This is the first in a series of posts about children’s Sunday School songs! My daughter came home from church singing “Father Abraham” this week, so let’s talk a little about this song and its weird history. First, the lyrics I am familiar with:
Father Abraham had many sons, and many sons had Father Abraham. I am one of them and so are you so let’s just praise the Lord! (right arm, etc.)
Until today, I had no idea these were not the original lyrics. I assumed it was written a hundred years ago at a Bible camp and was distributed anonymously from campfire to campfire until virtually every child in America knew it by heart. Not so!
In 1971, Pierre Kartner released a Dutch carnival song called “Vader Abraham Had Zeven Zonen.” He also started wearing a fake beard and performing under the stage persona of Vader Abraham. In his lyrics (found here), Father Abraham has seven sons rather than many. This is biblically accurate; he had Ishmael, Isaac, and the five sons and a daughter listen in Gen 25:2. Kartner’s original song has the sons singing, drinking, and having fun, and there are verses that describe each boy.
I’m not sure who translated the song into English or when, but in Lisa Loeb’s version, we still hear about seven sons, but rather than wild hedonists, the sons are awfully stoic, never laughing nor crying, only going like *this* (insert arm flapping and spinning).
A further step away from Kartner’s carnival song sees the seven sons grown to many, the laughing, crying, and drinking replaced with “I am one of them and so are you,” and the addition of praising the Lord. Some versions even change “sons” to “kids” to be more inclusive.
So will it worship? Certainly not the drinking song (sorry, Pierre). And while the English version about seven sons is accurate with regard to the number of Abraham’s progeny, the rest is just harmless, meaningless fluff (sorry, Lisa).
What about the more popular English rewrite (it’s hard to call it a translation) with the lyrics I included above? This version has a little more theology embedded in its lyrics, so let’s take it one line at a time!
Lyric Analysis
Father Abraham had many sons, and many sons had Father Abraham. The change from “seven” to “many” makes this song about the whole nation that came from Abraham, not just his immediate offspring. Now, the song is about God’s promise in Genesis 15:5, “Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them . . . So shall your descendants be.” We’re not just singing about a relatively important Bible character and his kids; we’re singing about the people God promises to bless, and who God promises will be a blessing to the whole world! (Gen 12:2-3)
Soapbox time! (does a little soapbox dance) A few recordings of this song change “many sons” to “many kids.” Don’t do that. Male language and pronouns are the default throughout Scripture. Part of the challenge of interpreting Scripture is discerning where in the Bible “men” or “sons” means “male humans” and where it means “all humans.” Some modern Bible translations attempt to make the Bible more inclusive by changing many of these instances to be gender neutral. This forces the translator to take an interpretive position in passages like 1 Timothy 3:2 where the ESV says an elder must be “the husband of one wife,” the NIV says “faithful to his wife,” and the NRSVue says, “married only once.” Rather than expecting our Bible translations to decide these questions for us, we should teach our kids from a young age that sometimes when the Bible says man, husband, or son, it means “man,” and sometimes it just means “person.” Singing the idea that boys and girls are counted among Abraham’s many sons helps to instill this important interpretive principle.
I am one of them and so are you, This line explicitly includes all the singers among Abraham’s children. I remember singing it as a little kid and thinking, “Wait a minute, I’m not Jewish!” And this is a thought children should be having! It’s really important to understand that through Christ, everyone can be included in the faith family of Abraham, not just descendants of Israel. This simple line lays a foundation for the more complex concept of the Gentiles being grafted onto Abraham’s tree. (It’s also a powerful antidote to antisemitism!)
The simple words “and so are you” help children to develop an outgoing, expressive faith that welcomes others. This is an essential part of Gospel living.
So let’s just praise the Lord! (right arm, left arm, right foot, left foot, chin up, turn around, sit down!) This provides an active, concrete response to the abstract truths presented in the previous lines. God has adopted us into his family, so we respond with gratitude and praise!
As a worship leader, I also love that it links praise to movement. While these motions are silly and not terribly profound, it is healthy for children to learn from a young age that it’s good for action to accompany praise. Maybe if we explain this to kids when we sing this song, we’ll have a few less frozen chosen in the coming decades. 😁
Conclusion
Will it worship? Yes! (But only the “many sons” version.) The simple words and actions of “Father Abraham” actually lay some really important groundwork for how children are going to understand the role of Israel, the use of gender-specific terms in the Bible, what praise looks like, and their place in God’s forever family. 10/10, no notes. Sing it!
“Long Live the King,” written by Gabriel Wilson, Matt Gilman, and Nate Lapeer, seized my attention when it came out two years ago. Its vivid and theological description of Jesus’ death, resurrection, and exaltation brought me to tears in my car. It impressed the majesty and glory of Christ on my heart and imagination in a way that few songs have.
I learned it, practiced it, and was all geared up to use it for Easter 2023! Unfortunately, the third verse weirded me out. My church doesn’t really teach that Jesus descended into hell while he was in the grave, and I thought that event, the Harrowing of Hell, is what this verse was referring to. I chickened out, and we haven’t used it for church. But now I’m ready to give “Long Live the King” another look! What is that funky third verse about, is it biblical, and will it worship? Let’s check it out!
Focus
“Long Live the King” is an acclamation of Christ. It explores his suffering, death, resurrection, and glorification and hails him as king in each context.
It calls Jesus by name and uses lots of titles for him including Anointed One, Emmanuel, and Perfect Lamb. It also refers to the Holy Spirit’s role in Jesus’ resurrection. The language in “Long Live the King” is both personal and corporate; each chorus talks about lifting my hands, but the verses speak of our Messiah, our Redeemer, our victory.
Lyric Analysis
VERSES 1 & 2 These verses are sung back-to-back and recount the same events from two different perspectives.
Verse 1 is about the physical events of Jesus’ suffering, death, and burial. It picks out several significant events from John 19, so we’ll start with the crown of thorns. The writers do something really cool here by saying, “There in crown of thorn and thistle.” At first, I thought this was just a poetic liberty. After all, the crown in the Gospels only had thorns. No thistles to be seen. But where do we find thorns and thistles together in the Bible? Genesis 3:18 says of the ground, “thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you.” Adam’s work is made painful and dangerous because of sin. In his death, Jesus is taking Adam’s curse upon his own head. This is something verse 2 makes explicit.
The rest of the verse recounts more familiar details: the sign reading “King of the Jews,” Jesus’ blood shed on the cross, the crimson river flowing from his pierced side, darkness falling at his death, the burial clothes, and Jesus’ interment in a tomb. This verse invites us to contemplate Christ’s suffering and humiliation. When we do, we find both grief and gratitude welling up within us.
Verse 2 deals with the spiritual realities of Christ’s work on the cross. The first line echoes the metaphor of Adam’s thorns and thistles: every curse is laid upon Christ. He bears the burden for us. He wears our sin like the robe of shame the soldiers placed on him.
Calling Jesus the “perfect Lamb led to the slaughter” recalls the words of Isaiah 53:7, “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter.” It also looks forward to Revelation 5:5-6, where John is told to look for the Lion, but instead finds the slain Lamb standing. This song will show us both Jesus’ humble sacrifice as a lamb and his triumphant power as a lion.
In the Old Testament, a ransom was the price paid to save someone’s life, either from slavery or from the just punishment for a crime they had committed. This is what Christ has done for us. At the moment of his death, Jesus tore the temple veil in two (Lk 23:44-46). This was the curtain that sealed off the Holy of Holies, the place where God’s presence rested. It represented the great divide between God and man, the rift between our sinfulness and his holiness. Christ’s death was a great victory because he accomplished all this, defeating sin and darkness, freeing us from our enslavement to death, and bringing us safely into God’s holy presence. Revelation 12:11 teaches us that the victory of the saints is in the blood of the Lamb.
LONG LIVE THE KING There is no single chorus in this song. Instead, each chorus has its own words that develop what was discussed in the preceding verse. The one commonality is the repeated titular phrase: “Long live the King!”
People have been wishing long life to their rulers for millennia. “Long live the king” was the shout of the people when Samuel anointed Saul and proclaimed him king (1 Sam 10:24). Daniel even addresses King Darius, a pagan ruler, this way (Dan 6:21). To say “long live the king” is to express loyalty and submission to a ruler. It’s a statement of belief that they are the rightful and beneficial sovereign. It is an endorsement of their justice and righteousness.
In Western culture, “long live the king” is often part of the longer phrase “The king is dead, long live the king!” Traditionally, this is the announcement of the death of the former ruler and the succession of the new one. In the context of Jesus’ death, it means something completely different! It is in his dying that he is crowned and exalted.
How appropriate, then, to proclaim “long live the king” of Christ Jesus, of whom Isaiah says, “Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore!” (Is 9:7)
CHORUS 1 The first line of this chorus says, “the wrath of God and man now satisfied.” Many people are uncomfortable with songs that mention God’s wrath, or the idea that Jesus satisfies it. They object to the idea that a loving God should have any wrath toward his children and therefore the idea that he should send his Son to absorb such wrath on our behalf. I sympathize with their concerns, but we need to take the problem of human evil seriously if we are going to discuss God’s wrath. How can we look at genocides, murders, rapes, systemic racism, oppression of the poor, and casual acts of violence and not cry out for justice? How can we not cry out for God’s wrath to wash away the wicked? We must also remember that Jesus is not a separate entity from God; he is not merely human. He is God himself. So if one seek to blame God for creating man with our capacity for wickedness or if you think God is unjust to punish evil, remember that he stepped into our suffering and pain and took his own wrath upon himself. (Rom 2:8, Rom 3:23, 2 Cor 5:21, Gal 3:10-13, Isa 53:4-11) I think this is an excellent line because it shows that while God’s wrath is just, it is no longer directed toward us us because of Christ’s atonement. I also love that it draws the wrath of man into the equation. We humans so easily become wroth with one another, but Jesus’ death disarms our anger and violence. Ephesians 2:14 teaches that Christ broke down the dividing walls between people as well as the wall between us and God. In the shadow of the cross, how can we raise a hand against our brother or sister?
The phrase “he paid the price” echoes the early church’s understanding of atonement, called “ransom theory.” (Think Aslan dying to ransom Edmund in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.) In the Old Testament, atonement for all the people was made with continual sacrifices. Jesus has made perfect and final atonement once and for all by the sacrifice of his own body and blood (Heb 10:10).
Even sin and sickness must obey Jesus. He healed countless people during his ministry, including casting out demons (Mt 8:16-17). In the story of the paralyzed man in Matthew 9:1-8, he demonstrates his lordship over both. Not only does he forgive all the man’s sins, but he heals his body as evidence of his authority. It is important that we remember that while every sin and sickness must submit to Jesus’ authority, we are not guaranteed individual victory over each sin and sickness in our lifetime. There are sins that will continue to tempt us until we die, and each of us will eventually succumb to sickness. Even the Apostle Paul dealt with his famous “thorn in the flesh,” a persistent ailment of some kind (2 Cor 12:7). We must not take someone’s continued illness or struggle with temptation as evidence of lack of faith or evidence that God is absent.
VERSE 3 This verse is a little confusing because it could refer to a couple different things. It references several Scriptures, but the verses in question are famously hard to understand. We could be talking about the Harrowing of Hell, or we could be speaking more generally about Jesus defeating death.
In ancient Greek thought, Hades was where all the dead went, not only the wicked. It doesn’t carry the same connotations of evil and punishment as the Christian idea of hell. (Side note: Can we all agree to sing “depths of Hades” instead of “bowels of Hades?” I would really rather not say “bowels” in a worship song. 🤢) The trembling in Hades could refer to the twin earthquakes at Christ’s death and resurrection (Mt 27:54, Mt 28:2), or it could refer to death and hell themselves quaking in fear at Christ’s victory. The breath of God descending could refer to the Holy Spirit entering Christ’s tomb to bring him back to life (Rom 8:10-11), or to Jesus entering the realm of the dead to proclaim his Gospel to all the dead (1 Pet 3:18-20).
The triumphal parade seems to be a reference to Ephesians 4:8-9, which says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men. (In saying, ‘He ascended,’ what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth?).” Rather than a parade of captured enemies, as commonly seen in a Roman triumph or even in Psalm 68:8, Jesus is leading a procession of liberated captives. This procession consists of everyone who will believe in him, past, present, and future.
Either way you interpret it, this verse uses poetic and scriptural language to show the triumph of Jesus over death.
CHORUS 2 Now, instead of a the mockery and pain of a crown of thorns, Jesus, the Son of God, is crowned with many crowns. This line comes from Revelation 19:12 and also the famous hymn “Crown Him with Many Crowns.”
Jesus is the light of the world who dispels darkness and defeats death (Jn 8:12, 1 Cor 15:22-26). We would be lost in darkness on our own, but instead we are found in his light.
Another potential source of controversy in this song is the line “the souls of every sinner now redeemed.” The question here is whether this line suggests Christian universalism or universal reconciliation, the belief that all people will be saved, not only those who come to believe in Jesus during their earthly lives. I don’t think this line necessarily teaches that. The line says every sinner is redeemed, not that every sinner is saved. To redeem or ransom someone (see verse 2) means to pay a price for that person’s rescue or liberation. Jesus has paid the price for the redemption of every human being. Some may reject him and flee from him, like Hosea’s redeemed wife left him, but this does not lessen the scope of Christ’s great redemption.
VERSE 4 The Bible doesn’t give us much information about what happened inside Jesus’ tomb. We don’t know all the ins and outs of the trinitarian relationship, but it seems evident that the Holy Spirit played a major role in the Resurrection. Romans 8:10-12 says, “if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” Genesis 2:7 says that when God was making the world, Adam became a living creature when the breath of life entered nostrils. So Christ’s resurrection, the breath of life reentering his lifeless body, is the moment when the New Adam inaugurates the New Creation.
The dual image of Christ as Lion and Lamb is found throughout Scripture, but especially Revelation 5:5-6. Jesus has given his life as the sacrificial Lamb and he has triumphed over death as the glorious Lion of Judah. He is alive and glorified!
CHORUS 3 The name Emmanuel means “God with us,” so it’s interesting that the songwriters use this title here, at the height of Jesus’ glorification in heaven. Even when he is so very far above us, so enthroned that the very stars worship him, he is still near to us.
Much as he has exchanged a crown of thorns for many crowns of glory, Jesus has exchanged the mocking robe of the soldiers for one of true rulership. In Revelation 19:11-16, Jesus rides at the head of the armies of heaven wearing a robe dipped in blood and bearing the name “King of Kings and Lord of Lords.” His reign and victory are just, faithful, and true. None is more worthy, none is more powerful. This enthronement of the Lion/Lamb King is the event for which all of creation has been longing (Rom 8:18-22). The stars and all of creation erupt in worship, and when we sing this song, we join in with them (Ps 148), declaring “long live the King!”
Accessibility
This song has a lot of words and Scripture references, but it also paints really clear and beautiful mental images that anyone can latch onto. For instance, the final chorus references Revelation 19, Romans 8, and Psalm 148, but you don’t have to know those passages to be able to picture the resurrected King Jesus filling heaven with his presence and taking his rightful place on the throne.
The main concern I have for misinterpretation is that some people might take the line, “every sinner now redeemed” as a statement of universal reconciliation, which most Christian churches do not teach. It’s also possible for people to get hung up on the intricacies of verse 3, but I’m confident that is a tangle that only experienced church people will stumble into, and if anything it will lead them into deeper study of God’s word.
The constant refrain, “Long live the King!” is easy to pick up (though the melody gets kinda funky in the second half of the song). The verses repeat the same melodic material over and over, so I think it will be easy for a congregation to learn and sing. The choruses are a little trickier, but well within the bounds of what is congregational. The melody jumps around quite a bit (slightly more than two octaves 😬), so range may be a concern. Still, the majority of it stays within an octave+2, so I don’t think you’ll lose people except on the very highest and lowest notes.
Music
The music of this song matches the words perfectly. The beginning is somber, then becomes hopeful, driving, and finally triumphant. And man is that ending triumphant! This is one of my very favorite expressions of the glory of the ascended Son of Man, and it has brought me to tears more than once. Having said all that, dynamics are super important in this song. It’s got to start quiet, it’s got to drive hard through the middle build, and it’s got to have a big ending.
The chord structure is another one of my favorite features of this song. It largely uses the chords you expect in worship songs and pop music, but it also throws in a couple minor 5s and flat 6s that somehow open up the tonality to invoke a level of majesty that you just don’t get in your typical G D Em C worship progression.
With those funky chords, the crazy dynamics, and the wide vocal range, this song demands a lot of a worship band, and it’s not for the faint of heart.
Function
Gathering | Word | Table | Sending
I would use this song anywhere in a worship service except for the very end. It unites God’s people with a shared acclamation, it declares the story of Jesus’ death, resurrection, and glorification, and it provides us with an opportunity to respond to that story from our hearts with love, devotion, and awe. So it works well as an opening song, a song of the Word, or a Communion/response song. The tricky part is fitting it into the dynamic or energy level flow of a service, since it starts so quietly and ends huge.
I would resist the temptation to use this one as a closer. The ending is big and powerful and exciting, but it lacks the kind of call-to-action that makes for an effective sending song.
Conclusions
Will it worship? You bet!
I started writing this post several months ago, before schoolwork and life circumstances necessitated taking a break from blogging. Since then we have sung “Long Live the King” a few times in church, beginning on Easter. I found that people were profoundly moved by the song, though it was more difficult than average for a congregant to learn and be able to sing along.
So, if your band is up for a challenge and you don’t mind some challenging lyrics about Jesus defeating hell, go for it! I am confident this song will bless your congregation and facilitate their heartfelt response to the gospel and the glory of Jesus.
Zack Shelton introduced me to “The Lord Will Provide” (Brett Younker, Chris Davenport, and Jess Cates) at ICYC last year, and I have to confess a little hesitation toward it in the beginning! Songs about God’s promise to provide for us often feel weird to me. We don’t sing them often in my church, in part because we are concerned about the false promises of the prosperity gospel, and we don’t want anyone to get the wrong idea. But after hearing several hundred students belt out their trust in the Lord to this song, my heart softened! And the truth is, God does promise to provide for our needs and answer our prayers.
So the question is: does this song offer us a valuable way to express trust in God and give thanks for his provision without overstepping and adding to his word? In other words, is “The Lord Will Provide” biblical, and will it worship?
Focus
“The Lord Will Provide” (as the title might suggest) is about God’s generosity in providing for our needs. It calls us to seek God’s kingdom and trust him to care for us rather than worrying about getting what we want or need.
This song freely floats between singing to God and singing to one another. It’s mostly personal, using me/my language to describe the relationship between the individual and the Lord, only acknowledging “us” once in the bridge. God is often addressed as You, and we call him God, our Father, and the Lord.
Lyric Analysis
VERSES Verse 1 says “I don’t have to wonder; I know what You’re doing.” What he’s doing, in this song and in Scripture, is providing for our spiritual and physical needs.
The verses refer to Jesus’ words in Matthew 6:26-34. He invites his followers to consider the birds of the air and the lilies of the field. The birds don’t save up for winter or retirement, and the flowers don’t know how to sew. If our heavenly Father feeds and clothes them, then we can certainly trust him to take care of us!
One aspect of this story I’ve never considered before is that Jesus chooses living things which have relatively short lifespans for this example. It’s easy to watch a flower sprout, bloom, and fade all in a season. Sparrows (Mt 10:29-30) only live for 2-5 years. God cares for these creatures, but that doesn’t mean they last forever or face no hardship. Indeed, Jesus’ acknowledges our own mortality when he says, “And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?” (Mt 6:27)
PRE-CHORUSES Each pre-chorus provides a little opportunity to respond in trust to God’s provision. Instead of worrying, we can look to God’s faithfulness. Instead of chasing more, more, and more, we can recognize that God’s love is what really satisfies us. He doesn’t just provide us with enough; he is enough.
A note about anxiety: Jesus gives firm but gentle correction in v. 34 when he calls the worrier “you of little faith.” When someone is in the pit of anxiety, these words can feel like a harsh rebuke, a command to do better, quit worrying, and just have faith! I have a couple thoughts that I hope will help. First, in vv. 31-32, Jesus defines worrying as behaving like godless Gentiles, constantly pursuing their own food and clothing rather than trusting that our Father knows what we need. Second, the solution isn’t just to have more willpower and stop feeling anxious. The way Jesus tells us to combat anxiety is by seeking his Kingdom. That can mean a lot of different things, but all of them involve focusing a little less on ourselves and a little more on other people. I won’t try to fully explore what seeking the Kingdom means here, but a great place to start is the wider Sermon on the Mount, of which this teaching on worry is but a small part. So Jesus doesn’t just tell us to stop being anxious, he gives us a picture of the kind of Kingdom life that will help us entrust our worries to him (1 Pt 5:7).
CHORUS The chorus is short, sweet, and repetitious. God our Father has all we need, and we can trust him to provide it for us. Another meaning of “my Father has it” could be in the sense of “God’s got this.” If there’s a situation that seems out of control, these lyrics are a reminder that he’s still in control.
These words could certainly be misapplied. I need $50,000 to pay off my student loans. I need my estranged daughter to forgive me. I need policies to change so my family won’t be deported. I need a cure for this disease I’ve just been diagnosed with. These are all legitimate needs, and doesn’t the Bible say, “ask, and it will be given to you?” (Mt 7:7) This is, of course, one of the oldest questions in the world. If God is powerful and cares about me, why doesn’t he give me what I ask for in prayer? To be sure, sometimes, he does! Sometimes the disease is healed and the finances are provided. If we ask God continually for our daily bread, we find that he continually provides it, and that’s part of what this song is about. But what about when he doesn’t? In those instances, I think Jesus directs away from the God-has-to-give-me-what-I-ask-for mentality and toward trust. The answer isn’t that God doesn’t care, or that I sinned so he won’t hear me, or that I don’t have enough faith. If we look at the next few verses in Matthew 7, Jesus says, “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” And in our main text for this song, he says, “your heavenly Father knows you need them.” We have a God who knows us, and he knows our needs. Even when it doesn’t seem like he’s coming through, he still cares for us and provides for us, and he still has good in store for us.
BRIDGE We already alluded to this idea: seeking God’s Kingdom is the antidote to anxiety over our own needs. Being focused on loving others and trusting in the generosity of the Father will help us not to be wrapped up in what we think we need. His blessings often look different than we thought they would.
Accessibility
Trusting in God to provide for our needs can go wrong when we fall into two big errors: 1) thinking that he has to give us what we ask for and 2) thinking that when he doesn’t, it’s because he failed or we didn’t have enough faith. Expecting God to always come through the way we think he should is setting ourselves up for disappointment.
“The Lord Will Provide” could be misunderstood in this way, but it offers two correctives. First, the Pre-chorus 2 says that God is enough, and his love will satisfy us. I wish this truth were repeated more throughout the song. Second, it takes our eyes off of our anxiety for our present needs and sets them on God’s Kingdom.
One of the strongest lines in the song is also the most confusing. We’re supposed to seek the Kingdom and its treasures, but what does that mean? I don’t think most people in church really know, and this song doesn’t explain it.
The range of this song is all within an octave! And most of it falls within a 5th! Incredible! The repetitive melodic and rhythmic patterns make it extremely singable and easy to learn. All the bonus points!
Music
“The Lord Will Provide” is in 6/8 with a little bit of swing. It almost forces you to nod your head or sway a little bit. This rhythm draws you in and evokes a sense of steadiness and trust, a perfect match to the lyrics. When the singing starts, the melody paints the same picture. The chorus is insistent with its refrain “my Father has it.” The bridge drives forward, propelling the worshiper forward to seek God’s Kingdom.
This song relies on piano, drums, and bass, adding guitars throughout for more energy. For the most part, I don’t anticipate it being too difficult for beginner/intermediate musicians to play. The drum beat on the bridge is a little offbeat, so it might take some extra practice. The bass guitar does some really cool grooves, but these are not critical and can be omitted as skill requires. The piano lead line at the beginning shouldn’t be hard, but for some reason, it really tripped me up! I especially like having a soprano double the melody for extra power on the bridges.
Function
Gathering | Word | Table | Sending
“The Lord Will Provide” is most appropriate in the second half of the service. After the Word has been presented, the congregation has the opportunity to respond in trust. The challenge to “seek first the Kingdom” also gives this song a missional thrust appropriate to the Sending.
This song would be especially meaningful paired with a reading of Matthew 6:26-34 or 10:28-30. It would make an excellent response song to any teaching about anxiety, trusting God, his provision, or seeking the Kingdom. We’re introducing it right now during a teaching series on money and possessions, and I think it’s a great thematic fit.
It would be cool to see a worship service composed entirely of the Sermon on the Mount and various songs that express and respond to the ideas there. This song would be one of them.
Conclusions
Will it worship? Every single time! (sorry 🤷♂️)
I mentioned my concern about assuming God is going to answer all our prayers exactly how we want, the false promise of the prosperity Gospel. But I think “The Lord Will Provide” combats that misunderstanding effectively. It bases its lyrics heavily on Scripture and says what the Bible says without going a step further. It’s hard to argue with that!
We’re singing “The Lord Will Provide” this Sunday, and I’m confident the congregation will be grab onto it quickly to sing their trust and hope in God and his provision.
I found “Praise Out” this week in the new releases carousel on CCLI SongSelect (one of my favorite places to find new worship songs!) I wasn’t familiar with Meredith Mauldin or Joel Figueroa, and the album art caught my eye, so I gave it a listen. I haven’t been able to get it out of my head since! If nothing else, Mauldin, Figueroa, Brett Lee Miller, and Marie Elizabeth Welch have crafted an effective earworm with this song. But “Praise Out” is more than that! It’s a joyful (and chill) anthem of God’s faithfulness, and it calls us to a life-rhythm of unceasing worship.
So! Let’s check out “Praise Out” to see if it’s biblical and if it will worship.
Focus
This song offers praise to God for his faithfulness as revealed in the cycles of nature.
“Praise Out” is sung directly to the Creator, mostly addressing him as You. If there was any doubt who “You” is (unlikely), the bridge explicitly calls him God.
Lyric Analysis
VERSE 1 I have to confess some grammatical bewilderment regarding the first two lines. I know what it means, I just can’t quite make the words into a grammatical structure that makes sense to me. I keep trying to make “intricate” into a noun so that it can be a complete sentence, but I probably just let them be poetic fragments and quit worrying about it. Sigh. 🤓
In any case, the first half of the verse is about how the intricate details of God’s created world show his character and intent. His character seems evident: creative, wise, brilliant. But what intent is demonstrated here? The next few lines tell us that his intent is to provide for us, and indeed for the whole creation. The seasons continue in their cycle, and the sparrow continues to receive its food from God’s hand. Because he is our provider, we don’t need to be anxious about our needs being met.
The example of the sparrow comes from the Gospels, where Jesus tells his disciples that not even a sparrow falls out of the sky apart from God’s will and knowledge, and that they are much more valuable to him than sparrows (Lk 12:6-7, Mt 10:29-31). In Matthew 6:26-30, Jesus goes even further, reminding his disciples that God dresses the flowers of the field and feeds the birds of the air, so they should relinquish their anxiety and have faith in God’s provision. And Psalm 84:3 says “Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself where she may lay her young, at your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God.” So the sparrow is an illustration that even the humblest creatures are welcome, cared for, and sheltered in the presence of God.
This verse ends with a commitment to be like the sparrow and trust God rather than anxiously seeking to meet our own needs.
VERSE 2 This verse offers our commitment to praise God both publicly and privately. With David the psalmist and even Christ himself, we tell one another of God’s greatness and we praise him in the congregation (Ps 22:22, Heb 2:12). We also express our intent to praise God quietly and privately, as Jesus encourages his disciples to do (Mt 6:6). This ensures that our worship is not performative or a mere response to social pressure. I think most of us will be challenged by this verse, if we listen to it. We may attend church faithfully but neglect our secret time with the Lord. Or we may pray alone but refrain from participating in the collected praise of God’s people. A healthy life of worship must include both!
The end of the verse returns to our nature metaphor, reminding us of the cycle of seasons and flowers blooming in their time. As the flowers give praise in their blooming, so will we give honor to God when we experience blessing and growth. This line also calls back to verse 1 and its discussion of God’s provision. He cares for sparrow and flower alike, so we know he will provide for us.
CHORUS The chorus is short and simple, with only 14 words. This simplicity allows us to meditate on the layers of meaning behind the sun, the ways that we can praise God in our lives, and the many ways he’s been faithful.
Sun up, sun down: There’s a lot of depth in this simple image! The Preacher of Ecclesiastes uses the rising and setting sun as an example of the enduring order of God’s creation (Ec 1:4-7). God has established the cycles of day and night, the seasons, the flowing of water, and these things endure, unlike man’s time upon the earth, which is fleeting.
The Psalms use the sun to praise God in at least four ways. First, it represents eternity. As the sun rises and sets without fail, without (apparent) end or beginning, so God’s fame and honor will endure throughout all generations (Ps 72:5, 17). Second, the sun represents the timely cycles of creation. God devised these systems and sustains them. The sun only knows when to set because God has established it in its course (Ps 104:19, 74:16). So, it illustrates God’s power and wisdom in creation. Third, the sun is a source of life and blessing, pointing toward God who is the true source of all life and blessing (Ps 84:11). Finally, in Psalm 148, the psalmist summons the sun itself to give praise to God along with all the angels, stars, sea creatures, mountains, trees, beasts, and peoples. All creation sings (literally and/or metaphorically) the praise of God the Creator.
I’ll keep on singing Your praise out: So, along with the sun and all creation, we offer our continual praise from the time we rise to the time we lay down to sleep.
Faithful right now: My first interpretation of this line is that God is faithful right now. As he’s established the seasons and the day and night, as he’s provided for us and been present in the secret and in the open, so we can trust that he’s present in this very moment, whatever we are doing, experiencing, or facing. I still think that’s the primary meaning of this line, but it could also be a commitment on the part of the worshiper. Because of God’s faithfulness, we commit right now to keep singing his praise faithfully regardless of current circumstance.
BRIDGE “Glory to God in the highest” is the song of the angels who announce Jesus’ birth to the shepherds in Luke 2:14. Joining them, we offer God not only some praise and glory, but the highest praise and glory.
We return here to the picture from Psalm 148, in which everything in creation sings the praise of its Creator. The New Testament reveals that the Creator is Jesus. Colossians 1:16-17 says of Christ, “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” This bridge invites us to revel in the beauty and rightness of everything God has made coming together to worship Jesus. This is the symphony of creation.
This picture should also carry our thoughts forward to the day of Christ’s return. Right now, the creation is broken, longing to participate in the freedom and glory of God’s children (Rm 8:18-24). But one day, the family will be reunited, the creation will be healed, and the song will be perfect, glorious, and unending.
Accessibility
You don’t need an extensive church background or Bible education to understand this song, but you do need to exercise a little bit of abstract thinking. “Sun up, sun down,” is a metaphor, but it’s not a difficult one to find meaning in. The rest of the song is similar: easy to understand with just a little bit of effort, and deepening in meaning the more that you contemplate and connect different sections to Scripture.
The rhythms of this song are repetitive and easy to learn. The melody is the same, though the big skips on the chorus are a little tricky. The range is 8+5 which is wider than I prefer, but pretty typical for current worship music.
Music
One of the refreshing things about this song is its chill, (mostly) acoustic instrumentation. It’s driven by an acoustic guitar with support from bass, piano, and a drum kit played with brushes. There are some prominent synth effects, but they’re bright, sparkly, atmospheric sounds rather than big pads and horns and strings. As the song continues, there’s some additional electric guitar, and a chorus of background vocals that build in near the end. This song works as well with a single piano or guitar as with a whole band, a valuable trait for worship leaders who find themselves in varied circumstances from week to week.
“Praise Out” has excellent dynamics. I love the way the volume pulls back at the first chorus to focus in on the heart of praise that underlies the words. After that, it follows the normal worship song dynamic progression, getting a little louder for verse 2 and chorus 2, and then dropping down to start the bridge quiet and build from there. I really get caught up in the build on this bridge through the end of the song. It’s like the song keeps ascending as the praise continues ascending to God’s throne.
The chord progression is easy to learn and memorize. The rhythms are easy except for the one syncopated lead line that starts in the intro. The synth stuff can be in a backing track (available on Loop Community and Multitracks) or just omitted. In the recording, Joel does some falsetto on the high notes in the chorus so that the first couple times aren’t as loud, but it could easily be transposed so that this isn’t necessary. Overall, I think this song will be very playable for a volunteer worship team.
Function
Gathering | Word | Table | Sending
“Praise Out” works best as a call to worship. It could also function as a sending song, calling the congregation to live out continual worship, praising God in every moment.
I would pair “Praise Out” with a reading from Matthew 6:26-30 to speak about God’s provision or Psalm 148 to show how all creation offers praise to God. Colossians 1:16-17 would also be a great fit, as it encapsulates the special relationship between Jesus and creation.
Conclusions
Will it worship? Definitely!
“Praise Out” gives us an opportunity to reflect on the constancy of God’s provision, and it does so by referring to nature and its constant cycles in a way that would be at home in the Psalms. It also gives us an opportunity to offer our whole lives to God in praise, reminding us that worship is not just a Sunday-morning song, but a posture of living. The melody is easy to learn, and the words achieve accessibility without sacrificing depth of meaning.
I hope to introduce this song in Sunday worship real soon as it seems especially appropriate for springtime. Maybe you’ll join me!
I listened to “Made For More” a couple times earlier this year, and I liked it alright, but it didn’t really grab my attention until we sang it at ICYC this weekend. I grew up attending this conference, so it was a neat full-circle moment to be able to come back and play keys in the worship band. Looking out over the students and singing this song, I found myself moved to prayer for them, that they would see that God has made them for more and that they would be raised to new life and new purpose in Jesus.
Josh Baldwin released “Made For More” as a live single featuring Jenn Johnson in January of this year. It has continued to grow in popularity since then, being featured on a single and album from Bethel and accruing over 8,000,000 Spotify streams in its various forms as of November 2024. Baldwin is a songwriter on the track, along with Blake Wiggins, Jessie Early (Nothing Else), and Jonathan Smith (House of the Lord, Glorious Day, Manger Throne).
You and I might be made for more, but is “Made For More” made for worship? Let’s dig in and see if “Made For More” is biblical and if it belongs on your Sunday setlist.
Focus
“Made For More” is about our identity, calling, and purpose, all found in Christ’s death and resurrection. It is both an encouragement and a call to action.
There is a lot of “I” and “my” in this song. I don’t think “Made For More” is self-centered, but it is individualistic. I’ll address both of those below.
We sing this song to God and address him as “You.” The reference to the “cross of salvation” makes it clear that we’re singing to the Christian God, not just any random deity.
Lyric Analysis
VERSE The first line is the thesis of the whole song; “I know who I am cause I know who You are.” As believers, our identity is in Jesus. Paul teaches in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come,” and again in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” When we become Christians, we join Jesus in his death on the cross and are raised with him to new life. Christ identifies so closely with his church that we are called his body and his dwelling place (Eph 1:22-23, 2:22).
This verse declines to look back to our lost state before the cross, instead focusing on who we are now: chosen (1 Pet 2:9), free (Jn 8:36), forgiven (Ac 10:43), having a future worth living (Jer 29:11). This future is both now and not yet. Yes, we have a glorious eternity to look forward to in the new heaven and new earth that are to come (Rev 21:1-4), but we are also Jesus’ emissaries, witnesses that Christ has come to reconcile the world and that his kingdom is already here! Empowered by his Spirit, we carry this reconciliation with us and provide a foretaste to the world and the whole creation of what the glory of God’s fully realized kingdom will be like (Ac 1:8, 2 Cor 5:18-19, Rom 8:19-23).
CHORUS In the first two lines of the chorus, I think the songwriters must have been thinking of Luke 9:57-62. Three different people are called to follow Jesus but present various excuses, one of them saying, “let me first go and bury my father.” Jesus replies, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” I don’t know the ins and outs of Jewish funeral customs, and someone else could certainly explain this story better than I, but it seems clear that all three people in this passage are looking back at their old life, finding excuses to remain trapped in the past rather than following Jesus into the new life of his kingdom.
Again, when we follow Jesus, we are baptized into his death and raised to new life with him. We can’t walk in our old, dead ways anymore because we have been born again (Rom 6:2-4).
The verse says this in yet a third way: instead of lying in a bed of shame, we have the opportunity to embrace the fountain of forgiveness, holiness, and grace that flows from Jesus (Zech 13:1). This grace not only give us life, but overflows from us to give life to others (Jn 7:38).
One thing that catches my attention in the chorus is that all the statements about “me” are in the passive voice. (🤓) Instead of “You made me for more,” it’s “I was made for more.” Is Josh trying to take God out of the picture? Why put the emphasis on me instead of God?? In fact, that’s the opposite of what’s going on here. The rhythm and melody place the emphasis on the third syllable of the line, so if we rephrase this line to make God the subject, then the word “me” actual falls on the third syllable and gets the emphasis. “You made me for more.” The way the song is written, it’s “I was made for more,” so the musical emphasis is on God’s act of making. The same is true of “I was called by name.”
BRIDGE “Hallelujah” is a Hebrew word combining hallel, praise, with Jah, a shortened form of the name of God. It literally means “praise Yahweh.”
Jesus makes a habit of calling his followers by name. Mary, Peter, Zacchaeus, and even Paul/Saul experience the direct, personal attention of the Savior when he says their names. This interaction is transformative, totally changing the direction of their lives. To be called by name is to be known, and God certainly knows us deeply and fully (Psalm 139:1-16). When he brings us into his kingdom, we are not anonymous servants, but we are his children, heirs, and friends (Jn 15:15, Rom 8:17).
How can we respond to this love, this knowing, and this calling but with praise? And having died to sin and been resurrected with Christ, how can we turn back and live in sin and the shame of our past? (Rom 6:2)
Accessibility
Even without knowledge of the Scriptures referenced in the song, the powerful word pictures in “Made For More” invite the worshiper into the new identity, new life, and new purpose of the children of God.
I have two concerns regarding understanding. First, this song is pretty vague about what we were made for. More, yes, but more of what? We get some suggestive words like life, future, grace, praise, and Yours, and together, they sketch an outline of what new life in Christ feels like, but without an understanding of our purpose and mission from Scripture, we can fill that outline in with any dream or aspiration we like. Made for more…money? Nope.
Second, the language in this song is very individualistic. Our individual relationships with God are important, and we are each of us known and called personally, but our calling as a community, as the church is at least equally important. This isn’t necessarily a weakness, I just want to make sure that we aren’t only singing songs about our individual lives; we also need songs that discuss our calling, purpose, and identity as the unified Bride of Christ.
The majority of the melody is within a sixth. When you include the octave jump from the first verse and chorus to the second, the total range is an octave plus a third, so not bad for a contemporary worship song. Rhythmically, the chorus is especially easy to pick up on because of the way the words pulse easily with the beat.
Music
“Made For More” begins with simple piano chords accompanying the voices through the first verse. The rest of the band enters quietly at the first chorus, playing single chords that have the effect of unity and confidence. We jump up to a higher dynamic level for the second verse, now celebrating the words that we sang in quiet faith the first time. What was an expression of hope in the first chorus is now fully claimed as the truth of who we are. We drop back down for a slow build through the bridges which lead to a dramatic dropout for a chorus, really highlighting the voice of the congregation. There’s another loud chorus, then a loud bridge, then a quiet closing chorus. These are pretty standard dynamics for a worship song, but they are standard for a reason, and they communicate this song’s message well.
The only tricky chords are halfway through the post-bridge chorus when the band comes in. There’s a walkdown there that sounds best if it’s played with open 5ths rather than full chords. The rest of the song makes use of frequent alternate bass notes and suspended chords so that it feels a little more interesting than a I, IV, vi, V song.
I would call this an easy-intermediate song for a worship band to play.
Conclusions
“Made For More” is catchy, inviting, easy to learn, and easy to understand. It is both an encouragement to the downcast and a call-to-action for believers. As we sing, God reminds us that we are his dearly loved children, and his Spirit calls us out on mission. If we are made for more, we must take seriously the words and deeds that Christ calls us to; we must be the foretaste of his coming kingdom in this broken world.
I outlined above my two concerns above in the Accessibility section: this song is a little vague about what we are made for, leaving room to import wrong ideas, and it is very individualistic. Neither of these is an error, and no song can fully explain every subject that it touches on. We need to make sure that our song libraries contain more specific calls to share the Gospel, care for the poor, sick, and elderly, and be good news to our friends, neighbors, communities, and the whole world. We also need to make sure we have songs that sing about us and Jesus instead of only me and Jesus.
Having said all that, I think “Made For More” fills an important niche in our church song catalog. The vagueness that I mentioned as a concern is also a strength, allowing it to serve as a sending song connected to any number of scriptural calls to action. It provides encouragement and exhortation without assuming anyone’s emotional state or life story, and it reminds all of us that we have new life in Christ, and that it’s worth living that way.
The songwriting credits on this one feel like a who’s who of the worship recording world in 2024: Brandon Lake, Chandler Moore, Chris Brown, Cody Carnes, Pat Barrett & Steven Furtick. It’s hard to imagine these guys getting together and writing a flop! To be honest, I avoided this song for a while because it came out around the same time as “Praise You Anywhere” and I felt like it would be a little redundant to have them both in active rotation. A year later, we’ve slowed down on “Praise You Anywhere,” and “Praise” is hanging out comfortably at #4 on CCLI, so it seemed like a good time to introduce it to the congregation.
“Praise” is fun, catchy, and uplifting, but is it biblical? Let’s check it out.
Focus
“Praise” is a song about praise. The worshiper encourages their own soul to praise God in every circumstance, and in the process we encourage one another to the same. The main reasons given for this praise are God’s power, his faithfulness, and Christ’s resurrection.
Lyric Analysis
INTRO (& OUTRO) The intro makes clear the corporate nature of this worship song. While much of the rest of “Praise” uses “I” language, it really is aimed at the whole congregation, and the intro makes this clear. The words here are a direct quotation of Psalm 150:6, the last verse in the Book of Psalms.
The intro and outro are in a very different musical style from the rest of the song, and our congregation is unused to call-and-response chanting, so we typically skip this part.
VERSES The verses are mostly a series of commitments to praise in any and every circumstance. They are often set in positive/negative pairs: mountain/valley, sure/doubting, when I feel it/when I don’t. This is an outworking of the attitude David expresses in Psalm 34. The first verse of the Psalm says, “I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth.” The psalmist goes on to encourage listeners that the Lord hears and delivers his people when they suffer trials, and so he can be praised in the midst of plenty or affliction.
Verse 1 has stirred up a wee bit of controversy with the line “praise is the water my enemies drown in.” Yikes! Should we really be singing about drowning our enemies in church? Like many references in contemporary worship songs, this one is anchored in the Exodus. Hebrews 11:24 says, “By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned.” That’s the image this line should conjure in our minds, not the waterboarding of our workplace rivals or the cop who wrote us an unnecessary ticket, but the utter destruction of the forces of evil that enslave and oppress God’s people. Verse 2 uses a parallel image: the shouting of the Israelites that God commanded to bring down the walls of Jericho (Jos 6).
Jesus tells us to love our human enemies (Mt 5:43-48), and Paul tells us that the real fight is against the spiritual forces of evil and darkness, not against flesh and blood (Eph 6:12). Praise is an expression of faith, and faith in Jesus is our weapon in the fight against sin and death.
So, the question about drowning our enemies with praise is not whether it is biblical or true, but whether it is likely to be misapplied, and whether it is appropriate for a given congregation. Regarding misapplication, I don’t see much danger. The most likely misreading of this line is still going to come off as something close to Proverbs 25:21-22; no reasonable person is going to think this song condones murdering people while singing to Jesus. The other concern is whether the brief mention of violence in this song is going to be so distracting to people that it sidetracks them from worship. There may be some congregations where this is the case, but I think the imagery of warfare is so pervasive in Scripture that we serve our people better by equipping them to understand and contextualize it rather than try to avoid it.
PRE-CHORUS See Psalms 35 and 150 again.
CHORUS “Praise the Lord, O my soul…how can I keep it inside?”
Some people find it awkward to sing to their own souls in worship, but that’s exactly what we do in the chorus of “Praise.” Some songs written for worship can be self-centered rather than Christ-centered, and I can see why singing to oneself might raise red flags. But, in Psalm 103, David says “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!” So the Psalmist is singing to his own heart, exhorting himself to praise God for saving him, blessing him, keeping his covenant, and showing compassion. When we encourage ourselves toward praise in this way, we also encourage all the gathered believers to praise God as well.
Indeed, the latter half of the chorus makes it clear that we are only speaking inward in order to express outward. If our souls learn to truly praise the Lord, we can’t keep it shut up inside but must express our love for him in our speech, attitudes, and actions. The resurrection of Christ (“my God is alive”) must be shared continually with our fellow believers and those who do not yet know Jesus’ love and power.
BRIDGE The bridge is pretty straightforward. It’s directed toward God rather than inward, and it gives four excellent reasons that God deserves our praise. First, his reign is sovereign. God is in control, and the universe is his dominion and will be forever. Nothing and no one can contest his rule (Dan 7:13-14).
Second, he rose and defeated death. Having joined Christ in his death through baptism, we also join in his eternal resurrection. In dying and rising, Jesus disarmed, defeated, and triumphed over our spiritual enemies of death, sin, and darkness (Col 2:12-15).
Third, God is faithful and true. God keeps his covenant promises to his people perfectly, even when we are unfaithful to him. Jesus is the perfect and final fulfillment of all God’s promises (2 Cor 1:20)
Fourth, their is no one greater than our God. All strength ultimately comes from him, and the greatness and glory and victory always belong to him. He is exalted above all (1 Ch 29:10-11). Every knee in all creation must bow at the name of Jesus (Php 2:10).
Accessibility
The choruses and bridge are easy to understand, even with little Bible knowledge. There are a couple lines in the verses that only make sense if you know the stories of the crossing of the Red Sea and the fall of Jericho, and it takes some context to understand what it means to conceive of praise as a weapon for spiritual battle. So while there are a couple lines that might spark some questions or confusion, I think these are important questions that bear thinking about, and it’s healthy to prompt people to wrestle through them. I don’t see much danger of harmful theology due to misinterpretation.
Regarding singability, the entire melody of this song is within an octave, so that’s a plus! The refrain of “pra-a-a-a-aise the Lord, oh my soul,” is repeated often and is easy to pick up. The verses and bridge have a repetitive rhythmic structure that is easy to learn. And this one is super catchy! Very singable.
Music
We usually usually skip that call-and-response chant at the beginning of this song since it would be a little outside our congregation’s musical comfort zone (though maybe that’s a reason to do it 🤷). It did work really well at camp this summer; it’s easier to get middle and high school students to buy into different kinds of participation.
The verses and pre-choruses do a fantastic job building energy and excitement as they establish when and why the Lord deserves our praise. The choruses absolutely explode with joy and celebration.
Nothing crazy in the chord progression. The changing chords over the stagnant bass in the bridge and less so on the verses are a neat change of pace and contribute towards the effect of building energy.
One strength of this song is that the difficulty is adjustable to some extent. The drummer can play a pretty basic beat and still accomplish the dynamic goals of each section of the song. Guitars can play simple strum patterns or get really into it and go crazy. This song is all about joy, so it’s hard to do too much!
Conclusions
Will “Praise” worship? (😂) It sure will!
This is one of the most joyful, energizing celebrations of God that I know. It’s a great song for stirring up our hearts to offer him the praise he so fully deserves. The simple and repetitive choruses are supported by the reasons for praise offered in the bridge, and this song provides opportunity to encourage ourselves and one another towards praise of the God who conquers death. I definitely recommend this one as an opening song to call the congregation to worship.
“That’s My King” popped up a few months ago as a new release from CeCe Winans on SongSelect, and I clicked on it because I thought it was going to be based on the famous sermon “That’s My King” by S.M. Lockridge. It’s not. But what it is might be even better!
(Update: This song has exploded since I wrote this review, and it has gone on to win a Grammy and a Billboard Music Award! I love the heart and attitude of the songwriters in their acceptance speech.)
In an interview with The Christian Beat, songwriter Lloyd Nicks describes working on the song with friends Jess Russ, Kellie Gamble, and Taylor Agan, gathered around an out-of-tune piano, finding the difficulty of capturing with words the “bigness and greatness of Jesus.” He says they were trying to write a song that couldn’t be contained, because the King is himself too big to be contained. What Nicks and friends wrote is a joyful, infectious celebration of the glory, character, and heart of God.
“That’s My King” is catchy, personal, and transcendent, but is it biblical, and will it worship?
Focus
This song is about the glory and praise of God. It lists many attributes of his character and gazes in wonder upon the King who defies description. It revels in the uncontainable glory and holiness and beauty of God and also draws near to him, repeatedly emphasizing “that’s my King.”
The subject of the song is identified as King, God, and Shepherd, among other titles, and sometimes we sing directly to God in 2nd person. The song is both personal and corporate, using “I” and “my” alongside “we.”
Lyric Analysis
VERSE 1 “I wish I could tell you // wish I could describe it”
In the first verse, the worshipers address each other. We are in awe of God and can’t contain him in our words, but also can’t help but speak about him. What I love about this verse is that it sees the futility of trying to explain the wonder of God and what he’s done for us, but it still doesn’t give up trying. It’s not that there aren’t words; there just aren’t enough words.
“There aren’t enough colors to paint the whole picture” is a beautiful metaphor, and it begins to break our minds and hearts out of the box. Just like we can’t imagine colors outside the visible spectrum, we can’t fully imagine God with the limitations of our minds and experiences.
One quirk of Christian worship is that even though we acknowledge that God is indescribable, we can’t help but try to describe him! It’s not that we can’t or shouldn’t use our words, it’s just that there aren’t enough of them to explain who he is or even what he means to us.
PRE-CHORUS This section is a rapid-fire list of seven characteristics of God, and I want unpack each one of them just a tiny bit.
Wonderful: He’s the God who creates wonders (Ps 8:3), works wonders (Ex 15:11), and fills us with awe and wonder (Ac 2:43, Heb 12:28).
Beautiful: When we speak about God being beautiful, we are talking about more than aesthetic beauty, though certainly not less. In the Psalms, when God’s beauty is mentioned, it is in connection with his temple. He shines forth out of the place where he comes to dwell with his people, drawing all nations toward himself and his goodness.
Glorious: Much like his beauty that draws people to him, God’s glory fills the temple or the tabernacle in the Old Testament. It’s described as a cloud, something so radiant that humans cannot fully look upon it (Ex 40:35). In the New Testament, we see that through Jesus’ work on the cross, the veil is torn (Mt 27:51). We are no longer kept out of God’s glorious presence but invited in!
Holy: This is one of those church words that we sometimes use without much understanding of what it means. It’s related to glory and beauty, but different too. We often think of holiness as moral goodness, and that’s part of it, but it also refers to God’s total uniqueness, his other-ness. Much like the glory that kept Moses and the Israelites from entering the tabernacle, God’s holiness is dangerous to those who would enter his presence while tainted by sin or impurity. But in Christ, God brings his holiness near to us, pouring out from him and purifying us instead of destroying us.
For an awesome (and animated!) exploration of God’s holiness, check out this video from the Bible Project. It really helped me understand it in a new way!
Merciful: God’s love is abounding towards us, and he is slow to anger and quick to forgive (Ex 34:6). Mercy is his character, always lavishing his grace and kindness on us (Eph 2:7).
Powerful: God showed his mighty power when he defeated Pharaoh and his armies to rescue Israel from Egypt (Ex 32:11). But in Christ, we see God’s power even more clearly. He chooses to conquer evil and even death itself through the humble death of our Savior on a cross (Rom 1:16). The power of his Spirit is displayed in our lives when we let him work through our weakness to show how his strength (2 Cor 12:9).
King: God made the world, and it belongs to him. Through his Church, he is building his Kingdom, and he will return to set every wrong thing right and to reign in peace, justice, and righteousness (Isa 9:6-7).
CHORUS “Who we talking about? // That’s my King!”
If this song just said “He’s the King,” it would praise God for his sovereignty. If it just said, “He’s mine,” it would express intimacy with God. But saying “That’s my King!” does both. He is the ruler we gladly embrace, and we are overjoyed to belong to him. In one line, we honor him as ruler and delight in being his dearly loved children. I love it!
The rest of the chorus is just different ways of praising him. He’s worthy. We declare his glory and give him honor. We commit to adoring him. We agree with Paul in Romans 11:36 that all things are for him and through him and to him. Echoing the first of the Ten Commandments, we declare that there is no one before him (Ex 20:3).
VERSE 2 In Luke 19:28-40, Jesus’ disciples praise him loudly on his entry into Jerusalem, causing quite a disruption. When religious leaders object, Jesus tells him that if the people fall silent, then even the rocks will cry out in praise. In “That’s My King” we promise not to let that happen.
In Revelation 4-5, the inhabitants of heaven, angels, people, elders, and strange creatures sing several songs of praise that are reminiscent of the words of this song. They also declare God’s worthiness, his holiness, his glory, honor, and power. This is the eternal song of praise that we join into as we worship God.
BRIDGE The bridge builds further connection between the worshiper and God as each line explains who he is to us on a personal level. When I say he is my king and God, I am offering him my fealty and obedience. When I call him my Shepherd and Protector (Jn 10:1-18), I am counting on him to protect and lead me. When I call him my Rock (Mt 7:24-27) and Anchor, I am trusting him to hold me steady through any storm I face in my life. When I call him my Defender, I know that he is the victor of every spiritual battle and that nothing can take me from his hand (Rom 8:38-39). So, these lines offer truths about who God is, but they also call for a response of faith and trust based on those truths.
Accessibility
This song is super easy to understand. We explained the theological significance of holiness, glory, and power up above, but a congregant doesn’t need to know all of that information to enter into worship with this song. Anyone who listens to even a little bit of “That’s My King” will understand that it is offering praise and glory to God. This song is clear and precise and leaves no room for misunderstandings.
Is “That’s My King” singable? I think so. The verses are a little tricky timing-wise, and the choruses have lots of syncopation, but the rhythms repeat themselves enough that the average person can learn them easily. I also love the call-and-response of “Who we talking about? // That’s my King!” It provides an entry point for someone uncomfortable with singing in church to join in the question-and-answer pattern. 95% of the melody sits within an octave, so the range is pretty accessible for a worship song.
Music
“That’s My King” is an infectious gospel celebration of the kingship of God. It is always pushing forward, and in my experience, it sweeps up the whole worship team and congregation in its joyful drive of praise. The dynamic arc is effective, straightforward, and exciting. The chord progression is fresh and will keep the congregation on their toes without them realizing exactly why. The instrumentation paints the words of this song with glory and highlights each characteristic of God that we sing about.
If your worship team is unaccustomed to playing in a gospel style, this song is going to take some extra work. The chord progression is very different from the I-V-vi-IV pattern that is so common in the Hillsong-Bethel-Passion vein of modern worship. There are some bVIIs and bVIs, and some cool instrumental sections that require changing chords in between beats. Even if you’re a white church with a white praise band, I think this song is playable, and it’s a great place to begin introducing some gospel music influence to your team and your congregation. Our team has loved playing it, and I think they’ve enjoyed the challenge of thinking and playing outside the box a little bit.
Function
Gathering | Word | Table | Sending
I probably wouldn’t do this one during Communion, but anywhere else in the service is fair game! It can serve a unifying function, gathering the congregation into a worshiping body. It declares truth about God’s power, love, and beauty. We want to send people out of church talking about the King, and this song does exactly that.
Conclusions
Will it worship? You bet!
“That’s My King” is one of my very favorite new worship songs. The music is exciting, joyful, and serves to expand the palette of churches used to a steady CCM diet without going so far outside the box as to confuse or frustrate. The lyrics are rock-solid, and what I think is really special about this song is the juxtaposition of God’s sovereign kingship with his personal relationship to each believer. We all need to be reminded that God is King and that he’s my King.
We’re singing this one again this Sunday, and I think it’s going to remain a congregational favorite for a long time!
“Manger Throne” is a new Christmas worship anthem from songwriters Phil Wickham, Jonathan Smith, and Tony Wood. The lyrics juxtapose Christ’s glory with his humility, his throne with his manger. The music paints those words with epic, sweeping accompaniment that feels like a return to the soundscapes I loved on 2010’s Heaven & Earth.
“Manger Throne” got lots of radio play in the 2023 holiday season, but is it a worship song? Are the words theologically sound and biblically accurate? What even is a manger throne? Do you sit on it or in it? And does Jesus still have one? Let’s find out!
Focus
The main idea of this song is the humility of Christ’s Incarnation. Phil explores this theme through the paradoxical image of a manger throne and by exploring the connection between the Christmas story and the story of Christ’s death and resurrection.
This song is fully Christ-centered. It is all about the person and work of Jesus, calling him by name and exalting him for his victory-through-humility.
Lyric Analysis
VERSES (WARNING: I’m going to jump around a little bit to unpack this song thematically rather than in order. If that stresses you out, I apologize.)
The two verses of this song portray the same idea. Jesus had all power and authority at his disposal when he entered into our world, but he chose to come meekly, humbly, fully embracing our humanity by being born as a baby.
Jesus could have come into the world with a pillar of fire as in the Exodus (Ex 13:22) or perhaps the consuming fire that destroyed the blaspheming priests Nadab and Abihu (Lev 10:1-3). The same heavenly host that came to sing a song of peace at Christ’s birth might well have brought a sword instead (Lk 2:12-14, Gen 3:24). Jesus could have come as a conqueror to overthrow the oppressive yoke of Rome, force the submission of all the nations, and establish Israel’s political ascendancy as many expected him to do during his earthly ministry (Ac 1:6-7).
But, as verse two says, the story God wrote through the Incarnation is so much better! Rather than conquer through overwhelming force, Jesus humbles himself, emptying himself of his divine power. He becomes fully human, allowing himself to be embraced by common, lowly people—a carpenter, his wife, some shepherds—so that he might fully embrace all of our humanity (Phil 2:6-8).
PRE-CHORUS 1 “But You chose meekness over majesty//wrapped Your power in humanity”
These two lines are a perfect summary of the verses. It’s a succinct expression of Christ emptying himself to take on the form of a servant (Phil 2:6-8, again).
PRE-CHORUS 2 This section identifies the culmination of Christ’s humility. As we read in Philippians 2:8 (for the third time), Jesus’s humility did not merely extend to being born as a man. He submitted himself even to a humiliating, torturous death for our sake. Jesus’ blood redeems us to God and forgives our sins (Eph 1:7). And his resurrection is the power and the guarantee of our resurrection with him (Rom 6:5). I appreciate that this bridge views Christ’s work through the lenses of substitutionary atonement and his victory over sin and death.
BRIDGE Here, we see the full arc of the Incarnation. Jesus was enthroned in heaven from eternity past, and then he willingly humbled himself to be born in a stable, cradled in a feeding trough. From the beginning of his life on earth, he lived humbly, and he did not refuse to submit to death on the cross. If we read just two more verses from Philippians 2, we see the result of all of Christ’s humility and submission: exaltation.
“Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth“ Philippians 2:9-10
Jesus’ reign and glory are achieved through self-sacrifice, humility, peace, and bringing all of humanity together in himself (Eph 2:14), not through violence, political maneuvering, manipulation, or any other scheme of man that has supported every other throne in human history.
CHORUS “Glory be to You alone//King who reigns from a manger throne”
God alone is holy, worthy of worship, his name glorified forever (Rev 15:4). Jesus is both God and King (Heb 1:8, Phil 2:9-10), so it is right and good to offer him this glory.
It is also good to offer him our lives and our possessions, as we are called to be living sacrifices (Rom 12:1). This line is an expression of surrender. It’s aspirational in a sense, because I don’t know anyone whose life and possessions are fully surrendered to Jesus, but that doesn’t make it untrue. In singing this line, we call ourselves and one another to be more wholly devoted to our Servant King and his Kingdom of servants.
But what about the titular Manger Throne? Are we saying that Jesus was actively reigning over his kingdom from the manger even while he was a pre-verbal infant? That doesn’t quite make sense if he emptied himself and took the position of a servant (Phil 2:7). Or are we talking about Jesus’ present reign at the right hand of God? Does that throne need to be manger-shaped? Or maybe it’s made of reclaimed wood from the manger? Or maybe this is the future millennial reign?
Fortunately, we don’t need to tie ourselves into such knots over this song. The manger throne is a visual illustration of Jesus’ character and a symbol of his reign and kingdom, not a literal piece of furniture. Getting hung up on whether Jesus could be said to “reign” as an infant misses the point of the songbecause we’re not talking to tiny baby Jesus; we’re talking to the resurrected King Jesus who is present with us today as we worship him. This Jesus is fully God and sits enthroned, and he is also fully human, still characterized by the love and humility that led him to be born in a manger.
(Thank you to Vince and Neal on The Berean Test for some stimulating thoughts on this section of the song, and the image of the manger throne in particular!)
Accessibility
This song uses plain language to express the deep mystery of Jesus’ glory and humility, his Godhood and his humanity, perfectly one in the incarnate Son. It does a great job of making these heady theological ideas accessible through description and imagery, especially the key metaphor of the manger throne. I don’t see any room for misinterpretation.
Singability is ok, not great, not terrible. The range is an octave plus a 3rd, not bad. The rhythms of the verses are a little tricky, especially since no line starts quite the same way. The bridge also has a different melody on the repeat, so the congregation doesn’t have an opportunity to learn it and then repeat it the same way. That said, the chorus is very straightforward. It’s got a high note, but it can be sung an octave lower by the basses in the room.
Music
As I mentioned above, I love how this song feels like classic Phil Wickham. The use of synth and choir is lush, beautiful, and impactful. If you have those tools at your disposal, use them! I also appreciate that even though this is a Christmas song, it doesn’t slap you in the face with holiday cheer. It’s not all sleigh bells and minor 7ths and snow and reindeer. This song is perfectly appropriate to any Sunday of the year, especially if Christ’s incarnation is being discussed. We just played it this past Sunday, in June, and nobody batted an eye. (…but we did have to swap out some of the glittery Christmas backgrounds in ProPresenter!)
This is a great song for teaching dynamics to a worship band. It follows the typical structure of a quiet opening building to some bigger choruses and a huge ending. The way the instruments layer in gradually through the song is easy to replicate and makes this song flow naturally and in an engaging way. (Just don’t let anybody play when they’re not supposed to!) The chord changes come pretty quick in a few places, so it might be worth it to work through those together once or twice in rehearsal. If your lead singer isn’t a tenor, you may need to bump it down a step, and they will want to practice the entrances on the verses; those are tricky.
Conclusions
Let heaven and nature sing! “Manger Throne” definitely worships. It links Christ’s birth to his death, resurrection, and eternal reign. It teaches the theology of the Incarnation in a unique and valuable way through imagery. It’s also beautiful, emotional, and fun to sing and play.
“A Thousand Shores” (not Hallelujahs, Names, Tongues or Reasons. For real, I’m starting to get all of these “thousand” songs mixed up. 😂) is written by Leeland Mooring, Leslie Jordan, and Zachary Bolen. It ‘s part of Citizens’ 2023 album I Can’t Find the Edges of You, the home of certified banger “Good Ground,” which I love and have reviewed already.
While “Good Ground” and “Everything and More” were my initial favorites from this release, “A Thousand Shores” grew on me every time I heard it, and some of my fellow worship leaders agreed, so we introduced it at Christ’s Church a couple weeks ago. The band has really enjoyed it, and the congregation has grabbed ahold of it as well, but is “A Thousand Shores” biblical, and will it worship? Let’s figure out what we’ve been singing!
Focus
This song expresses the wonder and joy of being known by Jesus and filled with his life-sustaining love. The most repeated line and heartbeat of the song is “Jesus, You are my everything,” an expression of devotion to Jesus and a statement of his all-sufficiency.
This song is about the closeness of Jesus to the believer, so there’s lots of “my” in the song, and also lots of “You” referring to Jesus. Jesus is the only member of the Trinity mentioned specifically.
Lyric Analysis
VERSES 1 & 2 These verses express wonder at how deeply Jesus knows us and at the sovereign way he works in our lives. The author says God can read our hearts like a book, a sentiment the Eleven Disciples share in Acts 1:24, and that he knows what is in our minds before we ask it, an important principle Jesus teaches along with the Lord’s Prayer (Matt 6:8).
When this song says, “You write my story and call it good,” I think it’s paraphrasing Romans 8:28, which says “for those who love God, all things work together for good.” God is the author of our faith journey (Heb 12:2), and we can trust that his plans are good even as we are unable to imagine or comprehend his ways (Job 9:10, Isa 55:8). The phrase “You’re in my future, You’re in my past” reminds me of Psalm 139:13-16, where David praises God for knowing him and every one of his days even before he was formed in the womb.
As a response to this God’s wondrous knowledge of our inmost being and his unsearchable plans, we cry out with Moses, “Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?” (Ex 15:11).
CHORUS “You give my lungs the air to breathe // You are my everything”
In the chorus, we praise Jesus for things that he gives us. We’re not really talking about material blessings here; we’re more describing the experience of knowing Christ and walking with him. He gives light to our eyes (Pro 29:11), words to our lips (Matt 10:19), and breath to our lungs (Gen 2:7) as well putting a song in our soul (Zeph 3:17) and giving us every beat of our hearts. Jesus doesn’t just give us life when we’re born or when we become Christians, he sustains us by his power every moment, and the whole universe only holds together because of his active involvement (Col 1:17). “In him, we live and move and have our being.” (Ac 17:28) This is what we mean when we say, “You are my everything.”
I think it’s important to note that calling Jesus our everything does not dishonor the other Persons of the Trinity, devalue the community of the church, or denigrate our bodily and emotional needs. Regarding the Trinity, all of God fully receives all worship offered to Jesus. He is creator, sustainer, the head of the church, the beginning and the end, given preeminence in all things. The fullness of God is pleased to dwell in him (Col 1:15-20). The Father and Spirit are never threatened by honor given to Jesus but are fully included in it. The church is the very body of Christ, the fulness of his presence, the earthly epicenter of his all-in-all-ness (Eph 1:22-23). So participating in Christian community is part of what it means to have Jesus as our everything. Regarding physical needs, Christ promises that his Father provides for them when we seek after him (Matt 6:32-33). Trusting in Jesus as our everything means subordinating all those needs because we know that we need him more.
VERSE 3 This short verse is about the immensity and infinity of Jesus’ love. Much like the uncountable grains of sand on a thousand shores, the love of Christ can never run out. It is eternal, abounding, steadfast, forgiving, and perfect (1 Jn 4:18, John 3:16, Ps 136:26). I can’t imagine a greater truth than that either!
BRIDGE The phrase “too wonderful” appears in the Bible when the speaker acknowledges that he can’t comprehend God’s power and wisdom and love. Job says this of God’s tremendous power in creating and sustaining the world, and of the way God has been active even through Job’s suffering (Job 42:3). David says it when praising God for how deeply and perfectly God knows each one of us (Ps 139:6). It conveys an inability to understand, but also a deep awe, reverence, and amazement.
If you are in Christ, you never have to worry about what life or eternity would be like without Jesus, because nothing can ever separate you from his love or rip you out of his hand (John 17:11-12, Rom 8:39). I’m not going to get into the once-saved-always-saved debate here; suffice it to say that the Bible warns us against falling away from Christ, but it also reassures us that nothing short of a full rejection of the Son of God can ever sever our relationship with him (Heb 6:4-6, 2 Tim 2:12-13).
Accessibility
While God’s ways and his love are incomprehensible, “A Thousand Shores” is not. It uses easy-to-understand language to describe and celebrate beautiful, biblical truths about God and his relationship to us. You don’t need a theology degree or a lifetime of accumulated Sunday school lessons to understand this one. 👍👍
I don’t see any danger of serious misunderstandings in this song. Some church people might think the song excludes the Father and Holy Spirit, or that it takes a particular stance on eternal security, but that’s just not the case, as I discussed above.
This song is highly congregational, as long as your congregation isn’t scared of a little syncopation! The melodies are highly repetitive, making them easy to learn, and the range is only a sixth! That’s super rare in contemporary worship songs and it means that just about anyone can find a comfortable place to sing this song whatever key you put it in.
Music
Simple, repetitive chord changes. Repetitive melody. Nothing insane going on rhythmically. The basic drum pattern of kick and snare is easy to grab onto. There’s lots of synth in this one, so I like to use a track for those arpeggiators and atmospheric effects. The only real challenge for the band is going to be the highly syncopated lyrics. It’s a little tricky to stay in time when the melody seems to avoid the beat.
The key to the dynamics of this song is contrast. The dramatic entrances and exits of different instruments, the octave jumps, the nearly yelled vocals on the bridge with almost no instrumentation, all of it makes this song exciting and easy to engage with.
I mentioned earlier that the range of this song is only a sixth. That’s not quite true for the lead vocalist. 😬 There is an octave jump from verse 3 to the chorus, so that makes the range for the lead singer an octave plus a sixth. Yikes! Fortunately, this is easily fixed by just not singing the first part of the song an octave lower, or having a singer of the opposite sex sing that portion. I’ve found that if I include the octave jump, it is helpful to have another man continue singing the melody an octave lower to give the men in the congregation an anchor so they don’t have to jump up high with me.
Conclusions
Will it worship? Totally. “A Thousand Shores” revels in the mysteries of Jesus: his love, his deep knowing, his life-giving presence. It is an exuberant anthem of joy and devotion, and I plan to keep on singing it!
I don’t usually gravitate toward Holy Spirit songs. I’m not exactly a cessationist, but I grew up with the idea that the Holy Spirit primarily acts as the Christian’s conscience, helping us to know right and wrong, and maybe prompting us to share the Gospel or do something nice for someone once in a while. I often feel that songs focused on the Holy Spirit are too centered on a certain emotional experience or the outpouring of charismatic spiritual gifts.
“The Dove” is different. This song by Andrew Holt, Austin Davis, Cody Carnes and Kari Jobe traces the imagery of the Dove as a representation of God’s Spirit from the beginning of creation to the present. I’ve never seen this particular image drawn out through worship lyrics, and I hadn’t previously made some of the connections this song makes. These things made me excited to try this song out and dig deeper into its meaning! But is “The Dove” Biblical? What do the lyrics mean? And will it worship?
Focus
This song is all about the Holy Spirit, his different roles, and our need for him. It tells the story of Creation, Fall, and Redemption through the dove imagery that appears throughout Scripture. It also considers the connection between Jesus’ work and the presence of his Spirit.
This song touches on all three Persons of the Trinity, especially the Holy Spirit and Christ the Son. The Father is identified less specifically. In a couple places, the song refers to the Holy Spirit as “it,” but
“The Dove” includes the singing congregation as “we,” dwelling on our need and desire for more of the Holy Spirit. In the final verse, the individual “I” finds a moment for humble reflection and an opportunity to personally invite the Spirit to dwell within.
Lyric Analysis
VERSE 1 The story of the Dove begins in Genesis 1. In the very second verse of the Bible, we see the Spirit of God fluttering (or hovering or brooding) over the unorganized, pre-creation waters. The Bible doesn’t speak of a dove here, but saying that the Spirit was fluttering over the waters suggests the image of a bird. This line introduces us to the Spirit’s role in creation.
God speaks, ordering the cosmos in six days, and then after he makes man in his image, he calls the whole creation good. At first, man and woman dwell in the garden with God. We don’t get many details about their relationship in the text, but much later in the Bible, Jesus calls his followers his “friends,” so we see that this is the kind of relationship God desires to have with us (John 15:15).
CHORUS 1 The first chorus is simple. We say that all we need is more of the Holy Spirit. We ask him to give us more. What does that mean? The answer here is pretty subjective, and is going to vary by church and individual.
In my understanding of Scripture, you either have the Holy Spirit or you don’t. You don’t receive 10% of the Spirit at your baptism, 20% when you get really emotional at church sometime, and then the rest at a later date. God dwells within you fully when you turn to him and spiritually join Jesus in his death and resurrection (Acts 2:38).
What can and should increase is the influence and prominence of the Spirit in your life. When I pray for more of the Holy Spirit, I’m joining John the Baptist when he said of Jesus: “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:39-31). I’m asking the Spirit to fill my life with more of his fruit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, and to kill the fruit of evil and selfishness within me (Gal. 5:19-20). I’m also asking the Spirit to give me the spiritual gifts I need to serve better in his church. This is the purpose of spiritual gifts: to serve one another (1 Pet. 4:10). So when I ask for more of the Spirit, I’m not exactly asking for more of the Spirit. I’m really offering him more control of my life, and asking for his work to be more and more evident in me.
I briefly wondered if it is wrong to say that all we need is more of the Spirit. After all, we need Jesus and the Father too! But I think that’s a misguided concern. When we exalt one member of the Trinity, we exalt them all. After all, when God the Father exalts Jesus, giving him the name above every other name, he isn’t in any way diminishing his own glory (Phil. 2:5-11).
VERSE 2 Now, “The Dove” addresses the consequences of sin and the Holy Spirit’s response. The songwriters do this through the story of the Flood. This narrative begins with creation so ruined and corrupted by sin that God regrets having made it (Gen. 6:5-7). The Flood destroys all humanity except Noah and his family, and then when the waters begin to recede, Noah sends out a dove. Initially, the dove can’t find anywhere to land because there is too much water, but then the dove brings back an olive branch, and then it fails to return because it has finally find a place to build its nest (8:6-12). In this song, this dove is a metaphor for the activity of the Holy Spirit throughout Scripture. In the Old Testament, God’s Spirit sometimes “rushes upon” various people to empower them in battle or to prophesy. And He finds a temporary dwelling place in the Temple, but then the Temple is destroyed. When we get to the New Testament, the Spirit of God descends in Jesus at his baptism, and this time the dwelling is permanent. Jesus is the true Vine, and we are the branches, nourished in him to bear spiritual fruit and love one another (John 15:1-17). He is our redeemer and the source of our eternal life.
CHORUS 2 This chorus introduces some new material in the form of four titles applied to the Holy Spirit: Truth, Living Water, Helper, and Healer. These titles illustrated four of the main ways the Spirit works in our lives.
The Holy Spirit is the Truth because he teaches us the things of God and helps us to remember Jesus’ words (John 14:17, 14:26). The Holy Spirit is the Living Water that Jesus promises us. He not only satisfies our spiritual thirst, but overflows from our hearts to nourish and refresh others (John 7:37-39). Jesus calls the Spirit the Helper and sends him to us to dwell with us forever, since Jesus is no longer physically present with his people (John 14:16). We need the Holy Spirit’s help to complete the Church’s mission of making disciples and building God’s Kingdom, and he is the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise to be with us in that mission (Matt. 28:18-20, Acts 1:6-8). The Holy Spirit is the source of spiritual gifts, including every gift of healing that God provides (1 Cor. 12:9), and even more importantly, he is the power that raised Christ from the dead and that raises us to new life in Christ now and forever (Rom. 8:11).
BRIDGE: The Upper Room is where the first disciples received the Holy Spirit on the Jewish holiday of Pentecost. He appeared to them as tongues of fire resting on each of them on accompanied by the sound of a mighty rushing wind. The Spirit enabled them to speak in other languages so that the visiting Jews from all over the world would be able to hear the Gospel (Acts 2:1-13).
In evoking this scene and asking God to pour out his Spirit in the same way, we’re not asking for the same visible manifestations of tongues of fire, rushing wind, and speaking in other languages. Rather, we are asking for the Holy Spirit to empower us for ministry and fill us with his light to shine forth the Good News about Jesus and his Kingdom.
VAMP: As the third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit is worthy to be worshiped as “holy, holy, holy,” the same cry that never ceases around God’s throne (Rev. 4:8, Isa. 6:3).
Calling God holy means that he is set apart, different from us, morally pure and perfect, sacred. Throughout the Bible, when something unholy (like our sin) comes into contact with something holy, either the holy thing becomes polluted, or in the case of God’s presence, the source of sin is destroyed. Because of Jesus’ incarnation, death, and resurrection, God’s Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us and make us holy instead of destroying us in our sin. The Bible Project has an excellent video that does a much better job of explaining this idea of God’s holiness.
VERSE 3: Probably my favorite part of the song, this verse connects the work of the Holy Spirit to the work of Christ.
In Acts 2:38, Peter tells the listening multitude “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” So the presence of the Spirit is possible because of the forgiveness we have in Jesus’ death. Moreover, it is connected directly to baptism, which is our act of joining Christ in his death and resurrection (Rom. 6:3).
At the end of this verse, we finally tie the whole narrative of the Dove together. Throughout the song, we’ve seen the Dove searching for a place to create, or to recreate, and he found a resting place on Jesus at his baptism. Now, that same Spirit is transforming us into the image of Christ! Put another way, Christ is being formed in us (Gal. 4:18-19).
So we see this beautiful picture that the Dove of the Spirit is resting on the image of Jesus being formed inside each one of us. There’s a beautiful sense of completion and rightness here. This is how God intended to dwell among us; it’s been his plan ever since the beginning.
Accessibility
This one’s deep! I think most people will understand portions of the song, but the full meaning isn’t clear without a wealth of Biblical background knowledge. Having said that, this song teaches the story of God from a fresh perspective and a different angle, and it illuminates the work of the Holy Spirit in a way I think is unique and valuable.
People might misunderstand what it means to ask for more of the Holy Spirit, or to ask for another Pentecost, or what “the Christ in me” is, especially if they have been influenced by charismatic or new age theology.
I think the melody of this song is singable and congregational. It repeats itself a lot and is easy to learn, except possibly the bridge.
Music
This song tells an epic story, and it needs some time to do it! The live version of “The Dove” is 10 minutes long, and I’ve managed to shorten it to about 7:00, but that’s all I can do without seriously reducing the effectiveness of the lyrics. With this kind of marathon worship song, dynamics are super important. It’s got to start soft and stay that way for a while, so the lead vocalist needs to support the song with intensity rather than volume. In the second half of the song, a couple of strategic builds accentuate the majesty of God’s Spirit finding a dwelling place with his people through Christ the Son.
The chord progression is familiar and doesn’t pose any particular challenges, except that no one likes to play in Ab, so I suggest lowering it a half step to G. The quick passing chords in the chorus and bridge give the song forward motion. As I mentioned, the lead vocalist has to carry a lot of weight in this song, especially in dynamics and range (octave +5). The instrumentalists shouldn’t have much difficulty with this one.
Conclusions
I knew this one was going to take some analysis, but I feel like I learned a lot about the Holy Spirit through studying this song! “The Dove” is a magical unicorn of a worship song that teaches deep things about God and his story through fresh lyrics and imagery. It never feels stilted or belabored, and it also doesn’t get mushy about the Holy Spirit or focus too much on feeling the Spirit, which Holy Spirit songs sometimes have a tendency to do. It’s congregational, and I think the complexity of the lyrics serve to call the people to a better understanding of God’s Spirit rather than to confuse them. My only concern is the challenge of leading this song vocally.
Will it worship? 100%. I’m grateful for this song and the spiritual nourishment it is providing me and my congregation!
Will It Worship? 