Worship - who?

Been reading Bob Kauflin's blog, "Worship Matters" quite a bit lately and he posted some notes from India that got me thinking. He mentioned something about how going over there helped him realize what parts of worship were cultural and what parts were desired by God. He said that the different languages and practices really narrowed that down.

That got me thinking about the way we worship here in the USA. Too often, we're caught up in the music styles of worship - contemporary vs traditional seems to be the common battle now. Worship is about more than music and more than style. We've worshiped God in all sorts of different ways throughout the centuries. Prayer, fasting, prophecy (teaching), service, etc. are all acts of worship but are often forgotten when we discuss worship.

We are also so caught up in the style of our music used during worship that I think we neglect to look at the lyrics. What are we singing? Do the lyrics honor God or edify the body? Do the lyrics portray God as He is? Are they so generic that they could be sung by Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, or any other faith?
More importantly - do we ever really think about the lyrics that we're singing or are we on a sort of "auto-pilot" when we sing the words? I've been there - words come in, harmony comes out and nothing has actually passed through my brain on what I'm singing. God's been working on this in me for a while now and seems to have been really encouraging me to take a look at this area of my worship lately.

So what words am I singing? Why do I sing? To whom am I singing? When I sing these words, do I think of what sort of God I'm praising? When we sing "O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing" do I reflect on how the church was silenced in song for such a long time that God used Martin Luther to restore the congregation's voice? When we sing "How Great Thou Art", am I thinking of just how great our God is? The words behind "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross" are some of the most touching ever written and should drive me to think that if everything in nature were mine, it would still be too small of an offering to give back to God for what He's done for me through Jesus.