Bethel

Is ‘Made For More’ Biblical? A Worship Song Analysis

/ Jason Henry / 1 Comment

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.

Will it worship? You betcha.

Image by Courtney Cook on Unsplash

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

ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE – Bethel Music, Dante Bowe

/ Jason Henry / Leave a comment

“Anything Is Possible” is from Bethel Music’s 2020 album Revival’s in the Air. Dante Bowe delivers a powerful lead vocal on this track, and he is one of its writers along with Brandon Lake, Hannah McClure, and Michaela Gentile. I usually focus on reviewing brand new songs, but this one came to my attention because of a post in a Facebook group for worship leaders. The comments were divided; some people loved the song’s celebration of God’s power while others thought a particular line verged on heresy! Let’s take a look at this popular, divisive church tune and ask if “Anything is Possible” is biblical, and if it should worship.

Focus

This song celebrates God’s indomitable power. He can do anything, and nothing has any chance of stopping him. We also celebrate the breakthrough and victory that we experience through his victory.

The verses and bridge are sung directly to God (2nd person) while the chorus is sung to the congregation about him (3rd person). We mostly call him “you,” but in the chorus he is identified as “God.”

The chorus mentions “me” a lot, but only in a figure of speech: “show me one thing he can’t do.” The bridge uses a lot of “I” to describe the victory celebration of the worshipers and their leaving behind of negative emotions.

Lyric Analysis

VERSES 1 & 2
The first two verses follow the same pattern: they list powerful, bad things and declare that they are powerless before God. This is a great way to celebrate God’s power! When we list things that we are afraid of and then remind ourselves that God is greater, we mute the power of fear in our lives and redirect it as awe to the God who deserves it (Matt. 10:28). Regarding armies lacking the power to conquer truth, Church history has demonstrated that while persecution and violence may threaten or even decimate a Christian population, they can never fully stamp out the truth of the Gospel.

At the end of each verse, we remind ourselves that God has always been with us (John 14:16-17, Josh. 1:8-9), and then we say that we’ve already won every battle because God has already won every battle. This is true in a now/not yet kind of way. We’ve already won every battle because Jesus has already defeated sin and death on the cross. But we also haven’t already won every battle, because he hasn’t returned and ushered in the perfect new creation yet. We know the outcome will be victory, but we can’t pretend that we’re not still in the battle here and now.

My first problem with this song is the major Christological heresy in verse 2 (I don’t get to use the H word very often!). The song states (talking to God) that “there is no weapon that has ever left a mark on You.” That statement is true of God the Father and God the Spirit, but it is untrue of God the Son. Jesus was crucified, a spear pierced his side, and he still bears those wounds (John 19:18, 34, 20:27, Rev. 5:6). This isn’t a minor, obscure point of theology; this is at the very core of who Jesus is and how he saves us! The invincible God took on human flesh and allowed himself to be killed for us (Phil. 2:7-9).

Are there some ways to wiggle around this error? Sure. You could say that this song is addressed to the Father, not the Son. Or you could say that since the spear doesn’t exist anymore, the line is technically correct. Those arguments don’t hold up. We serve and sing to a triune God, and the emphasis of this line is on God’s inability to be wounded, not on the survival of the Spear of Destiny (which, incidentally, four different churches claim to possess). Pedantry notwithstanding, I’m not going to sing a lyric that contradicts the essential Gospel truth of Jesus’ wounds and scars.

CHORUS
The chorus uses rhetorical challenges to invite the listener to name anything that is impossible for God. Is anything too hard for him? Any mountain too high or waters too deep for him (Ex. 14, Matt. 17:20)? Of course not! We should face life with the knowledge that “with man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matt. 19:26).

I’m not quite sure what “God of the breakthrough” means because “breakthrough” has several different meanings. For most people, a breakthrough is a sudden leap forward in technology or understanding, or maybe the first hit single of a previously unknown music artist. In the context of this song, I think it means overcoming some sort of obstacle or defeating an enemy, like breaking through enemy lines in a battle. The main point of the song is that anything is possible for God, so I think the anticipated breakthrough could be any obstacle in the life of the worshiper.

VERSE 3
There is, in fact, a Kingdom, and it is, in fact advancing (Matt. 10:7, Matt. 16:18)! Saying it’s at the speed of light is an exciting line, but I’m not sure it really means anything. Certainly there have been times when the Kingdom has exploded in growth and influence, but there have also been lots of periods of regression and stagnation in Church history.

The line “every dead thing is bound to rise” could be misunderstood as teaching universalism, the idea that everyone will be saved, regardless of their belief in Jesus. The preceding phrase “and in his Kingdom…” mitigates this somewhat.

God is certainly our Redeemer (Gal. 3:13), and he is faithful, reviving our dead hearts in Christ, and one day he will fully resurrect those who believe in Jesus in a resurrection like his (Rom. 6:5). Hallelujah!

BRIDGE
The bridge celebrates a great reversal of fortune in the spirit of Psalm 30:11-12, “You have turned for me my mourning into dancing…that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever!” A small but important difference is that in the Psalm, it is God who turns the mourning into dancing, while in this song, tho one crushing disappointment and turning fear into praise is “I.” It’s odd that the rest of the song is focused on God bringing breakthrough, but this part seems to present a pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps mentality. We can’t just shake off fear and despair and break chains on our own; we need God for that. I think that’s actually the truth this song is trying to present, but the first-person wording on the bridge confuses the issue.

Accessibility

“Anything Is Possible” is 95% easy to understand. The song uses plain, everyday language except for the churchy word “breakthrough.”

The bridge might be misunderstood. Based on the lyrics alone, it is the worshiper who is shaking off their own negative emotions. I think the author probably means that God is helping them do this, that just isn’t clear from the words.

The range is an octave plus a fifth, which is pretty wide for a congregation but not uncommon in worship songs. The rhythmic monotone singing of the bridge and chorus makes them more like a victory chant than a melody; they’re very easy to learn. The verses are easy to pick up too. This song is infectious and very congregational.

Music

This is an exciting, upbeat, celebratory song. It’s pretty easy to play, and it carries an almost irresistible impetus to get up and dance and clap. The music effectively supports the themes of the lyrics.

Conclusions

Will it worship? Nope.

Verse 1 was good, but I felt like this song’s theology went downhill from there. Even ignoring verse 2’s Christological heresy, the overall thrust of this song is triumphalistic. It hypes up the idea of living in Christ’s victory and having him break down all our obstacles without acknowledging that we don’t get to fully experience that victory this side of heaven. Jesus promises that we will face trouble in this world (John 16:33), and for anyone in the midst of suffering, I worry that this song extends toxic positivity rather than the peace of Jesus’ completed work on the cross.

Image by Ambreen Hasan from Unsplash

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

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

/ Jason Henry / Leave a comment
crowd with raised hands

Image by Edwin Andrade from Unsplash

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

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

Focus

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

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

Lyric Analysis

THE TITLE

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

VERSE 2

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

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

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

VERSE 3

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

CHORUS 2

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

Accessibility

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

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

Music

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

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

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

Conclusions

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

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

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

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

HOMECOMING – Bethel Music, Cory Asbury, Gable Price

/ Jason Henry / 2 Comments

Image by Kevin Delvecchio from Unsplash

“Homecoming” is the title track from Bethel’s 2021 worship release. I’ve already reviewed “Send Me” from the same album, and you can find that review here. “Homecoming” is the work of Cory Asbury, Brian Johnson, Gable Price, and Christian Ostrom, and covers a broad arc of the Gospel and its implications for our lives, past, present, and future. Where this song really stands out is the bridge, where it paints a beautiful picture of our arrival and celebration in heaven. Is this picture of heaven biblical, and will this song serve your congregation well in worship? Let’s check it out!

Focus

The verses and chorus of “Homecoming” focus on our responsibility for our sin and the great work of Jesus that exchanged our death for life through his crucifixion and resurrection. The bridge dwells on joy-filled imagery of the our future reunion with God, our families, and the global Church. There’s a lot of “I” language, but it’s mostly related to the admission of guilt. It’s clear that the glory in this song belongs only to God, as he’s the one doing away with sin and welcoming us into our homecoming.

Lyric Analysis

VERSE 1
“Homecoming” comes right out of the gate with a confession of sin. In fact, both verses start with the line, “Lord, I confess.”

Here at the beginning, we confess being criminals, particularly in stealing breath from God and singing our own songs. What in the world does that mean? I think we’re referring here to the breath of life that God gave Adam at creation, and which God provides to all living people as a continual gift (Gen. 2:7, Isa. 42:5). In this verse, singing my own song is a metaphor for using the breath and life God has given me for my own purposes and glory instead of his.

Next, we confess our lack of innocence, which is appropriate since all of us have sinned (Rom. 3:23). Further, we admit that our shackles are something we purchased ourselves. Romans 6:23 tells us that the wages of sin is death, so being shackled to the dead weight of our sin is indeed the reality that we buy when we choose to use the gift of life to sin rather than to sing God’s glory.

VERSE 2

In this verse, we identify with the Prodigal Son from Jesus’ parable in Luke 15:11-32. Though he was born into a family with a loving father and an inheritance, he spurned his family and squandered his inheritance. This is what we do when we choose to wander from God rather than dwell with him in his house and under his provision and protection as in Psalm 23.

But then Jesus came! In Ephesians 2:11-22, Paul is addressing Gentile believers and how before Jesus, they were separated, walled off, from God and his family Israel. So the walls that imprison us are really the walls that separate us from God and his family. Verse 14 says, “For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility.” This is how we pass from death to life and into intimate familial fellowship with Jesus and the Father (John 5:24, Eph 2:18-19).

CHORUS
Our sins are described as scarlet, red, and crimson in Isaiah 1:18, where God also promises to wash them white like snow or wool. These blood colors represent sin because when we turn from God, we have guilt on our hands like the blood of a murder victim, or perhaps a wasted animal sacrifice that only serves to keep up our outward image of religiosity (Isa. 1:15). The crimson cost of our sin, then, is the one sacrifice that can permanently remove it: the blood of Jesus (Heb. 9:12). For more on this, see my review of “Thank You Jesus for the Blood.” The next line makes this explicit, saying he nailed our debts to that “old rugged cross.” This is a reference both to the classic hymn by George Bennard, and the words of Peter in 1 Peter 2:24.

An empty slate is a fresh start. The original idiom comes from a slate tracking a ship’s navigation being wiped clean to start a new voyage. This is a refreshing and appropriate image for becoming a new creation, being born again in Jesus (John 3:3, 2 Cor. 5:17). And that empty slate is only made possible because of the empty grave, i.e., Jesus’ resurrection (Rom. 6:3-4).

So, of course, we express thanks to God for rolling away the stone that sealed Jesus in the tomb, and by extension, the stones that seal us in our own tombs of sin, and by further extension, the stones that will seal us in our tombs of literal death, as the bridge of this song will celebrate by exploring imagery of our future resurrection.

SPONTANEOUS

He’s singing to Jesus, I think. Either way, I imagine anyone in heaven is going to be smiling a lot, so I have no problem with this ad lib.

BRIDGE

So we started with confessing responsibility for our sin, then moved into the glory of Jesus paying the price for that sin and giving us new life through his resurrection. Now, we look at the future consequence of that salvation: our eternity reunited with God and his family, the Church. Like much of the Bible’s imagery describing our future resurrection, we have a mixture of concrete and abstract, metaphorical and literal. All of these, as N. T. Wright likes to say, are “signposts pointing into a fog,” images that suggest the glory and joy of our eternal state united with Jesus and one another without ever giving us a precise picture of what exactly it will be like.

I have to admit, I don’t fully understand the first line of the bridge. I think the crimson robes in question must be Jesus’ robes stained with his blood, and the ashes they are covering represent death and all the old things of earth that have passed away. Roses pushing up from embers is a connected line in the next stanza, representing something beautiful and alive being reborn from death, destruction, and pain.

The empty tomb in place of a casket represents both Jesus’ resurrection, and ours. I like how the image of the casket is used here to ground the truth of our future resurrection in our contemporary experience to make it feel more real and immediate. Not many of us have been to an ancient Jewish tomb, and it’s easy to feel a disconnect. But most of us have been to a funeral and seen a loved one lying in a casket. It is this stark, cold reality that will be undone forever at the final resurrection, and we will see our loved ones again, and be resurrected ourselves.

I’m not aware of any specific passages about children or families singing, dancing, or laughing in heaven, but these are all classic Old Testament expressions of joy or worship (Ps. 150:4, 126:2, 96:1). The Lord himself sings over us joyfully in Zephaniah 3:17. So these are all appropriate activities that I would expect all heaven’s residents to enjoy. “Rivers of tears” coming from happy memories of life is a little tougher to justify. Revelation 21:4 says, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” I think the kind of tears referred to in this verse are clearly sad tears, not happy tears, so we don’t need to take it as a blanket prohibition on crying in heaven, merely a signpost that all reasons for mourning and sadness will be gone.

As mentioned above, it is not surprising that all heaven should sing together both in worship to God, and in celebration at the homecoming of lost sheep (Luke 15:7). The “great cloud of witnesses” comes from Hebrews 12:1, where it refers to the people of faith listed throughout Hebrews 11. The idea in this passage is that all the heroes of the Old Testament who lived and died in faith, trusting in God’s promise of the future Messiah, are gathered around as we continue the race they began, this time with Christ in full view. I think it makes sense to carry this picture forward to the finish line of the final resurrection, when our race will finally be won.

Regarding the word “homecoming,” I think this is a perfectly apt description of our future resurrection when we will be perfectly united with God and his family forever. God’s presence is our true home, regardless of other circumstances (2 Cor. 5:8), and our citizenship is in heaven, where we will receive glorious, resurrected bodies (Phil. 3:20-21). When I hear “the Father is welcoming,” I picture the father of the Prodigal Son again. In Luke 15:20, the prodigal is returning home, expecting to become a mere servant in his father’s house, but instead, “while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.” This is the kind of love with which we can expect to be welcomed home by our Father.

SPONTANEOUS

No major issues here. We will be with our families, or at least those of them who are believers. Wizard of Oz reference. Yes, Jesus is beautiful and we will see him face to face.

Accessibility

I am a little concerned about the accessibility of this worship song. It is jam-packed with Bible references and symbols that I expect to go over many people’s heads, and they come so fast that nobody’s going to catch all of them on a first hearing. This is both a strength and a weakness; a song that is hard to understand at first is often more meaningful once you mull it over and figure it out. Additionally, while individual lines are often tricky, the main emotional thrust of each part of the song is clear. The verses are sorrow over our sin, the chorus is gratitude for forgiveness, and the bridge is the joy and longing for our heavenly homecoming.

I don’t find much danger of misinterpretation in this song.

Music

“Homecoming” follows a pretty standard worship song format. We have a quiet first verse and chorus, then a dynamic leap in verse 2 and a pair of louder choruses followed by a bridge that builds to a crescendo, a climactic final chorus, and an “oh-oh” tag for an outro. In church, I would probably end the song here, though the recording goes through a spontaneous portion followed by another repetition of the bridge and chorus. The form of the song is effective at providing a vehicle for the message, and for communicating the emotional arc of sorrow-gratitude-joyful longing.

I think the most challenging musical aspect of this song will be nailing the drum groove. The drums on the verses are syncopated and clicky, and then the bridge is one long drum roll. Vocally, the melodies of the verses and chorus are easy but not boring, and the bridge is repetitive as one would expect. The challenging part here will be the “oh-oh-oh-OH” on the outro. I’ll probably transpose it down to fit my range better, but I do that with most songs.

Conclusions

“Homecoming” is a wonderful song that has been meaningful for me in my personal worship times over the past couple months. That time for me has included the loss of a grandparent and a strained relationship with another close family member, so the hopeful tone of the bridge regarding families being brought back together at the resurrection has been comforting for me. Upon first hearing the song, that emphasis on family gave me pause, and I wondered if it might be a reason not to use it for church. Any time we sing or talk about heaven, I am always wary of losing focus on its most important feature: Jesus. The point of heaven is that we are with the Lord, and he is with his people, his Church, his family. The presence of our own family members and friends who are in Christ is an ancillary benefit, not the main point. But it is a benefit. Part of being in Christ is being a part of his family, so it is right and good to celebrate the reunion of that global family for eternity with him. Part of that global family, and the best picture we have of that joy in this life, is our relationships with our own loved ones. So I think this feature of the song is effective and faithful to Scripture, as long as we do not let it overshadow the more essential point of being at home with the Lord.

Will it worship? Yes! I anticipate introducing this song and its glorious celebration of the Gospel to my church in January. I hope it blesses them like it has blessed me.

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

SEND ME – Bethel Music, Jenn Johnson, Chris Quilala

/ Jason Henry / 1 Comment

Image by Se Nuno from Unsplash

I heard this song for the first time this week, and I’m not sure how I missed it up to this point! “Send Me” is from the 2021 Bethel release Homecoming, and is the product of songwriters Jenn Johnson, Brandon Lake, and Kari Jobe Carnes. The recording features the voices of Jenn Johnson and Chris Quilala, which is fine with me; I could listen to Chris sing all day. At its heart, “Send Me” is a simple song of longing to serve and follow the Lord. Let’s dive in together and see how the song applies Scripture and whether it will serve your congregation well in worship.

Focus

The focus of this song is a commitment to serve God. The singer asks to be sent wherever the Lord wants, no matter the cost. This surrender is fueled by the singer’s love for Lord. This song doesn’t name Jesus or God as such, but the whole song addresses him by the title “Lord” over and over again (one of the New Testament’s favorite ways to refer to Jesus), and the clear biblical references leave no room for misunderstanding who we’re singing to.

Lyric Analysis

The tag we will hear throughout this song is a simple prayer, “here I am Lord, send me” These words find their origin in Isaiah 6, when God calls Isaiah to be a messenger for him. Before the call, God gives Isaiah a vision in which he cleanses him from his sin and guilt. God says he wants to send someone, and Isaiah’s immediate response is “Here I am! Send me.” (Isa. 6:8) The Lord goes on to describe the task he has for Isaiah, and it’s not a pleasant one. The people will refuse to listen, and indeed, Isaiah’s words will harden their hearts further. They will suffer greatly, and in the midst of it, God’s words through Isaiah will provide a glimmer of hope.

VERSE 1
Bandaging the broken is part of the example set for us in Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:34). It’s also something God expects of those who would shepherd his people (Ezek. 34:4). I think this idea applies not just to physical injuries, but also mental, emotional, spiritual, and relational wounds. When we seek to help heal people, we are serving God and showing his love.

Jesus washes his disciples’ feet in John 13. Washing feet was a necessary task in first century Middle-Eastern culture, and it also symbolized hospitality, service, and humility. The striking image of God washing the feet of mere men, who should have been serving him, and his accompanying words “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet,” have made foot washing an enduring symbol within Christianity of humble, self-sacrificing service.

In John 13:34, Jesus says, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” This command surely extends to times when we disagree with one another. That addition feels appropriate and timely, after a particularly fractious couple of years in the U.S. with regard to politics, Covid, and race relations.

VERSE 2
Contented service to God in poverty or in wealth is what Paul is actually talking about in the oft-quoted Philippians 4:13, not winning a sports game. Similarly, mountains often represent the experience of God’s presence (Ex. 15:17) while valleys represent feeling like he’s far away (Ps. 23:4). In either circumstance, we can and should choose to praise and serve him.

CHORUS
“If I’m known by how I love // let my life reflect how much I love You”

We already referenced Jesus’ command to love one another in John 13:34, and now we sing about the natural result of that love. Jesus says in verse 35, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” At first glance, it seems like the chorus of “Send Me” is misapplying this Scripture. It’s how we love one another that shows that we are his disciples, not how much we love God, right? In my opinion, part of the brilliance of this song is in how it blurs the distinction between the two, much like Jesus does. Look at how he gives the same command in a different way in Matthew 22:27-40:

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

So loving our neighbor is like loving God. He goes even further in describing the final judgment and the separation of sheep and goats, where he says “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” So loving one another isn’t just like loving God; it’s a big piece of how we love God (Matthew 25:40).

How else does Jesus say we can express love for him? “If you love me, keep my commands.” (John 14:15) That’s why I love the second half of the chorus. We’re expressing a willingness to say yes to Jesus’ instructions, even before we know what they are, just like Isaiah did when he experienced his call. He said “Here I am! Send me,” and then God told him what he wanted him to do. When I sing these words, I’m praying that god will give me that same level of trust and obedience to him.

VERSE 3
“If the truth cuts like an arrow // I will say it anyway”

Now we come to the only line in this song that gives me cause for concern. There’s nothing wrong in it; it just seems like it could be easily misapplied. The Bible says that God’s word does indeed cut like a sword (Heb. 4:12), and I’m not at all concerned with the poetic license of changing a sword to an arrow. And if we read the book of Isaiah, we see that this was a theme of his ministry. God gave him a hard message of judgment to deliver to a stubborn people who ignored and persecuted him. Sometimes the truth is sharp. But we must be kind in how we present the truth. John 1:14 says that Jesus was full of grace and truth. 1 Peter 3:15 says that when we present the Gospel, we must do it with gentleness and respect. Ephesians 4:29 says that our words should be helpful for building others up according to their needs. So yes, sometimes we must speak truth that cuts deep, but we shouldn’t swing that sword around willy-nilly, careless of who we hurt with it. There are helpful and harmful ways to present truth.

Jesus says that when we carry his name, we will face rejection (Luke 6:22). It’s also what Isaiah and many of the prophets faced, as well as the persecuted New Testament Church. For someone who stood firm and declared God’s truth despite the danger to his life, see the story of Stephen in Acts 6-7.

VERSE 4
Those who use the gifts and resources God has given them to serve him will one day hear him say the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!” (Matthew 25:14-30) In the same chapter, Jesus makes it clear that the visible difference between those who will inherit the Kingdom with him and those who are banished from his presence forever is whether or not they chose to serve him by caring for people in need (Matt. 25:31-46).

Accessibility

This song has a lot to say, and many of the lines have at least a couple layers of meaning. I think the top layer is very accessible, even to people who aren’t churched or trained in Scripture. For more seasoned saints, I think the scriptural context of some of these words will be apparent, giving deeper meaning.

Like I said earlier, there’s not really any room for confusion about who we’re singing to. This song somehow manages to say “oh I love you” several times while staying firmly out of “Jesus-is-my-boyfriend” territory. That’s hard to do!

Music

“Send Me” is a simple song designed for congregational singing. Some minimalist finger picking on an electric guitar is the main accompaniment to the first half of the song, which completely lacks drums. Instead, we let the prayerful lyrics and the singing of the people carry the song forward. Synths and bass layer in gradually, and in the second chorus we get some cymbal swells. We drop back down for a reverent, longing fourth verse that builds through the tag, “here I am Lord, send me!” This leads into the final two choruses, where we finally get some toms to undergird the declarative lyrics. The recording continues for another 1:45 of ad libs and repeating the tag, but I typically stop it at about 4:45.

The chord rhythm of this song is a little trickier than most praise and worship songs, so be very sure that you have the chord sheet exactly how you want it before handing it out to your players. Watch out for the atypical length of the instrumental between verses one and two. The Ab/C pickup chords at the beginning of each line of the chorus are easy to miss. But with a little practice, the chords are still fairly intuitive and it’s not a difficult song to play. The electric guitar picking that plays under nearly the whole thing also sounds like it wouldn’t be too difficult to pick up. I think the hardest part of this song is going to be restraint. Building volume or adding instruments too early is going to kill the dynamic arc of the song and suck the life out of the final choruses.

One of the real strengths of this song is its singability. The tag line is easy to learn and repeated frequently. The chorus rhythm is straightforward and the melody is mostly stepwise and easy to sing along with, even on a first or second hearing. The song is even pitched for maximum congregational involvement, a relative rarity in worship recordings. its medium-low range should be comfortably within the tessitura of nearly everyone in your church.

Conclusions

Will it worship? 100%

This is a very direct “sending” song designed to prayerfully mobilize congregations for a life of service to Jesus and the Gospel. The lyrics are grounded in Scripture, especially Isaiah’s call to ministry and Jesus’ commands to love God by loving one another. I’m introducing it to my congregation this week, so I’ll have to let you know how it goes!

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

STAND IN YOUR LOVE – Bethel Music, Josh Baldwin, Rita Springer

/ Jason Henry / Leave a comment

Image by Joshua Earle from Unsplash

“Stand in Your Love,” would be at home anywhere. You could play it in an arena, in a church big or small, or gathered around a campfire at night. It’s simple, easy to learn, uplifting, and catchy. It was released in mid-2018 and subsequently featured on Bethel Music’s Victory album in 2019. Since then, it has become a staple in Christian worship, and as I write this, it’s smack in the middle of CCLI’s top 100 list. What does “Stand in Your Love” mean, is it Biblical, and should you be singing it in church? Let’s investigate.

Focus

The focus of this song is the singer’s steadfastness and ability to overcome fear because of the love and power of Jesus.

This song never specifically mentions God or Jesus, and could be sung about a romantic partner except for the reference to an empty grave in the bridge. This isn’t necessarily a problem in a church service where it’s obvious that we’re singing to God, but it’s worth noting.

Lyric Analysis

VERSE 1
This verse personifies the forces of evil, sadness, and pain, and the singer refuses to be shaken even when in the midst of them.

In the New Testament, Jesus is the light (Jn. 1:5, 8:12). His enemies are symbolized by darkness (Ac. 26:18, Col. 1:13). Darkness trying to “roll over my bones” is a poetic description of the spiritual forces of evil that try to oppress believers.

Sorrow here represents sorrowful circumstances that attempt to rob us of the joy that we have in Jesus through his Spirit (Gal. 5:22, John 15:11). Saying that brokenness and pain are “all I know” is a common hyperbole to evoke an emotional state, not a literal statement that the singer doesn’t know anything else. That would be silly.

We echo the Psalmist in saying that we won’t be shaken. This is only a true statement if we are keeping our eyes on God, following him, and counting on his strength rather than our own. This is not a statement of personal empowerment, but of God’s power. (Ps. 16:8, 62:6, Isa. 41:10)

CHORUS
“My fear doesn’t stand a chance when I stand in Your love”

We sing directly to God in the chorus, repeating the same line over and over as a declaration of God’s power over our fears and of our trust and confidence in him because of his love.

God tells us not to fear too many times to count in the Bible. The clearest and easiest passage of Scripture to link to this chorus is 1 John 4:18, which says “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.” God’s love is stronger than all the things we fear, and the more we love him, the less room there is for fear of man, devil, or circumstance in our hearts.

Standing in God’s love sounds a lot like abiding in God’s love, so let’s look at Jesus’ words in John 15:9-12.

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”

So what does it mean to stand or abide in God’s love? A big part of it is obedience to his commands. And a big part of that is loving one another. So standing in God’s love doesn’t just mean remembering that God loves you, it also means remembering that he loves the people around you and being a conduit of that love, lavishing it on them like God lavishes it on you.

VERSE 2

Shame, lies, and the past are our enemies in the second verse.

I think our normal understanding of shame is more private and personal than the kind of shame normally described in the Bible. The Bible speaks often of being put to shame, which feels more like public disgrace than the internal experience I associate with the word shame, and seems to be tied to being defeated or disproven. Trusting God means that we will not ultimately be put to shame or disgraced, but vindicated (Rom. 10:11, Ps. 25:1-2). With regard to the internal kind of shame, God is the one who purifies our consciences (Heb. 9:14), takes away our regret through repentance (2 Cor. 7:10), and lifts up our heads (Ps. 3:3).

Jesus is the truth, so he is the antidote to the lies the enemy breathes in our ears (John 14:6).

We can leave our past sins and regrets behind because anyone in Christ is a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17) and he has removed those sins from us as far as the east is from the west (Ps. 103:12)

BRIDGE

Breaking chains is a metaphor for the freedom from sin that we have in Jesus (John 8:34-36), and God also breaks literal chains several times in Scripture (Ps. 107:10-16, Acts 16:26, Lev. 26:13).

Jesus’ power empties out several graves by resurrecting their occupants from death (John 11:43-44, Matt. 27:52), most notably his own (Matt. 28:6). We eagerly await his second coming when he will raise all of those who belong to him from our graves (1 Thess. 4:16). There’s a second meaning here as well, a sense in which we have already been resurrected from our spiritually dead state and raised to new life in Christ (Eph. 2:1-7). That is the powerful grace that saves us (Ephesians 2:8).

Jesus’ name contains the power that will cause every knee to bow (Phil. 2:10). It is the name into which we are baptized, symbolizing our death and resurrection with him (Rom. 6:3). It is the name through which God hears and answers our prayers (John 14:13).

Accessibility

This song uses everyday language and common figures of speech rather than specific Bible allusions that you have to understand in order to grasp the meaning. The only Bible reference you really need to understand is the line “power that can empty out a grave.” I think this song actually makes an easy stepping-on point for an unchurched person to begin to learn how to sing to God, since much of the language of the verses is similar to what you might hear in a counseling session or self-empowerment talk, but the chorus and bridge redirect those feelings of encouragement by telling us that the power we need comes from God, not ourselves.

If someone hears this song outside of church and they’re not paying attention to the bridge, it could be mistaken for a secular song about a romantic partner who has helped the singer overcome self-doubt and regret. In a worship service, I don’t think that’s really an issue.

Music

I’ll be describing the standard Bethel/Josh Baldwin version of the song here, but if you’re looking for a female-led version that’s less country/more pop, check out the less well-known recording by co-author Rita Springer.

A simple guitar accompaniment with a light swing rhythm guides us into this song, followed by a classic “b-boom clap” drum part on the first chorus, and then the rest of the band comes in with the full groove of the song on the following instrumental. Nothing super challenging for the band here, and the chords are pretty much the same pattern for the whole song except the bridge.

The bridge provides much-needed contrast, and the following chorus sees the band drop out and just play single hits on the chord changes while the congregation’s voice comes to the fore. We end with another big chorus and a little ad-libbable outro.

The melody and rhythm are super easy for congregants to learn, especially the chorus, which is just the same line over and over. My only musical concern is that the same simplicity that makes “Stand in Your Love” so congregational might also cause the band to tire of playing it.

Conclusions

Will it worship? Yep.

What “Stand in Your Love” lacks in specificity, it more than makes up for in accessibility. It might not explicitly reference a lot of Scripture, but the ideas presented are eminently biblical. It’s an anthem of trust in God and a commitment to the kind of boldness that Paul demonstrated in his Kingdom work. May it propel us to serve God and our neighbor with confidence by standing in and pouring out the great love that he has toward us.

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

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

/ Jason Henry / Leave a comment

Image by Reuben Mcfeeters from Unsplash

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

Focus

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

Lyric Analysis

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

VERSE 3

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

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

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

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

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

Accessibility

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

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

Music

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

But wait, there’s more!

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

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

Conclusions

Will it worship? Maybe.

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

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