Bad worship songs - All Hail King Jesus - by Jeremy Riddle

From time to to we examine the lyrics of worship songs. Our desire is not to mock or humiliate, but rather to honestly examine content with a view to calling forth a better worship expression.

With the great volume and variety of worship music available, none of us should have to settle for bad worship songs. We should be able to select hundreds or even thousands of top notch songs very easily.

What makes a song a good worship song? Is it enough to contain words like God or holy? How about vaguely spiritual sounding phrases? Should Jesus be mentioned? We think an excellent worship song should contain as many as possible of the following elements:

• A direct expression of adoration (God, you are...)
• A progression of ideas that culminates in a coherent story
• A focus on God, not us
• A certain amount of profundity
• A singable, interesting melody
• Scripture quotes or coherent allusions to Scripture
• Doctrinal soundness

Further, a worship song should not:

• contain lyrics that create uncertainty or cause confusion
• be excessively metaphorical
• be excessively repetitive
• imply that Jesus is your boyfriend

It's worth noting the most worship songs contain at least something good. That is, there might be a musical idea or a lyric that has merit. Such is the case with today's song, All Hail King Jesus.

Video link

Lyrics:

[Verse 1] There was a moment when the lights went out
When death had claimed its victory
The King of love had given up His life
The darkest day in history

[Verse 2] There on a cross they made for sinners
For every curse His blood atoned
One final breath and it was finished
But not the end we could have known

[Pre-Chorus 1] For the earth began to shake, and the veil was torn

What sacrifice was made, as the heavens roared

[Chorus] All hail, King Jesus
All hail the Lord of heaven and earth
All hail, King Jesus
All hail the Savior of the world

[Verse 3] There was a moment when the sky lit up
A flash of light breaking through
When all was lost He crossed eternity
The King of life was on the move

[Pre-Chorus 2] For in a dark, cold tomb, where our Lord was laid
One miraculous breath, and we're forever changed

[Bridge] Let every knee, come bow before the King of kings
Let every tongue, confess that He is Lord
Lift up your shout, let us join with all of heaven
Singing holy
Singing holy
Crying out holy
Singing holy
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Introduction

This is one of those worship songs that really tries hard but doesn't quite hit the mark. Its central idea is borrowed from an old worship chorus written by Dave Moody in 1981, though it's not in any way similar to that song otherwise.

It's a story song coupled with an exhortation. It explains the events Jesus' death and resurrection, then tells the congregation to hail King Jesus. The entire song is directed to the congregation. That is, God is never addressed directly with praise and worship, which we think is a requirement for a worship song. 

Jesus' resurrection story is found in Matthew chapter 28, Mark chapter 16, Luke chapter 24, and John chapter 20.

The Music

The mood and production of the song very much adds to intensity of the topic. The sparse instrumentation at the beginning brings the focus to the message of the lyrics, which is a welcome strategy in this time of overproduced worship music. 

The melody is singable and interesting, though somewhat irregular in rhythm in the verses. Jeremy Riddle's presentation reminds of of Matt Redman The song rises to the climax of the bridge, approaching a range that probably only a practiced tenor could sing. Despite this, the bridge melody is probably the best part of the song.

The verse chords are straightforward, I - vi - V - IV. The pre-chorus chords land on the beat with the words in a nicely declarative manner, ii - vi - V; I - I/6 - IV. The chorus, however, sort of pauses motion harmonically speaking, by spending most of the time on the I and I (sus), then going to a somewhat unusual minor turnaround I - I (sus) - iii - vi.

Harmonically, the bridge is again the best part of the song. It begins by landing on the V chord, which or course creates anticipation because the V must resolve at some point. And it does resolve, V - vi -IV - I -  I/6.

The Lyrics

The story begins quite well, with the first two verses and pre-chorus being a doctrinally accurate and understandable explanation leading to the exhortation of the chorus. 

But in verse three we find abiblical information. Let's quote it:

There was a moment when the sky lit up
A flash of light breaking through
When all was lost He crossed eternity
The King of life was on the move

None of this is found in the Bible. There was no lit up sky or flashes of light. All was not lost. Jesus did not cross eternity. In fact, there are only a comparative few physical phenomena recorded in the Bible regarding the event of Jesus' resurrection, including another earthquake (Mt. 28:2), the dead coming out of their tombs (Mt. 27:52), and of course the appearance of the angels afterwards. This compared to the description of many events and details of the crucifixion (darkness for three hours [Lk. 23:44], Jesus' seven sayings on the cross, the two thieves, the mocking of the soldiers, etc.). So the somewhat sparse details regarding the actual resurrection is somewhat surprising to us.

Based on this we do not grant the songwriters permission to speculate on what is not explained in the Bible. Thus, verse three lyrics are basically filler. The songwriters could have written lyrics about the actual events of the resurrection, like Mary mistaking the resurrected Jesus was the gardener (Jn. 20:15), or the angelic encounter at the tomb (Lk. 24:4), or the women telling the disciples what they had seen (Lk. 24:9). Any of this would have made for better songwriting than what was provided by the songwriters in verse three.

The bridge contains direct quotes from Philippians 2:10, which makes us happy, but again it is expressed as an exhortation to the congregation rather than direct statements of worship to God.

Conclusion

There is nothing in the song that could be regarded as heretical or doctrinally incorrect. However, the fact that it is not directed to God, the high range of the bridge, and the vagaries of the third verse means it is a somewhat questionable choice for congregational singing.