By Gavin Boyle
Chris Tomlin explained why worship is different than secular music and how it helps Christians focus themselves on what truly matters.
“I say it at my concerts every night that tonight ought to be different than any other music of the world. And I’m not saying this better than any other music of the world, but it ought to be different because your soul is singing to a living God. Your soul is, like, connected to the eternal… something eternal. That worship’s been going on long before you and I got here, it’ll be going on forever. It is in us to worship,” Tomlin told the That Sounds Fun podcast. “Everybody that has ever lived [was made] to worship, to respond to something bigger than yourself and there’s something powerful about when and how God uses music to help us worship and it lifts our eyes off of ourselves.”
“When you worship, your eyes are lifting to a bigger story. Your eyes are lifting to remind yourself that, my goodness, this is not just about me, that wait a minute… we orbit around God, God does not orbit around me and I think that it reorients you,” Tomlin continued. “It resizes you… It pushes you… and when you do that collectively with people, that’s such a powerful, powerful thing.”
Related: Matt Redman Says Modern Worship Needs Scriptural Content
Tomlin’s comments come as many leaders in the worship space have discussed the importance of creating music that speaks to the sovereignty of the Lord, rather than focusing on what the Lord can do for us.
“What we want to contend for are these deep, biblical, wondrous worship songs that really paint a picture of who God is. You know — one way I talk about this is we like talking about helpfulness in worship. So we’ll sing a song about God as a shepherd or deliverer or as a rescuer of some kind; He’s the rock, He’s my comfort. And all that stuff’s really good; it’s wonderful. But we have to talk about holiness too.” Matt Redman said in September of 2024. “It’s helpfulness and holiness.”
Redman has also discussed how amazing it is that our Bible includes the book of Psalms – 150 songs that Christians have been using to worship for thousands of years.
“It’s pretty amazing, really, isn’t it that we’re given this songbook in the middle of the Bible, these 150 songs would have been the hymn book of Jesus, you know. There’s not a whole lot of sugar coating going on, that he — the psalmist is saying. The psalmist is saying it’s amazing to think how we get to be that honest before the throne of God and be that roar,” Redman said.
“I love how so many of the psalms, they’ve got this sense of reverence about them too, like, okay, I am pouring out my complaint and I’m going to tell you it just how it is. I’m not going to hold anything back, but I know who I’m coming before, like, I know who it is I’m standing before here,” he continued.
It is truly amazing how the Lord uses worship to connect us to Him and transform our hearts to focus on Him, rather than ourselves.
Read Next: Can Worship Be Wasteful?
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