Over the years many people have asked me how I choose songs for the church to sing on any given Sunday. I would say that 95% of the time I allow the sermon content for that week to dictate the songs we will sing as a church. Occasionally I take a request. But the majority of the time, the text sets the theme for the songs we sing on Sunday. That means I always read the over the passage being preached on for the coming Sunday and try to get the basic themes of our songs from the themes of the text. It’s not always easy and sometimes there aren’t songs that deal with a specific text. This past Sunday was a prime example with one of our pastors preaching from Revelation 17:1-6. In these situations I’ll generally find gospel centered songs that deal with sin, salvation and the death and resurrection of Christ. Yet even though I set up parameters for what we sing, not everyone will be pleased with the song selection that week.
If there are 100 people present on a Sunday morning there will be 101 ideas of what should be sung and how the music should be played. There’d be all of our opinions and then there’d be God’s truth. Many of us think we know exactly how God would run the music aspect of the service and it would certainly be based on either our preferences or our knowledge of the Bible. And while many would try to fall into the “Bible” category, many people plant flags of certainty in areas that God has provided some room for flexibility. Repetition is one of those areas.
I was once told that a famous reformed pastor has a name for songs that are repetitive. He calls them 7/11 songs. In other words, you sing the same seven words over and over again eleven times. This was obviously a disparaging remark and may even carry a sense of false piety. The assumption is that because certain parts of a song are repetitive, then there must be something wrong with the song. This critique of contemporary songs of worship often comes from the misuse of Scriptures like Matthew 6:5-8. In Matthew 6, the Lord is addressing a couple things: hypocrisy and useless phrases in prayer. On a larger scale, Jesus's sermon on the mount is meant to correct a faulty understanding of many areas of the Jewish life. We see the Lord addressing the inward righteousness that God requires. It is not visible to the human eye because we can only see outward actions. And when it comes to appearance, many of the things the Jews were doing had the appearance of godliness but their hearts were far from God. So Jesus addresses things like anger, lust, oaths, retaliation, hypocritical giving, hypocritical prayer and hypocritical judging of others. Jesus had come to fulfill the Law not to abolish the Law and so He sets the record straight to show what God really requires of us--inward purity. Obviously we all fall short of that, hence the need for the one who fulfilled the Law of God perfectly. So when we look at Matthew 6:5-8 we must keep that context in mind.
Matthew 6:5-8 And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. 7 “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
So first and foremost, when we look at this passage we see that hypocrisy is the key sin that Jesus is addressing. Specifically, he is addressing those that love to pray in order to be recognized by others. There is a deep sense of hypocrisy in their prayers. Outwardly they appear to be doing righteous things, but it is for their own personal glory, not truly to address God in prayer.
Secondly, when Jesus addresses the prayer of pagan Gentiles, he's not saying that repetition is a sin, as if anything repeated is useless. He's saying that repetition is bad when the phrases are empty and meaningless or useless. He's saying that just because you heap up, pile on the words, or talk a lot and say a lot of pointless things in prayer, it doesn't mean that God is going to hear you more just because your word count is through the roof. Jesus is trying to keep His people from praying like pagans so He gives a small theology lesson on God's omniscience--God knows what you need. Immediately after this statement of addressing the empty phrases or vain repetitions of the Gentiles, the Lord them gives a model prayer for how we can pray with substance.
So, consider that the Lord is correcting a pharisaical understanding of holiness that the Jews had been trained in by their false teachers and hypocritical leaders. He came to correct their understanding of God's law and what He requires. Secondly, remember that the Lord is addressing hypocrisy and useless and meaningless phrases in pagan prayer.
Of course the Lord isn't addressing congregational singing, per se, but I suppose it may be a valid application to transfer this to corporate music. If the transfer of application is valid then we should not sing for our own glory but for God's. If the applications is transferable then our songs should contain substance and we should not use pagan practices in our worship. That doesn't mean that every song needs to contain the entirety of God's wisdom in the Word. That's why we have many songs. It just means they should be filled with truth. That doesn't mean that repetition can't be a part of a worship songs. We just shouldn't think that just because a song has a lot of repetition that the song is immediately deemed shallow. If that were the case then the four living creatures surrounding God's throne would be seriously in fault for repeating the same thing for as long as they've been alive.
Revelation 4:8 And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!”
They never cease to say the same thing over and over again. So it can't be that addressing God in repetition is sinful in itself. It's the empty substance of repeatedly addressing God with meaningless phrases that is pointless in worship. Now sometimes in our prayers we may have some "ums" but that isn't what the Lord is referring to. Again, the point is that these people actually have a faulty theology of who God is and how He works. They think a lot of words gets God's attention. They don't know quite what to say so they heap up meaningless and empty phrases thinking that it'll get God to act on their behalf.
Church, repetition can be a bad thing as we see from Matthew 6. But from Revelation 4 we see that repetition doesn't automatically qualify something as hypocritical or sinful. And that's what some people have done with worship songs that have repetition. They've lumped them all into the meaningless phrase category as if all repetition is bad. That simply just isn't true. Psalm 136 repeats the phrase "for his steadfast love endures forever" no less than 26 times. Forget 7/11 songs. We got us a 6/26 song here. This repetition was meant to teach and to reinforce truth. Vain repetition does nothing of the sort because there's nothing to reinforce.
In Judges 4 we read the account of the Judge, Deborah, and her military commander, Barak, getting victory of King Jabin and his military commander, Sisera. After getting victory in chapter 4 they begin to praise God in song and melody in chapter 5. And here we see that music and truth go hand in hand with repetition. Music should teach the mind so that our hearts are directed towards God as He is lifted high for the salvation He gives.
Judges 5:11 To the sound of musicians at the watering places, there they repeat the righteous triumphs of the Lord, the righteous triumphs of his villagers in Israel.
Here we see that Deborah and Barak sang a song to praise God. And within that song are very clear statements about the awesomeness of God. But also within that song is a clear description that these truths are being repeated by musicians. In others words, people are singing again and again about the righteous triumphs of the Lord. Now that may mean, "sing it again at different times" but it doesn't have to be. But notice that there is no reprimand for repeating the truth of God's victories. In fact, Deborah and Barak are praising the repetition. So it can't be that just any repetition of music and words is bad or else Deborah and Barak would not have authored those words under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
Church, that is the only reason we sometimes repeat things in our corporate worship. Sometimes we need reminding of great truths. We need to hide them in our heart. Sometimes we need to celebrate them just a little more. Sometimes we need them to sink in and a quick passing by of truth can oftentimes leave us without room to contemplate what we are learning in song. Sometimes we need the repetition from others who are singing so that our minds finally get in gear and believe what we are hearing and are ourselves singing. Sometimes we need a little space and time to process truth before moving on to the next truth.
Have you ever sat through a sermon and a particular point was beginning to make an impression on your soul and before you could fully grasp the gravity of what God was saying to you, the preacher blazed on through to the next point. Sometimes space is needed, pause is needed to grasp the gravity of a truth. This is what Biblical meditation is--rolling over the same ideas in one's mind over and over again until every ounce of spiritual nutrition is absorbed from the Word. The same is true in a song. Sometimes repeating a truth a few times gives it a little more opportunity for you to grasp the weight of it. Deborah and Barak thought repetition of truth was good. The Psalmist thought repetition of truth was good. The heavenly creatures surrounding God must believe the repetition of truth must be valid. Indeed God Himself believes truth must be reiterated or else these examples would not exist.
So don't buy into the lie that everything repetitive in worship songs is shallow. It's just not the case. There certainly can be instances of shallowness, but repetition in and of itself does not qualify something as shallow or unworthy of corporate worship. That's just a myth that's been perpetuated for far too long.
I hope that the next time we repeat something in a song, you will take the time to memorize that truth and think about how God has related to you in regards to that truth. The temptation to be critical may arise, but instead of being critical and bitter use the "space" that the song provides to thank God for what He's done. For instance, if we sing "You are good, good, ohh" and it repeats, take the time to fill your mind with all the good things God has shown you. While the verses contain the ideas that God is our refuge, we must declare that He is good in the midst of hardship and that God never fails us. So think on Jesus and His goodness. Think on the goodness of His perfection. Think on the goodness of His death and resurrection. Think on the goodness of His return. Think on the goodness of His provision. Think on the goodness of His patience. The song allows for that sort of meditation while honing in on His goodness through trials and hardships. Not only that but I guarantee someone nearby you is doubting the goodness that you are singing about. They need to hear that God is good. When they mentally say, "No, He isn't," your voice continues to resounds, "You are good, God!" If you don't realize that spiritual debating is going on in the midst of our worship, then you ought to know that from here on out. Our corporate repetition of truth can be a powerful tool to persuade unbelievers to consider some things.
So there you have it, church. Repetition in a song can certainly be bad. But repetition in a song can be great as well. For what it's worth, we try to make good use of repetition. Do we get it perfect every time? Not likely. But like anything else in life, we will fall short of perfection while striving for the resurrection life.
God bless you and let's keep praising God together today, tomorrow and until Christ comes again--and then forevermore in eternity.
Stayed tuned for "Worship Myth #3"--Worship is what we do before the sermon on Sundays.
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