Worship music is often aspirational . We sing of the things we long to believe and experience , the comfort we long to feel , the hope we long to be rooted in … And we need to aspire to the prophetic as well . We need to aspire to justice .
As the Jewish mystics have said , “ Our words create worlds .” When we speak that which we value , we manifest it as well . And if we ever wonder why the church has forgotten this or neglected that , there ’ s a good chance we ’ re just not singing about it .
Under the new covenant — in which there is no divide between “ priests ” and the “ the rest of us ,” since we are all a royal priesthood ( 1 Pet . 2:9 )— we would be writing musical poetry which challenges all of us . Prophetically , we would pen verse that doesn ’ t simply belong to the same phrases and ideas we hear in sermons , but which specifically and intentionally utilizes art to deliver the ideas that are harder to digest otherwise . We could channel corporate repentance and refocusing in memorable ways that sermons and homilies never can . We could , like the prophets , supplement what we see in our spheres of influence rather than merely complementing it .
The “ singing to one another ” ( Eph . 5:19 ; Col . 3:16 ) part is important . We generally overlook that the only two exhortations the New Testament gives us to sing both mention this horizontal dimension of our music . Instead , we focus more exclusively on the vertical dimension of singing to God . And while there ’ s nothing wrong with singing to God , it ’ s the “ making melody in your hearts ” part that God is more interested in .
Once we account for this , we have to wonder why our mode of “ worship music ” seems to leave out the only function of sacred music we ' re specifically told to remember . that the one instruction we ’ re given is the one we are most likely to forget .
WHAT DO WE MEAN BY “ PROPHECY ”? We do well to recognize that “ prophecy ” is not foretelling as often as we might assume . In the broader sense of what we see from the prophets themselves , and also Jesus , prophecy is more often forth-telling than it is foretelling . The focus is less the “ what is to come ” of the future , and more often the “ what is now ” of the present .
Prophets spoke of the future , absolutely , but their focus , in context , was the present : speaking truth to the abusers of people , humbling the Powers That Be , calling out empty ritual , and opposing religiosity . The prophets protested religious and political corruption both , and stood in the way of Empire being married to their community of faith . They spoke of trajectories and branching paths that served to warn their contemporaries where potential roads would lead . And they spoke of future hope and future devastation , but always to motivate where they spent the brunt of their time — here and now , where they sought to motivate justice and righteousness .
However sobering they could be in speaking to the gravity of the road ( s ) ahead of them , the prophets seemed to understand that there was greater comfort to be found in telling the truth .
Whether seen in Isaiah or Jesus himself , the gift and burden of the prophet is not to simply sit aloof somewhere , making detached future predictions like some sort of Nostradamus . ( And as someone with a charismatic background myself , I can testify that a lot of Christian “ prophecy ” has indeed regressed into that very thing . Christian fortune-telling that is isolated to individuals , but fails to call out systems and institutions — the prophecy of “ me ” instead of “ us ”). inconvenient truths which put them at odds with those in power — whether in religious or political spheres . They were willing to upset their own people , and to say things that were awkward to say . Their message could be difficult … But that message was the means through which they spoke of a better world . It ’ s how they dreamed and hoped with unbridled idealism , setting a new standard and restoring a true compass .
Doing all of these things often meant that the prophet was alone and lonely , because that ’ s the nature of being out front as a leader , if the prophetic gifting is with you . But don ’ t worry . The people come around eventually .
WHAT DOES ALL OF THIS MEAN FOR SONGWRITING ? I ’ ve said before that it can be hard to articulate . This is fairly uncharted territory that congregational worship music has done little to explore . Despite my prayerful intuition regarding the status quo and the need for us to return to the deeper well of the prophetic , I have yet to explore these ideas in my own writing to the degree I would like to .
I have some practical ideas , suggestions and anecdotes regarding not only how we write , but how we intentionally hold space for the prophetic within sacred community … but time and space here grows short , so those things are going to have to wait for Part 3 .
Until then , I hope this installment of the column can still serve to evoke new ideas and considerations for you . May artistry awaken . And may you find the inspiration to write from the implications alone — before we even get to the prescriptions .
After all , that ’ s the prophetic thing to do .
And I ' m not even suggesting there was never room to do more , or to add to those instructions for our own context … I just think it ’ s strange
But we see that Spirit-led prophecy costs us something . When great prophets spoke , they spoke with lament and grief . They spoke
Kevin MacDougall Worship leader , published and recorded songwriter , musician and podcast producer . macdougall . k @ gmail . com