Lyrical Integrity

In recent days, as I have listened to worship music, my historic convictions have been freshly reinforced.

There is no shortage of worship songs. We have them in abundance.

There is, however, a drastic shortage of worship songs with compelling lyrics.

Lyrics rich in poetry. Lyrics rich in theology. Lyrics that say what I feel in my heart in a way I would actually want to say it when standing face to face with Almighty God. Lyrics as real, honest, vulnerable, and faith-building as the Psalms. Lyrics that do not drift toward escapism.

There are too many clichés. Too many songs circling the same few ideas. Too many lyrics that feel like well-constructed jingles for God rather than something heart-wrenchingly believable. And too often, the musical wrapping and production format do not seem to understand, or even reflect, the lyrical content.

Therefore, this encouragement to worship songwriters:

(1) Please become as convicted about your lyrics as Christianity has become about production.

(2) Please resist the temptation to write glib, over-the-top jingles for God about subject matter you have not lived deeply enough to carry.

(3) Please dig a little deeper into God’s rich internal deposit and find your inner artist: observant, courageous, sober, careful, empathetic, poetic.

(4) Please counterbalance the euphoric triumphalism of recent years with honesty, vulnerability, and the kind of gutsy faith forged in real life.

(5) Please do more than hunt for new words and phrases. Explore new subject matter, so we do not keep building a worship library that says the same things over and over again.

(6) Please find a trusted friend who will give you honest feedback on your songs and keep you reaching for gold.

Malcolm du Plessis

P.S. Because Christianity has placed such a high priority on production quality, we have developed a culture of giving producers a percentage of a song for suggested tweaks. I would love to see us build a culture of giving lyric doctors a percentage for helping massage a lyric into something special.