Value in simplicity

There are a few modern worship songs which annoy me because all they seem to say is “I’m a Christian” over and over again. Not only are modern worship songs formulaic (and include a lot of woh-ohing), they also feature a lot of repetition. At the other end of the spectrum, most hymns are wordy and can turn into a contest as to who can use the largest amount of words to describe a rather simple thing. Or spend an entire song to ask a question which can be answered with a single word: no.

simplicity

Personally, I tend to favour hymns (whether modern or ancient), because in the variation of lyrics, I can feel their flow and progression towards the resurrection. In that, they play their part in accompanying us in our worship, starting from simple description of facts and progressively including us – a bit like the “This is our story” eucharistic liturgy. That’s how, when they explode into the victory being won, that victory is truly ours.

But the issue with hymns is that they don’t let up. If I don’t know the hymn, I don’t quite have time to take in what I’m saying. The mind and soul are sometimes left trying to catch up with the lips. And by the time they have caught up, the liturgy is about to continue, without much time to actually own what we were singing. The same applies if we sing a song with simple lyrics but a complicated structure, where boredom takes over at the tenth special electric guitar riff.

Halfway between lyrical complexity and musical fanciness, though, there are songs which can only be described as simple. Take the Taize song “Oh Lord, hear my prayer“; or the African song “Hakuna wakaita sa Jesu“, meaning “There’s no one like Jesus”. Both of these have simple lyrics which get repeated – without fancy additions. The repetitive pattern, finally, allows the mind and soul to catch up with the lips, and the statement that there is no one like Jesus becomes truly our statement, rather than a trite, quaint little thing better left for Sunday school.

There is a true value in simple songs. And singing a song that just keeps on repeating itself is nothing to shirk from, or to compensate for with fun riffs or drum solo. Leaving enough time for the simple statement to gather momentum and weight, with no distractions or shame, leads (for me) to a deeper form of worship. And I absolutely adore it.

So here’s my suggestion for you: next time you worship, pick a simple song. Or simplify one by using simply the chorus. And sing it over and over again until you feel it is yours. Then finish with a moment of silence.

Mark

I don’t agree with your dismissal of Jerusalem. For me the question is rhetorical; the message of the first verse is “We are nothing special.” The message of the second verse is “And nonetheless we will do our utmost to become special.” Or to put it another way, “We started nowhere, but we will end up in Jerusalem.”

“No” does not summarise the song.
- http://edsslipper.net/ Pierre
  
  Hey Mark,
  thanks for your comment. I was being a bit flippant – I like Jerusalem (for obvious reasons…); although I must say that I had never perceived it in the way you put it, so thanks a lot :-)
Jen

the awkward moment when you accidentally mix up the words in a hymn and end up singing something heretical…
- http://edsslipper.net/ Pierre
  
  Please do share, we all like a laugh ;-)
  - Jen
    
    Can’t think of a specific example, but pretty sure I’ve mixed up the words “You” (when “you” refers to God) and “me” somewhere….
http://www.facebook.com/people/Stephen-Wigmore/61311392 Stephen Wigmore

Simplicity can be good or bad. I find taize’s repitition makes me literally fall asleep.

Hymns, worship songs, poems, etc, should be as simple as possible in text while saying as much as possible. Or if they are more complicated, they need a better, more compelling tune to carry you through it. It’s efficiency of message, getting as much across with as little that matters. Not just whether a song is simple or complex.

Amazing grace is simple but each word is pregnant with deep meaning. Same goes for ‘My song is love unknown’.

‘In Christ Alone’ & ‘Tell out my soul’ are both relatively lyrically complicated, but they have such good tunes and are sung at a good pace that you get through it with aplomb, and know what you were singing about.

Some bad hymns are complex and dirgeful, and you neither understand or care. Some worship songs are simple to the point of stupid, but still manage to go on forever achieving nothing. Neither are any good.
- http://profiles.google.com/jonathandchase Jonathan Chase
  
  I think I’m with you on this one. Don’t know about taize, but I find it with some worship songs. I find it difficult to stay awake when anything gets repeated more than once, especially as they always seem to pick the less profound parts of a song to repeat!
  
  Partly down to my background I’ve always preferred a good hymn, but some of the tunes are utterly dire, whilst others vary the words but in many ways are just as repetitive. I’m totally with you on In Christ Alone and Tell Out My Soul (although my personal favourite is And Can It Be) – a well-written hymn should be accessible, with a good and appropriate tune but carry some genuine weight.
  I sometimes think that people accept too little depth with worship songs – some are great, but a lot are mediocre, and probably won’t last to future generations.
- http://edsslipper.net/ Pierre
  
  I’m replying to both you and Jon here :-)
  
  The question I would set to you is – why are you searching depth in your worship? See this: http://www.benreed.net/index.php/2012/02/15/the-1-reason-why-so-many-people-want-deeper-content/
  
  Although in a different context, it makes a good point: that, sometimes, depth can be used as a mask and actually impede engagement with worship.
  
  See, I used to think along the same lines as both of you, and to simply hate it when there were repetitions in a song (we’re not talking about changing a hymn to add repeats in it here!), and even to think “get on with it already!” Or even to think “Blah, blah, we know God is great. We’ve sung stuff to that effect for the past 10 minutes.”
  
  But then I had the “There’s no one like Jesus” experience. Where I started out a bit ashamed of the simplicity of the song; and only after repeating it a fair amount of times did I think “Yeah. Actually yeah.” And the simplicity and the repetition helped my worship.
  
  I suppose that it changes things whether it’s “led” by someone (band, minister) or “just” happening as a group; whether it’s part of something else (and you think we need to get on with the service); but there is a true value in simple worship.
  
  This value does not detract from the value in hymns – but I think both should be celebrated! (oh, and Steve, I wouldn’t consider Amazing Grace as simple…)
  
  Finally, to pick on something you said, worship is not about getting something across! It’s not about educating the masses in the depths of theology. It’s about bringing ourselves, our hearts to God.

Ed's Slipper

About predestination and smaller matters

Value in simplicity