during the singing part. And if emotion is inherent in the purpose of setting words to music, emotion is more than incidental.

What I actually do as a worship leader, though, is sort of choke back my own emotions. I tend to be suddenly overwhelmed, which doesn’t go well with leading. So I’m pretty sure I indirectly feed a ‘cognitive over emotive’ vibe. I don’t know how to avoid that.

But theologically speaking, I’m not persuaded that ‘cognitive over emotive’ is really what God had in mind for worship music.

(Is it just me, or are the Psalms frequently very emotional? It’s clearly emotion tethered to truth, driven by truth, though.)

It’s clear from scripture that man expresses emotions because God made us in his image, and he expresses emotions. And, I agree with Aaron that music adds emotion to the text. It’s probably a tough balance to not lead with emotion, but with the truth. However, there’s a reason we are saved when we “believe in [our] heart that God hath raised Him from the dead,” not believe in our heads. The will is more important, but emotions follow. Salvation and worship are not purely intellectual exercises.

I haven’t led music often, though I do sing regularly in the choir, and like Aaron, I do have to detach somewhat from the emotion in the song to avoid getting choked up by the emotional expression. I worry about that less when I’m in the congregation or any other setting where I’m not helping to lead the music.

I also find the Psalms to be very emotional, sometimes surprisingly so. Even though they end with truth, there are a lot of places where frustration or despair come out first.

First, it's important to remember that there are at least two sets of Hebrew/Greek words for "worship"; one meaning to prostrate one's self, the other meaning to serve. We might do a lot of good if we differentiated the two; I'd argue that what we're doing when we sing in church is primarily praise, not prostration. Let's let our language reflect this.

Second, and related to the first, we need to understand what is going on as we sing; it is partially praise to God, and partially didactic. And so a key test for music in the church is whether it coherently allows those in attendance to return praise and have the Word of God imparted to their hearts and minds. That would defuse a lot of the debates over old music/new music right there, IMO.

And good points by Aaron and Dave about the emotions that ought to arise as we reflect His Word in song. We can get overcome, but at the same time, we ought not be totally afraid of our own emotions.

First, it’s important to remember that there are at least two sets of Hebrew/Greek words for “worship”; one meaning to prostrate one’s self, the other meaning to serve.

There are different words with different nuances/connotations. In actual usage, though, their meanings overlap quite a lot, which is why translations usually use the word “worship,” and lexicons also. In the lexicons, most list ‘worship’ as the primary meaning and kneel or bow or whatever the connotations might be, as secondary ideas.

In the NT, there are two main words: proskuneo and latreuo. (For those who enjoy Greek in Greek characters προσκυνέω and λατρεύω). Proskuneo is by far the most used word in the NT: 51 of the 81 occurrences of “worship” in ESV. Latreuo is used 11 times, then you have about 8 other words (a couple of which are close cousins to the big two) for the rest.

Some lexical stuff on them…

Proskuneo. Most of what I have lists ‘worship’ as primary and some variant of bowing down as secondary.

4686 προσκυνέω (proskyneō): vb.; ≡ DBLHebr 2556, 6032; DBLAram 10504; Str 4352; TDNT 6.758—1. LN 53.56 worship, bow as an act of allegiance or regard (Mt 2:2); 2. LN 17.21 prostrate oneself before, kneel down before as an act of reverence (Rev 3:9)

Swanson, James. Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains: Greek (New Testament) 1997: n. pag. Print.

προσκυνέω proskyneō worship (vb.), do homage

Balz, Horst Robert, and Gerhard Schneider. Exegetical dictionary of the New Testament 1990–: 173. Print.

προσκυνέω worship; fall down and worship, kneel, bow low, fall at another’s feet

Newman, Barclay M., Jr. A Concise Greek-English dictionary of the New Testament. 1993: 154. Print.

προσκυνέω V 46-74-28-55-26=229

Gn 18,2; 19,1; 22,5; 23,7.12
to fall down and worship, to do reverence to, to do obeisance to, to prostrate oneself before, to salute

Lust, Johan, Erik Eynikel, and Katrin Hauspie. A Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint : Revised Edition 2003: n. pag. Print.

53.56 προσκυνέωa: to express by attitude and possibly by position one’s allegiance to and regard for deity—‘to prostrate oneself in worship, to bow down and worship, to worship.’ εἴδομεν γὰρ αὐτοῦ τὸν ἀστέρα ἐν τῇ ἀνατολῇ καὶ ἤλθομεν προσκυνῆσαι αὐτῷ ‘for we saw his star in the east and we came to worship him’ Mt 2:2.

Louw, Johannes P., and Eugene Albert Nida. Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains 1996: 539. Print.

BAGD goes right to bowing down…

προσκυνέω impf. προσεκύνουν; fut. προσκυνήσω; 1 aor. προσεκύνησα (trag., Hdt.+; inscr., pap., LXX; En. 10, 21; Ep. Arist., Philo, Joseph., Test. 12 Patr.) used to designate the custom of prostrating oneself before a person and kissing his feet, the hem of his garment, the ground, etc.; the Persians did this in the presence of their deified king, and the Greeks before a divinity or someth. holy; (fall down and) worship, do obeisance to, prostrate oneself before, do reverence to, welcome respectfully, [and, as usual with BAGD, much, much more]

Arndt, William et al. A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature : a translation and adaption of the fourth revised and augmented edition of Walter Bauer’s Griechisch-deutsches Worterbuch zu den Schrift en des Neuen Testaments und der ubrigen urchristlichen Literatur 1979: 716. Print.

Latreuo.

I love this word. We don’t really have an English equivalent, I don’t think. Or our English equivalents tend to come with baggage (and be missing other baggage) that get us thinking wrong about what is meant.

It is usually translate serve/serving in the English translations, but…

53.14 λατρεύω; λατρεία, ας f: to perform religious rites as a part of worship—‘to perform religious rites, to worship, to venerate, worship.’
λατρεύω: μετὰ ταῦτα ἐξελεύσονται καὶ λατρεύσουσίν μοι ἐν τῷ τόπῳ τούτῳ ‘afterward they will come out (of that country) and will worship me in this place’ Ac 7:7.
λατρεία: εἶχε μὲν οὖν καὶ ἡ πρώτη δικαιώματα λατρείας ‘now, the first (covenant) indeed had rules for worship’ He 9:1.

Louw, Johannes P., and Eugene Albert Nida. Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains 1996: 532. Print.

3302 λατρεύω (latreuō): vb.; ≡ DBLHebr 6268; Str 3000; TDNT 4.58—LN 53.14 worship, minister or serve (in religious duties), (Mt 4:10; Lk 2:37; Ac 24:14; 26:7; Ro 1:9, 25; Php 3:3; 2Ti 1:3; Heb 8:5; 9:9; Rev 22:3)

Swanson, James. Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains: Greek (New Testament) 1997: n. pag. Print.

λατρεύω fut. λατρεύσω; 1 aor. ἐλάτρευσα (trag. et al.; inscr., LXX, En., Philo, Sib. Or. 4, 104) serve, in our lit. only of the carrying out of relig. duties, esp. of a cultic nature, by human beings: λ. θεῷ (Eur., Ion 152; Plut., Mor. 405C; 407E; Philo, Spec. Leg. 1, 300 ὅλῃ τ. ψυχῇ. Cf. En. 10, 21) Mt 4:10; Lk 4:8 (both Dt 6:13); 1:74; Ac 7:7 (cf. Ex 3:12); 24:14; 27:23; Hb 9:14; Rv 7:15; 22:3; Pol 2:1. τῷ ὀνόματι (θεοῦ) 1 Cl 45:7; τῷ διαβόλῳ λ. serve the devil (in reality) ISm 9:1. Of the Jews λ. ἀγγέλοις PK 2 p. 14, 26. Of idolatry (Ex 20:5; 23:24; Ezk 20:32; En. 99, 7) Ac 7:42; Ro 1:25.—W. indication of the manner in which the service (τῷ θεῷ) is performed ἐν καθαρᾷ συνειδήσει serve God w. a clear conscience 2 Ti 1:3. (διὰ χάριτος) λ. εὐαρέστως τῷ θεῷ μετὰ εὐλαβείας καὶ δέους (in thankfulness) serve God acceptably with reverence and awe Hb 12:28. (τῷ θεῷ) λ. ἐν τῷ πνεύματί μου ἐν τῷ εὐαγγελίῳ I serve God with my spirit in the gospel Ro 1:9 (cf. Phil 3:3 v.l.).—Without the dat. of the one to whom the service is given: ἐν ἐκτενείᾳ νύκτα κ. ἡμέραν λ. serve (God) earnestly night and day Ac 26:7. νηστείαις κ. δεήσεσιν λ. νύκτα κ. ἡμέραν serve (God) night and day w. fasting and prayer Lk 2:37. οἱ πνεύματι θεοῦ λατρεύοντες those who worship by the Spirit of God Phil 3:3 (HKoester, NTS 8, ’62, 320f: work as a missionary in the Spirit of God). ὁ λατρεύων the worshiper (who is concerned w. the rituals prescribed by the law) Hb 9:9; 10:2.—Hb also adds to λ. in the dat. the holy objects by means of which the priest renders service 8:5; 13:10.—WBrandt, Dienst u. Dienen im NT ’31; CEB Cranfield, Interpretation 12, ’58, 387-98; BReicke, NT Studies: TWManson memorial vol., ’59, 194-209; HStrathmann, TW IV 58-66. M-M.*

Arndt, William et al. A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature : a translation and adaption of the fourth revised and augmented edition of Walter Bauer’s Griechisch-deutsches Worterbuch zu den Schrift en des Neuen Testaments und der ubrigen urchristlichen Literatur 1979: 467. Print.

That’s the whole BAGD entry in my edition. Shorter than most, but still a lot to unpack.

Anyway, if I have a point it’s this: In the contexts that these words appear, the English Bibles are generally doing a good job of choosing when to translate them ‘worship’ or something else, but we do lose some nuance, and sometimes it’s worth it to try to recover that in our study and teaching—because it puts things in a different and better light, though the core idea is not altered.

Edit: Let’s make this already too long post longer… 😀

And so a key test for music in the church is whether it coherently allows those in attendance to return praise and have the Word of God imparted to their hearts and minds. That would defuse a lot of the debates over old music/new music right there, IMO.

I do think a lot can be accomplished through “internal bounding.” That is, by tethering our choices to principles and understandings rather than rules (externally bounded).

I’m not sure how much of the debate is old vs new though. I guess the musical style debates tend to correlate with old vs new. We do tend to assume what we are used to is good and what we are not used to is suspect. I would say it should all be suspect, in a sense. It’s all human, so… all that that implies. At the same time, it should all not be suspect because it is only human, and all that that implies.

What I feel like I see a lot of is thoughtless suspicion/rejection and thoughtless lack of suspicion/acceptance… based almost entirely on familiarity and unfamiliarity. I value tradition, though, and lean toward thinking our predecessors were not being idiots when they made the stylistic choices they made. Still, just humans in a fluid context.