Abba
The Five Words of Worship provides a filter to view worship songs through and aid you in preparing a balanced worship service. Here’s a helpful guide to assessing which word of worship best describes a song. (Of course there are many songs and psalms that include all of the words in varying combinations, but usually one is predominant.)
Is it intimate and relational? Abba
ABBA
Abba is a worship word of Aramaic origin that, like Hallelujah, has also been adopted by every nation, people and tongue in the global community of believers.
Abba means, literally, “the Father,” but there is a common misunderstanding that gives it the more informal emphasis, roughly translated as “Daddy.” Indeed, in the modern Hebrew spoken throughout Israel, Abba has been adopted from Aramaic to mean just that. But in New Testament times, and in the original Aramaic spoken by Jesus, Abba was not used offhandedly. While children addressed their fathers as Abba, they did so not only to express deep emotion, warmth and intimacy, but also to convey dignity and respect. Abba, then, should more properly be translated as “Dear Father.”
Aramaic was, of course, the language of Jesus’ own childhood, his true mother tongue. He also spoke Hebrew, as dictated by the religious requirements of the time, as well as Greek, which was the speech of everyday commerce.
But it was Aramaic, the language of His hearth and home, to which Jesus resorted to cry out to His heavenly Father in His moment of deepest spiritual anguish in the Garden of Gethsemane (Mk 14:36). It was here that Jesus fell to the ground and cried out to God, “Abba, Father, all things are possible with You. Take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, not my will but Thine be done.”
It was, of course, only natural, in every sense of the word, that the Messiah, at this moment of agony, should call out to His Father in His mother tongue, the language he learned as a boy. The renowned German scholar Jeremias observed that, in Gethsemane, “we hear the personal accent of Jesus.”
The use of the title Abba by Jesus offers a matchless insight into the word’s significance in worship. The Son of God cries out for release, yet submits to God’s perfect will. The eternal significance of His act of submission, of the deep trust and of familial relationship it embodied, is summed up in the simple eloquence of Abba.
To call the God of heaven, as Jesus did, Abba is to address the creator of the universe in intimate terms and was unusually daring in light of Hebrew tradition. In Old Testament times, the Hebrew people knew that God was their Father and that they were His children. They often employed names rooted in the Hebrew word for father: “ab.” But, except on those infrequent occasions when the prophets of Israel would dare to address God so familiarly (Is. 64:8), they rarely invoked God’s fatherhood in prayer.
Yet, this is the way Jesus instructed us to speak to The Father, each as beloved members of His family, and the relationship suggested by Abba is found regularly in the prayers of Jesus. John 17, for example, often called “The High Priestly Prayer of Jesus,” begins with the word “Father.” In verse 11 Jesus addresses His “Holy Father,” and again in verse 25 with “0 Righteous Father!”
Our liberty to speak to God as Abba is especially evident in the prayer Jesus gives as a model to His people in Matthew 6 and Luke 11. “Our Father who art in heaven,” he begins, “hallowed be Thy name,” and by the word “hallowed” we are cautioned against cheapening the blessed term Father. With this instruction, Jesus is telling us that, because He refers to God as Father, so may we. We bear the family name and, as members of the family, we may speak to the Father using the same terms as His Son, Jesus.
There are two other instances in the New Testament where Abba appears: Romans 8:15 and Galatians 4:6. In both passages, it is clear that by the power of the Holy Spirit we are able to join the Savior in calling God “Abba.”
Paul states in Galatians, “And because you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, ‘Abba, Father!’” Again, in Romans, he declares, “For you did not receive a spirit of bondage again to fear but you received the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.”
It is the message of Gethsemane underscored. The suffering of this present world is likened to the suffering of Jesus in Gethsemane; but with Him we are able to declare Abba! The suffering of Jesus has given us the right to call God our Father.
ESSENTIALS OF AN ABBA SONG
1) INTIMACY WITH GOD
2) SURRENDER TO HIS WILL
3) AWE AND REVERENCE
4) DIGNITY AND RESPECT
5) UNITY AND AGREEMENT WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT
ABBA SONGS
1) I Could Sing of Your Love Forever Martin Smith SD5
2) Draw Me Close Kelly Carpenter SD27
3) Breathe Marie Barnett SD22
4) I Love You Lord Laurie Klein SD44
5) Breathe on Me Natalie Grant SD52
6) Friend of God Israel Houghton/Michael Gungor SD49
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