Sober and sombre are differentiated by just one letter, but they mean very different things. Sober, in modern usage, means “not drunk”. Its fuller meaning is “clear-thinking, serious-minded, respectful, wise”. In Scripture, to be sober-minded is to be without the flippancy, silliness, irrationality, and impulsiveness so common among those who are inebriated. A sober person takes life seriously, and makes clear judgements accordingly.
Sombre refers to a mood of heavy gloom or sadness. It connotes emotions devoid of gladness or joy. Sombre is derived from a Latin root which means “under shade”. A sombre mood is one of dark depression, dullness and melancholy.
Perhaps many people doubt there is a real difference between the two words. This is nowhere more obviously illustrated than in much modern worship. Tell a modern evangelical that worship ought to be sober, and it is not unlikely that he will hear, “Worship should be gloomy”.
Of course, this cannot be the case. There’s no question that worship is supposed to be sober. We are told that acceptable worship is the kind offered “with reverence and godly fear.” (Hebrews 12:28). God condemns the flippant, casual, give-your-leftovers worship of the priests in Malachi’s day (Malachi 1:6-14). We are to “serve the Lord with fear” (Psalm 2:11), and we’d run out of time or space to list out all the references that call on believers to fear the Lord.
But simultaneously, we are told to “rejoice with trembling” (Psalm 2:11), and to “serve the Lord with gladness; Come before His presence with singing” (Psalm 100:2). We are to “come before His presence with thanksgiving;… [and] shout joyfully to Him with psalms.” (Psalm 95:2) We have no shortage of texts that call for joy and gladness in our worship.
Clearly then, sobriety includes joy. We can be serious and glad at the same time, we can be simultaneously respectful and happy, and we can be reverent and rejoice. Indeed, except for short seasons of deep contrition followed by hopeful trust in the Cross, a sombre mood would seem to contradict the Good News; it would cast a pall upon the empty tomb; it would misrepresent the happy land of the Trinity.
What then is sober worship?
Serious worship must begin with sober judgement. Sober judgement considers Who it is that we worship, and what He has commanded in worship. It further considers what He deserves: what kind of responses and attitudes correspond with His nature. It thirdly considers the meaning of what we employ in worship: whether our sermons, prayers, Scripture readings, songs (both lyrics and accompanying music) represent the reverent joy that is a truthful response to a holy and good God.
Flippancy inverts this. It does not submit to God’s prescribed worship in Scripture; it feels at liberty to invent and include its own elements of worship. It does not consider what God deserves; it considers only what it feels. If it feels sincere, elated, or self-satisfied, it is content. And it does not consider the meaning of the poetry, musical forms, architecture, dress, sermonic form, length and kinds of prayers that may be present in corporate worship. It cares only for effect: is it familiar? Is it relevant? Is it fun? Is it a crowd-pleaser? Is it emotive? Is it nostalgic?
No one said that sober judgement would be easy. Nor did anyone claim that judging the meaning of music and moods in worship is going to be a simple, objective affair resulting in unanimous agreement. But cultivating discernment for difficult decisions is, in fact, what serious people do. Maturity is an exercise in putting off the infantile desire to avoid hard decisions and accepting the difficulty of weighing good and evil, better or worse, appropriate or inappropriate (Hebrews 5:12-14). It follows that we have good reason for suspecting that people who dismiss the whole question are not, on the whole, serious-minded.
Serious Christians take God seriously. Therefore they take worship seriously. Consequently, they take seriously the meaning of everything they offer to God in worship.
David de Bruyn was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, where he now pastors New Covenant Baptist Church and resides with his wife and three children. He is a graduate of Central Baptist Theological Seminary in Minnesota and the University of South Africa (D.Th.). David hosts a weekly radio program that is heard throughout much of central South Africa, serves as a frequent conference speaker, and is a lecturer at Shepherds Seminary Africa. Check out his website.