# “What Can Miserable Christians Sing?” by Carl R. Trueman

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2007/08/13/what-can-miserable-christians-sing-by-carl-r-trueman/
- Published: 2007-08-13T08:57:35-05:00
- Author: tollelege

“Many of us despise the health, wealth, and happiness teachings of the American 
televangelists and their pernicious British counterparts, as scandalous blasphemy.
The idea that Christianity, at whose center stands the Suffering Servant, the man
who had nowhere to lay his head, and the one who was obedient to death—even death
on the cross—should be used to justify the idolatrous greed of affluent Westerners
simply beggars belief.

Nevertheless, there’s a real danger that these heretical teachings have seeped into
evangelical life in an imperceptible yet devastating way, affecting not so much 
our theology as our horizons of expectation. We live, after all, in a society whose
values are precisely those of health, wealth, and happiness. Look at the number 
of medical dramas and documentaries on television: is our obsession with the medical
profession not a function of our obsession with health?

Or listen to the politicians: New Labour finance ministers say they want to reward“
risk takers.” Are they referring to the men and women who work in the slums with
the drug addicts, who bravely stand against the paramilitary control of their communities
in Ulster, who go to areas of conflict and put their lives on the line, who take“
real risks”? Of course not. They mean the entrepreneurs and the “wealth creators”—
often those whose sole motive (whatever the altruistic rhetoric) is personal profit
and whose only “risks” are the irresponsible financial speculations in which they
indulge with the hard-earned savings and pensions of others. These are the counterfeit“
risk-takers” that society must apparently prioritize and reward with tax breaks,
gongs, and social status. If the real risk-takers need money, they can always queue
up with their begging bowls outside the Ministry of Greed, aka the National Lottery,
and take their turn with the rest of society’s no-hopers and second-class causes.

And look at the veritable explosion in the litigation and compensation arena: once
upon a time, compensation was linked to loss of earnings; now it is often apparently
linked to loss of comfort and happiness, with all of the trivial court cases that
inevitably brings in its wake. Health, wealth, and happiness—the three modern obsessions,
the three modern idols.

Where does the church stand in all this? Where do we as individual Christians put
ourselves in relation to what is going on?

First, let us look at the contemporary language of worship. Now, worship is a difficult
subject and, being a peace-loving sort of chap who always steers well clear of controversy,
I would hate to say anything controversial at this point about the relative merits
of hymns and choruses, of organs and music bands, etc. Having experienced —and generally
appreciated—worship across the whole evangelical spectrum, from Charismatic to Reformed—
I am myself concerned here less with the form of worship than I am with its content.

I would, however, like to make just one observation: the psalms, the Bible’s own
hymnbook, have almost entirely dropped from view in the contemporary Western evangelical
scene. I am not certain about why this should be, but I have an instinctive feel
that it has more than a little to do with the fact that a high proportion of the
psalter is taken up with lamentation, with feeling sad, unhappy, tormented, and 
broken. In modern Western culture, these are simply not emotions which have much
credibility: sure, people still feel these things, but to admit that they are a 
normal part of one’s everyday life is tantamount to admitting that one has failed
in today’s health, wealth, and happiness society. And, of course, if one does admit
to them, one must neither accept them nor take any personal responsibility for them:
one must blame one’s parents, sue one’s employer, pop a pill, or check into a clinic
in order to have such dysfunctional emotions soothed and one’s self-image restored.

Now, one would not expect the world to have much time for the weakness of the psalmist’s
cries. It is very disturbing, however, when these cries of lamentation disappear
from the language and worship of the church.

Perhaps the Western church feels no need to lament—but then it is sadly deluded 
about how healthy it really is in terms of numbers, influence, and spiritual maturity.
Perhaps—and this is more likely—it has drunk so deeply at the well of modern Western
materialism that it simply does not know what to do with such cries and regards 
them as little short of embarrassing.

Yet the human condition is a poor one—and Christians who are aware of the deceitfulness
of the human heart and are looking for a better country should know this. A diet
of unremittingly jolly choruses and hymns inevitably creates an unrealistic horizon
of expectation which sees the normative Christian life as one long triumphalist 
street party—a theologically incorrect and a pastorally disastrous scenario in a
world of broken individuals.

Has an unconscious belief that Christianity is—or at least should be—all about health,
wealth, and happiness silently corrupted the content of our worship? Few Christians
in areas where the church has been strongest over recent decades—China, Africa, 
Eastern Europe—would regard uninterrupted emotional highs as normal Christian experience.

Indeed, the biblical portraits of believers give no room to such a notion. Look 
at Abraham, Joseph, David, Jeremiah, and the detailed account of the psalmists’ 
experiences. Much agony, much lamentation, occasional despair—and joy, when it manifests
itself, is very different from the frothy triumphalism that has infected so much
of our modern Western Christianity.

In the psalms, God has given the church a language which allows it to express even
the deepest agonies of the human soul in the context of worship. Does our contemporary
language of worship reflect the horizon of expectation regarding the believer’s 
experience which the psalter proposes as normative? If not, why not? Is it because
the comfortable values of Western middle-class consumerism have silently infiltrated
the church and made us consider such cries irrelevant, embarrassing, and signs of
abject failure?

I once suggested at a church meeting that the Psalms should take a higher priority
in evangelical worship than they generally do—and was told in no uncertain terms
by one indignant person that such a view betrayed a heart that had no interest in
evangelism.

On the contrary, I believe it is the exclusion of the experiences and expectations
of the psalmists from our worship—and thus from our horizons of expectation—which
has in large part crippled the evangelistic efforts of the church in the West and
turned us all into spiritual pixies.

By excluding the cries of loneliness, dispossession, and desolation from its worship,
the church has effectively silenced and excluded the voices of those who are themselves
lonely, dispossessed, and desolate, both inside and outside the church. By so doing,
it has implicitly endorsed the banal aspirations of consumerism, and generated an
insipid, trivial, and unrealistically triumphalist Christianity and confirmed its
impeccable credentials as a club for the complacent.

In the last year, I have asked three very different evangelical audiences what miserable
Christians can sing in church. On each occasion my question has elicited uproarious
laughter, as if the idea of a broken-hearted, lonely, or despairing Christian was
so absurd as to be comical—and yet I posed the question in all seriousness. Is it
any wonder that British evangelicalism, from the Reformed to the Charismatic is 
almost entirely a comfortable, middle-class phenomenon?

One might also look at the content of prayers—those we speak in private and those
at the church meeting. How often did Abraham, Moses, and Paul pray for health, for
worldly success, for personal happiness and satisfaction? How do the concerns of
these men compare with the content and priorities of our own prayers? Do our intercessions,
despite the pious theological padding, unwittingly mimic the blasphemous priorities
of the Elmer Gantrys of this world who peddle a pernicious gospel of health, wealth,
and happiness?

Then, look at our own aspirations. I often chat to theological students and ask 
them what they intend to do on completion of their work. Many say they think they
will enjoy teaching, some say they are looking forward to doing research. Very few
say, in the first instance, they want to serve the church.

Now, one can serve the church in both of the aforementioned ways, but is it not 
significant that their first reaction is not to express themselves in terms of service
but in terms of personal satisfaction? And the church as a whole is little better:
big houses, flashy cars, double incomes—all feature in the dreams of many of us,
wrapped up as we are in making personal comfort and satisfaction our primary goal.

Yet we should not build our lives on the basis of personal satisfaction but on the
vision of self-sacrifice and service that the Bible lays before us. Given the choice,
what would many of us involved in the professional theological sphere, students 
and academics, do: speak at a major academic gathering and hob-nob with the great
and the good, or talk to the church youth group?

Of course, many times we can do both—but what if we had to make a choice? The answer
will speak eloquently of where our real treasure is stored. Has the gospel of our
own personal ambition not upstaged the gospel of sacrificial service? It is faithfulness,
not happiness or worldly reputation, which is the criterion of Christian success.

The church in the West is caught in a maelstrom of decline. One might suggest a 
whole variety of ways to overcome this. Some suggest we need to be more “postmodern”
in our worship; others suggest we need to rethink how the gospel is communicated.
I confess to being skeptical about these proposals, not because they are too radical
but because they are not radical enough.

They reduce the causes for decline to the level of methodology or sociology and 
offer relatively painless remedies to what is, if we are honest, a very serious,
even terminal, disease. Indeed, those who see the problem exclusively in these terms
are merely replicating the kind of solutions which the very health, wealth, and 
happiness culture itself would propose: in the consumer culture, Christianity is
a product and poor sales can therefore be overcome by new management, better packaging,
and more astute marketing.

Now I’m not suggesting that sociologists and postmodernists have nothing useful 
to tell us—we must, of course, take care that we present the gospel in a way in 
which society can understand it (though to describe that as “common sense” rather
that “postmodern,” “postevangelical,” or “post-whatever” would seem on the whole
to be less pretentious and obfuscatory)—but we must remember that to reduce Western
Christianity’s difficulties to the level of bad techniques is to miss the point:
the real problem is ultimately one of morality, not methodology.

Quite simply, the evangelical church has sold its soul to the values of Western 
society and prostituted itself before the Golden Calf of materialism. Our current
decline is thus not in the final analysis simply the result of secularization; it
is ultimately the result of the active judgement of God upon that secularization.
We have bought into the idolatry of the secular values of health, wealth, and happiness,
and until we all, on both the individual and corporate level, realize this, repent
of it, and give ourselves in painful, sacrificial service to the Lord who bought
us, we will see no improvement.

How can we do this?

First, let us all learn once again to lament.

Read the psalms over and over until you have the vocabulary, grammar, and syntax
necessary to lay your heart before God in lamentation. If you do this, you will 
have the resources to cope with your own times of suffering, despair and heartbreak,
and to keep worshipping and trusting through even the blackest of days; you will
also develop a greater understanding of fellow Christians whose agonies of, say,
bereavement, depression, or despair, sometimes make it difficult for them to prance
around in ecstasy singing “Jesus wants me for a sunbeam” on Sunday morning; and 
you will have more credible things to say to those shattered and broken individuals—
be they burned-out bank managers or down-and-out junkies—to whom you may be called
to be a witness of God’s unconditional mercy and grace to the unloved and the unlovely.
For such, as the Bible might put it, were some of you . . .

Second, seek to make the priorities of the biblical prayers the priorities of your
own prayers.

You can read all the trendy sociology and postmodern primers you want, and they 
may well give you valuable technical insights, but unless your studies, your preaching,
your church life, your family life, indeed, your whole life, are soaked in prayer
and reflect the priorities of the Bible, they will be of no profit to you or to 
anybody else.

And finally, as regards personal ambitions and life-plans, “Your attitude should
be the same as Christ Jesus: who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality
with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature
of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!”

–Carl R. Trueman, from “What Can Miserable Christians Sing?” in _[The Wages of Spin: Critical Writings on Historical and Contemporary Evangelicalism](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1857929942?tag=toletaupanre-20)_(
Ross-Shire: Christian Focus: 2004), 157-163.

More quotes from [Carl Trueman](https://tollelege.net/category/carl-trueman/) · 
More on [Worship](https://tollelege.net/category/worship/)

## Comments

### By: flyawaynet

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2007/08/13/what-can-miserable-christians-sing-by-carl-r-trueman/comment-page-1/#comment-1960
- Published: 2008-01-12T22:02:48-06:00

Wow… just wow. And thank you.

### By: Louw Grobler

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2007/08/13/what-can-miserable-christians-sing-by-carl-r-trueman/comment-page-1/#comment-11588
- Published: 2017-11-19T10:48:42-06:00

Why choose anything else to sing in the place of the Psalms. The Psalms come from
the Bible, that is the Word of God and how can anyone push the Psalms aside and 
choose to sing any song that does not com from the Bible. In the church where I 
am, we only sing Psalms. We have no place for any free”imitation” songs. The whole
scriptures of the bible including the Psalms,come from the Holy Spirit and that 
can not be said for any other songs.

### By: Eric

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2007/08/13/what-can-miserable-christians-sing-by-carl-r-trueman/comment-page-1/#comment-1962
- Published: 2008-01-13T16:56:48-06:00

A lot of the psalms were written by David – one man expressing his feelings to God.
When a congregation is singing, they are not all going to have the same feelings.
So songs about God’s goodness fit, because he’s always good. But not everyone will
be feeling at the same time “see how my enemies attack me” etc.

### By: pentamom

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2007/08/13/what-can-miserable-christians-sing-by-carl-r-trueman/comment-page-1/#comment-5698
- Published: 2012-08-02T13:04:55-05:00

But it is not necessarily about how we are feeling at the moment, but about what
is true. And since the spiritual war is ongoing, we are always being “attacked” 
by enemies of some kind, and it is better to be reminded of that than to forget 
it just because we don’t “feel” it.

### By: Viorel Parvan

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2007/08/13/what-can-miserable-christians-sing-by-carl-r-trueman/comment-page-1/#comment-6681
- Published: 2013-09-12T13:40:48-05:00

Amen brother!

### By: flyawaynet

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2007/08/13/what-can-miserable-christians-sing-by-carl-r-trueman/comment-page-1/#comment-1966
- Published: 2008-01-14T15:35:00-06:00

Absolutely true. I imagine I’d find it disturbing to surround myself with people
singing about how they are attacked and forsaken feeling.
 I had forgotten though,
how much of that was in the bible. It was a wonderful reminder.

### By: Greg Bailey

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2007/08/13/what-can-miserable-christians-sing-by-carl-r-trueman/comment-page-1/#comment-2437
- Published: 2008-08-27T14:26:06-05:00

I must disagree with the first post. When I led worship for a year or so, we did
a lot of responsive readings from the Psalms. Most folks end up saying “I really
didn’t know heroes in the Bible felt that way.”
 In Christ Alone, Greg

### By: Elizabeth

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2007/08/13/what-can-miserable-christians-sing-by-carl-r-trueman/comment-page-1/#comment-2475
- Published: 2008-09-30T17:14:01-05:00

There is a time and a place to lament our “lonely, dispossessed and desolate” selves.
However, corporate worship is not it. We are all “lonely, dispossessed and desolate.”
When we worship God, we take our eyes/minds off ourselves and our wounded condition
in order to praise and adore Him for Who He is. As a result, we paradoxically become
healed as we focus on Him and NOT ourselves and our problems. Believe me, I’m not
suggesting that we hide our personal pain and hold it inside. But save the singing/
speaking of the deprecatory Psalms, which you are speaking of, for private. These
more venting kinds of Psalms were most likely sung/written by David in private (
like our present-day journaling), and not meant for congregational singing. Psalms
such as 150 ARE worship and therefore could be sung in corporate worship. We are
in church first and foremost to worship God, not our problems/pain. It is through
worshiping God that we are healed in a profound way, partly because we are taking
our eyes off ourselves. “Pray for each other that you may be healed.” We forget 
our “miserable” selves for the moment and “find” our true selves – the Christ in
us – as we “lose” our disjunct selves in worshiping Him!

### By: EB

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2007/08/13/what-can-miserable-christians-sing-by-carl-r-trueman/comment-page-1/#comment-3651
- Published: 2011-06-18T17:36:31-05:00

I find your position hard to comprehend. When we are down, disheartened lonely and
lost we must cry out to God like the psalmist did. Focusing on him in the midst 
of our sorrow is a way we can find hope and joy and publicly singing, worshipping
and acknowledging that God listens to us in this condition and answers our pleas
for help is every bit as important as the psalms and hymns that speak of us being
joyful and thankful. Humans are humans, we get down, we feel emotional pain and 
to hide this side of the Christian journey is to create a facade which leaves people
in emotional pain feeling more alone than ever. These psalms have a very important
role in public worship. They remind us that no matter what we are going through 
we can and should take it to the Lord.

### By: nbubna

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2007/08/13/what-can-miserable-christians-sing-by-carl-r-trueman/comment-page-1/#comment-8275
- Published: 2014-11-20T11:43:14-06:00

David was a man after God’s own heart. Those Psalms are scripture. This world is
still broken, not yet whole. There is so much pain and suffering out there. Even
God has wept, and you dare not say He was not his true self at any time. When we
exclude lament from our corporate worship and say “do that alone” or that’s just
your “miserable” self, not your true self, we do disservice to God, his Scripture,
and willfully ignore the realities of the brokenness of both our world and our selves,
both corporate and individual. Remember, even whole congregations can be in mourning.

### By: Jon

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2007/08/13/what-can-miserable-christians-sing-by-carl-r-trueman/comment-page-1/#comment-2476
- Published: 2008-10-03T05:44:15-05:00

The comments are all coming up “proper,” but the underlying legitimacy of the original
post should not be glossed over. The evangelical movement has in many cases oversimplified
the complexities of the Christian experience, and forced us to feel that anything
other than jubilation is a sign of spiritual failure. What exactly did Jesus mean
when he said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven,”
and whatever it means, does it not apply to us both before and after our encounter
with Christ?

### By: Viorel Parvan

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2007/08/13/what-can-miserable-christians-sing-by-carl-r-trueman/comment-page-1/#comment-6682
- Published: 2013-09-12T14:11:28-05:00

Amen brother!… Are we poor in the Spirit?, are we thirsty, are we hungry to do God’s
Will and follow not just our emotions? Being always in need, always wanting for 
more of God, brokenhearted, wounded, crying and imploring Him to bring up his blessings
and keeping us close to Him. The more we become like a child the more blessings 
on our hearts are poured.

### By: Ian Spence

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2007/08/13/what-can-miserable-christians-sing-by-carl-r-trueman/comment-page-1/#comment-2749
- Published: 2009-11-16T19:37:11-06:00

Elizabeth has made one amazing assumption: that corporate worship means to exclude
ourselves entirely from the equation and to merely speak/sing words that speak positively
of God and his glory. Where is the authenticity, the genuineness in that? The fallacy
lies in the mistaken belief that God is only good when he makes me feel happy. Some
of our most profound experiences of God’s goodness are when he draws near to us 
in our pain and suffering and when he gives us the strength to carry on.

### By: tollelege

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2007/08/13/what-can-miserable-christians-sing-by-carl-r-trueman/comment-page-1/#comment-2751
- Published: 2009-11-16T20:33:40-06:00

Ian, you express my sentiments exactly. The LORD heals the brokenhearted and and
binds up their wounds.

Grace and peace,

–Nick

### By: John Hurlbut

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2007/08/13/what-can-miserable-christians-sing-by-carl-r-trueman/comment-page-1/#comment-3399
- Published: 2011-02-14T15:55:37-06:00

I enjoyed reading your post. Sadly, contemporary musical worship in the western 
hemisphere has become a predictable monoculture that is unsustainable for the longevity
of the western church. As someone who has opportunities to lead musical worship,
I find it challenging to break away from the accepted paradigm of 1-2 fast ‘celebratory
songs’, 1 medium tempo song, and 1-2 ‘intimate’ songs. I do present opportunities
to introduce responsive readings, reflective response times, and responsive prayers
from the lament psalms in my musical set lists but usually get told that is outside
the accepted practice for worship at that church. The laments found in scripture
are beneficial for personal and corporate use and relatable for broken people. However,
at the same time, in the NT we don’t necessarily find lament language from the apostles
but rather the expression of joy in the midst of persecution.

### By: Patrick Russo

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2007/08/13/what-can-miserable-christians-sing-by-carl-r-trueman/comment-page-1/#comment-6929
- Published: 2013-11-15T13:36:23-06:00

Here, Here!

### By: RRRatman

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2007/08/13/what-can-miserable-christians-sing-by-carl-r-trueman/comment-page-1/#comment-7295
- Published: 2014-02-17T18:03:10-06:00

It’s not what we like; not human entertainment. It’s what the Lord wants. They are
to be sung in praise of the Lord. Check out Psalm 150!

### By: James G. Ahlberg

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2007/08/13/what-can-miserable-christians-sing-by-carl-r-trueman/comment-page-1/#comment-7605
- Published: 2014-05-10T13:16:44-05:00

They can sing this, which I wrote in 1998\. Sing It to the melody “Cwm Rhonda,” 
most familiarly known as the melody to “Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah.”

Title: Though I Worry

1\. Lift from me this dark depression
 That has settled on my soul. Give to me unfettered
mercy, Cleanse my heart and make me whole. Though I worry, filled with anguish, 
Help me make it through this day! Help me make it through this day!

2\. Though the very air around me
 Seems to mutter and conspire, If I cling to my
salvation I can breathe till You inspire. Though each breath fills me with anguish,
Help me make it through this day! Help me make it through this day!

3\. Just as time keeps inching onward
 Like a silent glacial mass, So I move from
dark to daylight, Praying this dark mood will pass. Though I worry, filled with 
anguish, I will make it through this day! I will make it through this day!

4\. I will live to see God’s goodness;
 Trust in Him, do not despair. Jesus Christ
will take my burdens If I offer them in prayer. Glimpsing hope within tomorrow, 
Lord, I humbly bow and pray. Lord, I humbly bow and pray.

### By: David

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2007/08/13/what-can-miserable-christians-sing-by-carl-r-trueman/comment-page-1/#comment-10556
- Published: 2017-04-28T21:03:29-05:00

You have captured in your song exactly how I feel every day. In a strange way I 
get encouraged to know that another believer feels the way I do.

### By: Andrew Collier

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2007/08/13/what-can-miserable-christians-sing-by-carl-r-trueman/comment-page-1/#comment-8935
- Published: 2015-09-06T11:00:35-05:00

There are loads of songs about taking comfort in God despite circumstances being
hard. And it’s important to sing them when you’re a happy church, so as to be properly
prepared for struggles and pain. “When the tears fall” by Tim Hughes. “Blesséd be
Your Name” by Matt and Beth Redman. (Does everybody already know that song was written
about their miscarriage?). “Rejoice!” by Stuart Townend and Dustin Kensrue “when
you cry to Him he hears your voice” / “In the midst of suffering, He will help you
sing Rejoice!”. Come people of the risen King talks of “those weeping through the
night” and “those struggling in the fight”. There are older songs too, When Peace
Like a River’s second line is “when sorrows like sea billows roll”. It’s not an 
absent topic as this article asserts.