I saw
a youtube video recently which documented the many secular songs that use ‘whoa’,
‘oh’, or a similar variation as part of the lyrics. The amount of songs
documented was amazing! And it got me thinking about how the use of these
sounds is not exclusive to secular music. How many of the new, ‘modern’ worship
songs feature the ‘whoa-oh-oh’? In fact, as I write this, the worship music I
was listening to featured one!
I once
heard a worship leader joke about the ‘whoa-oh-oh’ used in his song was an Aramaic
word for ‘I love you Jesus’, but he left the conversation there. They did not
explore why they had used the word. What is it that makes this word so popular
in modern worship songs? Why do worship leaders constantly write songs that use
it? Is it a filler, for when they didn’t know what else to write? Or does it
allow the worshipper a chance to engage?
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One of
the beauties of ‘whoa-oh-oh’ is that it can mean so many, different things to
each person singing. It can allow the worshipper to express a whole variety of
emotions whenever they sing it. It gives worshippers a way to express the deepest
longings of their hearts, share their frustrations, offer praise, pray, and
much more through just a simple sound. Also, while some worshippers may feel
happy to sing their own songs of praise during worship, many people,
particularly those new to worship or those not used to this kind of worship, do
not find it easy to do so, and singing ‘whoa’ allows them to express the same
feelings. It is an expression of what is written in Romans 8:26:
In the same way,
the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for,
but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.
(NIV)
This
isn’t to say ‘whoa-oh-oh’ can’t become a time filler and meaningless. As I said
above, almost every new worship song seems to feature one these days. It’s a
staple part of the modern worship song; and a lot of the time it is used as the
‘hook’, the part of the song that gets stuck in your head after you leave
church. ‘Whoa-oh-oh’ is maybe not the best theological thinking to be ringing
in our ears after we’ve engaged with God! I certainly don’t believe it’s going
to impact my lifestyle if that’s all that’s in my head.
As with
all things worship, it comes down to what your heart is saying as you sing.
What is going on in our minds and hearts as we sing ‘whoa’? If we are not
singing in an attitude of worship, then the words or sounds we make don’t
matter at all.
