David Ker has started a new meme on Weird Worship, and has honoured me as one of the first group of five to be tagged. Not being one to duck out of a challenge like Nick Norelli, I decided to look for my own selection of weird lines from worship songs. But I will look in a more authoritative source even than Songs of Fellowship volume 4 – my TNIV, and specifically the Book of Psalms:
There is no God (14:1)
Deep calls to deep
in the roar of your waterfalls (42:7)
Moab is my washbasin,
on Edom I toss my sandal;
over Philistia I shout in triumph. (108:9)
Happy are those who seize your infants
and dash them against the rocks. (137:9)
Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,
praise him with the harp and lyre,
4 praise him with timbrel and dancing,
praise him with the strings and pipe,
5 praise him with the clash of cymbals,
praise him with resounding cymbals. (150:3-5)
Well, almost anything taken out of context can seem weird. That includes what is happening in Lakeland, Florida. But weird worship is biblical, because it is found in the Bible. Accept it, and get on with it, or at least let others get on with it without doubting their spirituality.
Well, this was a meme, so I’m supposed to tag some other people. I’ll give them a choice: either continue David (I mean Ker, not King)’s search for weirdness in contemporary worship songs; or follow my example by finding more weird worship in the Bible. I hereby tag:
- the wonderful Eddie Arthur,
- the incomparable Jim West,
- the latest enfant terrible of my blogging circle Roger Mugs,
- the pastor with the furthest to fall if his congregation decide to re-enact Luke 4:29, Brian Fulthorp,
- and, to try to get him to blog more than one post, my old friend and weird worship leader Dave G.
What strange songbook did you get all those weird lyrics from?!? Not one mention of Jesus or Amazing Grace!
Well, at least you’re not a party-pooper like Nick.
Yes, David, I know I have provided more ammunition for the anti-TNIV crowd, who are no doubt unaware that ESV includes almost the same weird lyrics.
Pingback: Snickerdoodles: 60-40-20-0 « Lingamish
Some interesting responses here.
Roger Mugs is the only respondent so far to actually list some weird worship, or to tag anyone else. But his second example, from Keith Green, is in fact a straight quote from Psalm 51:11-12, which doesn’t seem at all weird to me. His third example, “Dropkick me Jesus”, is of course wonderfully weird, just the sort of thing David Ker must have been looking for.
Predictably, Jim West implies that at least 98% of contemporary worship is weird.
Eddie, however, takes a very different line:
– to which I replied:
Pingback: Weird Worship « Eclexia
Pingback: Kill the children (and other weird worship songs) » MetaCatholic
Pingback: Weird worship meme « He is Sufficient
peter… to me this brings up some of the questions about how some of the psalms are to be sung/prayed. As for that song I listed, keith green was able to do it to music, I am only able to do it uncomfortably…
i’m still learning to wrap my head around some of these psalms that don’t handle my AD theology…
Indeed, Roger, there are profound issues here.
Pingback: Gentle Wisdom » Weird children’s worship
Peter, I like your follow-up analysis. Of course Roger’s post ties into the BBB series by Suzanne and my Cyber-Psalm today is tied to yours and Doug’s mention of Psalm 137. Truly a world-wide web! But are we the spider or the fly?
I felt both Eddie and Jim were engaging with the topic in their own way while not taking up the meme per se. And you know how I hate memes!
Psalm 150. Weird? Perhaps. But it’s also quite beautiful. Here it is as a chiasmus:
A Praise the LORD!
B Praise God in His sanctuary; Praise Him in His mighty expanse.
C Praise Him for His mighty deeds; Praise Him according to His excellent greatness.
D Praise Him with trumpet sound;
E Praise Him with harp and lyre.
F Praise Him with timbrel and dancing;
E’ Praise Him with stringed instruments
D’ and pipe.
C’ Praise Him with loud cymbals; Praise Him with resounding cymbals.
B’ Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.
A’ Praise the LORD!
A few notes:
B/B’: Praise Him everywhere (B), everything (B’).
C/C’: God’s deeds and greatness are matched with the sound of crashing cymbals.
C’ to D/D’ and E/E’: Starting with cymbals, other instruments are brought in. From the loudest (cymbals) to quietest (strings).
F: The very physical act of dancing takes center stage.
The dancer(s) are surrounded by increasing bands of volume (E/E’ to D/D’ to C’), greatness (C), numbers (B’) and space (B). Working from outside-in, the ‘volume’ decreases until it is focused on the act of personal worship – involving the whole person.
Nice!
Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! (A/A’)
Larry, thanks for this interesting analysis. The centrality of dancing is interesting, especially to those of us for whom dance in worship is thought weird. It wasn’t so in Old Testament times.
True enough.
Pingback: Weird Worship | Kouya Chronicle