Brandon Lake

Should You Sing ‘Hard Fought Hallelujah’ at Church? A Worship Song Analysis

/ Jason Henry / 3 Comments

We don’t see many lament songs in the church these days, particular not in the CCM worship genre. I think the problem is that we are (mostly) comfortable in our lives, and we don’t like to think about suffering or hardship. We do sometimes acknowledge pain or difficult circumstances in our worship songs, but we can’t resist turning that mourning into dancing. We know Easter is coming, so why linger on Good Friday?

There’s some wisdom in this tendency. We do know how the story ends, and that ending is Christ victorious, death and darkness defeated, the church united with God forever in the new creation. We need to remind each other that this future is coming. But sometimes, we can’t or shouldn’t move on from our grief so quickly. I think what’s special about “Hard Fought Hallelujah” is that when it praises God, it does so from the depths of the struggle rather than from a safe, happy vantage point on the other side.

“Hard Fought Hallelujah” is the work of Ben Hastings, Brandon Lake, and Steven Furtick, all veteran songwriters. Lake and Furtick are both associated with Elevation Church, and Hastings is a longtime Hillsong Worship musician. Together, they craft a song that is poignant, honest, and still manages to get stuck in your head.

But is “Hard Fought Hallelujah” biblical, and will it worship? Let’s take a look!

Focus

This song expresses the experience of bringing praise to God in the midst of suffering and struggle.

God’s character is secondary in this song. He’s only addressed in the chorus by the word “hallelujah” and in the line: “God, You’ve been patient/gracious.”

For some, the fact that this song is primarily about the human experience of praise in suffering means that it is too self-centered to be appropriate for corporate worship. I wouldn’t disqualify it on that basis alone, but it’s something to be aware of when you’re planning your worship set.

Lyric Analysis

VERSE 1
This is a common sentiment in worship songs. We don’t always feel like praising God, and that’s when we especially need to. This feels like the attitude of the Sons of Korah in Psalm 42. From the depths of despair and discouragement, the author sings to his own soul, reminding himself of God’s salvation.

PRE-CHORUS 1
There are times when praise, as expressed through the raising of hands, is a natural outpouring of our hearts’ delight in God, and there are times when it takes a great deal of effort, and when we have to discipline ourselves to worship despite not wanting to.

Lake observes, “there are times that it costs,” and he’s right. Romans 12:1 teaches us that true worship is offering our bodies as living sacrifices to God. Rather than just giving a little bit of time or a little bit of money to the Lord, we are called to offer our whole selves. We feel this cost keenly when we are invited to worship but feel pain, resentment, or anxiety preventing us from coming to God in gratitude and love. Worshiping in the midst of struggle is a hard sacrifice, and one that God cherishes.

Of course, in any congregation, there are many who never sing, and many more whose hands would never go up freely. This song provides a teaching opportunity to encourage people who don’t like participating in music to consider lifting their voices and hands to God despite the discomfort. Participating in this way also shows solidarity with those who are struggling like this song describes.

CHORUS
“I’ll bring my…” The chorus expresses a commitment to praise God no matter the circumstance and no matter the cost. We’re determined to bring praise to God, even though that hallelujah has been beaten up, knocked around, and somehow refined and strengthened by our struggles. This part of the song reminds me of Lake’s “Gratitude,” because it uses the word “hallelujah” to represent not just a song of praise, but a heart that chooses to worship God no matter what.

Hard-fought: This line represents the core idea of the song: sometimes we have to fight to praise God. But is this true, and is it in the Bible? I think it is. There are numerous examples in Scripture of God’s people fighting to praise him. Moses fought Pharaoh to allow the Israelites to go worship God in the wilderness. Paul and Silas praised God in prison, and their chains fell off. Daniel prayed to God daily even though it would land him in a deadly lion’s den. Ephesians 6 teaches us that we are always embroiled in a spiritual struggle against the forces of evil, and praise is a weapon in that fight.

Heart-felt: Jesus taught that worship is in spirit and in truth (Jn 4:23-24). Paul tells us that we ought to sing to God in our hearts (Eph 5:19). While worship is not about feelings, true worship will produce an emotional response in the worshiper. God is good, and he has done great things, and that ought to do something to our hearts.

Been-through-hell: The songwriters are using a loose definition of the word “hell” here. I don’t think any of them would claim to have literally visited the lake of fire. Instead, they’re using it as a description of serious suffering in this life. When you’re in severe emotional or physical pain, you’re all alone, and it feels like God is distant, that’s a picture of hell. This is relative, and we could quibble over what level of suffering really counts as having been through hell.

For many churches, this line will immediately rule out this song for congregational worship. “Hell” is a common profanity in our culture, and this line comes uncomfortably close to casual use of the word. Many Christians have the conviction that the word hell should only be used to describe eternal separation from God.

I also think using “hell” to describe our suffering muddies the waters regarding the nature of our suffering. When Christians experience suffering, we do so with God near at hand, not distant. Later in the song, the authors allude to suffering as a refining fire that improves our faith. This only happens through the presence and work of the Holy Spirit. Hell has connotations of finality, wrath, and damnation that I don’t think are appropriate to the kind of pain the authors of this song are describing.

Storm-tossed: I like this image better. The disciples and the apostle Paul experienced perilous storms on the sea. For the disciples, the Lord himself was with them, and he calmed the storm with a word (Mt 8:23-27). When Paul was on the way to Rome, his ship was destroyed in a storm, but God’s hand protected every living soul onboard (Ac 27:13-44). Storms may be terrifying, but our God is greater than the wind and waves, and he is always in control.

Torn-sail: A natural consequence of the storm-tossing. But this line focuses on how our experiences may have beaten us up and left wounds, either emotional or physical.

Story-to-tell: This is great. Praise isn’t just singing hallelujah in church. It’s being willing to tell others what God has done for us and how he’s brought us through our hardships.

Patient/gracious: In the midst of this description of everything our hallelujah has been through, we take a moment to pause and dwell on God’s character. He is patient, perhaps most so when we get angry at him during our suffering. And he is gracious toward us, extending his love and salvation to us no matter our circumstances or emotions, even if we have brought them on ourselves.

It is well: Because of God’s character, we can have the incomprehensible peace that comes from his Spirit, even in the midst of trials (Phil 4:7).

VERSE 2
The words here are poetically vague. Struggling with darkness might describe a battle with temptation, depression, illness, persecution, or almost anything else. In any case, the authors acknowledge that the struggle helps to cultivate humility. Paul makes this same connection in 2 Corinthians 12:7.

PRE-CHORUS 2
The image of a fire that refines gold comes from Malachi 3:1-4. This passage is about the Messiah, and it predicts that he will burn away all the impurities of Judah, her priests, and her worship. What comes out the other side will be pure like gold, though the process will be very painful. When we submit to the Lord in our suffering, it can have this same refining effect on us. James says as much when he tells us to rejoice when we face trials, because God will use them to cultivate perseverance in us and to perfect and complete our faith (Jam 1:2-4).

BRIDGE
Oh, oh, oh. Whoa. Oh, oh, oh. Whoa.

Accessibility

One of the strengths of this song is that it expresses deep experiences of suffering coupled with praise without getting lost in churchy language or hard-to-follow biblical references. I think most people would be able to understand the lyrics even with limited church background. The exception might be the word “hallelujah.” I think it’s become a generic word of celebration in our culture, divorced from its original meaning of “praise the Lord.”

I don’t think unchurched people will mind the metaphorical use of the word “hell.” In our culture, hell just means suffering. It’s only church people who will be bothered by that line.

The melody is kind of hard to follow, and the rhythms are a little tricky. The range is an octave plus a fifth, which isn’t unusual for a worship song, but it’s also pretty wide. Overall, I think this feels more like a blues solo type of song than a congregational worship song.

Music

The rough blues feel of this song is a perfect match for its lyric content. It expresses the pain as well as the resolve to keep fighting to praise God in every circumstance. This song uses contrast and dropouts exceptionally well to really dig into the words on the chorus.

Most of the song is reasonably playable for a church worship team except for the crazy instrumental bridge. I would probably skip that part.

Conclusions

This is tough. There is so much good about this song. I love that it captures the spirit of lament in a way that we often overlook in contemporary music. The blues style is also largely missing from our (white) churches. This song has a lot to teach about the complex relationship between praise and suffering. It is a valuable song that Christians should definitely listen to and meditate on.

No judgment to churches who continue to sing this song, but I think I have to regretfully land on a soft no. Here are my three reasons:
1. This song is more about the experience of praise than about the object of our praise. It’s about the hallelujah more than it is about God.
2. It’s going to be hard for the congregation to sing along. There’s only so much time on Sunday morning, and I want people to participate in as much of it as they can.
3. I just don’t like the “hell” line. I think it will offend/distract people. I also think it causes confusion about whether our suffering is wrathful hellfire or the merciful fire of God that refines us.

Let me know what you think! Thanks for reading, and thanks for thinking about what you sing! Until next time.

Image by Torsten Dederichs 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.

THAT’S WHO I PRAISE – Brandon Lake

/ Jason Henry / Leave a comment

This is a fun one! The latest in a long line of Brandon Lake hits with “Praise” in the title, “That’s Who I Praise” is a joyful, upbeat song of trust and praise. It came out this summer, and it’s already at the top of Brandon’s Spotify list, outranking Gratitude, Graves into Gardens, and Praise You Anywhere. The product of a collaboration between Benjamin Hastings, Brandon Lake, Micah Nichols, Steven Furtick, and Zac Lawson, “That’s Who I Praise” has a lot to say, so if I can pull myself out of the drum groove for a minute, we’ll check out the lyrics and find out if it’s biblical and if it will worship!

Focus

This song has two major themes. The chorus and bridge describe the character and power of Jesus. The verses invite us into the many ways his people respond to him in praise.

“That’s Who I Praise” uses many biblical titles and names for Jesus as well as some new ones. It identifies Jesus as God, and it’s abundantly clear that’s who we’re praising and singing about.

There’s a lot of “I” in this song. The authors use the phrase “I want” 10 times, and say things like “God’s got my back.” So the individual worshiper is also a focus of this song. Does this make “That’s Who I Praise” a self-centered worship song? That depends on how all those “I”s are used!

Lyric Analysis

VERSE 1
In the verses, the authors show various responses of praise and trust throughout Scripture and express their wish to respond the same way.

David danced before the ark of the Lord, celebrating God with all his might even though it was undignified (2 Sam 6:14). We want to have that same attitude, praising God without regard for our personal appearance or what others might think.

Paul and Silas sang hymns to God in prison, and then God freed them with an earthquake (Ac 16:25-26). Their song freed them and their fellow prisoners from the physical chains. But the real miracle is what happens next: rather than fleeing the prison, Paul and Silas stay to tell their jailer about Christ. He and his whole family are baptized, free from the chains of sin and death (Ac 16:27-34). We want to have that kind of faith!

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were thrown into a fiery furnace as a death sentence for refusing to worship an idol. Rather than burning up, they were unharmed by the flames, and a fourth figure appeared in the furnace walking around with them. People disagree on whether the fourth figure should be identified as an angel or perhaps Christ himself, but it’s clear that God was with them and protected them as they insisted that only the one true God was worthy of worship. When we also refuse to worship idols (literal or metaphorical) but turn our praise to the one true God, we can trust that he will be with us and will protect us.

VERSE 2
Moses and the Israelites crossed through the Red Sea on dry land when God parted the waters to allow them escape from Egypt. This formative event freed them from slavery and established their identity as a people (Ex 14). Like Moses, we want to trust in God and obey his commands even when they don’t make sense, and like the Israelites, we trust him to lead us into his eternal Kingdom.

There are all kinds of things in this life that frighten us, but God is greater than all of them, and nothing in all Creation can separate us from his love (Rom 8:38-39). Furthermore, in Philippians 1:27-30, Paul envisions a church whose unity and faith in the Gospel allows them to face opposition, suffering, and fear, confident that even these things point to their salvation in Christ.

VERSE 3
There are lots of Marys in the Bible, and this song refers to Mary of Bethany. She’s the sister of Lazarus (who Jesus raised from the dead) and Martha (who Jesus encouraged to do less housework.) In John 12, Mary pours a pound of expensive perfume over Jesus’ feet, then dries them with her hair. The parallel account in Mark 14 tells us that the perfume was in an alabaster flask (or vase), and that she broke it open in order to pour it out to the Lord. This ointment and its container were a serious investment, and Mary devotes the whole thing to Jesus. Once the flask is broken, there’s no putting the ointment back inside. We want to be similarly devoted with our hearts, our lives, and our resources.

Daniel (like his friends Rack, Shack, and Benny, mentioned above) ran afoul of a law forbidding him to faithfully worship Yahweh. When he refused to stop praying to God three times a day, he was condemned to spend a night sealed in a den of lions (Daniel 6). The text doesn’t tell us whether he slept or not, but when the king and his officials returned the next morning, Daniel was unharmed. In this part of the song, we’re asking for the peace to trust God and not fear the scheming of men (Pr 29:25).

Shortly after Israel began to enter the Promised Land, the city of Jericho stood in the way. God told Joshua, “See, I have given over Jericho into your hand,” and then gave him instructions that the people should march around the walls for six days, and then on the seventh to march around it seven times and blow the trumpets. They obeyed, and the walls fell. This song applies these words to our spiritual lives. Our praise is the figurative (or literal; I don’t know what your church is like 🤷‍♂️) trumpet blast that brings down any wall that comes between us and our Promised Land. For the Christian, this is not a literal land or physical possession, but our relationship with Christ is our inheritance (Ps 16:5-6). Nothing in this world or the next can separate us from his love, so anything that tries must come tumblin’ down (Rom 8:31-39).

CHORUS
The repeated line “I’m gonna praise” is reminiscent of the Psalmist’s “Bless/praise the Lord, O my soul!” (Ps 103:1, 146:1). In both, we remind our hearts that God is worthy of our worship and we exhort ourselves (and our fellow believers) to worship. Next, the song gives us several reasons God is worthy of our worship.

He moves mountains in response to the faithful prayers of his people (Mt 17:20).

He raised Christ bodily from the dead, freeing us from the chains of death and promising us new life on earth and eternal, resurrected life after we die (1 Cor 15:20, Rom 6:4).

Jesus is seated in the heavenly places with the Father (Col 3:1). This is a place of honor, and a place of ruling over creation.

Even in giving himself up to die, Jesus won the victory over death, defeating the last enemy of God and creation (1 Cor 15:26, 54-56, Col 2:13-15). Because of this stunning act of humility and sacrifice, the name of Jesus is the highest name in all heaven and earth (Ph 2:4-11).

Nothing is impossible with God (Mt 19:26).

BRIDGE
Jesus is the conquering Lion from the tribe of Judah who comes to enact God’s final judgment against sin (Rev 5:5). Then, in the very next verse, when he appears, it is not as a lion but as the holy and slain Lamb (Rev 5:6). He has conquered sin and death by taking their consequences and uncleanness upon himself and making mankind and creation holy through his blood. For this, he is counted worthy (Rev 5:9).

Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ, God’s Anointed One, crucified and raised to life (Ac 2:36).

The Ancient of Days is a title for God in the apocalyptic vision found in Daniel 7. In this vision, the Ancient of Days receives the Son of Man (Jesus’ favorite title for himself) and gives him dominion, glory, and a kingdom. At first glance, it is a little odd that we’re singing to Jesus but using a title for God the Father, but John uses this same depiction of the Ancient of Days to describe Christ in Revelation 1. Both have eyes of fire, hair like pure wool, and shining clothes. So I think it’s best to remember Jesus’ statement that “I and the Father are one” (Jn 10:30) and not stress too much about which Person of the Trinity we’re addressing.

Accessibility

The verses require a great deal of Bible background knowledge to understand. I think someone without much church background would likely understand that we’re expressing a desire to emulate Bible heroes and their faith. They would recognize some images like Moses parting the Red Sea. But this represents a real barrier to understanding. Similarly, the chorus throws a bunch of descriptors out real fast without stopping to explain, so they could easily fly over many people’s heads. At the same time, this song presents a sliding scale of understanding, and it will make more sense the more that someone understands about God’s story. Hearing unfamiliar names and references might encourage people to dig in and learn what stories this song is talking about.

Without understanding the Bible stories referenced in the song, it’s possible to come away with just meaningless positivity. “God’s got my back!” “I’m gonna get that promise!” These statements can lead to complacency and laziness without understanding their context. God told the Israelites to march around Jericho, because he had decreed that it would fall. God protected Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fire because they chose to honor his name instead of bowing to a false god. These are not blanket promises that God is going to destroy every “Jericho” I see in my life or that he supports my every decision. God is worthy of our praise and our obedience.

The chorus has a little bit of the same problem, but it’s not as bad since the words are generalized and don’t include “me” and “my.” Just because he is a mountain mover doesn’t mean that the problem I’ve identified as a mountain is going to be dealt with the way I want it to.

This one is pretty rangy. The song stretches an octave plus a sixth, so almost 2 octaves. This isn’t too out of the norm for a worship song, but we should expect that the lows are going to be too low or the highs too high for most congregants. (Or both! 😬) There are also several tongue twister moments in this one where most people will struggle to spit all the words out. I can already hear the congregation singing “I’m gonna praise! I’m gonna praise! I’m gonna humanumahumanuma highest of names!”

On the whole, I have to admit that congregational accessibility is a weakness of this song.

Music

“That’s Who I Praise” is super dynamic and energetic. It’s very much a CCM radio-friendly song; the sudden changes in intensity between parts of the song are great for captivating and holding short attention spans. They also make the song really fun to play! If you’re working on this one with a band, I would spend some extra time nailing those down so that everybody is in sync, especially the three hits at the beginning of each chorus (They’re dotted eighths, not triplets!).

Nothing too surprising in the chord progression, but CCLI SongSelect gets a couple of the chords wrong in the chord chart. There should be Cm instead of Eb on the first line of Verse 2 and Verse 3 (Thanks Robby Sams for catching that one!).

As I mentioned above, the melody line covers a wide range and is tricky to sing. So you’ll want to spend some time picking the right key and making sure your vocalist is up to leading this one. Fortunately, the parts for the instruments are simpler, so I think this song would be appropriate for an intermediate-level volunteer band.

Conclusions

Pros: The music is awesome and doable for the average church worship band. The words exalt Jesus for his resurrection and our salvation and hearken back to the praise responses of lots of Bible characters.

Cons: Difficult to learn and sing. Could be a little clearer about what kind of mountains God moves, though the Bible references do clear that up with a little digging. I wish it were a little more “we,” a little less “I.”

Will it worship? I am excited to sing “That’s Who I Praise” this Sunday, but if I’m really honest, I’ve got to call it a “Maybe.” The melody just isn’t very congregation-friendly. It’s a super fun, upbeat celebration of Christ’s power and worth, but it’s going to take several weeks (or a lot of K-Love listening) for the people to be able to sing along.

Image by Thomas Park 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.

PRAISE – Elevation Worship, Brandon Lake, Chris Brown, Chandler Moore

/ Jason Henry / 3 Comments

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.

Image by Lou Lou B Photo 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.

LION – Elevation Worship, Chris Brown, Brandon Lake

/ Jason Henry / Leave a comment

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

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

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

Focus

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

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

Lyric Analysis

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

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

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

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

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

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

Revelation 5:5-6

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Accessibility

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

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

Music

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

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

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

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

Conclusions

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

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

Image by Glen Carrie from Unsplash

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

SAME GOD – Elevation Worship

/ Jason Henry / 1 Comment

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

Focus

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

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

Lyric Analysis

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jason Henry

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Accessibility

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

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

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

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

Music

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

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

Conclusion

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

Image by Zoltan Tasi from Unsplash

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

HONEY IN THE ROCK – Brooke Ligertwood, Brandon Lake

/ Jason Henry / 1 Comment

Image by Tim Mossholder from Unsplash

I’m not gonna lie; this song weirded me out at first. I thought to myself, “God made water come from the rock, not honey.” It turns out I was mistaken! This rich image does come from Scripture and it’s been used in church music for a long time. (Watch this video for another artist’s musical take on this idea. You’ll thank me later. Or hate me. 🤷‍♂️) The more I listen to “Honey in the Rock,” the more it grows on me, so before I go ahead and add it to Planning Center, let’s slow down a minute and ask ourselves, “Is it biblical? Will it worship?”

Focus

This song focuses on the sufficiency and provision of God. He is all that we need. A secondary and related theme is the singer’s need for him. “Honey in the Rock” is personal and vertical, using “I” language and addressing God as “You.” We also address Jesus by name and mention the Spirit.

Lyric Analysis

CHORUS 1
We come right out of the gate with the unusual title: “There’s Honey in the Rock.” What in the world does that mean? I find the idea in 2 places in Scripture: Deuteronomy 32:13 and Psalm 81:16. Let’s get a little context from Deuteronomy 32. Here’s an excerpt:

“The Lord alone guided him,
    no foreign god was with him.
He suckled him with honey out of the rock,
    and oil out of the flinty rock.
Curds from the herd, and milk from the flock,
    with fat of lambs,
But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked;
    you grew fat, stout, and sleek;
then he forsook God who made him
    and scoffed at the Rock of his salvation.
They stirred him to jealousy with strange gods;
    with abominations they provoked him to anger.
You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you,
    and you forgot the God who gave you birth.”

So the honey, water (Ex. 17:1-7), and manna (Exodus 16) in the chorus represent God’s provision for Israel in the wilderness. By extension, they represent God’s provision for us, and in declaring that there is honey in the rock, we are saying that we trust God to provide for us even when it seems impossible. This applies to our physical needs, but more importantly to our spiritual needs. The passage from Deuteronomy also uses the image of the rock to describe God. He is the steady, unshakable source of our life and salvation.

It’s also worth noting that in both places where the Bible mentions honey coming from the rock, it is in the context of Israel’s unfaithfulness. This is especially so in Psalm 81 where God longs to satisfy his people with honey and wheat, but they won’t turn to him. This song combats the natural tendency of our hearts to seek satisfaction and sustenance from sources other than our Maker.

VERSE 1
This verse describes a state of longing and need. The line “praying for a miracle” can be easily applied to any situation any singer of the song is facing. I appreciate that the song doesn’t promise that we’ll get the exact miracle we ask for, it just acknowledges our need for God’s intervention in the situation.

We also acknowledge our thirst for the Living Well. This comes from John 4:7-26, where Jesus meets a Samaritan woman at a well and describes himself as the Living Water. He tells her, “whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.” It’s interesting that this passage immediately turns to a discussion of worship, as if John wants us to understand that worshiping God in spirit and truth is how we enjoy the living water Jesus offers, but that’s just speculation on my part! Only God can satisfy our spiritual hunger and thirst (Isa. 55:2).

VERSE 2
The mercy seat is also called the atonement cover, and it’s the portion of the Ark of the Covenant where the high priest would sprinkle a bull’s blood, symbolically coming between God and the law tablets that represented the people’s sins (Lev. 16:11-14). In the context of the song, it can represent both forgiveness and God’s presence. Tasting and seeing that the Lord is good comes from Psalm 34:8.

VAMP
We repeat “there’s honey in the rock” a few more times. Hopefully the congregation will take this opportunity to meditate on what the words mean.

VERSE 3
Paul tells us that there is freedom where the Spirit of the Lord is (2 Cor. 3:17). As we discussed in the first chorus, the heart of this song is God’s ability to provide bounty for us in the wilderness. This is both literal in referring to Israel and metaphorical in describing God’s provision for us spiritually.

CHORUS 2
We repeat the words from chorus 1 and add a few more. This is the part of the song where we really identify God’s provision of honey in the rock for the Israelites with Jesus’ sacrifice for us on the cross. The purpose in God’s plan is to unite all things in heaven and on earth forever in Jesus through his death and resurrection (Eph. 1:9-10). “Power in the Blood” is the title of a classic hymn by Lewis E. Jones. For more on the power in Jesus’ blood, see my review of “Thank You Jesus for the Blood” by Charity Gayle. Jesus healed with the literal laying on of his hands (Luke 4:40), and the power to heal still belongs to God today. I love the line “everything you did’s enough,” because it declares the truth that we are saved by Jesus’ grace, not our own works (Eph. 2:8-9, Heb. 10:10).

The only line that gives me pause is “started flowing when You said it is done.” I take “it is done” to refer to Jesus’ statement “it is finished” on the cross (John 19:30). And the honey was made to flow in the wilderness roughly 1,200 years earlier, so that seems chronologically confused to me. If we take the honey as a metaphor for the sweetness of knowing and trusting God, this line still doesn’t make sense, because that sweetness has always been available to God’s people. As we mentioned earlier, Psalm 34 talks about tasting that the Lord is good. For this line to make sense, we have to see that the authors are drawing a specific parallel between the honey from the rock and the salvation we have through Jesus’ death. Jesus specifically calls himself the bread from heaven (John 6:51) and the source of living water (John 4:10), so it’s not much of a stretch to also see him as the honey from the rock. So, specifically, the sweetness of our saving relationship with him is what started flowing at the cross when he said “it is finished.”

BRIDGE
This looking and finding sounds like the wholehearted seeking that God celebrates in Jeremiah 29:13-14. (…and you thought 29:11 was the only good verse in Jeremiah!) We’ve already talked about God’s provision, which includes him giving, providing, and proving that he is all we need. God often moves in response to prayer (Exodus 32:10-14, James 5:16). I love that the bridge really clearly states what the rest of the song has alluded to. We sing to God “You are all that I need.”

ENDING
The ending sums up and encapsulates the whole song. It is so sweet to be able to trust in Jesus! I don’t think we need a chapter and verse for this one.

Accessibility

Accessibility is a big concern for this song. I’m a pastor and I didn’t even know that the Bible talked about honey coming from a rock. How embarrassing! Further, it took a great deal of analysis to discover that the whole point of this song is that Jesus is the rock and trusting him for provision and salvation is the honey. I am very skeptical that most members of the congregation will be able to make the connections needed to understand this song’s meaning without help. I wouldn’t feel comfortable leading this song on Sunday morning without some serious exposition beforehand.

Having said that, I don’t see much potential for any harmful misunderstandings of the lyrics. I suppose we could misapply the ideas of healing and provision, but I don’t see a big concern here.

Regarding congregational singing, the verse rhythms are a little tricky, but the chorus is eminently singable. The bridge is easy to pick up after a repetition or two.

Music

“Honey in the Rock” is a medium-length, country-gospel song. We start with a stripped-down piano-organ-acoustic chorus at the beginning. I think I might detect a hint of steel guitar in there too, maybe? I love the way this song starts because it gives the congregation an opportunity to learn the chorus before really diving into the song. I also love the breathy choir in the background. We build as we go, adding bass and drums. When we come back to the chorus throughout the song, it finds an infectious groove that you can’t not bob your head to. We do a quiet bridge that builds into another big chorus, and then we end with a quiet ending consisting of new lyrics. All in all, this song follows pretty standard worship song form, but that form is standard for a reason, and the dynamic arc works well here to create a peaceful atmosphere of joyful trust.

Conclusions

Will it worship? Yes, but…

“Honey in the Rock” is catchy and very congregational. Its lyrics forge a beautiful link between Old Testament imagery of God’s provision and salvation and the work Jesus did on the cross and the relationship of trust that we have with him as a result. I’m just worried that that link will go over many people’s heads. I almost feel like I would have to read and explain the section of Deuteronomy 32 that I quoted above every time we sing the song in church, and that’s a lot of explaining. This song would be easier to employ on a worship night or during a week of camp, when Sunday morning time constraints aren’t an issue and time could be devoted to teaching what it means.

Will we sing it at church? It’s still very possible, I just need to see if I can trim this 1,700-word blog post down into a 60 second song intro!

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.