Author: Jason Henry

LION – Elevation Worship, Chris Brown, Brandon Lake

/ Jason Henry / Leave a comment

“Lion,” the title track of Elevation Worship’s 2022 album, is a joint effort by well-known songwriters Chris Brown and Brandon Lake and pastor/author Steven Furtick. It evokes mystery, majesty, and power with its words and instrumentation, and it has captured the attention of Christian listeners, accumulating over 22 million streams on Spotify.

I have to confess some skepticism toward “Lion.” My initial impression was that somebody had strung together a bunch of random words and titles from the Bible to create a strong, manly worship song. As I’ve examined the words, I’ve come to see the unity of this song’s themes and the skillful way that the authors use music to paint the lyrics with emotional weight and meaning.

My dad likes to joke about “7-Eleven songs,” which are worship songs with 7 words that you repeat 11 times. This song comes pretty close to meeting that definition; the chorus has nine words, and we sing them ten times. Repetition can be great if the words we’re repeating speak the truth of Scripture, so let’s look at what these lyrics say!

Focus

The main theme of this song is the power and glory of Jesus, especially in the sound of his voice. The song portrays him as a roaring lion, unmatched and victorious. The music and words work together create a secondary theme of the mysterious nature of God.

This song may not address Jesus by name, per se, but it does call him by a lot of very specific titles that can refer to no one else, including the main one: Lion of Judah.

Lyric Analysis

VERSE 1
We begin by listing several names and attributes of God that evoke his power and authority. The God of Jacob is one who wrestles and gives us new names (Gen. 32:22-32). The Great I Am stands alone, uncreated, strong enough to bring his people out of Egypt (Ex. 3:14-15). “King of Angels” is self-explanatory. “Son of Man” is what Jesus often called himself (Matt. 9:6), and it’s a reference to a prophesied figure from the book of Daniel who appears riding on storm clouds to receive a kingdom along with eternal glory and dominion (Dan. 7:13-14).

The second half of this verse focuses on the power inherent to Jesus’ voice. The description of his voice being like “many waters” comes from Revelation 1:14-16. I take it to be a poetic way of saying that something is really loud and awesome like a thunderous waterfall, and the sounds of multitudes are often described this way in Scripture. Jesus is certainly the focus of the song around the throne in heaven in Revelation 5:9-14, a passage we’ll revisit throughout this song. God sometimes speaks in thunder throughout the Bible, and it is often representative of his power and victory over his enemies (2 Sam. 22:13-15, Job 40:9, Ex. 19:19).

The last line introduces the chorus by asking God to make his glory known.

CHORUS
“Hail, hail Lion of Judah // Let the Lion roar”

Now we arrive at the central image of the song: a conquering Lion who is also a Lamb. This idea is also represented in the album art: an image of a lamb on a record called LION. This picture is found in Revelation 5, a chapter that we’ve referenced already.

“And one of the elders said to me, ‘Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.’ And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain.”

Revelation 5:5-6

The lion represents Jesus’ identity as a victorious warrior. The phrase “of Judah” refers to his ancestry as a descendent of David and connects him to prophecies throughout the Old Testament like Genesis 49:10, which says “the scepter shall not depart from Judah.”

What does it mean to ask the Lion to roar? This question really puzzled me at first, but I think the last line of verse 1 gives an answer: we’re asking him to make his glory known. A roar is a display of power. It imparts courage to allies and makes enemies flee. When we roar with the Lion of Judah, we join with Jesus in declaring his victory—past, present, and future—over sin and death.

VERSE 2
I’m not sure where “Pride of Zion” comes from. Zion is a poetic name for the city of God, or Jerusalem. The pride of a city is the person or thing from that city that is most famous or honored, so it makes sense to call Jesus this name. It’s also a clever choice since a pride is a group of lions. The Bible usually give the word “pride” a negative connotation, so I might have chosen a different word here, but it’s not wrong.

The next couple lines declare that Jesus is the Messiah foretold by the Old Testament prophets (1 Peter:10-12). They also make the point that he came into our world as a real, flesh-and-blood human, not merely a spirit (John 20:26-28).

We return to Revelation 5 to look at the image of only Jesus being worthy to open the scroll. This scroll represents God’s final answer to all the evil in the world. John weeps because no one is able to open this scroll, but the the Lion/Lamb Jesus appears and he is worthy to open it, setting in motion the events of the end of the age, the end of sin and death, and the consummation of the Kingdom of God.

The end of the verse contains the clearest statement of of Jesus’ Lion/Lamb identity in this song. It also succinctly explains the two animals; the Lion is the mighty victor, the Lamb suffered for us. I dislike that it places the two identities consecutively, as if Jesus was a Lamb but became a Lion at his resurrection, when in fact he was both the entire time. God presents himself as presented as a lion sometimes in the Old Testament (Hosea 5:14), and when Jesus appears in Revelation 5, it’s actually in the form of a slain lamb (Rev. 5:6). The one does not replace the other.

One more thing: call me a grammar snob if you need to, but the last line should be “the Lion has arisen,” not “the Lion has arose.” I get that it doesn’t fit the meter, and prosody is important, but grammar is important too! 😆

BRIDGE
I love how half of the singers are saying “prepare the way of the Lord” while the other half sing “O valley be raised up, O mountain be made low.” I haven’t heard a polyphonic worship song this good since Marc Imboden’s “You Are Holy!” This tool works especially well here because the lyrics explain each other to some extent.

The leveling of the mountains and valleys is for the purpose of making a flat road for the coming of the Lord in his glory. These words come directly from Isaiah 40:3-5, and they’re quoted in all four Gospels to describe John the Baptist’s work in preparing Israel for Jesus’ ministry (John 1:23). John the Baptist introduces Jesus as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” (John 1:29), so his ministry is also the link between the bridge and the rest of the song and Christ’s Lion/Lamb identity.

I haven’t been able to figure out if this is part of Isaiah’s meaning, but I can’t sing about mountains being made low and valleys being lifted up without thinking about God’s love for those who are humble and his anger towards those who are arrogant. I think this bridge is at least in part a plea for justice, for God to exalt those who are lowly and to bring down the proud (James 1:9-10, 1 Peter 5:5).

Accessibility

This song’s meaning is cloaked in deep scriptural allusions. Without doing some serious research, most people will not understand the majority of the lyrics or how they connect to one another. The average worshiper will come away with a vague sense of having been impressed by God’s mystery and power, but I am concerned that not enough of that feeling will be from a real understanding of who God is. When we pray and sing to God, we should do so with our minds, not just our spirits (1 Cor. 14:15).

The extensive repetition in this song makes its melody and lyrics easy to learn. It’s a bit rangy, but only because the chorus jumps up an octave. Basses can just keep singing in the lower register. The “roar” parts also make excellent use of antiphony, so the congregation can jump in easily by repeating after the leader.

Music

This song has the drama! Mysterious synth drones. Minor tonality. Rumbly bass and drums. Powerful chorus. Sick-nasty guitar licks. Abrupt dynamic changes. The outcry on “roaaaaar!” The almost eerie, chant-like “prepare the way” bridge gives me chills. As mentioned above, I love the use of polyphony here.

The chord progression is also really cool. The song goes back and forth between melodic minor and harmonic minor, so the IV chord goes back and forth between major and minor, creating a really cool effect.

I think this one is going to be really challenging for the band to play. Part of that is the timing and the unusual chord progression, but most of the challenge comes from the fact that to make this song work, you really have to nail the dynamics. If you don’t layer in correctly and create some of those cool effects, this song loses the musical texture of mystery and power that underlines the words.

Depending on how many singers are leading worship, you can decide how much of the crazy multi-part vocal stuff to add at the end of the song.

Conclusions

I came into this review expecting to give “Lion” a firm no. Now I’m on the fence between yes and maybe. This is one of the most epic worship songs I’ve heard in a long time. It masterfully expresses the power of Jesus’ voice and the majesty and mystery of his identity as the Lion of Judah and the Lamb Who Was Slain. It’s also very deep, a little hard to figure out, and challenging to play.

Will it worship? Maybe. I feel the same about this song as I do about Honey in the Rock. I love it now, even though I didn’t when I first heard it, and I would sing my heart out in a worship service that included “Lion.” But I can’t discount the high barrier to entry represented by the rapid-fire Bible deep cuts and the difficulty of playing this song well.

Image by Glen Carrie from Unsplash

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.

GOOD GROUND – Citizens

/ Jason Henry / 1 Comment

“Good Ground” is an agricultural synth-worship single from the brand new Citizens album, I Can’t Find the Edges of You. It’s the song that first jumped out at me upon listening through the album, and I love its unique way of inviting God’s Word into our hearts and offering ourselves to him in devotion. I love Citizens (I played “You Brought Me Back to Life” to death in 2014-15), and I love Justin Tweito (see my review on “The Cup Was Not Removed“), so imagine my delight and surprise when I discovered that Zach Bolen and Justin Tweito cowrote this song!

Let’s put our soil judging skills to good use and ask if “Good Ground” will worship.

Focus

This song is a prayer asking God to speak to us, change us, and motivate us by his Word. It’s a song of devotion offering our hearts and lives to him as good ground to bear the kind of fruit he wants to produce in us.

Since the words are addressed to God, we mostly call him “You.” He’s never named specifically except when the chorus calls God “Heaven” in a lovely example of metonymy.

Lyric Analysis

VERSE
There is only one verse to this song, and in it we offer God our ears, eyes, hands, and feet.

In the first two lines, we ask him to give us the kind of ears that will hear his words and the kind of eyes that can see him working. This idea is found in Isaiah 6:10, where God connects eyes that see and ears that hear to a heart that understands and turns to God and finds healing. Jesus quotes this passage after teaching the Parable of the Sower, praising his disciples for their willingness to see and hear his meaning (Matt. 13:13-15). Paul quotes the same verse at the end of Acts, rebuking the Jews of Rome for refusing to see and hear the truth about Jesus (Acts 28:24-28). So when we sing these lines, we are asking God to give us the right kind of heart to understand his Word.

In the next two lines, we offer our hands and feet to God’s service. We acknowledge that he made our hands so that our actions can glorify him. In offering our feet, we are asking him to send us out with his Word to communicate it to others, whether to lost people who need to hear the Gospel for the first time or to our brothers and sisters who need to grow and be encouraged by God’s Word. This line calls to mind Isaiah 52:7, “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news…who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns.'”

CHORUS
“Fall on good ground, good ground // We don’t want to waste Your Word”

The chorus of “Good Ground” is based on the Parable of the Sower found in Matthew 13:1-23. The song imagines us as the soil from the parable and asks God to make us into the kind of good soil that is soft for receiving the seeds of his word and produces much fruit in response.

“A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear.”

Matthew 13:3-9

Jesus goes on to explain the meaning of this parable, a rarity in his recorded ministry. He tells us that the seeds are the “word of the kingdom,” (Mt. 13:19) a good reminder that the Gospel is not just the good news that we get to go to heaven when we die because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, but also the good news that we get to be a part of building his kingdom here and now. He explains that the path, rocky ground, and thorny ground represent those who either do not receive the word, or receive it but do not grow in it and act on it. In contrast, those who do receive the word and understand it, the good soil, always bear fruit many times what was sown (Mt. 13:18-23).

In asking for God to bring rain to make the seeds grow, we recognize that we need his help to understand his word and bear kingdom-fruit from it. In asking him to let our hearts be soft (like the good soil) to receive his word, we recognize that we are stubborn and need his help to listen and change.

BRIDGE
Like the chorus, the bridge is a prayer based on the Parable of the Sower. We ask for his words take root in our hearts, unlike those in the parable who did not understand or who let life’s worries quickly dry up their passion for Jesus and his kingdom. Plants with deep roots are healthy and can outlast changing weather. We also ask that his words would bear lots of fruit in our lives. Part of that fruit is letting the Good News of Jesus and his kingdom grow and spill out from our lives and mouths onto others.

The bridge also references one of the I Am statements of Jesus. In John 15:1-8, he calls himself the true vine. In a teaching very similar to the Parable of the Sower, Jesus tells his followers that they are branches connects to his vine and that as long as they remain in him, made clean by the power of his word, they will bear much fruit.

Accessibility

Much like the Parable of the Sower, this song explains itself. We get a few lines of metaphor, and then a line that clarifies what we’re talking about for anyone who hasn’t caught on already. I admire how the authors have employed rich biblical symbolism to express Jesus’ parable in song without obscuring the meaning or expecting people to have a wealth of scriptural knowledge to draw upon first. The chorus is very clear that the rain we’re asking for is the nourishment of God’s word implanted in our hearts, so I don’t see much potential for misunderstanding it as a request for some other kind of blessings.

The melody of this song falls entirely within an octave and mostly within the range of a fifth, so it’s very accessible from that angle. The lines of the verse all have the same melodic line, so that’s easy to learn. The melody of the chorus is trickier, but it gives the congregation key repetitive phrases like “good ground, good ground” that make excellent entry points. The bridge is short and somewhat repetitive, so some people will chime in on the second half, but there’s not much time to learn it fully. Overall, I think this song is challenging but singable for most congregations.

Music

“Good Ground” uses contrast really well. The quiet parts of the song contrast dramatically with the loud, and the a capella portions are juxtaposed with the highly accompanied portions. I think what is played matters less on this song and how much is played matters more.

I’ll be honest, I’m still figuring out how to play this one with my worship team. The recording is very arpeggiator-driven, and half the song relies on an ambient soundscape rather than a band groove. I’m definitely going to have to lean into the creativity of my musicians on this one, and it will be a challenge adapting some of the electronic beats into something real to play. There may also be some parts of the song where we don’t play and just let the multitrack carry the instrumentation. If you’re going to introduce this song to your church, expect to spend more time than usual working with the band on what each instrument is going to do.

Conclusions

Will it worship? For sure.

The main challenge with “Good Ground” is going to be adapting it for a church worship band, but I think the congregation will grab ahold of these unique lyrics and sing them with their hearts. Especially here in the Midwest, a good agricultural metaphor will go a long way! I’m confident this song will prime the minds, hearts, and hands of our people to hear, understand, and follow God’s Word.


Image by Majharul Islam from Unsplash

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.

MIRACLE POWER – We the Kingdom

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“Miracle Power” is such a cool song. The creative chord structure and the exciting dropouts on the choruses pulled me in and wouldn’t get out of my head! This 2022 single from We The Kingdom is also featured on their self-titled album. It’s co-written by the five members of the band, Andrew Bergthold, Ed Cash (he’s everywhere!), Franni Cash, Martin Cash, and Scott Cash. Let’s dive into this groovy celebration of God’s power in our lives and ask: will it worship?

Focus

The focus of “Miracle Power” is (as you might expect) God’s power. Specifically, we’re focusing on our hope in Jesus to answer us in power when we call on him from the midst of life’s difficulties.

This song uses a lot of “I” language and functions a little like a testimony song. It’s saying, “Here are my struggles, and here’s how I call on Jesus in the midst of them,” and it invites every listener to participate in that same story. When we talk about God in “Miracle Power,” it’s to express hope in him and celebrate our relationship to him.

This song clearly identifies God the Father, Jesus Christ his Son, and the Holy Spirit. Bonus points for including the whole Trinity!

Lyric Analysis

VERSES 1 & 2
Here we identify who the song is for: the lost, lonely, broken, afraid, hurting, addicted, and troubled. The verses are pointing forward to the chorus, offering it as an answer for all the problems mentioned in the verses.

Verse 1 uses third person language while verse 2 is written in first person. This makes the song both an invitation and a personal expression of faith. It offers us an opportunity to look inward and encourage our own hearts, and also to look outward to invite others into the power of God.

CHORUS
“I believe in miracle power, in a wonder-working God . . . When it feels like I won’t make it, I call on Jesus”

The chorus functions like a miniature creed, a corporate expression of what we believe about God. Roughly half of the lines describe God’s power while the other half identify the persons of the Trinity and our relationship to each.

This song takes a very open, ecumenical approach to God’s power. We proclaim that we believe in it, we declare that God works wonders, but then we don’t explain much what those wonders are. Even a cessationist can sing this song confidently since the fourth line says that God is working wonders in my heart. I love this line because it reminds us that we shouldn’t just be looking for external manifestations of God’s power, but we should seek his transformative work in our own hearts. I usually dislike vague theology in songs, but I think lack of specificity is a strength here. Many different church groups hold different views on the miraculous, and this song affirms God’s power in the present without taking a divisive stance on what form it has to take. Even though we don’t know how Jesus will intervene in our lives, we know that he answers when we call.

The other half of the chorus tells us how we relate to God in each of the persons of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit fills us (Acts 13:52). The Father loves us as his children (Rom. 8:15). Jesus calls us his friends (John 15:15). I love it when songs articulate trinitarian theology, and this song does it clearly, simply, and without feeling clunky.

The central theme of the song is articulated in the last line: no matter hopeless we feel, we can call on the name of Jesus and he will hear us. In John 14:14, Jesus says, “If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.” I think it’s worth adding a caveat here; several passages of Scripture teach that God doesn’t listen to our prayers if we are doing evil or rebelling against him (1 Pet. 3:12). I don’t think this is a flaw of the song; the verses and bridge clearly position the singer as one who is trying to seek God and believe in him, even when it’s a struggle.

VERSE 3
This verse presents praise as an antidote to suffering. Like many heroes from Scripture, the songwriter faces struggles and pain. My devotional reading today is from Psalm 6, where David says “I am weary with my moaning; every night I flood my bed with tears,” and “Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing; heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled.” So we’re in good company when we say that sometimes it’s just hard being human.

The next two lines give me a little bit of hesitation. Praising God is an excellent way to deal with discouragement, perhaps even the best way. I just don’t want anyone to get the idea that as soon as you sing “hallelujah,” all your worries, fears, and problems will evaporate instantly.

BRIDGE
I love the bridge. It’s short, simple, and hopeful. It also provides clarification for any misunderstanding of verse 3. It expresses that we face uncertainty in life, and we will walk through darkness, but we can still trust that God is in control. We can still trust in his power, and we can still teach our souls to sing to him through discouragement and pain. The words remind me of Zechariah’s song prophesying of Jesus’ birth, “because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high” (Luke 1:78).

Accessibility

The lyrics of this song are very accessible, even to brand new believers and visitors. They’re self-explanatory and don’t depend on a lot of Bible knowledge for understanding. The verses use plain language that connects to people’s everyday experiences and struggles. The choruses use equally plain language to celebrate the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The bridge is a simple, poetic description of hope in God.

The melody of this song falls almost perfectly in the classic recommended C-to-C range for congregational singing. I think there’s one optional note on verse 2 (“say good bye”) that goes up to a D. Rhythmically, the verses and chorus are catchy and easy to learn. The bridge is more flowy and tricky, but since the singing is so free and slow here, the congregation can still follow along.

Music

“Miracle Power” is super fun to play and sing. The chord structure changes things up with regular use of the flat seventh chord, but it’s not so weird that it’s difficult to learn or understand. There are also a couple of really fun and distinctive walk-downs on the instrumentals; they’re kind of tricky, so make sure your instrumentalists know about and practice those. Similarly, the final chorus has a really cool walk-up halfway through that adds a ton of energy. The songwriters also employed dropouts effectively to keep this song exciting.

Conclusions

Will it worship? Yes!

I definitely believe in “Miracle Power.” The words are clear and fresh, and they celebrate God’s saving power in a personal way. This song focuses our understanding of miracles on the wonders God works in our hearts rather than flashy external displays. The music is fun and catchy, and I have no doubt that my congregation will latch onto this one as soon as we start singing it this week.

Image by Cynthea Magana from Unsplash.

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.

THE CUP WAS NOT REMOVED – Justin Tweito

/ Jason Henry / 1 Comment
rustic cup on table

Image by Rey Proenza from Unsplash

I’m often drawn to songs that highlight biblical ideas we don’t usually sing about, or that present common worship topics in fresh ways. That’s what initially drew me to this song. Starting right in the title, “The Cup Was Not Removed,” written by Ben Wolverton, Justin Tweito, and Taylor Agan, focuses on some of the less-sung aspects of Jesus’ redemptive work. Here, we’ll look at some of these unique lyrics and see how they measure up to Scripture.

Focus

“The Cup Was Not Removed” is wholly focused on the atoning work of Jesus. We also emphasize that the appropriate response to his death and resurrection is praise.

This song speaks about God clearly, referring to him as the Father, the Son, the Lamb, and at its most intimate moment, “my Jesus.” (For more on calling God “my Jesus,” see my review of the song by that name.) It uses I/me language throughout, emphasizing personal salvation and each individual believer’s response of praise.

Lyric Analysis

VERSE 1
The key Scripture for this song is Matthew 26:39, in which Jesus says, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” This prayer comes while Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane after the Last Supper, awaiting his betrayal. The cup he wishes he could avoid is the cup of God’s wrath (Rev. 16:19, Ps. 75:8), which will be poured out on him the next day on the cross. The cup of wrath⁠—the curse, the punishment that we deserved⁠—lands on Jesus instead of us (Isaiah 53:5, Gal. 3:13).

The authors of the song also draw attention to Jesus’ choice here. He could have gotten out of this. He certainly didn’t deserve death. But the lyrics tell us that the cup isn’t just poured out on him, and he doesn’t just take a sip, instead he drinks all of it.

The authors take just a little bit of poetic license in saying “his tears were as scarlet.” Luke 22:44 says that Christ was in such agony that his sweat fell like drops of blood, not his tears. If Luke is speaking literally here, then Jesus is experiencing hematidrosis, a rare medical condition in which great emotional or physical strain causes blood vessels to burst in one’s skin. This allows blood to leak out through pores and sweat glands. There’s no mention in Scripture of Jesus’ tears being like blood, but hematidrosis is most common in and around the face (see webmd), so it’s not much of a stretch to think that his tears would have mingled with the blood as well.

CHORUS
Jesus is described as the lamb who takes away our sin in John 1:29. At the moment of his death, the curtain in the temple tore from top to bottom (Mark 15:37-38), symbolizing the fact that all humanity now has access to God’s presence through Jesus. Jesus’ great work of atonement deserves all of our souls’ praise now and forever.

The scars from Jesus’ crucifixion are still visible—and touchable—in his hands and side when Jesus appears to Thomas and the Twelve after his resurrection (John 20:24-29), so there is every reason to believe that Jesus still bears those scars today. It’s always worth repeating that the Son of God died and was raised (1 Cor. 15:3-5).

VERSE 2
The Law in verse 2 is the Torah, the Law of Moses. Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:17-18 that he didn’t come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it. Every Old Testament sacrifice points to Jesus giving his life. We are unable to meet the requirements of God’s Law on our own, so Jesus fulfills them for us and puts his righteousness on us. Furthermore, Jesus ends the role of the Law in setting Israel apart from the Gentiles, uniting the two separate peoples into one and making peace between them and God through the cross (Eph. 2:14-16).

In 1 Peter 1:10-12, we see that the suffering and glory of Christ are the culmination of the message of the Hebrew prophets. God revealed to them that their work was not just for their own time, but for the future. God’s hidden plan for the salvation of the whole world is now revealed through Christ and the Church.

Colossians 1:15 teaches that Jesus is the very image of God the Father, and 2 Corinthians 1:20 shows us that Jesus is the “yes” to every promise of God. He shows us who God us in his character, and his work of salvation and blessing is the fulfillment of God’s promises to Abraham, David, Adam, and every other saint of the Old Testament.

VERSE 3
In verse one, we already admitted that we belonged up on the cross, not Jesus. Now we take an even more personal look at our own sins using first person pronouns. We praise Jesus specifically for removing each and every one of our sins as far from us as east is from west (Ps. 103:12). The authors also carry the east-to-west metaphor forward into the next line, as if the righteousness of God stretches across the whole sky.

Accessibility

I think this song presumes at least an intermediate level of Bible knowledge. Someone who isn’t a Christian or who hasn’t studied the Bible much is likely to miss many of the references in this song and may not be able to apply the imagery. They might not even realize it’s about Jesus until verse 3 if they don’t already know that he’s called the Lamb. The flipside of that is that this song is very theologically specific and not open to misinterpretation.

I think it’s healthy to have theologically rich songs that challenge us to think deeply and discover new truths about Christ. Even if you don’t understand all the details, you can still grasp the core ideas of the chorus: Jesus takes away our sins, he invites us in, he died and rose again, and he deserves our praise.

Music

This is an easy song for a worship band to pick up and play, especially if you transpose it a half-step down from Ab to G. The only tricky chords are the little pickup notes at the end of each line of the chorus, but if you have beginners on your team then they can just skip those. I really like the two instrumental leads (one at the beginning of the song, one at the end of each half-chorus), both of which work well on piano, electric guitar, or dulcimer. I enjoy it when my drummer leans into the rim clicks on this song, and it is also easy to adapt for cajon.

Conclusions

I’m a little late reviewing this song, because we’ve been singing it for well over a year. So yes, it will worship! It approaches the Gospel in a fresh way, with a special focus on Jesus’ work removing our sins from us. “The Cup Was Not Removed” works well almost anywhere in the worship service. I find that it’s a valuable Communion song, especially on Sundays when I want to make Communion less somber and more celebratory.

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.

WHOSOEVER – Rend Collective

/ Jason Henry / Leave a comment

Image by Helena Lopes from Unsplash

I’ve loved Rend Collective since they were still an Experiment, and I still have their signed poster in my office from a concert my wife and I attended when we were in college. They have so much fun while genuinely worshiping God, and their joy is infectious. I’ve found that congregations respond really well to songs like “Build Your Kingdom Here” and “My Lighthouse.” “Whosoever” is the title track from their 2022 album, and it’s written by Chris Llewellyn, Gareth Gilkeson, and Matt Maher. Chris and Gareth are both Rend Collective members, and Matt Maher is a solo artist and legendary worship songwriter. This song is a bit of a departure from the type of lyric content I usually include in worship services, so let’s see if the lyrics of “Whosoever” are biblical and if they will worship!

Focus

The main theme of “Whosoever” is God’s love and its expression in his Church. The whole song is an invitation to join the loving community of God’s people. Usually when we say “you” in worship songs, we’re talking to God. But in this one, we are singing to the outsider who needs to be invited into the circle of love and safety described in the lyrics.

God is discussed in the third person, and he is identified as God, a savior, a man on a cross, and a Father. We don’t really distinguish between the Father and the Son in this song, but that’s because we’re focusing on God’s love, not the minutiae of the Trinity.

Lyric Analysis

VERSE 1
“There’s no audition for true love // No matter what, you don’t have to earn it”

The first two lines of “Whosoever” establish that God loves us first. We don’t and can’t do anything to earn his love; it was the disposition of his heart toward us even before he made us, even before he made anything! In Ephesians 1:4-5, Paul explains that before the foundation of the world, God set us apart for adoption as his children through Jesus. Why? Because of his love.

The next two lines offer good news to anyone who has ever felt excluded. What is that good news? Let’s ask the pre-chorus.

PRE-CHORUS
Here’s the good news: “God so loved the world, he never left you out of it.”

This is an odd turn of phrase. At first blush, it seems to say “God loves the world (including me) so much that he’ll never exclude me.” The song moves so quickly that I think people will take roughly this meaning from these words and move on.

John 3:16 is a probably the most well-known verse in the Bible, so many people will likely catch the allusion here and finish the line in their heads: “that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” So I think the bridge is using the first few words of John 3:16 as a shorthand for the whole verse. I also think death, in the ultimate sense, is permanent exclusion from God’s presence, and eternal life is being forever included in his family, so “he never left you out” isn’t a bad summary of the second half of this Scripture.

CHORUS
“Every outsider // you are safe here // Whosoever”

While modern translations of John 3:16 say “whoever believes,” many of us memorized it in the KJV and still remember “whosoever believeth.” That’s where the song title comes from, and the chorus is an invitation addressed directly to “whosoever.” We further identify “whosoever” as outsiders and people who are wandering. Zacchaeus is an excellent example of this kind of person in Scripture (Lk. 19:1-10). He was likely hated and excluded by the Jewish community because he was a dishonest tax collector for Rome, and Jesus describes him as lost. Jesus doesn’t push this thief away, but invites himself over to Zacchaeus’ home. Zacchaeus responds in faith and repentance and finds his salvation.

The chorus paints Jesus as a savior and a shelter, and that’s exactly what outsiders and lost people are looking for. But the shelter isn’t just Jesus. It’s also his church. We can learn what kind of shelter God’s people are supposed to be from God’s stern rebuke to Israel’s leaders in Ezekiel 34:4. We’re supposed to strengthen the weak, heal the sick, bind up the injured, bring back the strayed, seek the lost, and lead with gentleness. In Acts 2:44-47, we see how deeply and sacrificially the early church cared for one another. This is the kind of people we are called to be.

So the chorus is an invitation to outsiders, but it’s also a call to the Church to become the kind of place that shelters people, makes them feel safe, and brings them near to Jesus the Savior.

VERSE 2
Being put on the sidelines is another way of being left out. God doesn’t want to bench you; you’re a work of art made by his hand, and he has good works prepared for you to do! (Eph. 2:10)

The rest of this verse is about welcoming people into community. Open doors, joining in song, and raising glasses evoke a party atmosphere, maybe in someone’s home or even a pub, but it’s also a cheerful and poetic description of what we do in church. We welcome people in, we sing together, and we partake of the cup that Jesus gave us at Communion, our deepest and most meaningful symbol of our unity in Christ.

BRIDGE
Here we give two scriptural examples of God’s love. First, the father of the prodigal son. When the son who has dishonored and abandoned him comes back home, the father can’t wait for him to reach the door. He is so overcome with love for his son that he runs out to meet him on the road and captures him in a big hug (Lk. 15:11-22).

The second image is a man (Jesus) on a cross. The songwriters see Jesus’ outstretched arms on the cross as the same welcoming arms of the Father. He sacrifices himself in order to embrace and welcome us into his family.

Accessibility

I don’t see any potential for misleading or unsound teaching in this song. I think the overall message of invitation into a loving community is abundantly clear.

“God so loved the world he never left you out of it,” is a little confusing grammatically, but the sense of what’s being said is apparent. People unfamiliar with Scripture may not understand the lyrics of the song as references to John 3:16, but the song’s imagery communicate its message clearly. People who have qualms about alcohol may be bothered by the line about raising glasses in verse 2, but I would just remind them that we often raise non-alcoholic beverages in toast at weddings, and that we metaphorically raise the cup of Christ’s blood together every time we celebrate Communion.

The melody of this song is really high, but I was surprised to discover that this song actually only has a vocal range of an octave +1 (as long as you exclude the optional high note in the 2nd to last chorus). Most songs I review end up being more like an octave +4 or 5, so this one should be even more singable than average. Just transpose it lower if it doesn’t suit your voice or your congregation. We sing it in A, but G would be even easier to play and sing. If you go all the way down to F, it even fits the oft-repeated “C to shining C” rule.

Music

I sure hope your acoustic guitar player doesn’t mind his or her strumming hand falling off by the end of this song! A good portion of this song’s high-energy, Rend Collective, Irish folk-rock vibe comes from the constant 16th note strum pattern. It’s also a great song to utilize a mandolin and/or banjo player.

This upbeat song’s dynamics jump back and forth between medium-loud, loud, and louder. The key to nailing the dynamic arc is getting all your dropouts synced up, especially on the pre-choruses and the bridge. Speaking of the bridge, I love how this song deviates a little from the typical worship song format here. Instead of a decrescendo into a quiet bridge, we have a total dropout for the first half of each line and then three smash hits on the last word of each. It’s punchy, exciting, and breaks up the song so that we don’t ever get bored for lack of dynamic interest.

Conclusions

I mentioned already that “Whosoever” is different from most of the songs I choose for worship services. Usually I limit myself to songs that are to God or about God. This one is about God in a sense, but it’s more about his Church. I also tend to avoid songs that have such a strong element of invitation because they can often feel heavy-handed. But “Whosoever” is more than an invitation; it’s a description of what Jesus’ Church should look like. When we sing these words, we have the opportunity to make them a prayer that our church would be like this, a place where outcasts can find a home and feel loved and safe.

So, will it worship? Yes. I think this song will be a powerful tool for transformation and I look forward to seeing our congregation grow in love for the outcast, one another, and Christ as we sing it!

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.

SAME GOD – Elevation Worship

/ Jason Henry / 1 Comment

“Same God” is the most popular track of Elevation Worship’s 2022 release LION. Its authors are songwriting veterans Brandon Lake, Chris Brown, Pat Barrett, and Steven Furtick. At a glance, this song is a plea for God to intervene in our lives as he did for biblical figures like Moses and Mary. It took me a while to figure out what drew me to the song initially, but I think it’s the way the lyrics lean into God’s faithfulness and our need for him. But is “Same God” Biblical, and should your band sing it this Sunday? Let’s take a closer look to make sure we’re leaning on the solid foundation of God’s character rather than just some catchy lyrics and imaginary promises.

Focus

This song is a declaration of our need for God. It’s also a celebration of his faithfulness to his people throughout Scripture. Nearly every set of three lines in the song consists of a plea for God’s help in our lives coupled with a foundation for that plea in an element of God’s character or something specific that he did in the Bible. The bedrock of this song is the promise that he is the same God, yesterday, today, and forever (Heb. 13:8).

This song is directed at God using a lot of “you” language. We address him most often as “God” and “Rock of Ages,” and we also call him a healer, a savior, and the God of Mary, Moses, Jacob, and David.

Lyric Analysis

VERSES
Both verses of “Same God” are split into two groups of three lines each. In the first line of each group, the authors call on the God of [insert Biblical figure’s name]. In the second line, they reference something that God did or a characteristic that he demonstrated in that character’s story. The third line is a request (sometimes implied) that he will continue to act that way on behalf of the singer.

Songs like this can easily fall into the trap of assuming that God will perform the same miracles for us that he did in the past (e.g. God is going to slay my “giants” because he slayed David’s), but I think “Same God” takes a more nuanced approach.

The first character referenced is Jacob, and the authors identify that God’s love endures through generations. Based on this characteristic, we express trust that he will keep his covenant. This reflects how God renews the covenant he made with Abraham with his grandson Jacob in Genesis 28:13-15. Notably, God highlights his own faithfulness in this passage, saying “I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” When we sing this line as Christians in the 21st Century, we know that we have a new, better covenant with God through the blood of Jesus, and that he will never break it (2 Cor. 3:6).

Next we look at God’s work during the time of Moses. The authors say that God “opened up the ocean,” referring to the parting of the Red Sea (Ex. 14:29-30). (Yes, I know the Red Sea isn’t an ocean, but it’s technically an inlet of the Indian Ocean, so we can let it slide 😆.) God used this miracle to bring Israel out of slavery, so when we ask him to do the same thing for us, I think we need to consider it in that light. We’re asking him to bring us out of our own slavery to sin and death. In Christ, we are no longer slaves, but sons and daughters (Gal. 4:1-7).

In Verse 2, the authors reference Mary’s Magnificat in Luke 1:46-55. Three times in her short song of praise, she acknowledges God’s goodness for those of humble estate. The statement that nothing is impossible with God comes from the same chapter, when the angel Gabriel is foretelling the miraculous births of Jesus and John the Baptist (Luke 1:37).

Finally, we mention David and how God gave him courage to face Goliath. We see this courage clearly in David’s words to Saul, “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” (1 Sam. 17:37) To be honest, seeing David and Goliath pop up in a worship song is usually a red flag for me. This story is one that we love to misapply. We love to see ourselves as David and our problems—physical or spiritual—as Goliath. The issue is that God doesn’t promise to smack all of our problems in the head with a rock. David went out to face God’s enemy, not the other way around. So while I don’t love the line “I’ve got my own giants,” I do love that the answer the song offers isn’t to ask God to kill all my giants, but to give me courage when I face them. When we look at David’s words, we see that his courage comes from total trust in God.

I’m not a huge fan of the bonus verse in the extended version of the song. I think it puts too much emphasis on the subjective experience of worship and insists that God make himself perceptible to us on our timetable, particularly with lines like “I feel your touch right now.” That’s one of the reasons I usually end the song after the two post-bridge choruses.

CHORUS
“Oh Rock, oh Rock of Ages
I’m standing on Your faithfulness”

The first three lines of the bridge are just expressing our need for God. Jesus understands our need and provides mercy and grace for us when we draw near to him and ask (Heb. 4:15-16). In the second half, we call him the Rock of Ages (Isaiah 26:3-4) because he is steady, trustworthy, and eternal.

To stand on God’s faithfulness is to believe and live as though his word and his promises are really true. Jesus tells us that part of this is doing his word, not just agreeing with it (Luke 6:47-49). So, if we really trust God’s faithfulness, we will obey his commands.

BRIDGE
The bridge of this song is more declarative than the verses. Instead of asking God for things, we are declaring that because he did a thing in the Bible, he continues doing that thing now. That’s not universally true. To prove this point, I will now make up some of my own bridge lines to see how quickly I can get myself in trouble:

“You cursed the fig tree then; you’re cursing fig trees now // You are the same God…”
“You mauled youths with bears back then; you’re mauling us right now // You are the same God…”

Jason Henry

Yikes! So just because God does something in the Bible, that doesn’t mean he’s necessarily still acting in the same way now. His character never changes, but some acts of God are limited to a certain time and place. So let’s look at each of these claims individually and see how they hold up.

He hears and answers prayer. This one is easy. God always watches his children and listens to our prayers (1 Pet. 3:12). Further, Jesus tells us in John 16:23-24 that whatever we ask for in his name, we will receive. There’s more that needs to be said about what it means to ask for something in the name of Jesus, but for the purposes of this song, we can clearly see that God hears and answers prayer.

He provides. Paul promises the Philippians that God will provide for all their needs (Phil. 4:19). Jesus also promises that when we fix our eyes on his Kingdom rather than earthly things, we can trust God to provide for our physical needs like food and clothing (Mt. 6:31-33).

He moves in power. I’m not sure if this phrase has a specific meaning in different church traditions, but I think anything God does is an exercise of his power. So this phrase just means that God still does powerful things today, whether you’re talking about obvious, physical miracles or the miracle of regeneration that God works in every believer when they turn to him.

He heals. Healing comes in many different forms, so calling God a healer isn’t the same as promising that he’s going to fix your broken tooth or heal your cancer. There are many miraculous healings throughout the Old and New Testaments, and churches believe differently about whether God still performs miraculous healings today. But even if you go to the most cessationist church ever would agree that we’re spiritually healed when we turn to Jesus (1 Pet. 2:24), all of our sicknesses, injuries, and griefs will be finally healed at the resurrection (Rev. 21:4), and God will ultimately bring peace and healing to the nations (Rev. 22:2).

He saves. God has always been and will always be a savior. This title occurs throughout the Old Testament, but becomes even more prominent when Jesus’ birth is announced (Lk. 1:46-48), and several of the Epistles use it in their benedictions (Jude 1:25). He is the only savior (Isa. 43:11). God’s salvation is the victory cry of heaven. (Rev. 19:1)

So, far from blindly assuming that because God did something once, we can expect him to do the same thing over and over again, “Same God” roots our expectations in God’s character, and we know that God’s character stays the same (Heb. 13:8). Every declaration we see here in the bridge is demonstrably and eternally true and based upon the Bible, even if some of them are a little vague and open to interpretation.

BRIDGE 2/SPONTANEOUS/OUTRO
This part of the song isn’t my favorite. It gets kinda long, so we usually quit at about 5:40. Lyrically, most of it is just spontaneous repetition of ideas we’ve already discussed, but there are a couple of new lines that I want to look at.

I like the line “You freed the captives then // You’re freeing hearts right now” because it links dramatic Bible stories of liberation like the Exodus to our present reality of being freed from sin and death through Jesus (Rom. 8:2).

I don’t love the line “You touched the lepers then // I feel Your touch right now” because I think it implies two promises that I don’t see in Scripture and that aren’t always true.* First, we don’t always feel God’s touch. We believe that he is always present with us (Mt. 28:20), but if Jesus and David experienced feeling forsaken and abandoned by God (Ps. 22:1, Mt. 27:46), why should we expect to feel his touch every time we gather to worship? Second, when Jesus touched the lepers, he healed them of their leprosy (Mt. 8:3), so I feel like this line implies immediate physical healing. There is no universal promise of immediate physical healing in the Bible, and not everyone who sings this song in worship will be healed of their physical ailments.

[*Update 4/16/25: I no longer think this line refers primarily to physical healing. Lepers in ancient Israel were considered unclean, and observant Jews were not supposed to touch them. If they did, the uncleanness would pass from the leper to the healthy person (possibly the disease too!). When Jesus touched the lepers, the opposite happened: holiness and life flowed out from him, healing disease and removing all the uncleanness. So this line in the song is primarily about God reaching out to touch us even in the midst of our sin, shame, weakness, and uncleanness, and imparting his holiness to us.]

Finally, we call on the Holy Spirit (bonus points for naming all three persons of the Trinity) and refer to him as an almighty river, asking him to fill us again. The river of life is a nice scriptural image that I think we can apply fairly to the Holy Spirit (Rev. 22:1, Jn. 7:38). Paul links being filled with the Spirit and singing together in Ephesians 5:18-19. In my mind, asking the Holy Spirit to fill me again is another way of surrendering again to the his influence and asking Him to work in and through my life. (Some churches will love or hate this line because of specific doctrines regarding being filled by the Spirit, so be aware of what your church teaches before you sing this part of the song.)

Accessibility

I think the words of this song are clear and direct. People who aren’t very familiar with the Bible will miss some or all of the references, but they explain themselves as they come up in the song, so I don’t think this is a problem for comprehension.

The only risk I can see here is that it’s easy to over-apply the promises and attributes of God listed in this song. The lyrics are sound (with the exception, in my opinion, of the bonus verse in the outro), but it is easy to see God’s identity as a healer and take that as a promise that my sickness or injury will be healed right now, or that the “giant” in my life will be shoved aside if I trust God hard enough. Again, I don’t think this is a weakness in the lyrics, just something to be aware of when we teach it to our congregations.

This song’s range of an octave and a fourth is a little wide for the average person, but that’s par for the course in contemporary worship.

Where “Same God” really excels is its easy-to-learn melody. The verses, the chorus, and the bridge each have a single line of melody that repeats over and over again with only small variations at the end of every third line. This makes it a super easy song for the congregation to sing along with, even on a first hearing. The verse has a lot of skips while the chorus and bridge are mostly stepwise, so the repetition doesn’t become boring. A+!

Music

Love the chill opening and the intimate first chorus. The toms really drive the pulse of this song in verse 2 and the second chorus, and the cymbal swell and dropout on the line “I’ve got my own giants” launches us musically and emotionally into our cry of need for God in the chorus. We drop back down for a quiet bridge that builds up. The classic worship leader strategy of singing the bridge down an octave and then jumping up as it gets louder is often maligned, but I think its an effective tool to build energy without confusing the congregation with an alternate melody, and congregants don’t have to jump octaves if they can’t or don’t want to. Like I mentioned earlier, I like to end the song after the bridge and two loud choruses so that it’s not eight minutes long. Additionally, if your worship team isn’t skilled at spontaneous singing, the closing instrumental will likely feel empty and awkward.

Nothing super difficult for the band here, just a few quick chord changes to keep an eye on. This is one song where I never have to remind the band about dynamics, because they are so natural that it’s difficult not to crescendo in the right places. If you’re not using a click, you’ll want to watch the tempo on some of those builds, since your drummer might get excited and speed up.

Conclusion

Will “Same God” worship? Definitely. My only concern with this song is the potential to misuse the scriptural promises in it, but that’s a problem to be addressed through sound theology and robust teaching on prayer, miracles, the Gospel, and the Holy Spirit, not something you can *fix* in a single song. This is an exciting anthem of the faithfulness of our God and I still get excited every time it’s on our setlist. If you’re not singing it yet, give it a shot!

Image by Zoltan Tasi from Unsplash

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.

A THOUSAND HALLELUJAHS – Brooke Ligertwood

/ Jason Henry / Leave a comment

Image by Belinda Fewings from Unsplash

“A Thousand Hallelujahs” is one of my two favorite songs from Brooke Ligertwood’s 2022 release SEVEN. I can’t decide if I like this one or “Honey in the Rock” better! Songwriting credits also belong to Scott Ligertwood and Phil Wickham. We’ve already been singing this song in church for several weeks, so that’s a bit of a spoiler for whether I find it suitable for worship or not, but let’s analyze “A Thousand Hallelujahs” anyway to see what makes it such a great congregational song!

Focus

The main theme of “A Thousand Hallelujahs” is the surpassing worth of Jesus to receive praise. As a response, we offer that praise to him. The eternal reign of Jesus as king is a secondary theme. The song addresses Jesus in the second person and calls him by name, as well as calling him Lord, the Lamb, and the King of Heaven.

Lyric Analysis

VERSE 1
Both verses start with a pair of rhetorical questions, and the answer to all of them is Jesus.

During the Triumphal Entry, when the Pharisees complain that Jesus’ followers shouldn’t be worshiping him, Jesus replies that, “if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.” (Luke 19:37-40) The Psalmist and the author of Job also tell us that the shining of the stars is their way of praising God (Ps. 148:3, Job 38:6-7). These passages (and the song lyrics) aren’t trying to tell us that rocks and stars actually have minds or desires. Instead, they’re personifying elements of God’s creation to show that there is something so unique about Jesus’ glory that creation must praise him.

So, the main thrust of this verse is that while all of creation “sings” to God by showing his creative power and divinity (Rom. 1:19-20), we humans get the joy and privilege of actually singing to him and using words to praise his glory.

CHORUS
While the Ligertwoods and Phil Wickham are amazing songwriters, I do need to criticize their math skills: There are only eight hallelujahs in this song, not a thousand. However, “hallelujah” means “praise Yahweh,” so if we count the times they say “praise,” we get 18 hallelujahs, which is closer, but still not 1,000. Although, if you have 56 people singing with you, and each of them sings 18 hallelujahs…

Joking aside, the number 1,000 (and a thousand more) isn’t an actual number of hallelujahs, it’s just an arbitrarily large number chosen to represent that Jesus deserves and will receive infinite praise from his people throughout eternity. (See the end of verse 2).

To magnify means “to make great,” so we are making the name of Jesus great when we praise him. It is fair and right to say that he alone deserves the glory, because we are told in Philippians 2:9-11 that God has given to Jesus the name that is above every name, and that the Father is glorified when the Son is glorified.

VERSE 2
Again, the answer to these questions is Jesus. He’s the one who died to redeem us, and his resurrection is the one in which we are raised to life (Col. 2:12-14). Much like John the Apostle, the authors of this song claim that there’s not time enough in the world to describe all the amazing things Jesus has done (John 21:25). In the final line, they delight in the opportunity to sing of Jesus’ amazing deeds through all eternity.

BRIDGE
The simple words of the bridge call Jesus the Lamb, the Lord, and King (Rev. 17:14). We give him praise specifically because he rose from the dead (1 Thes. 4:14) and because he reigns (Rev. 11:15).

When we say, “we will sing forever,” we are echoing Psalm 89:1. I also think it’s worth noting that singing forever does not mean that when we die we are locked into an interminable choir rehearsal. We will live and reign with Christ forever, and singing to his glory will be a frequent, delightful, and life-giving activity that we eagerly participate in. For more discussion of heaven and our eternal state, see my review of “Homecoming.”

Accessibility

I don’t see any potential theological errors or misunderstandings in this song. I think it’s abundantly clear who we’re singing to, and “A Thousand Hallelujahs” gives Jesus abundant praise in a very clear way while still containing variety. The only potential point of confusion I see is the rhetorical-question-posing nature of the verses, but I think anyone who’s paying attention will understand what’s going on by the second verse.

Singability is a mild-to-moderate issue for this song. The melody only spans an octave plus one, so it’s not too rangy, but there are lots of skips that may be difficult for the casual singer. The trickiest part to sing is the bridge, which alternates between lines of weird, off-beat triplets, and lines of straight quarter notes. Very counterintuitive. But honestly, if the congregation lags a quarter beat behind on those weird lines, it’s not a big deal.

Music

We begin mezzo piano, with pad, toms, and chill electric guitars. After a minimal introduction, the clear, tender melody of the verse introduces us to the main ideas of the song. We introduce the chorus with similar instrumentation plus cello, and then build into a normal groove for verse 2. The second chorus is mezzo forte, and then we drop back down for a quiet instrumental and a bridge that crescendos into a big chorus, instrumental and reprise of the bridge. There’s a subito piano closing chorus, and we’re done.

Nobody likes playing in Db, so I advise raising or lowering this song a half step. This song’s not too tricky instrumentally except for the fast chord changes on “forever yours” in the middle of the chorus. The dynamic arc is satisfying and easy for the band to follow and remember. I like that the electric guitar part at the beginning gives a skilled player something to do, but it’s not essential if your guitarists aren’t comfortable playing lead lines.

Conclusions

…and a thousand more! This one will absolutely worship. We acknowledged earlier that the melody is a little tricky to learn, but that intricacy also keeps the song from getting boring once you learn it. The lyrics are a clear declaration of love, honor, and glory to Jesus, and I imagine “A Thousand Hallelujahs” will remain in our congregational repertoire for quite some time.

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.

HYMN OF HEAVEN – Phil Wickham, Bethel Music, Brian Johnson, Zahriya Zachary

/ Jason Henry / Leave a comment
crowd with raised hands

Image by Edwin Andrade from Unsplash

What will heaven be like? Many songs attempt to answer that question, and it’s a hard one! One of my favorite N.T. Wright quotes is a reminder that all the clues we have about our eternal state are “signposts pointing into a fog.” We know some vague outlines about what heaven is, and what the new earth will be like, but we don’t have a lot of specifics. “Hymn of Heaven” focuses on the one activity we know is central to heavenly life: worship.

“Hymn of Heaven,” written by Bill Johnson, Brian Johnson, Chris Davenport, and Phil Wickham, was released in 2021 on Phil Wickham’s album of the same title and Bethel’s Homecoming. (The title track of that record is also about heaven, and I reviewed it here.) So what is the hymn of heaven mentioned in the song’s title? What does heavenly worship look like? Is this song based on Scripture? Will it worship? Answers to all these questions and more! Just keep on reading.

Focus

This song eagerly anticipates worshiping God in heaven. Accordingly, the focus is on glorifying God by singing of his holiness both in eternity and in the present. The other main theme is imagining what heaven will be like, and the emphasis here is still on all the angels and saints praising God together. The song also directly links our future in heaven with Jesus’ death and resurrection.

This song uses third person language to refer to God, calling him the Lord, the Lamb, and God. The first verse uses “I/me” language, but the rest of the song is all “we/us,” emphasizing the unity of believers in worshiping God.

Lyric Analysis

THE TITLE

Christians and non-Christians alike tend to have a lot of misconceptions about heaven. Perhaps the biggest one is that heaven is where we will spend eternity. This is not what the Bible teaches! Heaven is where believers who have died are joyfully present with God now, but they will not be there forever (Phil. 1:23, Luke 23:43). At the end of this age, we are going to dwell with God forever on a renewed earth, not float with him in the clouds (Rev. 21:1-4). Randy Alcorn has written a great article on this subject that was helpful in my research, and I encourage you to read it for more information!

I think preachers and songwriters often use the word “heaven” as a shorthand for dwelling-with-God-and-all-believers-from-all-time-in-the-New-Jerusalem-on-the-new-earth. It’s not my favorite practice because I think it contributes to confusion and misconceptions about our eternal state, but I understand why we do it. In fact, I’ll probably do it in this blog without realizing it. 🤦‍♂️

So, next time you hear someone use the word “heaven,” ask yourself if they’re really referring to heaven, where God is now, or the new earth, where we will spend eternity with him.

Having said all of that, the hymn of heaven referenced in the title seems to refer to three lines in the song. “Holy, holy is the Lord” occurs at the end of each chorus and is a shortened version of what the four living creatures are constantly saying around God’s throne in heaven (Rev. 4:8). The other two lines occur at the end of verse 3—”worthy is the Lamb who was slain” and “forever he shall reign”—and both are quotes of heavenly worship from the book of Revelation. So the title “Hymn of Heaven” is spot on. Good job, Phil & Friends!

VERSE 1
In this verse, the singer imagines his or her personal experience of being in heaven (technically probably the New Jerusalem, especially since the rest of the song is very focused on the final resurrection, but we talked about that already). He imagines breathing the air, feeling no pain, seeing Jesus in person, and walking with him. He refers to Jesus as “the One who bled to save me,” (1 Pet. 2:24) which I appreciate, because it links our presence in heaven with Jesus’ redeeming work on the cross.

CHORUS 1
One day, every knee will bow at the name of Jesus (Phil. 2:9-11). One day, death itself will die (Rev. 20:14, see also “Death, be not proud” by John Donne). One day, we’ll stand face to face with Jesus and worship him (1 Cor. 13:12, Rev. 7:9-12). But what day are we talking about? We’ve already probably got a good idea, but let’s wait for the verses to let us know for sure.

*Pedantic grammatical side-note: I’m 96% sure it should be “with him who died” rather than “with he who died” since “he/him who died and rose again” is a noun phrase that serves as the object of the preposition “with.” But it’s fine. My eye’s not twitching; what are you talking about? Moving on.*

VERSE 2

This verse is one long thought, not three complete sentences. So the first line is not saying that every prayer is desperate, but rather that every desperate prayer will be worth it in the end. The same with line 2: it’s worth it to sing songs of faith in the midst of hardship. The last line describes Jesus wiping away our tears (Rev. 21:4). I find great comfort in knowing that human suffering matters to God, that it isn’t wasted. In Psalm 56:8, David says that God keeps his tears in a bottle, and Psalm 116:15 even calls the deaths of the saints precious to the Lord. This does not mean that God enjoys our suffering, but that he is with us in it, and that it matters to him.

The final line also makes explicit what day this song is talking about: the day of Jesus’ glorious return when he will wipe away all our tears (Matt. 25:31-32, Rev. 21:4).

*Tired eschatological side-note: I’m not going to wander off into the weeds of end-times interpretation here. In some views, the day of Jesus’ return and the day of the final judgment might be separated by a thousand years, while others place them in rapid succession. Whether or not the Day of the Lord is in fact a literal 24-hour day is irrelevant to this song’s message.*

VERSE 3

Now “that day” is identified with the final resurrection of all the dead (Rev. 20:12-13), when we will stand before God’s throne and join either the sheep—those who obey God and love one another, the heroes of our faith—or the goats who do not (Heb. 11:39-12:2, Matt. 25:31-46). In Revelation 5, John sees larger and larger groups joining in the praise of Jesus. The line “worthy is the Lamb who was slain” is part of what he hears hundreds of millions of angels singing around God’s throne. Later in the book, loud voices in heaven also declare that Jesus will reign forever and ever (Rev. 11:15).

CHORUS 2

With the second chorus, the author encourages us not to wait until we die to sing Jesus’ praise. Heaven is praising God right now, and we have the opportunity to join in the song the angels and saints are already singing around his throne. We’re firmly in “now/not yet” territory here, recognizing that God has already given us eternal, resurrected life, and even though we can’t fully experience it yet, we can begin to live it out by singing the songs of heaven and living to glorify God here and now.

Accessibility

I think most people will be able to understand this song. The imagery of heaven and Jesus’ return are clear in use plain language. People who are unfamiliar with Scripture may not understand that Jesus is the “Lamb who was slain,” but most Christians will. The transition from “there will be a day” to “let it be today” might also confuse some people, but I think the song explains itself well enough that a little reflection will clear up the confusion. I don’t think anything in this song requires explanation beforehand.

The melody stays within an octave for the majority of the song, which is ideal for congregational singing. It increases to an octave+3 during the triumphant line “forever he shall reign” and the end of verse 3, and chorus 2 has an alternate melody that falls in that same range. That’s a larger range, but pretty normal for worship songs. Just keep those high notes in mind when choosing what key to set the song in.

Music

This song has a standard worship song dynamic arc. There’s no bridge, but verse 3 serves a similar musical function, bringing the volume down for a minute before building back up for some big closing choruses.

I’m partial to the Bethel version featuring Brian Johnson and Zahriya Zachary rather than the Phil Wickham studio version. I think the live worship environment makes such a difference with a song like this where the whole point is that God’s people are singing to him together.

If you’re a worship leader, make sure you have played through this song and double-checked your chord sheet before distributing it in practice. There is nothing super difficult, but the third line of each verse and chorus has some quick, extra chords with alternate bass notes, and the chord sheet I downloaded from Worship Together did not have them labeled correctly.

Conclusions

There are lots of songs that eagerly anticipate heaven. What I like about this one is that it does so by focusing on the real point of heaven: all of God’s people from all time, united with all creation in worshiping him forever. Instead of talking about golden streets, mansions, or even being reunited with lost loved ones, this song has its eyes fixed on Christ and his Bride the Church.

I also love that the three lines referred to as the hymn of heaven within the song all come from the Book of Revelation. So Phil & Co. aren’t just guessing at what kinds of praise we will give to God, they’re drawing the exact words from the praise God receives in heaven even now.

Will it worship? Yes! And in “Hymn of Heaven,” that’s the whole point.

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.

WHAT I SEE – Elevation Worship, Chris Brown

/ Jason Henry / Leave a comment

Image by Niels Smeets from Unsplash

“What I See” is an intense, energetic new song from Elevation Worship’s LION album. Written by Chris Brown, Jason Ingram, Pat Barrett, and Steven Furtick, “What I See” stirs up excitement and calls the church to awaken from slumber and live the resurrected life. I have to confess that my first impression of this song was that it was a lot of hype and lot a whole lot of substance, but the central line of the chorus, “He is risen // We are risen with Him,” is so strong that it has me reevaluating. If there’s a subject worthy of hype, it’s the resurrection of Jesus, so let’s dig into the lyrics and see if “What I See” is biblical, and if it’s suitable for congregational worship.

Let me know in the comments if you see what I see in “What I See.” 😆🤦‍♂️

Focus

This song is about resurrection. It points to Jesus’ resurrection (though he isn’t identified by name) but spends more time on the imminent resurrections of believers as they turn to him, quite possibly through baptism. There’s also an emphasis on experiential witness of God’s power. Lines like “do you see what I see?” and “I see lightning; I hear thunder,” insist that God is working powerfully here and now, and that we can see and experience it.

Lyric Analysis

INTRO
“Do you see what I see?”

I’m not sure yet, Chris. That’s what we’re trying to determine!

This line is a rhetorical question that introduces one of the song’s driving ideas. Its meaning isn’t clear at the outset, but as we develop the theme we’ll see that this is an invitation to see the power of God at work, especially through the resurrections of believers, but also through signs and wonders.

VERSE 1
Lightning and thunder are commonly used throughout Scripture to represent God’s power, often in battle or judgment, but sometimes just as an effect of his presence or his words. It also might be worth noting that at Jesus’ resurrection, there was a great earthquake (those can sound thunderous) and the angel who rolls the stone away and then sits on it is described as having an appearance like lightning (Matt 28:1-3). So the authors of this song could be obliquely referencing Jesus’ resurrection here.

“Six feet under” is a modern euphemism for dead, since that’s how deep we tend to bury people. Jesus was not buried in a coffin but in a Jewish tomb, so this line points to the song primarily discussing imminent resurrections/conversions rather than Jesus’ resurrection. He makes this clear by saying dead things are “coming back to life again” and “there’s about to be another resurrection.” We’ll discuss this idea more in the chorus.

The phrase “signs and wonders” appears throughout the Old and New Testaments. It describes the plagues God inflicted on Egypt, God’s deliverance of Daniel, the miracles of Jesus, and miracles performed through the Apostles and early Christians in Acts. But there are also some warnings attached to this phrase. Jesus rebukes those who go seeking signs and wonders in Matthew 12:38-41 and tells them the only sign they will receive is his death and resurrection. He also warns that false christs and false prophets will lead people astray with signs and wonders (Matt. 24:23-25). So, bearing witness to the signs and wonders of God is a good thing, especially in bearing witness to the primary wonder: Jesus’ resurrection. But we must be careful not to seek after them or be led astray by those who perform them but whose teachings do not align with Scripture.

Seeing “bursts of living color” is a metaphor for experiencing a vibrant, resurrected life. The authors may have had the vivid colors of the New Jerusalem, the home of God’s people after our final resurrection, in mind when they wrote this line (Rev. 21:10-14).

CHORUS
“Come alive // Wake up sleeper // He is risen // We are risen with Him”

The chorus is my favorite part of this song because it situates our hope for resurrection in the fact that Jesus has already risen. In Romans 6:2-4, Paul tells us that when we are baptized into Jesus, we are joining him in his death, and we are resurrected with his resurrection.

The call to the sleeper to wake up is found in Ephesians 5:14 (paraphrasing various Old Testament passages), where Paul is talking about what it means to walk in the light as opposed to the darkness, the new, resurrected life as opposed to the old dead one. As a consequence of our resurrection with Christ, we are called to wake up and live a new kind of life. This is the same thing point he’s making in Romans 6 as well.

Our resurrection with Jesus is one of those “now/not yet” concepts from the Bible, where in one sense we are already resurrected and we are called to live new lives of faith and love. In another sense, we still wait for the day when Jesus fully establishes his Kingdom and we are resurrected, transformed, and enter eternity with him (Phil. 3).

When we return to the chorus later in the song, we get one additional phrase: “paradise flung wide open.” I don’t find this exact statement anywhere in Scripture, but I think it fits with the idea of Jesus tearing the veil that separates us from God’s presence (Matt. 27:51). It also reminds me of passages like Romans 9:24, which emphasize that God’s family is now open to people of all nations, not just the people of Israel.

VERSE 2

Jesus said “it is finished” when he died on the cross (John 19:30), and Christians have long understood this as a declaration that the work of redemption is complete in him. Jesus has already done it; we don’t have to earn it (Eph. 2:8-9). The grave with no body in it (two words “no body,” not “nobody”) refers to Jesus’ empty tomb (John 20:1-10).

INTERLUDE

Chris invites the congregation to “hear the resurrection life in the room today.” The singing of God’s people is part of what happens when we’re filled with the Spirit, which is directly tied to experiencing the resurrected life (Eph. 5:18-19, Eph. 1:13-14).

BRIDGE

The bridge gives us a conditional statement: “If you see that [Jesus’] grave is empty, then you know that anything is possible.” Jesus himself tells us that all things are possible with God (Matt. 19:26). The rest of the bridge repeats words we’ve seen already, focusing on seeing and hearing signs, wonders, lightning, and thunder.

Nothing wrong here, we just need to remember that signs are just that: signs. They’re not the main point of our faith; they point to Jesus.

Accessibility

I think most people will understand that we are talking about how Jesus’ resurrection and how it makes it possible for us to be resurrected with him. The song doesn’t explain exactly what that means but paints the new, resurrected life with metaphors like lightning, living color, and waking from sleep. So someone untrained in Scripture is likely to come away from this song with an understanding of what the new life feels like, but not necessarily what it entails.

“What I See” also tells us anything is possible and creates an expectation for signs and wonders, which could be harmful depending on one’s understanding of the phrase, and whether it prompts people to seek contemporary signs and wonders or place too much trust in them (See analysis of verse 1).

The tune of this song is simple and the rhythms are repetitive so it should be very singable for the congregation.

Music

This song excels at building excitement through strategic application of drums and electric guitar. As such, dynamics are even more important than usual. “What I See” is never quiet, but there are several places where the instrumentation is sparse on purpose, featuring only the electric guitar, drums, or voices and clapping.

I’m not a drummer, but some of the drum rhythms in this song sound pretty difficult, and they’re integral to the energy of the song so they can’t just be skipped or replaced. The guitar rhythm patterns don’t sound as challenging, but they are very specific, and it will be important for the musicians on your team to mirror what Elevation plays as closely as possible. The chords are easy.

Conclusions

Will it worship? Maybe.

I don’t see much theological danger in “What I See,” except maybe an unhelpful emphasis on contemporary signs and wonders which is less of a concern if your church has an established and well-understood position on what those do and don’t entail. In fact, the central premise of the song, “He is risen; we are risen with him,” is a clear articulation of one of the very most important points of Christian faith. The rest of the song is focused on the feeling of excitement that naturally accompanies that kind of truth.

What makes this song hard to utilize in corporate worship is its very concrete and oft-repeated expectation that “there’s about to be another resurrection.” If you sing this song in worship, and it’s not followed by a baptism or some other visible sign of someone’s conversion to faith in Jesus, it will ultimately feel flat. It is absolutely right and good to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection and ours, but to sing a song so focused on seeing someone’s imminent salvation and then not connect that promise to a fulfillment seems wrong. So I would have a hard time using this song in a worship service if it wasn’t going to be followed up with a baptism, someone’s confession of faith, or maybe even a very focused evangelism effort.

To sum up! I’m a little concerned about the emphasis on signs and wonders, and it would be a minor wonder for an average church drummer to be able to play this song well. Apart from that, this is an exciting, celebratory song about the resurrection of believers that could be used effectively as part of a baptism service or revival, but probably not a typical Sunday morning.

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.

HE IS JESUS – Zack Shelton

/ Jason Henry / Leave a comment

Image by Bruno van der Kraan from Unsplash

This review is a little different because “He Is Jesus” is a brand new release from someone I know! Zack Shelton and I went to college together at Kentucky Christian University, where we were in the same creative songwriting class (where his skills far exceeded mine) and the same choir (where he used to cheat off of me when he forgot his part 😜). Since the lyrics aren’t online yet, he’s given me permission to post them here in full. Let’s check out “He Is Jesus” and see if it’ll worship!

Focus

The main themes of this song are the identity and power of Jesus. It lists many biblical attributes and titles of the Lord as well as some of his mighty works, especially the resurrection. A secondary theme is our response of awe and praise to who Jesus is, what he’s done, and the relationship we have with him.

Lyric Analysis

VERSE 1
“The beginning and the end
My heart can’t seem to comprehend
My lips in vain try to explain
The One so grand and yet so plain”

Here, we focus on the incomprehensible majesty of God. The exalted Jesus calls himself the beginning and the end in Revelation 22:13. The next two lines lament the impossibility of fully understanding or describing God. Biblical authors sometimes use the word “unsearchable” to express this attribute of God (Ps. 145:3, Rom. 11:33). I like the line “so grand and yet so plain” because it feels like a fresh expression of the paradox of Jesus’ being exalted in humbling himself on a cross (Phil. 2:6-9). It also brings to mind the Suffering Servant from Isaiah 53, who, though exalted, “had no form or majesty that we should look at him.”

CHORUS
“He is the Lion He is the Lamb
He is all God yet He is all man
He is the Way the Light and the Truth
He is for me and He is for you
He is with us
He is Jesus”

Jesus is both the conquering lion and the slain lamb in Revelation 5:5-6. He is identified as God in Titus 2:13 and a human being with real flesh in 1 John 4:2. He calls himself the way, the truth, and the life in John 14:6. Zack changes “life” to “light,” but that’s fine with me since Jesus also calls himself the light of the world in John 8:12.

Bonus points for putting a clear statement of the doctrine of hypostatic union in a worship song! In all seriousness, this is an important mystery of our faith that we don’t sing about often enough. Jesus is fully God and fully man. For more exploration of this essential point of Christology, check out this article from Matt Perman at Desiring God. (Warning! Your brain may hurt a little afterward.)

“He is for me and He is for you” could be interpreted two ways. It could mean, “Jesus is for everyone,” echoing Paul’s words in 1 Timothy 4:10, that God is the “Savior of all people, especially those who believe.” So this Jesus that we’ve been singing about isn’t just for some people, he’s for anyone who chooses to believe. I think this is the most likely meaning and what most people will take from the song. The other possibility is that it means “Jesus is for you,” in the sense of being on your side (Romans 8:31). In this case, we need to remember that Jesus is not for you if you choose not to believe in him. In doing so, you make yourself his enemy (Phil. 3:17-19). It’s also important to note that God being for us means his Spirit is on our side in the fight against evil, both within ourselves and in the world (Romans 8), not that he is going to make my sports team win or help me defeat my rival for a promotion at work.

And of course, Jesus promises to be with us, especially as we carry out his work of discipling others and teaching them to know and follow him (Matt. 28:19-20).

VERSE 2

“My spirit leaps when I proclaim
The simple sound of Jesus’ name
We’ll shout the name that demons fear
And we won’t stop til the streets can hear”

Believing in Jesus should absolutely make our spirits leap for joy (1 Peter 1:8). Demons shudder with fear in response to that same belief (James 2:19). The line about not stopping until the streets can hear is either a description of evangelism (Mark 16:15) or just a really loud worship service (Psalm 150). I approve of both.

BRIDGE

“The hands that formed woodlands
Were pinned to a tree
Hell shouted in victory
Heaven said Wait and see
Cause our Lord is a warrior
With a comeback so fierce
He’ll reign as Prince of Peace
And the Lamb who was pierced
I am both at home
And in awe
Of the One who builds up faith
And tears down walls
Every saint and sinner
Will one day declare
That the stone was rolled away
And His body’s not there”

Lots of Scripture references in the bridge! First, Jesus is described as forming woodlands, something he certainly did, since they exist, and he created all things (Col. 1:16). The next line reminds us that one of those trees he created was used to make the cross on which he died.

Heaven and Hell are personified as having a little argument here. I’m not aware of any Bible passage that describes what exactly the forces of evil did when Jesus died, but from an earthly perspective, it would certainly have seemed like darkness had won. And God certainly knew what was coming next!

God is a warrior who saves (Zeph. 3:17); Jesus is our Prince of Peace (Isa. 9:6) and the Lamb of God who takes away our sins (John 1:29). “I am both at home and in awe” is a unique lyric. I like how it juxtaposes the comfort of feeling truly at home (2 Cor. 5:8) with the more jarring sensation of awe at God’s power and holiness. Jesus is the author and perfecter of our faith (Heb. 12:2), and he tears down the walls of hostility that divide us from each other and from God (Eph. 2:14).

If we’re going to be real pedantic, Philippians 2:10-11 just says that every knee will bow at the name of Jesus and that every tongue will confess that he is Lord. Nothing about the empty tomb. However, Paul says this in the context of Jesus being exalted through his death on the cross, and his resurrection is a necessary part of that. So I think this is a fair poetic extrapolation from the text.

CHORUS 2

“He is the Lion He is the Lamb
He is all God yet He is all man
He is the Way the Light and the Truth
He is for me and He is for you
He is the Rock He is the Door
He is right now
And he’s forevermore
He is Creator
Of all time and space
He’s in the quiet
And he’s in this place
He is with us
He is Jesus”

This final chorus repeats everything from the first chorus and adds a few more statements about who Jesus is. Jesus is the rock on which we can build our lives (Matt. 7:24-27), and the rock of our salvation and provision (Deut. 32:15). Jesus calls himself the door of the sheepfold in John 10:1-10; this is another way of saying that he is the only way to abundant, eternal life. We already talked about Jesus being the eternal creator of everything.

God appears to Elijah in a quiet whisper (1 Kings 19:11-13), and Jesus encourages his followers to seek him in quiet solitude (Matt. 6:6). Yet he is also enthroned on the praise of his people (Ps. 22:3), which can be quite loud, especially since we’ve already been encouraged to sing so that the streets can hear.

Accessibility

By and large, this song is easy to understand. An inexperienced churchgoer might not get what it means that Jesus is the door, or that he’s all God and also all man, but these truths are presented plainly, not hidden behind insider language or obscure Old Testament references. We talked a little about how the idea of God being “for us” can be easily misunderstood, but I don’t think this song misapplies the phrase.

I expect congregations to latch onto the choruses of this song immediately. The verses and the bridge will be a little trickier for them to learn. Zack’s easy-to-sing-with baritone voice is also a nice change of pace from the tenor-dominated worship genre that usually has us straining to sing the high notes with Chris Tomlin or Brandon Lake. This is a worship song that I won’t have to transpose, hooray!

Music

“He Is Jesus” starts off with a bright intro and a catchy lead that shouldn’t be too hard for your keyboard player to pick up. We drop down for a first verse that is all acoustic down strums and sparse piano notes and then launch into the punchy first chorus. We come down a little for verse 2, but keep a drum groove going and don’t lose much energy before going back into a repetition of chorus 1. After the chorus we revisit the instrumental hook but with some background “oh-oh-oh”s. Adding the shouts of “Jesus” here is a nice touch. We bring it down for the bridge and then build up with toms, like you would expect. The chorus is longer now with extra words that follow the same rhythmic pattern. The outro is high-energy and features the same lead hook with the vocals.

If you’re doing this song in church, I would encourage having your backup vocalists mimic the BGVs in the recording closely. I think the way the vocals add meaning and emotion to the instrumentals and help build excitement on the bridge is really cool! As a keyboard player, I also find the use of piano the song tasteful and fun to play. (It’s easy to go overboard with piano in a worship song.) The instrumental parts of this song seem to be at a good difficulty level for a normal church worship band.

Conclusions

One thing I haven’t mentioned yet is that this song uses a lot of little couplets of “rhyming ideas” much like the books of Proverbs and Psalms. Some of these idea pairs reinforce each other (he is the rock; he is the door), but most of them are opposite statements that are both true of Jesus (beginning and end, lion and lamb). I think it’s healthy for us to be reminded that God contains a lot of mystery and paradox, and that when our lips try to fully explain him, we will always fall short.

Will “He Is Jesus” worship? One hundred percent.

The lyrics are biblical, insightful, and original. The choruses are easy to learn and the range is reasonable. I also think this song carves out a niche for itself by describing the identity of Jesus in a fresh way. It doesn’t feel like it would be redundant with the songs my church is already singing.

Great work Zack; looking forward to hearing more!

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.