Full Worship Blog Preview - Song Examination - "Defender" by Rita Springer
/Today I posted this post in the “Private ‘Full Worship Blog,’" which is a benefit for $10 or more supporters on our Patreon site. I wanted to post it here as a sample. I think this section will be especially beneficial to: people who plan worship gatherings and people looking for small group content. I explain more about the rhythm of this section in the following post. Please check it out and consider becoming a supporter!
Today’s Full Worship Blog Post
I really haven’t done much to outline this section of the website. So, before I get into this post I just wanted to hit a few things.
First, if you are
Once the podcast hits full time (April 22) this blog will really kick into gear. To supplement the podcast there will be, at least, two posts a week in this private blog:
Each week I will offer a post with worship resources related to the podcast –things you could put in a service order if you were planning a worship service on the weekly liturgical readings. Of course you can also just interact with the material on your own to supplement the podcast. Basically, if your church happens to follow the church calendar and you are involved in the service planning process, just let me help you with ideas for your service.
Last night I was having a conversation with a friend who had a great idea…So, each week I will also do a post with several questions for small group interaction with the podcast.
In general, the goal of this private blog is to offer as many helpful resources as I can can think of. As such, one of the recurring segments will be called Song Examinations, where we pause to think through the songs we are singing in a corporate context, or songs that are popular up and coming worship songs, or songs which wouldn’t normally be considered for a faith context, but should be.
Today’s song is:
Defender by Rita Springer
Up until recently I worked in a context with college students. I was usually able to get a sense of what songs would be popular over the course of the year when several people auditioned for worship team with the same new song that I hadn’t heard yet. This year’s song was Defender by Rita Springer. Not to give away my thoughts but the very first time I heard it, I decided there was no way our teams would ever do this song.
Here it is:
Below are the lyrics with comments in italics:
You go before I know
That You've gone to win my war
You come back with the head of my enemy
You come back and You call it my victory
What a way to start a song. A nice calm intro and then softly the leader begins to sing about CHOPPING HEADS OFF! When I first heard this song I believe the line was “my enemies.” I’m not sure if they adjusted it later or not, presumably to speak of “the devil” rather than people but I honestly don’t know that it changes how people sing it. I know I was sarcastic but I have a deep problem with the theology of this first verse. I think I can say it shortly by saying, my enemy is a subjective phrase. My war. My enemy. My Victory. It pains me to think that many people singing along with this song would come to conclusion that God kills people, or even just defeats people, who I CONSIDER TO BE my enemies. Jesus radically reshapes our view of the other, or our view of the enemy in saying, “Love your enemies.”
You go before I know
That You've gone to win my war
Your love becomes my greatest defense
It leads me from the dry wilderness
I think this verse could be great if understood in the proper context. The problem is, this verse must be seen in the context of verse 1. “Your love becomes my greatest defense” is an amazing lyric but it has to come with the understanding that God’s/Christ’s love is self sacrificial. So, perhaps love is war but the result of the war in the kingdom of God is laying down one’s life for those they love, which includes enemies. Like I said, this verse could easily articulate that idea, but not when seen in the light of verse 1. I think there are much better ways to describe what Kingdom work is than “war,” because of the broader cultural implications.
All I did was praise
All I did was worship
All I did was bow down
All I did was stay still
I will certainly write more about this idea on the blog but this Pre-Chorus, although it doesn’t seem to be too bad on the surface, contains a pressure that often appears in worship songs that I loathe. It’s not the surface logic that is the problem – “I praised, etc. and You took care of everything for me.” There is a related concept that is really good. However, the logic that follows is: As long as I am “praising, worshipping, bowing down, or staying still” everything that happens is “right.” Which leads to: if things are not going “right” I am not “praising,” etc. hard enough. This pressure easily leads to shame and I think it is an epidemic in the church, so I would prefer if we didn’t include it in the songs we sing.
Hallelujah, You have saved me
So much better Your way
Hallelujah, great Defender
So much better Your way
Aside from the ridiculously vague nature of this chorus, I think it is fine. I do think it would be helpful for us to recapture a collective sense of what, precisely, it means to be saved (a conversation for later).
You know before I do
Where my heart can seek to find Your truth
Your mercy is the shade I'm living in
You restore my faith and hope again
Cool. I really like “Your mercy is the shade I’m living in.” Too bad we were chopping people’s heads off just a minute ago.
When I thought I lost me
You knew where I left me
You reintroduced me to Your love
You picked up all my pieces
Put me back together
You are the defender of my heart
I think this Bridge is great. I love the way it articulates God’s relentless pursuit of all people.
Conclusion:
This song fills me with a lot of tension, mainly because I think the melody line is interesting and beautiful, which is increasingly rare in worship songs. If I don’t think about the lyrics, I really like this song. Additionally, I really only have two problems with ideas found in the lyrics, BUT they are HUGE problems, and because they occur so early in the song, everything else in the song is seen in the light of the problems. If it were me, and often it is, I would avoid this song (and I have) in a corporate setting where the problems can’t be addressed. However, if you decide to do this song, or are already doing this song, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, please address these huge problems. Do not suggest that all one needs to do is worship and praise and God will go on a killing spree against anyone you don’t like because the God’s relentless pursuit of all people includes anyone you consider an enemy, and for that matter, God’s relentless pursuit is actually the redemption of ALL THINGS.
Please feel free to fight with me in any of our comment sections because beauty arises out of tension!
