“Hallelujah” is derived from a Jewish word – according to Wiki:
Hallelujah is a composite of Hallelu and Yah (Jah). It literally translates from Hebrew as "Praise Yah, [third-person plural]!" or simply "Praise Yah!" Yah is the shortened form of the name Yahweh (Jehovah)But, my gripe is that “Halle” is nothing. It’s just a sound that some song writer made up to make his or her worship song flow better. I think it bothers me even more that sometimes in church we just sing whatever is put on the screen – not stopping to actually read and consider the words. Most of the time, when I actually read and consider the words of a song, I am greatly edified – especially Hymns! But, a number of times I’ve caught myself singing along jubilantly with some song, only to realize the words are unbiblical or silly or, in this case – gibberish.
So what’s wrong with that? I think it’s a bad spot to be in because at that point worship has just become an emotional thing, carried along by the hype of the song, and is no longer intellectual. Now, don’t get me wrong – worship is an emotional thing – it’s ridiculous to think we can interact with the Almighty God in worship and not feel an emotional response. But, worship should not be only emotional – we should also worship with our minds. Worship without emotion is misplaced piousness (and I think is like what C.S. Lewis is talking about when he talks about the “cold self-righteous prig who goes regularly to church” in Mere Christianity). On the other hand, worship without intellect is a step in the direction towards cultism – that is, when we detach our minds and let someone else direct us emotionally, it is then when we are most open to being misled.
Of course I trust our worship pastor and our church. And, I’m sure I’m making a much bigger deal out of this than it is. But, that kind of stuff just bothers me. I will say though, that we had a great Easter service yesterday. The church was packed, the worship was great, and Pastor's message was good. So, I guess I should just get over the whole "halle" thing.
5 comments:
I totally agree. I enjoy a good song (vs. a lame one), but it has to make sense beyond being singable.
That brings up one of my gripes. I'm non-musical, so I get fried by songs that may sound great, but the average person can't sing.
You've gotta good point there, Tycen! What if secular music started shortening words to flow better? We would probably pick it out right away and think it was strange. I don't think many people know what Hallelujah really means, so they don't think twice about it being shortened - and, yes, that is a problem. Its potentially more of a problem that the leader, who should know what they're "leading" people to say/do, is misdirecting people to say gibberish. But either way we should not be following said leaders blindly.
"Life is a hi, hi, highway!"
"I can only ima, ima, imagine!"
If you ever want to do a study on lame worship songs that don't really worship God and must insult Him to hear us sing, I'll send you to my old church.
My "favorite" one that I eventually refused to sing if they played again had lyrics like "I can get my facts good. I can hand out tracts good. I can try to be good. Even get my deal good. But nothing's gonna satisfy me 'til I get closer to you, Lord." hahaha - so NOT cool!
Emily's post inspired me to find more information about lame worship songs, and I ran across a fabulous article! "How to Write a Really Mediocre Song" by Bob Kilpatrick.
I thought maybe this post was going to be about the comet, but now I realize there's only one "L" in Hale-Bopp. But you have a point, Halle worship can be more irritating than Hale worship sometimes.
Post a Comment