This is not a full-on complete blasting of one worship song. Rather, it draws a plumbline on one song in order to make a point about what seems to be occuring to worship music.
One of the things that vexes me about modern worship is twofold:
1) the lack of substance.
2) the lack of singing TO G-d, rather than about G-d or about us.
Take Waymaker, for example.
It’s catchy, the lyrics it does have are wonderful and it is somewhat powerful and goes in the right direction, but it ultimately becomes grossly underwhelming in its execution and consummation.
It grossly fails to capitalize on it strength in calling out the nature of G-d, and it waxes both criminally and blasphemously thin in the declaration of that multi-faceted nature in sharing His names.
Now, take between Genesis 1:1 and Exodus 34:7.
There are over 100 distinct names of G-d, both directly mentioned and indirectly implied or implied, between those passages in Genesis and Exodus.
For example:
Elohim (G-d)
Ruach Elohim (The Spirit of G-d)
Adonai Elohim (The L-RD G-d)
HaShem (The Name)
The G-d of Shem,
El Elyon (G-d Most High),
Qanah Shamayim Va-Aretz (The Purchaser of Heaven and Earth)
Adonai (L-rd)
The Shield of Abraham
The Smoking Firepot, the Flaming Torch
G-d of the Unbreakable Covenant
Melech Adonai (Messenger of the L-rd)
El Roi (G-d of Seeing, G-d who Sees)
Lahai Roi (The Living One Who Sees Me)
El Shaddai (G-d Almighty)
Your G-d/Their G-d (the significance here is the idea of Him being a “Personal G-d)
Ha Shafeyt Kol Ha-Aretz (The Judge of All the Earth)
El Olam (The Everlasting G-d)
I Am With You
G-d of the Spread
The G-d Who Does Not Leave
My G-d
G-d of the House
The Fear of Isaac
G-d of Alienation
G-d of the Camp
G-d of Immigration, Dwelling, and Sojournings
The G-d Who Is Witness
A Man Who Wrestles With Us
The Man Who Responds to Persistence
The G-d who Stands Beside Us
The G-d Whose Face I Can See
G-d of Dreams
G-d of Interpretations
The G-d Who Gives Strategy
The G-d Who Speaks to Pagans
The G-d Who Makes us Forget Hardship
Ish Milhamah (Man of War)
G-d of the Depths Beyond Magic (Exodus 8:19)
And that is a sampling of the list I have compiled.
Add to that The Anchor, the Ancient of Days, The Key of David, the Son of David, the Shepherd and Bishop of Our Souls, the Gate, the Door, the Light of the World, Our Son and Shield, Our Husband (Isaiah 54), The G-d Who Visits, The Branch of Jesse, Shiloh, the Man of War, the Potter (Jeremiah 18), The Blacksmith, the Paraclete (the Great Exhorter), and Most Importantly…..
Father…..
There was a time when G-d was not creator, but given Jesus was eternally begotten of G-d, there was never a time when He who begot the Man of Sorrows was never our Father.
What happened to modern worship that it grew thin and forgot to capitalize on the mines of Moria and all the seams of Mithrill and veins of jasprous gemstones?
Enough of this thin-surface, convictionless, unendlingly trite, shallow, overly-simplified, knee jerk reactions to small wiggles of the Almighty’s presence, as if His full depth cannot be accessed.
We make excuses and half-anointed tripe and call it “anointed”, and we settle for a thimbleful when G-d has….OCEANS FULL of HIS FULLNESS available to us.
More than enough.
Just saying.
Loved your analogy of the mines of Moria. So rich !! Thank you David