Praise songs without pentinence

In the past, I’ve expressed my skepticism about Christian Contemporary Music. But as I keep running into (intelligent and capable) CCM advocates, it’s clear I need to identify more theoretical and empirical evidence supporting these concerns. 

This month, Terry Mattingly of GetReligion highlighted a study of CCM texts by Prof. Michael J. Rhodes, a Baptist Old Testament professor in New Zealand. (Strangely, the original story and Twitter tweets are from last September).

The story was about how Rhodes looked at the lyrics of the first 25 songs in the CCLI Top 100 worship songs. He contrasted the themes of the top 25 praise songs to those of the 150 psalms of the historic psalter. Here are a few highlights from Rhodes’ Sept. 30 column in Christianity Today:

• “There is only one passing mention of the word justice in the Top 25. …
• “There are zero references to the poor or poverty in the Top 25. …
• “The widow, refugee, and oppressed are completely absent from the Top 25. …
• “References to enemies are rare in the Top 25.”

And his final point:

Maybe most devastatingly, in the Top 25, not a single question is ever posed to God. When we sing the Top 25, we don’t ask God anything. By contrast, prick the Psalter and it bleeds with the cries of the oppressed, pleading for God to act.

So without assessing the pros and cons of Rhodes’ argument, his premise is indisputable: the themes of 2500-3000 years of Judeo-Christian worship are the gold standard, and today’s praise hymns don’t measure up to that standard.

Penitential Hymns

To be fair, the typical Christmas, Easter or Trinitytide hymns tend to be upbeat as well.

Still, when considering the psalms, I spotted what I thought an even more striking omission: no mention of the pentience, repentance and confession by King David and others throughout the psalms, repeated by worshippers across the centuries. The first and last verses of this hymn — sung by Episcopalians at Lent — seems an appropriate example of what such pentinence might look like:

With broken heart and contrite sigh
A trembling sinner, Lord, I cry:
Thy pardoning grace is rich and free
O God, be merciful to me.

And when, redeemed from sin and hell,
With all the ransomed throng I dwell,
My raptured song shall ever be,
God has been merciful to me.

Authored in 1852 by English Baptist preacher Cornelius Elven, for Episcopalians it has been sung regularly since it was first published in The Hymnal of 1874.