on praise, worship songs, &songs in general

July 19, 2011

Why is praise important? We'd probably ramble off the Sunday school answer of 'because God deserves our praise and worship, etc.' But do we realize that praising with worship songs is powerful? That it is a weapon to fight against the schemes of Satan?

So it came about whenever the evil spirit from God came to Saul, David would take the harp and play it with his hand; and Saul would be refreshed and be well, and the evil spirit would depart from him. ( 1 Samuel 16:23) (People might get tripped up by the 'evil spirit from God' part, but my focus is going to be on praise and music).

21After consulting the people, Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the LORD and to praise him for the splendor of his^d holiness as they went out at the head of the army, saying:

“Give thanks to the LORD,

for his love endures forever.”

22As they began to sing and praise, the LORD set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated. ( 2 Chronicles 20:21-22)

[Paul and Silas were flogged, beaten, and thrown in jail] About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody's chains came loose. (Acts 16:25-26)

These three passages are the ones that I can remember off the top of my head that shows well the power of praise and worshiping God with music. There are three observations to be made.

1. Praise and music is powerful. We see that when David played music, the evil spirit would depart from Saul. When the Israelite people simply praised and worshiped their God out loud, God defeated their enemies for them. When Paul and Silas praised God in jail, they were set free. Now, I'm not saying that we should praise to get ourselves out of a sticky situation, but these passages point out the power of praise and worship. Praising and worshiping God is a weapon given to us to help us to draw upon God's power in defeating the devil in his schemes. Praising and worshiping God can turn our inner spirits entirely around. When we are depressed, angry, frustrated, those feelings are not of God, and one way we can overcome those dark feelings is by praising God and drawing upon the power of God through worshiping him.

2. We worship and praise even when we don't feel like it; when we don't feel like it is probably the best and most crucial time to praise God. Consider Paul and Silas, they had just been flogged, beaten, unfairly dragged to authorities, and thrown into prison. I would surely not have felt like praising or worshiping God in that circumstance. I probably would have been too busy praying for freedom and for burning coals on the heads of the people who unjustly threw me into prison. But we see Paul and Silas' response: praise and worship. How different our responses should be when we have Christ within us than when we have our old flesh still dominating within us! I was once really angry at a friend, so angry that I could feel in my spirit and soul this bitterness, anger, and darkness that made it impossible for me to think any good or love towards the friend. My mom challenged me to praise God despite my anger, despite my urge to send a scathing email to the friend justifying myself, and despite the very clear and strong feeling of not wanting to submit to God this anger and praise and bless Him for the friend. Despite how very unnatural it felt, I listened to my mom and tried it out. I weakly praised God with a few 'praise the Lord', 'God is good', etc., and surprisingly, though I did it so halfheartedly, I could feel the change. I could feel my anger and disdain subsiding and the dark feelings leaving my heart and soul. It is something I am still learning to do: praising when every part of my being feels against the idea.

I was once told this little picture that really helped me to understand a bit of what praise does: when we react in anger, frustration, disdain, and dislike for people who either wrongly or rightfully caused our reactions, the devil is jumping in victory and in glee. His very purpose is to remove from our hearts God's peace, God's love, God's grace, and God's mercy, and when we react in such a angry way, we are not acting as sons of God, who are peacemakers. However, when we fight against the human inclination to react and respond in anger and with a motivation to hurt the other person and justify ourselves, when we choose to praise and worship God, the devil has lost his hold, he becomes increasingly small and has no control or hold over us, because we have responded the way children of God should naturally respond.

This is something I am still obviously learning to do. To praise under all circumstances and to fight against negative feelings and thoughts that are not of God with praise and worship of God so that my heart, mind, soul, and spirit may be filled with the spirit of God and not with the spirit of this world.

3. Much of secular music may actually be a counterfeit of worship songs.

"Everything [Satan] does is a counterfeit of Christianity: Clairvoyance is a counterfeit of divine revelation; precognition is a counterfeit of prophecy; telepathy is a counterfeit of prayer; psychokinesis is a counterfeit of God's miracles; and spirit guides counterfeit divine guidance. (Why would you want to have a spirit guide when you can have the Holy Spirit as your guide?)"

These are but a few example of the way Satan counterfeits Christianity to weaken our spiritual man. I believe that in the same way praise and worship can be so powerful that it can make evil spirits leave, certain secular music can be powerful in engendering a wrong spirit within us that is not of God. There are songs that glorify sexual lusts, alcohol, partying, getting hungover, violence, adultery, human bodies (mainly female bodies), pride, etc. These kinds of songs do not engender within us a godly spirit. Sure, we may think that we are not affected, but I think the passage on David and Saul reminds us that music is powerful even if we don't think so, and I believe that whatever we choose to put into our minds and hearts, will ultimately bear fruit. May I take to heart this command in the Bible:

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things. (Philippians 4:8)

and may I seek to fill my mind and mouth with praise all day long.

My mouth is filled with your praise,

declaring your splendor all day long. (Psalm 71:8)