When our songs and prayers are dominated by what we think and feel about God and focus less on who he is and what he thinks and feels about us, we run the risk of fueling our emotions with more emotion. We can end up worshiping our worship. What thoughts can bring balance when we’re expressing our affections for God in song? 

It was almost forty years ago, but I remember it like it was yesterday.

At the end of an evening church meeting, we flowed seamlessly into an “afterglow service.” For the first time in my life I heard and sang these words, penned by Laurie Klein:

I love you, Lord
And I lift my voice
To worship you. O my soul, rejoice.
Take joy, my King, in what you hear.
May it be a sweet, sweet sound in your ear.

I was moved to tears, not simply by the beautiful melody, but by the realization that my ultimate desire in life really was to love the Lord. To be pleasing to him, to bring him delight. In the seemingly constant swirl of worldly temptations, sensual distractions, and seasons of apathy, I had a moment of clarity. I loved the Lord.

Importance of the Heart

Telling the Lord how we feel about him is a healthy and natural part of our relationship with him.

To proclaim true things about God without actually loving him can have disastrous consequences. As Puritan John Owen warns us, “Where light leaves the affections behind, it ends in formality or atheism.”

We see that emphasis in the pages of Scripture. Before the Israelites entered the Promised Land, Moses reminded them of their highest priority: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deuteronomy 6:5).

The Psalms are filled with expressions of passion for God: singing for joy to God, seeking him, thirsting for him, rejoicing in him, desiring him, and more (Psalm 84:2; Psalm 63:1; Psalm 64:10; Psalm 73:25). Quoting Isaiah, Jesus rebuked a people who “honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me” (Matthew 15:8). Peter reminds us that though we have not seen Jesus, we love him, and we rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and full of glory (1 Peter 1:8).

So it’s only right that phrases of affection for God should find their way into the lyrics of the songs the church sings. And they do: Jesus, we love you. . . . I give my all to you. . . . I worship you. . . . I want to praise you. . . . I’m lost without you. . . . My Jesus, I love thee.

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