praise

MIRACLE POWER – We the Kingdom

/ Jason Henry / Leave a comment

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

Focus

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

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

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

Lyric Analysis

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Accessibility

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

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

Music

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

Conclusions

Will it worship? Yes!

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

Image by Cynthea Magana from Unsplash.

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

THE CUP WAS NOT REMOVED – Justin Tweito

/ Jason Henry / 1 Comment
rustic cup on table

Image by Rey Proenza from Unsplash

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

Focus

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

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

Lyric Analysis

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Accessibility

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

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

Music

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

Conclusions

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

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

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.

HE IS JESUS – Zack Shelton

/ Jason Henry / Leave a comment

Image by Bruno van der Kraan from Unsplash

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

Focus

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

Lyric Analysis

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

VERSE 2

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

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

BRIDGE

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

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

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

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

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

CHORUS 2

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

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

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

Accessibility

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

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

Music

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

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

Conclusions

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

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

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

Great work Zack; looking forward to hearing more!

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

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.