by OLUMOFIN Kehinde Benjamin

THE DILEMMA OF PRAISE AND WORSHIP

Psalms 47:6-7 Sing praises to God, sing praises: sing praises unto our King, sing praises. For God is the King of all the earth: sing ye praises with understanding.

Praise and worship is biblical. Praise and worship is a command.

Psalms 66:4 All the earth shall worship thee, and shall sing unto thee; they shall sing to thy name. Selah.  

Psalms 81:9 There shall no strange god be in thee; neither shalt thou worship any strange god.

Jesus gave us by examples, He worshipped His God and praised Him on several occasions. One of His last acts before bearing the burden of Gestimane was to lead His disciples in singing hymn to His Father and His God (Matthew 26:30; Mark 14:26).

In line with this practice, Paul the apostle, says…

Ephesians 5:19 Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;  

Colossians  3:16  Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

It is therefore important to note that praise and worship and singing of spiritual songs and hymns is God’s will for His people. We praise God for What He did for the fathers and saints of old before us and for His terrible acts among the heathen. However, Jehovah is to be worshiped for being God, and the King of all the earth, giving Him thanks for all his wondrous work among the living.

However, praise, worship and thanksgiving, with all spiritual songs and hymns should be done with understanding. In order word, when eulogizing God and when attributing praises and worship in songs to Him, the worshiper should do so with understanding, intentionally picking his words while making sure whatever is being said in praise and songs are indeed revealed attributes of the God of the Bible you are claiming to worship and praised.

It’s unwise to worship a God you barely know and understand, and worst still to lead others to praise and worship Him. This is the big mistake of the modern day praise and worship leaders. The pollution of uninspired songs, songs that are strange to the Spirit of Christ, is one major challenge for today’s church. Bad still, many worshipers are oblivious of the dilemma they faced worshiping “something else” and yet thought they are raising holy hands to the Father and God of Jesus Christ. Dancing and sweating profusely rejoicing in emptiness, thinking God is presence in their many noises. We have defined God with noise, celebrating structures and sophisticated musicals instruments, thinking we serves God, yet as we add one musical instruments to another, rejoicing in gadgets, less is being added to worshipers spiritual growths. Praise and worship supposed to help us be more like God as our eyes of understanding are opened to see more of Him.

Who else have noticed that despite the array of instrumentalists, we are experiencing less and less holiness and less of the power of God. Praise and worship are supposed to bring God down into our services like He did in the Temple of Solomon, and in the battle of Jehoshaphat and in the prison where Paul and Silas were kept. Even in contemporary time, church history has stories of mighty moves of God when prayers, praise and worship were used to changed time and season. Why are these things not happening again and the church is almost completely robbed of the power that come with gathering of saints in worship?

One major hole via which the power is fast vanishing from the church, because God is less and less being allowed to lead and preside over His church is through our so called “praise and worship”. The church today is like the returning Jews from the captivity of Babylon who erected a new Temple, a national edifice that stood till the time of Jesus Christ. The day it was inaugurated, the young men that were born in Babylon, who never saw the old House Solomon built while it stood but heard how God by it has visited the nation rejoices with great noise when the new edifice was built but all the ancient men, who saw the old Temple and were also privileged to see the new one wept bitterly with great lamentation, so much the noise of their grief and the noise of rejoicing of the younger generation could be heard very far and none could distinguish one noise from another.

Ezra  3:10 And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the LORD, they set the priests in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites the sons of Asaph with cymbals, to praise the LORD, after the ordinance of David king of Israel.  3:11 And they sang together by course in praising and giving thanks unto the LORD; because he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever toward Israel. And all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid.  3:12 But many of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers, who were ancient men, that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice; and many shouted aloud for joy:  3:13 So that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people: for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the noise was heard afar off.

The old men wept because the new Temple as great as it was, was a shadow of the former one in glory and in splendor and more so, the Ark of Covenant that was the reason the old Temple was built, was not in the new, in its place was a large stone. The old men new a Temple without the Ark of Covenant, is a Temple without God, so they wept for the lack of Substance inside the Holies but the young men only rejoices in the mighty edifice, and careless if the Almighty God was indeed present or not.

No wonder years later, it became a den for robbers and all sort of sharp practices that necessitated the coning of Jesus to wipe the hall clean of their dirt, influence and power. That is the exact sorry state of the 21st century church. The young men and women who did not see the church when there were little edifices and scanty cathedrals but command the respect of kings and demons because God was her all in all, rejoices in cathedrals and financial influences the church now have, thinking the more increase in number, in riches and influence the church now has is an indications God is in our meetings but those that saw the old glory weep and grief in silence over a people mighty in affluence like the Laodiceans Church, empty without Substance and in desperate need of her Savior.

Revelation  3:17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

Praise and worship is a major contribution to this rot. Don’t just sing a song because it’s popular, danceable and because people are singing it but sing because the song makes a spiritual scriptural sense. As a praise leader, if you sing just to make people excited, dance and shout, you have missed the mark, the ultimate goal of leading men and women to God.

 It’s a known fact that many worship/praise leaders are not knowledgeable in basic Bible doctrine and teachings. How do you lead people to a God you did not know or you are still struggling to understand? Can a child talk and introduce others to a father he or she barely know?

That’s how it is when you have no serious knowledge of the Bible and you are leading praise and worship. How will you be able to discern scripturally suited songs from danceable songs that are imported into the church just for their vibes and not for their scriptural correctness? You must have heard leaders and coordinators of church programs asking the choir to “give us danceable songs” which are nothing but songs that ginger the body and help it switched into dancing mood. The lyrics of songs like that are rarely traceable to the Bible, but people care little about the lyrics, it’s just about the beats and rhythms of musical instruments that help the people dance and dance, until they forgot there is nothing in the songs that placed the praise and the worship at the feet of God. They praise God, so they think and danced, with songs and beats borrowed from rap stars and ungodly celebrities.

It is a big spiritual error to think praise is all about danceable songs. Praise should be as the word sound….PRAISE and PRAISE to God ONLY. Yes, it’s OK to dance when we praise God, which is spiritually correct but dancing itself alone did not glorified God, it is the words of each songs of praise that honour Him. We dance in rejoicing as we praise Him. If God is honour, the heaven rejoices, and dances become natural, a willing offering to God alone. Dancing should be a direct response to the joy of praising God, not a response to the drumming and sound of instruments.

A musical instrument inspired dancing has missed the scriptural pass mark. The dancing should be an outshoot of an inner natural response to the words of a song in praise to God and in worship before Him. Not sensual, fresh glorifying leftover of partying and self-indulgence imported into the body of Christ by hirelings who has no life nor part in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and His Person. Praise is not about exciting noise of musical sounds and worship, is not a call to self nor worship of personal best, it should all be about God and His Christ. Once God is not the focus, it is not for Him. Don’t just sing, or dance just because songs are rendered in holy places and gathering of believers, please sing and dance because God is indeed being exalted according to the Bible. And if you are opportune to lead others in praise and worship, you will bear greater responsibility and will be answerable more to God, if any, by your songs is led deliberately or in error to the worship of devils or self under your ministration when led in songs that are strange to the Spirit of Christ that are creeping in very fast into the gathering of believers.

To purge the church and make her the Bride her Savior is coming for, then the following should be noted by praise and worship leaders and by members who they lead….

1. All songs in praise and worship should sings the praise of God and of His Christ.. Any songs that fails this test is NOT inspired by the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Ghost and should not be used in holy services. God and Jesus Christ should be the ONLY focus of all church songs and praise. If you are in a place where songs that fails this test is continuously used with no sign or deliberate efforts to make appropriate changes, kindly reconsider your membership, God may not be there. Beware, do not take part in other men’s sins. Jesus ONLY is our song. Don’t join others who are secretly determined to chase God out of His Own Church, as many are already doing through praise and worship. All songs must be directed, deliberately so, to the praise of God and so encourage worshipers in like manner.

2. All songs of praise and worship must adore God, honour Him and should be the expression of His glory. Whatever song that does not directly targeted at praising God and direct worship back to Him is not of God.

3. Any song whose lyrics is directed at motivating or elevating self is self-worship and not God worship. Such are not of God.

4. “Danceable songs” are ungodly rendition in church or holy services.

Dancing is good but songs that are solely raised to encourage dancing in church has lost its purpose and is not fit for holy services. Worship and praise is NOT and should not be seen as an opportunity to dance. If dancing was the goal, then such praise or worship cannot be heavenward at the same time (Colossians 3:2).  Danceable songs are sensual and unhealthy for the spiritual life but God centered songs, will produce godly dance that promote healthy spiritual growth.

We should dance because we rejoice in His Presence, as we ascribe all praise and thanks to Him. Even when dancing, we must not lose sight of Him, because he is the reason for all. There are too many songs today used in praise and worship that have no direct praise to God during praise and worship. All songs of assurances of hope, faith and love eulogizes God. Same for songs that strengthen confidence in the Word of God and faith in Jesus Christ irrespective of time and season of life, is acceptable to God.

5. All songs used in praise and worship, whose lyrics/words are not traceable (partially or completely) to specific verses of the Scripture is NOT from God, no matter how musically sound and fitting it sound in the ears.

6. All songs that invoke the names and or person of angels, or any other person in heaven or hell, are satanic and unscriptural. They should have no place in the church of Christ.

7. Any song that ascribed the attributes and names of local deities to God, the Farther of Jesus Christ is satanic and deceptive.

8. Any song that sing the praise of a founder, or any church leader is NOT of God and is NOT for God. Such should have no place in the church of Christ. Only Jesus died for the church, only He is our song.

9. Any songs that describe any extra biblical stories, vision or dream that are not explicitly written in the Bible is NOT from the God of the Bible and is not meant for Him.

10. Any songs that are forms from words or statements of any leader, in the church, or in politics, or in sport or in any sector of life that are not traceable to the Bible is NOT from God. It is satanic.

11. Any songs that eulogize local belief, culture and tradition above scriptural belief is NOT of God.

12. Etc.

These and many more as the Spirit of Christ leads you are important parameters to gauge and determine songs that should be used in the church of Jesus Christ, irrespective of country, nations or tribes.