Lying Through Worship

This has been on my mind for a while, just kinda percolating in there. I have no “official” stance on music in the church, because I like both the old hymns and the new praise and worship that is more common now. I do wish we had some more of the old stuff, but I don’t go against the new stuff either. But that is really neither here nor there for the matter at hand.

What does concern me is when we sing songs that we don’t mean, or are contrary to the way we’re living. Let me give you some examples of lyrics that could be dangerous to sing:

“Everyday, it's You I live for

Everyday, I'll follow after You

Everyday, I'll walk with You, my Lord” –from “Everyday” by Hillsong

If you sing this when you’re really living for self, what’s that say to God?

“I surrender all, I surrender all,

All to Thee, my blessed Savior,

I surrender all” – from “I Surrender All”, an old hymn by J.W. Van Deventer and W.S. Weeden

And if you’re really holding back something that is displeasing to the Lord? What if you’re nursing that pet sin that feels good?

“Lord I give You my heart
I give You my soul
I live for You alone” – from “I Give You My Heart” by Hillsong

Same principle, only both get hit by this one.

“All I want is more of You

Nothing I desire, O Lord

But more of You” – from “More of You” from Integrity's Hosanna! Music

To someone sold out this wouldn’t be bad, but again we have an issue if we want more of fleshly things as well.

So let’s take a quick look at some verses about our words and lying.

“These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,” Proverbs 6:16-17 KJV

“34: O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.
35: A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.
36: But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.
37: For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.” Mathew 12:34-37 KJV

This passage in Matthew seems to have two types of words it targets. We have people speaking words in accordance to their heart, and then idle words that have more value than we realize.

It raises questions for me. If you know that singing a certain song would be to lie, should you remain silent rather than condemn yourself? That would seem a smart thing to me. Either way the message I see is that we should watch what we sing just as much as what we say, You can say nice things and be lying, you can sing nice things and be lying, it’s easy to just tend to not think about it so much when it’s singing, particularly worship music.