The Power of Praise?

And when they began to sing and praise, the LORD set an ambush against the men of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah, so that they were routed.
(2 Chronicles 20:22 – ESV)

Many people talk of or teach on the power of praise. They often use this passage from 2 Chronicles to “prove” their point. Now there may be a power of praise, but is this really what this passage is teaching us? Lets look at the context by giving a short synopsis of what was going on.

2 Chronicles 20:1-2 – The land was under invasion from several enemies.
2 Chronicles 20:3-13 – Jehoshaphat & the people seek God by fasting and prayer.
2 Chronicles 20:14-17 – They receive the promise of victory by prophecy.
2 Chronicles 20:18-19 – The people fell down in worship, the priests rose up and praised God.
2 Chronicles 20:20-25 – The king rallies everyone, appoints singers to go before the army, and as they praise God the enemies are overthrown, and the spoil is abundant.
2 Chronicles 20:26-30 – They give thanks for the deliverance and for the blessings, they return to Jerusalem with music, and there is peace.

Now there is no doubt that praise is a main element in this story. However, many look at verse 22 and think they see some secret power of praise. Yet this victory was not about some power of praise it was about the power of God predicated upon the repentance we see beginning in 2 Chronicles 19:4, and continued with the prophecy of victory and the people’s worship. It was not because they began to sing and praise but at the same time that they began to sing and praise. They turned to the Lord in repentance, and then they received word that God was going to deliver them, and they praised as God did His deliverance. It wasn’t that they’d never thought of praise, and that then God gave them some revelation about praise warfare, and that now we can all enjoy the blessing of that. It is not as if praise is the answer to all our problems.

No, this wasn’t a revelation of praise warfare, as if we can just sing our way out of sin, without any reference to or regard for repentance from sin. This wasn’t some magic formula given that we now apply universally to all our situations. Indeed, praise is a weapon of sorts, it is definitely part of the process, but it must be the outflow of an understanding of grace, and a natural consequence of having turned to the Lord in repentance. Otherwise praise IS NOT the answer to all your problems, and you cannot simply sing your way out of sin.

They turned to the Lord in repentance, and then they received the message, and the message was about the fact God was going to deliver them, not about how praise was going to deliver them. The message God may give to you may be of a different sort, but then we praise as an outcome of that. We must also turn to the Lord in repentance first, and then receive the message of victory the Bible declares, and then we can praise as God does His work. The thing to notice in this passage is not that praise won them the victory but that they turned to God and praised because He was going to deliver them. They didn’t praise to get something, they praised because they had already been promised it and were in the midst of getting it.

This doesn’t mean we look for some obscure promise in the Bible, and then if we want it we can “activate” it by praising God for it. No, this is simply a moment in the grand scheme, a slice of redemptive history. The lesson for us is that we should turn to God when we are surrounded by enemies, which spiritually speaking, is always. The world, the flesh, and the devil are always on the offensive against us. Then when God gives us a victory, we should praise His name. The power of praise is about recognizing the power of God. We should always be giving thanks to and praising God. We praise, not to get something, but because He is something.

Swept Away

Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.
(Acts 17:29 – ESV)

I was listening to what many might call a “powerful” worship song the other day. I listened and watched the video, yes it is powerful, lots of feeling, biblical language, and easy to "get into". It didn’t teach heresy, and everyone was really excited about it, and seemingly praising the Lord with abandon. The “presence of God” seemed to be tangible.

Yet there was a lot of repetition, and my fear is that people simply fall in love with being "swept away". I know it is a problem I have had before, and it makes me cringe to see others caught up whom I know have no desire to truly worship the Lord. I am not trying to judge them on the spot; I am talking about things observed over time. They have a love for song but not a growing love for the One whom the songs are supposed to be about. The songs may seem like they are working right then, but they don’t seem to be working out in their lives.

For many, these type of songs are only hindering their growth, because they think the feeling of being swept away is the height of spirituality, and the goal to be in a continuous act of being swept out from shore, into the depths of God. That is what they think is happening, but they are only being swept away to the shores of their own self and falling in love with feelings and with their own ideas about God, even while we are presumably singing truth about Him. They might be learning how to get “in tune” more and more, but they don’t ever seem to be excited about the Bible, or doctrine, or things like that. Those other things don’t “bring the anointing” they say.

Some “worship leaders” seem to realize that certain amounts of happy clappy songs can be all too much like a pep rally, and so they switch gears, to a slower, more somber, “deep” feel. Or they speed things up, add instruments, and then during the same song strip back, and go with voices only, and it seems as if God arrives on the scene, it is so holy, they think.

No I don’t think so, I think it is just our emotions being taken on a ride, like with good classical music. It is okay to have variation in music, but to think this helps people “break through” is superstitious nonsense, and I don’t care what story you might tell me, what happened is that their emotions got touched, and emotions are not the keyhole to unlock spiritual doors. Truth is the key, and that is the truth. Instead of breaking though we are binding them to a pattern of emotional release that they think is spiritual growth.

Try this experiment sometime; instead of your favorite tune set to perfect music, etc., sing one of the great hymns of the faith with no accompaniment at all, just voices. If you just can’t seem to get into it, you just can’t worship as well, or whatever, then guess what, it is the feeling for the music you worship, not God.

It is not our job to get people swept away in emotions, and most often repetition of simple choruses breeds music appreciation not some extra power. It grieves me to hear of people saying a certain song “brings the anointing”. Worshipping God isn’t supposed to resemble an incantation or summoning. People are using certain music, flags, dance, and other peripherals as supposed power tools; in a sense they are trying to “summon the Spirit”. Maybe they are successful, but I’m not so sure about what spirit is coming in. Don’t get swept away by them.