The folly of singing

I was going through a worship folder today to create a songbook for the Youth of chord charts so that we are no longer scrounging up extra copies of what's lying around the Youth Room or borrowing Bryce's so they are lost, and was struck with an interesting thought. We sing mindlessly too often. Too often do we see the words put up on a screen or printed in a bulletin, and so we just sing them simply because we're in church or they are being handed to us on a technological silver platter, complete with moving images and shadowed text (that's another issue for another time). Too often are these songs shallow and without any Biblical Truth (take for example songs such as Every Move I Make, and Fields are White). Why is this? Why do we allow such? Shouldn't we, as worshippers of the most high God be infinetely more acutely aware of what we sing to him than what we say to others? James exhorts us to be "quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to wrath"; this is not just with our fellow brothers and sisters, but with our Lord as well! How much more so should we guard our speech before our God than we do before others, as He is our Creator and worthy of the praise we give (and sometimes which we do not give)?

As a worship leader, I too should be thinking about the content of the songs we ascribe to our God as a congregation. Musically, yes, there is certainly a need to sift and sort for songs with musical integrity for the purpose of singing excellently nad creating a time of worship through music which is easy to follow for those who are less musical, but more importantly, I should be sifting through the content of the text of these songs.

1. Are they founded on the very words of God? When in doubt, sing scripture. If the choice is given between singing something based on his word and something from his word, take the latter. Why try to craft something that is more than what is already perfect?
   
2. Does the song being sung make a clear distinction between the Creator's position as God and ours as mere man, exalting him far above the earth and even the heavens (Psalm 113), as he is in actuality?
   
3. Is the song written out of conviction of the reality and the truth of who he is, or simply the emotion of a moment we experience? David wrote out of experience in the Psalms, but each song is still woven with the truth of the character and history of God. One cannot read a Psalm and help but be blatently struck with a more intimate understanding of Yaweh. Is the same said of that which we sing?
   

If throughout scripture, we see the example of ascribing praise to God in spirit AND in truth, it is therefore folly to sing to the Creator of the Universe if we have not considered the words coming out of our mouths, particularly if they have no grounding in His truth.

I think I may have found my topic for my thesis someday....