I came across Darlene Zschech’s book "Extravagant Worship" and was reading it with interest. No doubt many would know who Darlene is. As the worship leader in Hillsong, her songs have been used and sung by churches around the world.
I too have been singing many of her songs, but it wasn’t until this book that I got a glimpse of this woman who has influenced so many in recent years and understand where her songs are coming from.
Darlene’s passion for God is evident in the book, so is her desire to see others becoming excellent worshippers.
She explained what worship is, the importance of praise, the difficulties and trap faced by musicians and practical advice for those who involve in music ministry.
While her book is encouraging and uplifting, and full of bible references, I’m afraid many of the references are taken out of context and I couldn’t help but noticed some of the incoherencies that are potentially dangerous to our walk with Christ.
Praise a weapon?First, the book suggests that there’s power in praise.
There is no doubt that God delights in our praises.
But to think that praise and worship has the power to cause God to act is something new to me and which, I believe is a misunderstanding of the scriptures.
The book uses the story of Jehoshaphat in
2 Chronicles 20:22 to show how God defeats the enemies as the men appointed by Jehoshaphat were praising God.
It says on p52
"When we, God’s people, come into His presence with thanksgiving and praise, warfare is waged against our enemies, and our battles are won by the supernatural power of God." It went on further to say in p53 that
"If you need to have the Enemy flee from your life, then you need to praise your pathway to victory!" This is misguided because earlier in the
chapter, we know that Jehoshaphat upon knowing that his enemies are coming, he inquired of the Lord and called for a fast for all Judah.
Then, he
prayed before the assembly in the temple.
In response, through the Levite Jahaziel, God told them that the battle is God’s and told them what to do.
Then, Jehoshaphat led the people to bow down and worship God before encouraging the people to have faith in God and appointed men to sing and praise God as they went out.
God set ambushes against the enemies just as they were going out to the battle field.
It’s not praise alone that causes God to act.
It’s because of their seeking God’s direction, prayer, worship, faith and trust in God that led to the victory.
It is therefore incorrect to say that
"When you sing, praise, dance, and rejoice in the face of opposition, you are using the spiritual warfare weapons against the devil." (p 57).
There is no where in the Bible that talks about praise being a spiritual weapon.
And in
2 Corinthians 10:4, it didn’t mentioned praise as a weapon.
If any, what follows on in
v5 indicates that it’s God’s words rather than our praises that has the power.
In fact Paul urges us more than once in
Ephesians 6:10-18 to put on the full armour of God in order to fight against the spiritual forces of evil.
And the weapon that we have is the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God (v17).
So not only is praise not a spiritual weapon, it doesn’t cause God to act.
Praise is merely our response to God’s goodness and greatness.
Thanksgiving brings peace?It’s interesting that Psalm 100:4 and Philippians 4:6 are used to conclude in p61 that,
"Thanksgiving paves a way for us to go straight into that awesome throne room of the King of Kings. When you enter into praise with true thanksgiving, the peace of God, which passes all understanding, accompanies your thankful heart." They sound ok on the outset until you look into the passages.
God can use anything to draw us close to Him.
But the reality is, thanksgiving doesn’t take us straight to God, Jesus does.
God delights when we come into his presence with a thankful attitude, but a thankful heart is certainly not the way in which we could come into God’s presence.
Jesus said in
John 14:6 that He is the way and no one can come to the Father but through Him.
Now,
Psalm 100:4 is a song of praise that mentions entering God's temple with thanksgiving and praise.
Philippians 4:6 is Paul's advice to the brothers in the Philippian church urging them not to be anxious of anything, but to bring their anxieties and worries before God by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, and the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard their hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
This is saying that when we leave our worries and burdens to God, our knowledge of His character and our trust in Him will give us peace.
It's flawed to connect the 2 passages together and it's in no way indicating that praising God with a thankful heart will bring peace.
Power in shouting?What I found dangerous is the belief that shouting has power and will cause God to respond.
It’s true that there are numerous places in Psalm 95:1, Psalm 47:1, 98:4 mention shouts.
But one has to look at them in its context and nature to understand that many of the Psalms are poetry and they are the lyrics of what they were saying or singing, not actually shouting.
Darlene’s song ‘Shout to the Lord’ is a good example.
We sing shout to the Lord, but I don’t think many of us actually shout while we sing or sing while we shout.
She uses the story of the fall of the walls of Jericho as the people shout and took the city in Joshua to advocate the practice of shouting when things don’t go right.
As an example, she says in p105 that
"In times when I feel overwhelmed, I shout to the Lord! I bury those melancholy blues in a shout and declare that it will bow down to the name of Jesus." She compares shouting as a prophetic cry in p66
"A shout of joy is like a prophetic cry to break obstacles in your life." And on p70,
"A tenacious, explosive shout of praise is a punch in the face of the devil." This is dangerous because we're saying that we can rise above our circumstances and winning in life through shouts of joy rather than Jesus. We're saying that shouts and praise have power and not the blood of Jesus. There is nothing in the New Testament or what Jesus said or in fact the whole bible that indicates a shout of praise or joy is a means for us to get God's attention when we are up against our enemies or hard pressed with our problems.
On the contrary, when we are discouraged, facing trials of many kinds or in difficult situations, we are instructed to pray.
Elisha, Nehemiah, David, Jesus and many others in the Bible when pursued by their enemies or in difficult situations, they pray rather than singing praises to God.
Shouts of joy don’t have power and can’t deliver us from evil, it’s Jesus’ death and resurrection that has power and that can deliver us!
There’s a good
review on the book by Matthias media, raising some issues associated with the Hillsong worship ‘revolution’.
