Is That Song Biblical?

Last month we talked about different types of worship songs in the Bible. Over the years, in the many churches I have worked at as a worship leader, worship pastor and a variety of other titles (the most convoluted being “Pastor of Creative Communications and Worship Leader”), I often received messages concerned that a specific song we had sung in service wasn’t “biblical.” And while the songs were not unbiblical, what those people had actually noticed was that the songs were incomplete.

Worship songs all have their strengths and weaknesses biblically speaking. All in some sense or form may be considered biblically “incomplete.” Even traditional hymns can suffer from these same issues. Each song has a focus or specific aspect or topic it is meant to emphasize, whether it is “God as Father or love,” “Jesus as Savior,” “grace’s sufficiency” or “our response to God.”

Depending on your theological background or bent, you may dislike some songs and like other songs that steer toward one of these areas, and that is okay. The issue that arises for the worship pastor or director is the ability to put aside their biases and likes/dislikes and theologically balance themes and perspectives in their choosing of songs.

As Village’s worship leader, I do my best to balance songs for this very reason. We should not sing only songs that focus on descriptions of God’s characteristics without addressing God directly, as many hymns do. At the same time, we should not sing only songs that speak in general terms that could be applied as much to any popular love song as to our worship song about our love for God, as many modern worship songs do.

I mentioned Colossians 3:16 in my last article in describing the Bible’s use of song in the New Testament and I think it applies here. It is my prayer that as we consider songs to include in our singing we would echo this passage. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”