Image by Ilnur Kalimullin from Unsplash

This song comes highly requested by members of my team, and I see why! Brandon Lake, Dante Bowe, and Benjamin Hastings have crafted a beautiful expression of humble, grateful worship. “Gratitude” is simple, honest, and moving, but is it biblical, and will it worship?

Focus

The theme of this song is worshiping God (usually “you,” occasionally “king” or Lord”). The words paint a picture of a humble, worshipful spirit that longs to honor God and express the thanks he deserves, but lacks adequate words and must offer a simple “hallelujah” instead.

Lyric Analysis

VERSE 1
The singer explains the insufficiency of his own words in expressing his gratitude. It’s not clear yet who he’s singing to (though in a church context most reasonable people would assume it’s to God, and that will be made clearer later) or what he’s grateful for. I suspect the cause of his gratitude is left open-ended on purpose so that each worshiper can fill in the song with his or her own reasons to be grateful.

VERSE 2

Lake expresses again the inadequacy of singing, in particular because every song ends. He contrasts this with God, who is eternal (Isa. 40:28, Heb. 13:8, Rev. 22:13, and many other places). I’m not aware of anywhere in Scripture that discusses the inadequacy of song specifically, though David calls God indescribable (Ps. 145:3), and Paul says that God’s gift is inexpressible (2 Cor. 9:15) implying that our words will always fall short of fully explaining God, his character, or his grace toward us. It’s also clear from the Bible that song alone does not constitute worship. John 4:24 says, “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” It seems to me that “Gratitude” is very focused on expressing this worshipful spirit.

CHORUS
“I know it’s not much // But I’ve nothing else fit for a king // Except for a heart singing hallelujah”

The raising of hands is all over the Bible, especially in the Old Testament. It’s most often an expression of supplication (Ps. 28:1) or blessing (Ps. 134:2). The raising of hands in worship is commanded throughout the Psalms and engages our whole bodies in worship rather than just our mouths. Sam Storms has written an excellent article on the lifting of hands in worship if you’d like to learn a little more.

The Hebrew word hallelujah is literally a command to praise the Lord. Hallel means to praise and jah is an abbreviation for the divine name Yahweh. Over time, it came to be an expression of praise in itself, rather than an exhortation to praise. So the singer is saying that the only appropriate expression of his gratitude is praise. He can’t come up with adequate words, so he just says “praise God” over and over (in Hebrew).

VERSE 3

The “just one move” here is not the raising of arms, but the act of worship. That’s the only response the singer can conceive of to…whatever he’s responding to. It’s fairly clear that he’s responding to God, but it’s not apparent if he’s responding to an aspect of God’s character, the Gospel, or a particular blessing in his own life. Like the gratitude in verse 1, it’s probably intended to be open-ended.

BRIDGE

Singing to one’s own soul is something the Psalmists do regularly, especially to stir oneself up to praise God. I think this bridge is a poetic reinterpretation of Psalm 42:11, which says, “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.”

I don’t love the line “you’ve got a lion inside of those lungs.” It feels self-aggrandizing, which I know isn’t the author’s intent, since the words throughout the rest of the song are so self-effacing. It just feels out-of-place to me. My soul’s strength to praise the Lord doesn’t come from my own inner lion, but from God’s Spirit.

Accessibility

Some songs expect the worshiper to do a fair bit of work in order to engage meaningfully with the lyrics. Often, this means one needs a good working knowledge of some relevant Scriptures. In the case of “Gratitude,” the worshiper needs to bring his or her own reasons for thanksgiving and awe. Without a real cause for gratitude, this song doesn’t mean much.

I think the lion in the bridge is confusing, but not dangerous. (As opposed to a lion on a bridge, which would be dangerous and confusing.)

Music

This song starts with finger picking on an acoustic guitar and the humble, quiet words of the singer (mostly mixed voice and falsetto here). Some subtle cello comes in to accompany the chorus, and we get some warm pads on verse 2. The piano comes in on the second chorus with sparse chords and the playing of the strings increases. The singer also increases in volume here, but is still holding back. We don’t get Brandon’s full voice until the second repetition of the bridge, where he is exhorting his own soul to give its full-voiced praise to the Lord. This is a powerful musical turning point, and the song reaches its crescendo in some wordless vocalizing and repetitions of “praise the Lord.” We come back down for a very intimate final chorus. The instrumentation fits perfectly and Lake’s masterful vocal performance paints every word with humility, gratitude, longing, and love.

The key to doing this song well is restraint. Each instrument must be held back until just the right moment, since compromising the song’s tender emotional arc could easily make the whole thing fall flat.

I’m not convinced that this song is very singable for a congregation. The melody has a range of an octave plus a sixth, and transposing it down leeches some of the energy from the vocals. I also don’t love that the song hits its musical peak on an instrumental break where the congregation doesn’t even sing.

Conclusions

Will it worship? Maybe.

This song is a soul-stirring expression of gratitude, but I wish it anchored that feeling to some concrete reasons. It is clearly directed to God, it’s just not clear why. I was recently hard on “Rest On Us,” another Brandon Lake song, for similar reasons, but “Gratitude” gets a maybe instead of a no because it’s a whole lot easier for the average congregant to come up with reasons for gratitude than it is to come up with a solid theology of the Holy Spirit. If we do sing this song for church, I will probably precede it with a few moments of introspection for the congregation to find reasons to give thanks, or maybe even have them share with their neighbor. Better yet, I might give a brief explanation of the Gospel so that we can focus all our gratitude on that one, indescribable gift of grace.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), Copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. May not copy or download more than 500 consecutive verses of the ESV Bible or more than one half of any book of the ESV Bible.