Author: Jason Henry

WE PRAISE YOU – Brandon Lake, Matt Redman, Bethel Music

/ Jason Henry / Leave a comment

Image by Reuben Mcfeeters from Unsplash

I’ve really enjoyed this song by legendary worship songwriters Brandon Lake, Brian Johnson, Matt Redman, and Phil Wickham. It’s an exciting, empowering, uplifting call to worship that we’ve been singing with our congregation for months. But as I’ve been digging into what songs mean, and what we think they mean when we sing them, this song’s chorus has started to bother me. Will we really see God break down every wall? And does praising God really do all the things this song says it does? Is “We Praise You” biblical? Take a look with me.

Focus

“We Praise You” is directed at God, and uses “we” language, so it’s designed to be an expression of a congregation’s praise to God, not just an individual. The focus of the song is on praising God and what happens when we praise. In the chorus we get a little explanation for why God deserves that praise; in this song, it’s mostly because he overcomes obstacles.

Lyric Analysis

VERSE 1
In this verse, we ask God to make our praise into a weapon that silences the enemy and conquers all anxiety. Praise is used to fight literal battles in the Old Testament (2 Chron. 20:22, potentially Exodus 17:11) and spiritual ones in the New Testament. It’s hard to find word-for-word examples, aside from maybe Paul and Silas’ musical prison break (Acts 16:25-26), but in Ephesians 6:17-18, Paul talks about a sword that is connected to the word of God, the Holy Spirit, and prayer. Those three things come together when we praise God in Bible-based song. Our enemy the devil flees when we resist him (James 4:7), and Paul’s answer to anxiety sounds a lot like praise (Phil. 4:6).

I’m having trouble finding anywhere in the Bible that depicts praises actually rising (Comment any examples you know of!), but it’s not much of a stretch, since God is envisioned on a high and exalted throne, (Ps. 7:7) so anything that we offer him would have to arise in some sense. This could also be connected to the idea of incense and its pleasant smell rising up before God, which is an image used to describe our prayers in Revelation 5:8. I think the “let it rise” line is meant to depict our praise as growing and getting stronger and louder as much as anything else.

VERSE 2
For singing God’s name in the dark, see Acts 16 again, and numerous Psalms. It doesn’t always change everything in the sense of changing our circumstances, but it changes everything in the way we perceive our circumstances.

Singing with all we are could be a shallow exhortation to put our whole physical effort into singing or a description of the kind of life of worship that Paul calls being a living sacrifice (Rom 12:1). I appreciate that when we claim victory here, it’s God’s victory. He doesn’t need our praise weapons to win a fight that he’s already completely won (Col 2:15). So our fighting and singing are just an outgrowth of his victory.

CHORUS
“We’ll see You break down every wall // We’ll watch the giants fall”

Here we go. Every wall? There are plenty of figurative walls and giants in my life that God isn’t going to topple. He doesn’t promise to break down the wall between you and your next promotion, slay the giant of cancer in your life, or even necessarily break through to your wayward daughter, brother, or spouse. God can and does break through a lot of those barriers. He still heals, provides, and mends relationships. I just object to the use of the word “every” because I think it creates a big opportunity for misunderstanding and misapplication, and then someone may well feel that they’ve been lied to by God or the church when a loved one dies of an illness or some other tragedy occurs in their life.

If we take this verse in a purely eschatological sense, it becomes more accurate. None of those walls and giants will exist in eternity in God’s presence, so maybe that’s what the authors intend? Sadly, taking the song this way detracts from the exciting immediacy of the lyrics. “We’ll see you” and “we’ll watch” sound like descriptions of things that will happen here on earth in our lifetime.

When we sang this song in church recently, I reframed the chorus to the congregation a little bit, pointing to the barriers that sin builds in our lives to separate us from God (Isa. 59:2) and the walls of hostility between us and other people (Eph. 2:14-15), and talked about how these walls can keep us from praising God and hearing from him. I emphasized that those are the walls God is promising to break down this morning. I’m not sure if that’s what the authors intended, but it made the song singable and meaningful for me.

Regarding the line, “Fear cannot survive when we praise you,” it’s important to remember that the Bible talks about fear in two different ways. The first is awe and reverence before a holy and all-powerful God who holds our lives in his hands. The second is fear of man, or fear of trouble in this life. Luke 12:4-5 mentions both types. We are to fear God and not man. I think this song is clearly referring to this second type of fear, not saying we shouldn’t fear God. It’s clear from Scripture that God’s presence, his power, and his love drive out fear. If praise brings those things to light, it follows that it too would serve to powerfully combat unhealthy fear.

INTERLUDE
Some people don’t like ohs. I don’t mind them. Here they’re basically just part of the instrumental. The ohs also add emphasis to the words sandwiched between them: “we praise You.”

VERSE 3

Peter walked with Jesus on rough waters until he let his fear overwhelm his faith (Matt. 14:22-33. This line is praying for a faith that doesn’t falter in the face of fear. Trusting in the Lord also gives us the kind of peace that calms our inner storms (Isa. 26-3-4).

BRIDGE 1
What is real living and freedom? What does heaven sound like? This! But what is “this?” Is it this song? This worship service? Praising God?

My best understanding is that “this” refers to the act of praising God. By extension, it is encompassing the worship service in which the song is being sung, declaring that our worship gatherings are a foretaste of our afterlife with Jesus. That should be true, but it isn’t always. This bridge challenges me to make sure that my church is a place that paints a picture of what kingdom life should be like. No one wants to sing “this is what heaven sounds like” if what they hear at church is judgment, legalism, politics, cliques, or materialism.

BRIDGE 2
“I can’t hold back my praise // I gotta let it out!” (x10)
The extensive repetition of this bridge offers some time to meditate on a related quote from C. S. Lewis, who agreed that Christians who really delight in God simply can’t hold back their praise.

“We delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed.”

Accessibility

Most of the song is simple. It’s easy to sing and learn, and it’s an energetic introduction to the idea of praising God. Someone uninitiated might not understand where some of the references come from, but they make clear enough metaphors that the newcomer will still get the gist of what is being said. (Everyone knows what it means to watch a giant fall, even if they’ve never read 1 Samuel.)

My concerns, as explained above, are that a new-or-not-yet-believer will not understand what kind of walls God does and does not promise to break down, and that they will not understand what is meant by “this” in the first bridge.

Music

This song has excellent opener energy. It starts out with an exciting drums-and-guitar intro before dipping down into a more-chill-but-still-driving verse and then launching into the chorus. The little instrument dropout before each chorus is a really effective way to give an extra explosion of energy. The bridge drops down abruptly in typical worship song fashion, but then takes another step down to kick-drum-only before starting to build up again, which is fun and slightly different. The we do the big chorus two more times and wind it up with the catchy oh-oh-oh part. And then the song ends.

But wait, there’s more!

That’s where we always end the song in church, but it’s actually a fake-out ending. Brandon starts into a secondary quasi-improvised bridge which builds through several (maybe 8? or 30?) repetitions into another bridge 1 and then the chorus. This part of the song isn’t bad, but it takes it to 7 minutes long, and I think it would get tiresome if you did it that way every time. In my opinion, it’s better to kill it at the first ending 90% of the time and maybe do the elongated version once in a while to spice things up.

Chords and drum parts aren’t too tricky. Just make sure you nail the dropouts and keep the energy up on all the choruses, and watch the odd rhythmic groove on the bridges. This song definitely benefits from the use of a multitrack for those fun background synth sounds and extra electric guitars. I hope your bass player likes 16th notes! Melody is easy to pick up but it stays up pretty high during the chorus so I typically transpose the whole song down a few steps.

Conclusions

Will it worship? Maybe.

I still like this song, but I’m not sure if we’ll continue singing it in church. If we do, it will be with some explaining. I just think the chorus is too vague and the bridge too ambiguous to present them to a congregation without additional context.

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.

MY JESUS – Anne Wilson

/ Jason Henry / Leave a comment

Image by Priscilla Du Preez from Unsplash

I’m not a country music guy. This is a country worship song. But I dig it.

Anne Wilson, Jeff Pardo, and Matthew West have crafted a personal, engaging anthem of the power of Jesus in the life of the believer. At a first listen, all my questions are grammatical, not theological, so if you can’t handle singing “ain’t” in church, go ahead and stop reading now! If you’re still with me, let’s see what “My Jesus” is all about.

Focus

No question here. This song is very clearly about Jesus, what he’s done in my life, and what he can do to change yours.

Lyric Analysis

Before we get into specific lyrics, I want to address who this is song addressed to. It’s not being sung to Jesus, but about him, to an unspecified person. A congregant might hear the words as though they are addressed to them, or sing them with a particular friend in mind. Shouldn’t we be singing to God in church, not to other people? That’s not what Paul says.

One of my favorite verses in the Bible is Ephesians 5:19, “addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart.” Do we sing to God when we come together? Absolutely. But we also have a duty to sing to one another. Part of the purpose of our songs is to build one another up as believers. Additionally, the Psalms are full of words addressed to God (Ps. 4:10), words addressed to people (Ps. 148:11-12), and even words addressed to angelic beings and inanimate natural objects (Ps. 148:2-3). So singing to someone else about Jesus is an appropriate liturgical activity.

I could also see where some people might not like the title, which is repeated twelve times through the song. Putting the word “my” in front of something could be interpreted as exercising ownership or control over it. I want to worship the real Jesus, not just my version of him that suits all my own preferences. But this song isn’t about controlling Jesus; it’s about living in a covenantal, marriage-like relationship with him that leads us to say “My Lord and my God,” with Thomas in John 28:20 and even “I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine,” with the woman in Song of Solomon 6:3.

VERSE 1
“Is it all too much to carry? // Let me tell you ’bout my Jesus”

Both verses follow a pattern of questions addressed to a struggling friend followed by the refrain “let me tell you ’bout my Jesus.” In verse 1, the implication is that if your answer to any of these questions is “yes,” then you need to hear about Jesus.

Is Jesus the answer to a weary soul carrying burdens that are too heavy? Yes, he offers rest and a lighter burden (Matt. 11:29-30). If you’re feeling empty, God is the one who can satisfy you (Isa. 55:1-2). Jesus saves us from shame (Rom. 10:11) and offers healin’ (Matt. 8:16-17). Just remember that we’re not promised healing from every mental or physical ailment until our resurrection (2 Cor. 12:7, Rev. 21:4).

CHORUS
“He can do for you what He’s done for me // Let me tell you ’bout my Jesus”

We get to talk about verb tenses! Yay!

The chorus is all written in present tense, so the first couple lines feel a little odd. Jesus already made a way and already rose, didn’t he? But the writing here isn’t verb tense confusion, it’s using the historical present tense, describing past events in present language to give them more immediacy. There’s an interesting (to me, anyway…) article on it here.

God makes a way where there ain’t no way all throughout Scripture (Isa. 43:19). The parting of the Red Sea, David and Goliath, Ezra and Nehemiah’s reconstruction efforts, all of it ultimately points to Jesus making a way for us to be united to God when we were totally alienated from him (Eph. 2:4-6).

He rises from an empty grave in Matthew 28:6. He saves even the worst of sinners in 1 Timothy 1:15. Jesus’ love is so strong, it’s unstoppable (Rom. 8:39), and he saves us by the free gift of his grace (Eph. 1:6).

The line “He can do for you what he’s done for me” shouldn’t be applied to specific, physical blessings, since God provides for each of us differently (my new car isn’t proof that you’re going to get a new car). Applied more generally, it is saying that he saved me and changed my life, and he absolutely can and will do the same for you. If being made a new creation isn’t life change, I don’t know what is (2 Cor. 5:17).

TAG

“Hallel” is a Hebrew word meaning to praise joyfully with song, and “Jah” is a shortened form of the name of Israel’s God. So “Hallelujah” is a command to sing praise to Yahweh. We commonly use it today as an expression of praise in and of itself.

“Amen” is a word used throughout the Old and New Testaments, often at the end of a prayer, that emphasizes and affirms that what has just been said is true. In this particular song, make sure you say “ay-men” instead of “ah-men,” or you’ll sound silly.

VERSE 2
“Who can wipe away the tears // From broken dreams and wasted years?”

The next two verses ask “who” questions, and the answer is always Jesus. Wiping away tears is a form of comfort, and Jesus comforts us in affliction (2 Cor 1:3-4). Telling the past to disappear seems like a poetic shorthand for removing our past transgressions, which God does (Ps. 103:12), and also alludes again to the idea that we are new creations. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

The next lines say that Jesus can take even our past regrets and mistakes and work them together to our good. In Romans 8:28, Paul says that God does just that, working all things together for our good if we love him and are called according to his purpose. So in singing this song to somebody who needs to know Jesus, we’re saying that that’s what’s going to happen once they meet him.

VERSE 3
“Who would take my cross to Calvary? // Pay the price for all my guilty?”

Calling the cross of Christ my cross is a way of taking ownership of the sins for which Jesus died. Paying the price for “all my guilty” is an awkward phrase, but I think the authors are using the word “guilty” as a collective noun to describe everything I’ve done wrong, all the things over which a judge might declare, “guilty.” Jesus paid the price for that. One of the clearest Biblical descriptions of this idea, called the substitutionary atonement, is in Isaiah 53:4-6.

“Surely he has borne our griefs
    and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
    smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions;
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
    and with his wounds we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
    we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.”

Notice how many times Isaiah says “our.” Jesus must care very deeply about us to be willing to take on so much suffering and punishment that rightfully belonged to us.

Accessibility

This song is clear, uplifting, and easy to grab hold of. It sings the name of Jesus twelve times, so there’s no mistaking who it’s about. It offers plenty of concrete truths about God and what he does in the life of the believer, and provides two overt calls to action. I don’t see much opportunity for anyone to get the wrong message from this song.

Music

The instrumentation and vocal style of Anne Wilson’s recording are very country, and the chord structure and dynamic arc are very “worship music.” The melody is simple and repetitive and should be easy for a congregation to learn. The repeated line “let me tell you ’bout my Jesus,” is a good entry point for someone hearing it for the first time. I don’t hear anything especially challenging in the instrumental parts either. I do really enjoy the uplifting tone of the whole song and how it draws the listener in. I’ve also found that it gets stuck in my head easily.

Conclusions

Will it worship? Yes.

This song is like a life saver at the end of a rope, tossed out for a lost, hopeless soul to cling onto. The twin invitations, “Let me tell you ’bout my Jesus,” and, “Let my Jesus change your life,” are clear, evangelistic offers of relationship, both with Jesus and the person singing the song. I think it would work well at the beginning of a service, as a celebration of God’s life-changing power in our lives, or at the end of a service as a reminder to share the life-saving good news of Jesus with our friends and neighbors who desperately need him.

Two thumbs up.

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.

BELIEVE FOR IT – CeCe Winans, Lauren Daigle

/ Jason Henry / Leave a comment

Image by Marc Thunis from Unsplash

“Believe for It,” written by CeCe Winans, Dwan Hill, Kyle Lee, and Mitch Wong, is the title track from Winans’ early 2021 live album. It came to my attention when a new version came out this month featuring Lauren Daigle, and K-Love lists the original live recording as one of their top songs right now. I have enjoyed and worshiped to songs from both Grammy-winning artists before, so let’s see how the words of “Believe for It” measure up to Scripture.

Focus

There are two. The first is an unspecified obstacle, described as unmovable and unbreakable. The second (and more significant) is God’s power, as the singer trusts him to overcome the obstacle.

Lyric Analysis

VERSE 1
Jesus tells us that faith can move mountains three times in the Gospels (Matt. 17:20, 21:21, Mark 11:23) and Paul references mountain-moving faith in 1 Corinthians 13:2, calling it worthless without love. No one ever moves a literal mountain into the sea in the Bible, so I think it’s safe to see these statements as metaphorical language for God’s power through faith. Winans is also speaking metaphorically. She’s concerned with some oppressive, seemingly unchangeable circumstance in the listener’s life, not geography.

This same obstacle is described as chains and an unchanging tide. Jesus says he came to give liberty to the captives and the oppressed in Luke 4:18. While God has certainly broken literal chains, such as when he freed Paul and Silas from jail in Acts 16, I believe the primary sense in which Jesus liberates us is from the spiritual forces of sin and darkness. In John 8:32-34, he says, “‘You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’ They answered him, ‘We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, “You will become free?'” Jesus answered them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.'”

CHORUS
“From the impossible
We’ll see a miracle
God, we believe
God, we believe for it”

What I like about the chorus, and the rest of this song, is that it extols God’s power. Nothing is immovable or unbreakable to him (see Ps. 29) Luke 1:37, referring to the upcoming miraculous births of John and Jesus, says “For nothing will be impossible with God.”

What I don’t like is that this song lets each listener decide what they are believing for. Whatever obstacle comes to your mind in verse 1 when you sing about unmoving mountains and unbreakable chains is likely what you’re going to be singing about in the chorus and bridge. Is it cancer? Financial strain or poverty? A sin addiction? A broken marriage? An abusive situation? There’s a big difference between believing God is able to fix something and believing that he will. Of course, we will ultimately be rescued from all of those things, but Scripture doesn’t promise that we will experience that rescue in this life. Jesus promises that he will work wonders through our faith in him (Matt. 17:20, John 14:12), but he also promises that we will experience persecution (John 15:20) and trouble, but can find peace in the midst of it because of his victory. (John 16:33). Paul tells us that reliance on God is how we find contentedness in prosperity and poverty, not how we get from one to the other (Philippians 4:11-13). While these lyrics don’t necessarily contradict Scripture, I think they are too open to misapplication.

VERSE 2

Our hope can never be lost because it is laid up for us in heaven (Col. 1:5). Jesus’ grave is empty because he rose from the dead, and we get to share in that resurrection (Matt. 28:6, Rom. 6:5). We should absolutely believe that there is power in the name of Jesus; this is the witness of the whole New Testament. Just do a Bible Gateway search on “Name of Jesus.” Demons are cast out and people are healed in his name (Acts 3:6, 16:18), we are baptized and sanctified in his name (Acts 2:38, 1 Cor 6:11), and every knee will one day bow at his name (Phil. 2:10).

BRIDGE 1

Jesus is the way in John 14:6. Verse 17 clarifies that this means he is the way to the Father, and there is no other way apart from him. The whole Bible is full of reasons to trust in God. Saying he has the “final say” refers to either his final victory and judgment, which will come by his powerful word (2 Peter 3:7) or his total sovereignty over the world, and by extension our circumstances (Psalm 22:28, Romans 8:28).

BRIDGE 2
“You said it, I believe it
You said it, it is done”

We should absolutely believe everything God has promised (Josh. 21:45). But we’d better be sure that when we say we’re believing for something because he said so, we’re believing in something that he’s actually promised in Scripture, not just something that we really, really want. We also need to make sure that we’re trusting God to fulfill his promises according to his timetable, not ours. Many of God’s promises to Israel didn’t find their ultimate fulfillment until the coming of Christ (Heb. 11:13), and others will not be fulfilled until he returns (2 Peter 3:8). So let’s be careful not to believe for “it” unless “it” is something that God has actually said.

Accessibility

I don’t think anyone would have difficulty grasping the meaning of this song. The metaphors are clear, and the words of the chorus and bridge are simple and repetitive. My concern is that anyone not thoroughly grounded in what God does and does not promise in Scripture is likely to sing this song with incorrect assumptions about what we should believe for.

Music

I’m a sucker for a good chord progression with changes on beat 4 leading into the next chords on beat 1, and this song has that. I also really enjoy the drum groove, which is classic and propels the song forward while the melody soars heavenward. That same melody is very repetitive and learnable. I don’t think this song would be difficult for worship teams to learn. The most challenging part would be achieving the gospel styling of the backing vocals and the ad-libbing of the lead singer. Winans utilizes both to powerful and moving effect. Of course she does; she’s a legend.

Conclusions

In an article about this song on K-Love’s website, Lindsay Williams quotes CeCe Winans as saying, “The song challenges people to not brush off your dreams; don’t give up or give in, but it’s time to believe that you can make it. Believe that you can achieve what’s in your heart. It’s time to believe for wholeness and healing for yourself, your family, and your community. It’s time to believe for unity.” Those aspirations are all good, and most are even Biblical. But the idea of following your dreams and achieving whatever is in your heart is not based on the truth of Scripture.

It’s an inspiring song, but I have to pass on it. The belief that is at the crux of the chorus never finds a concrete promise of God to stand on, so the listener is left to supply their own meaning, which could be anything. That’s dangerous and veers uncomfortably close to Word of Faith teaching and the Prosperity Gospel. What we should believe for is the return of Christ, when he will fully and finally reconcile all creation to himself, and the working of his Kingdom in and through us now, which rarely happens the way we expect it to.

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.

THANK YOU JESUS FOR THE BLOOD – Charity Gayle

/ Jason Henry / 4 Comments
white feathers

Image by Evie S. on Unsplash

A worship team member suggested this song to me recently, and the more I listen to it, the more I am moved to gratitude and worship. Jesus has done so, so much for me with his sacrificial death and this song paints that picture beautifully. But is this song scriptural, and is it suitable for congregational worship? Looking into those questions sent me on a deep dive into the use of blood in Scripture, specifically how the blood of Jesus is described in the New Testament. Here’s what I’ve found so far.

Focus

This song is centered on the atoning work of Jesus, specifically through his blood. It thoroughly acknowledges our sin and the separation from God that results, and how the blood of the Lamb frees us, saves us, washes us, and transforms us into ransomed sons and daughters of our Father.

Lyric Analysis

VERSE 1
1-2: Who likes being called a wretch? Nobody. But that’s how Paul describes himself in Romans 7:24. Bible Hub says that the Greek word used there means distressed, miserable, or beaten down by hardship. Certainly an accurate description of our pre-Christ predicament, and even of our continual struggling with sin after conversion, which is what Paul is talking about in Romans 7.

3-4: Luke uses the word “lost” frequently to describe people who are far from God (Luke 15:6, 15:24, 19:10), and to emphasize Jesus’ pursuit of these lost sheep. According to other New Testament passages, Satan blinds unbelievers to keep them from seeing the truth of the Gospel and finding healing in Jesus (John 12:40, 2 Cor. 4:4, 1 John 2:11). The foolish virgins in Matthew 25 ran out of time and missed out on the wedding banquet.

5, 8: Isaiah 59:2 says, “your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.” But even when we were far from God, dead in our sin, he still loved us, or “held me in your sight,” as the song says (Eph. 2:4-5).

6-7, 8-9: In the parable of The Rich Man and Lazarus, Jesus describes paradise and Hades as being separated by a wide chasm (Luke 16:26). There is a huge, uncrossable gulf between the place of God’s mercy and the place of torment where selfish sinners end up. This is the kind of great divide that Jesus crosses in order to come to us.

11: As far as I can tell, Jesus is never specifically depicted as leaving his throne in Scripture, and some people object to the phrase for that reason. But I think it’s a good poetic image of the sacrifice he made in humbling himself, taking human form, and suffering on the cross (Phil 2:5-8, John 1:14). Being born in a feeding trough is kind of the opposite of reigning from a throne, isn’t it?

12: Jesus is building heaven (…or his throne? It’s unclear exactly which one “it” is referring to.) here inside. Presumably inside me, or inside us. This seems to refer to the internal transformation that comes with belonging to the Kingdom of God. I wonder if it’s also a reference to the inaccurate-but-well-known KJV translation of Luke 17:21, “the kingdom of God is within you.” It should read (and does in nearly every other translation), “The kingdom of God is in the midst of you.” Still, an aspect of Kingdom-building certainly takes place inside us, particular the transformative work of the Spirit. I don’t think there’s a big issue with this line, as long as we don’t think that the Kingdom is only being built inside us. It’s also being built around and through us.

13-14: Jesus himself is the propitiation for our sins, that is an offering to appease an offended party. We’ve offended God with our sin; and Jesus fixes that debt for us (1 John 2:2).

15: Jesus has freed us from bondage to sin (Gal. 5:1, Rom. 6:22).

16: We have no real hope until the blood of Christ brings us near to him (Eph. 2:12-13).

CHORUS
1: Thanking Jesus for his blood is an obvious and appropriate response to his sacrificial death. But the singer thanks him for “the blood applied.” What is the blood applied to? The song’s outro gives the answer, quoting from the hymn “Glory to His Name,” where it says the blood is applied to my heart. But is that idea scriptural?

When I think of applying blood, the first Biblical example that comes to mind is the sprinkling of blood on the mercy seat or atonement cover that was part of the Ark of the Covenant. This is where the high priest would sprinkle the blood of a bull on the Day of Atonement to cover over Israel’s sin. (Lev. 16:14-15). The book of Hebrews in the New Testament also refers to the mercy seat in chapter 9, and this is where I think we find the biblical basis for this song. Following a description of the earthly tabernacle furnishings and how they must be repeatedly purified with blood from sacrifices, the author says,

“But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.”

Hebrews 9:11-14

So Jesus’ blood purifies our conscience. The conscience is our ability to distinguish between good and bad, which is an integral part of who we are and one of the primary things broken by the Fall. I think heart is a fair synonym for that. I also think it’s worth noting that the author of Hebrews uses corporate language here; Jesus isn’t just purifying my heart in isolation, but our heart as the Church, his collective bride. (If you are interested in learning more about the idea of sacrifice and how it makes atonement and purification, the Bible Project has a great video on the topic that you can watch here.)

2: The color white, especially with regard to white clothing, is used all through the Bible to signify purity. The exalted Jesus wears white (Matt. 17:2), and so do his angels (John 20:12) and the saints in heaven (Rev. 7:9). In the Old Testament, prophets like Isaiah look forward to the day when God will wash his people white from their crimson sins (Isaiah 1:18).

3: Jesus has not only saved our life, but he holds our life safe with him, and he is our life (Col. 3:3-4).

4: The darkness is our enslavement to sin and the forces of evil; Jesus redeems us from that and gives us status as citizens in his Kingdom of marvelous light (Col. 1:13, 1 Peter 2:9).

VERSE 2
1-2: 1 Peter 2:24 says, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.” If the sins were ours, then it stands to reason that the cross and the tomb were ours, representing the fate we were headed for until Jesus took those sins on our behalf.

3-4: Jesus was indeed buried for three days. The walking part is assumed. He could have run or skipped, I guess?

5: Death loses its sting in 1 Corinthians 15:55.

6: John 3:16. Eternal life. Boom.

7-8: Much of the New Testament details what it means to live a transformed life. Romans 1:1-2 states it most clearly. Because of Jesus’ sacrifice for our sin, we get to be living sacrifices to God and he is constantly transforming us and renewing us.

BRIDGE

1-3: If blood represents life, then Jesus’ blood is certainly the strongest life force imaginable (Gen. 9:4, Heb. 7:16). We’ve already detailed some of the wonders that his blood accomplishes. This line is also a reference to the hymn “There is Power in the Blood” by Lewis Edgar Jones.

4-6: Jesus’ work on the cross redeems us as his sons (and daughters by extension) in Galatians 4:4-6.

OUTRO
This is the chorus from the well-known hymn “Glory to His Name,” by Elisha A. Hoffman. And it is, of course, fitting to glorify the name of Jesus (Hebrews 2:9)

Accessibility

This song does not beat around the bush regarding Jesus’ sacrificial death. It cries out “the blood!” four times in the climax of the bridge. It also does not shy away from our culpability in our own sin, and the death that we deserved and would have received apart from Jesus. These ideas are offensive to the non-Christian and jarring to those believers who have grown complacent in their faith. I also doubt this song would play well in churches that emphasize the Christus Victor aspect of Jesus’ death and resurrection and downplay the aspect of substitutionary atonement.

While this song references a lot of Scripture and covers a wide range of theological topics, I think it states its ideas clearly and passionately through word pictures that are accessible even to someone who’s never read the Bible. People unfamiliar with the Gospel will get a clear picture that we believe in a glorious, many-faceted salvation that Jesus bought for us with his blood.

Music

Musically, you could do this song in just about any church. The recording leans on piano and organ for the first half, and then adds punch and dynamic range with the drums and bass, but it would work great with only a single instrument, whether that’s a piano or an acoustic guitar. Its simple gospel style is powerful and playable. While the melody is a little tricky at first, it repeats enough that your congregation will pick it up quickly. The refrain of “Thank you, Jesus,” in the chorus is a good entry point even if that’s the only line someone sings in the whole song.

EDIT: After doing this song on Sunday, I have concluded that the music is deceptively simple. Listening to it, you think it’s easy, but then when you go to play it, you discover just how many chord changes there are and how many little idiosyncrasies there are in the melody of the verses, and how rangy this song is. I still think your band can play it, but make sure your keyboard player and your lead vocalist have plenty of time to learn it before you rehearse.

Conclusions

While I was a little hesitant at first about this song’s blatant emphasis and celebration of the blood of Jesus, I am completely won over. It is likely to offend some people, but that’s exactly what Paul says will happen when you proclaim the Gospel, “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (1 Cor. 1:18) There is such a wealth of Christ-exalting truth in this song that I am certain I will be singing it in church for a long 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.

KING OF GLORY – Passion, Kristian Stanfill

/ Jason Henry / Leave a comment

Image by Robert Thiemann on Unsplash

Live from the Passion 2020 Conference, “King of Glory” is a peppy, encouraging call to worship. One of the high school students on my worship team recommended it to me, and I was immediately caught by the catchy instrumental hook, and then led to celebrate the power of God through the lyrics.

Focus

The clear focus here is the glory and saving power of God, followed by the awed praised that we and all creation bring as a response.

Lyric Analysis

VERSE 1
The writer addresses his soul, just like the psalmist in Psalm 42:5. Also like the psalmist, the answer to his discouragement is the hope and praise that result from God’s power and salvation.

VERSE 2
We can have peace even in life’s storms because Jesus is Lord over all of it. (Mark 4:35-41, John 14:27, John 16:33)

CHORUS
The chorus draws heavily on Psalm 24. In fact, the title “King of Glory” seems to me to be unique in Scripture to this Psalm. The Hebrew word for glory here is kabowd which has a range of meanings including abundance, riches, splendor, and honor. Kabowd is used to describe both people and God in the Old Testament. Whatever impressive things are included in its meaning, we can be confident that God exceeds all of it in splendor and is king over it all. The psalmist applies the title to Yahweh, Israel’s God, and the New Testament clearly teaches us that Jesus is that same God, so it is fitting to identify Jesus as the King of Glory (John 8:58, Philippians 2:6).
The next two lines allude to the same Psalm, where God is described as Israel’s savior, and strong and mighty in battle.
“Freedom is in his name,” doesn’t come specifically from Psalm 24, but it’s not an alien idea either. For the Israelite, freedom from the captivity in Egypt was the archetypal example of God’s saving power. In the New Testament, we see that our primary freedom in Christ is that we are set free from sin, death, corruption, and bondage to the spiritual forces of evil (Heb. 2:14-15, Rom. 8:2, Gal. 5:13). I think Psalm 24 even hints at this with its mention of vindication in verse 5.
“Open the gates of heaven” is pretty much from Psalm 24, though the gates there are more likely of Jerusalem, to allow the King into the city. I’m not particularly bothered by the inversion describing them as the gates of heaven, implying that God is coming out of his city to meet us rather than coming into ours. I think it’s the same idea.
Shouts of praise are everywhere in the Old Testament, especially in the Psalms.
The lion roaring here is obviously Jesus, the Lion of Judah (Rev. 5:5), not the devil (1 Peter 5:8). It’s interesting to me that lion symbolism throughout the Bible is split between good guys and bad guys. Lions are strong and deadly, equally able to tear you to bits or protect you from just about anyone who would harm you. Furthermore, Jesus’ title as the Lion of Judah refers back to Genesis 49:8-12, when Jacob blesses his son Judah with prophetic words about the Messiah who will come from his lineage.

VERSE 3
This verse is based on Psalm 121:1-2 with the added reminder that our help only comes from the Lord, and that we should stand in awe of him (Ps. 22:23, 33:8).

BRIDGE
Nations bow to God in Psalm 86:9, and everyone bows specifically at the name of Jesus in Philippians 2:10. Mountains quake before Yahweh in Nahum 1:5. Ephesians 1:20-21 says that Jesus is seated above every rule and authority and power and dominion; that sounds like reigning over all to me.

Accessibility

This song is clear and straightforward. Even unchurched people will be able to understand the declarations about Jesus being made here. I also like that this song specifically identifies Jesus as God, Lord, and King, worthy of praise and inspiring the awe of all creation.

Music

The dulcimer hook at the beginning is great, and I love the high-energy rubber-band arpeggiation in the background if you’ve got backing tracks. The drum beat is simple enough to emulate and keeps the song driving forward with excitement. The dynamic changes are swift, powerful, and attention-grabbing. I also like how the bass doubles the melody on the bridge. The instrumental channel from the bridge to the chorus provides a great opportunity to exhort your congregation.
The melody is easy and repetitive; congregations should have no trouble learning it.

Conclusions

Will it worship? Absolutely. We’re singing it this Sunday.
I think this song is best suited toward the beginning of your service, as it contains call-to-worship elements, and I always love starting our worship with some strong declarations about God’s character and power.

THINGS OF HEAVEN – Red Rocks Worship

/ Jason Henry / Leave a comment

Image by Jennifer Griffin on Unsplash

“Things of Heaven” is the title track from Red Rocks Worship’s newest EP. It grabbed my attention with its impassioned cry of “Here! Now!” and energized my spirit with its eager invitation for God to work in and through us to transform us into his Kingdom on earth.

Focus

This is a song about pursuing God’s presence and reign. We also envision ourselves on the brink of a new revival by the work of God’s Spirit.

Lyric Analysis

VERSE 1
We anticipate…something! Wind is an allusion to the work of the Holy Spirit, and also fits nicely with the other nature images of dawn and tides in this verse. References to mystery and “things unseen” (Heb. 11:1) remind us of our limited perspective. We don’t know exactly what God is going to do or how he is going to do it, but we trust that he is going to do some imminent work of revival. This verse places us right at the brink of something new happening.

PRE-CHORUS
“Holy Spirit, come // Hover over us”
Pretty standard invitation to the Spirit. The reference to hovering is a callback to Genesis 1:2 when the Spirit is hovering over the pre-creation waters. In my mind, this means acknowledging that I am not fully formed yet and asking the Spirit to continue creating me as he wills.
There is potential for confusion here. What good is it to ask an omnipresent God to come or go anywhere? Furthermore, the Holy Spirit already indwells every Christian. This kind of invitation is a poetic way of asking God to make the presence of his Spirit evident and to increase our awareness of it.

CHORUS
“Open the Heavens, fling wide the gates // Unleash Your presence, pour out Your grace // Show me Your glory, the power of Your love // Cause even a glimpse is more than enough for me“
Here we make several requests of God that amount to different poetic pleas to experience his presence.
The heavens open in a couple different ways in the Bible. In the Old Testament, it often means rain and, by extension, God’s blessings (Mal 3:10). In the New Testament, it’s usually a special glimpse of God himself, specifically in the glorified Jesus (Matt. 3:16, Acts 7:56, Rev 19:11). The lyrics here could be taken both ways, but I lean toward the second.
Opening gates to invite in the King of Glory comes from Psalm 24.
“Unleash your presence” clarifies the pre-chorus; we’re not just asking God to be present, which he already is, but for his presence to be unleashed, that is powerfully active, overwhelming, doing stuff. Exactly what stuff you expect him to do will vary widely by denomination.
We also ask to see and experience God’s grace, glory, and the power of his love. These pleas remind me of Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3:16-19, and I think they fit in the same vein.
Like the woman in Matthew 9:21, we long so deeply to experience God, that even a tiny fraction of his glory, power, love, and grace is more than sufficient for our joy and restoration.

VERSE 2
“You’re willing and able, You’re making a table // In front of me, before my enemies”
I’m very comfortable saying God is able to do anything he wants. I’m very cautious to assume his willingness to do a given thing unless he’s made it clear in Scripture. Applied only to this line, I think God is absolutely willing to prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies (Psalm 23:5). He will always provide for his sheep, no matter what frightening circumstances we face. The potential for error comes in the last line, where we say that he’s going to “do so much more than we’ve known before.” This idea is repeated throughout the whole song, so it’s important that we have the right idea about what it means for God to do something new.

BRIDGE
“We’re gonna see the things of Heaven // Here! Now!”
Dry bones are from Ezekiel 37 where the dead osseous matter represents the exiled people of Israel. God breathes his Spirit into them (with lots of wind imagery), and they are restored to life and given a land of their own. This is a classic image of revival that pops up in lots of worship songs. They don’t dance in Ezekiel, but it’s a reasonable poetic addition since dancing is all over the Old Testament as an expression of joyful worship. And what greater cause can there be for dancing than being resurrected from death?
The strongholds we fight against and which must bow in the face of God’s presence are “arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God” (2 Cor. 10:5).
The climax of this song is the last line of the bridge, and it’s also the line that takes the most unraveling. What are the “things of heaven,” and can we really expect/demand them here and now? This phrase appears to be absent from Scripture (“heavenly things” appears a few times, but I don’t think this song is talking about the tabernacle furnishings from Hebrews 9:23, or the concepts that Nicodemus isn’t ready for in John 3:12)
My best understanding is that this is a declaration of trust based on the Lord’s Prayer. The lyric, “we’re gonna see your kingdom power” seems to support this. It’s saying that when we pray, “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10), we can absolutely trust God to bring that about right here and right now. To what extent is an open question, and I don’t think the song is demanding all the things of heaven to be brought about immediately, but it is definitely only focused on the “already” aspect of “already/not yet.”

OUTRO
No new ideas here, just a couple lines about pouring out the Spirit and God doing something new. Some more wind. I wouldn’t include these lines when leading the song, since they’re more of a spontaneous coda. I might say my own prayer during the outro.

Accessibility

This song contains some Scriptural deep cuts that most people will miss (and that I didn’t even think about until I really dug in). That doesn’t bother me, as I believe new believers and non-believers will have no trouble grasping the main points of the song. I do think there are some lines that people could get hung up on, like the mysterious wind blowing in verse 1, or trying to figure out what the “things of heaven” are in the bridge. To alleviate this, I would definitely try to shed some light on one or two of these potentially confusing lines in my introduction to the song at church.
My main concern with this song is that people may not understand what is meant by “something new,” “new revival,” the changing tides, the breaking dawn, and “so much more than we’ve known before.” These lines allude to and emphasize a major, imminent change for the church, the exact nature of which is left open to interpretation. Some negative consequences of this could be an over-emphasis on end-times speculation, an inflated view of one’s own ministry, or even an expectation of a major change in doctrine. On the other, safer end of the spectrum, these lines could be understood to refer only to personal revival and a new level of intimacy and obedience between God and the individual worshiper. I think the authorial intent, and the clearest meaning of the words is between those two extremes. I think the lyrics anticipate at least a local revival, but possibly a regional or even global revival of the Church in which hearts are turned toward Jesus by the power and presence of his Spirit and God builds his Kingdom through his Church on earth. If that’s something you believe God is promising to your church, community, or planet, great! If not, this likely isn’t the song for you.

Music

The dynamic arc of this song is very standard for worship music. I can’t get enough of the drop at the end of the bridge! The iii chord at the end of the verse lines is a nice touch. I don’t think any of the instrumental parts of this song would be too difficult for volunteers to learn
The melody of the chorus is super easy to learn; the verses are a little trickier because of the skips, and the bridge might throw your congregation the first couple times.

Conclusions

I like the song, and I think it’s a good expression of faith in the Holy Spirit’s reviving work in our hearts and churches, and his kingdom-building work through us. I am a little uncomfortable with claiming that God is about to do something “new” when it seems to me that the thrust of Scripture on this topic is that sending his Son, and then his Spirit, was the “new” thing, and we’re still living in that reality, not doing another new thing.
Will it worship? Possibly, but I still need to work through whether the emphasis on a big change/new work of God is going to be helpful or unhelpful to my congregation.