Bad Worship Songs: With Everything - Joel Houston, Hillsongs

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 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 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
• Lyrics that do not create uncertainty or cause confusion
• A certain amount of profundity
• A singable, interesting melody
• Allusions to Scripture
• Doctrinal soundness
• Not excessively metaphorical
• Not excessively repetitive
• Jesus is not 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 this song, With Everything.

-----------------------

Youtube link.

Lyrics:

Verse 1: Open our hearts, to see the things
That make Your heart cry
To be the church that You would desire
Your light to be seen

Verse 2: Break down our pride
And all the walls, we've built up inside
Our earthly crowns, and all our desires
We lay at Your feet

Pre-chorus: So let hope rise
And darkness tremble in Your holy light
And every eye will see

Jesus, our God

Great and mighty to be praised

Chorus: God of all days
Glorious in all of Your ways
Your majesty, the wonder and grace
In the light of Your name

Bridge 1: With everything
With everything
We will shout for your glory
With everything
With everything
We will shout forth your praise

Bridge 2: Our hearts will cry
Be glorified, be lifted high
Above all 
For You our King
With everything
We will shout forth your praise

Overview

Let's start by noting this is in no way a bad worship song. In our view, it's brilliant. From the form to the chords to the lyrics to the melody, this song is very nearly a masterpiece. Whether or not it takes its place among the great worship songs, time will tell. In any case, we respect and celebrate the songwriter for crafting this profound song.

There are several versions of this song. For the version we chose, the song begins with a syncopated acoustic guitar arpeggio. It's an insistent pattern, setting us up for what comes later. It creates tension and expectation, and alludes to an underlying drum march that will appear later. 

The words to verse 1 are a plaintive cry to know God's heart so that we would be the church He wants us to be. Verse 2 continues this as confession of sorts for being hard-hearted, and ends with a statement of surrender.

This sets the stage for the pre-chorus, and what the songwriter believes will be the result of this repentance, with a declaration for our hope to arise as God begins to move. The pre-chorus is also an very effective build-up to the chorus, which lands solidly on praise statements and confessions of His glory.

The song then backs off with a quiet keyboard interlude, but the way it's played it contains an urgency. Rather than a connector, this interlude is more a breather to prepare for the push to the high point to come.

Bridge 1 opens with declarative statements about our commitment to give everything in praise. It repeats several times, increasing in intensity, and finally moves to Bridge 2. The song is still building, with 16th note riffs now punctuating the background.

Then, when tension has built to the point where it can't go any higher, there's a huge one beat stop, and then a crash-down of all instruments and voices, an extended "oh." This is the climax, where it seems words fail us. All we can do is sing this solitary syllable in pentatonic unison.

One more time to the pre-chorus and chorus, then out. Now we are exhausted, having left everything on the table for the sake of exalting the King.

This is how worship should be.

The Music

Joel Houston knows how to write a worship song. Generally speaking, he doesn't create particularly complicated harmonies, but he does arrange them in unusual progressions and/or with unusual timing. Most songwriters will put a chord every two or every four beats, with perhaps a passing chord or a bass walk up, but Joel doesn't do this. The verse progression is

Six beats on the I chord

two beats on V

six beats on vi

two beats on IV

six beats on I

two beats on V

six beats on vi, and 

two beats on IV.

This 6-2 combination has the effect of delaying the natural expectation of how a harmony ought to proceed, so that the congregation is drawn in anticipation. It's simply longer than "necessary" for the chords to proceed.

The pre-chorus shifts to a more conventional 2 beats per chord, which creates an interesting contrast to what came before. The previous rhythmic tension gets replaced with several declarative statements and a somewhat rudimentary chord progression: vi - IV - I - V, played twice, then IV - vi - V - ii - IV - V. As the pre-chorus is repeated and increases in intensity it is eventually backed by a machine gun 16th note punctuation.

The chorus returns to the 6-2 beat combination, which yields an incredible delay to the final V chord as we sing "...in the light of your name..." We wait for it, wait for it, wait for it, and finally the V arrives on beat three. It's almost like the harmonic tension is not created by the V, which is its usual harmonic role as the Dominant; rather, the tension is when we finally arrive at the Dominant. Very unexpected, and very effective.

For the bridges, the chords are now one every four beats: IV - vi - I - V. What's unusual with this is the vi - I movement, which creates harmonic interest. It's an unusual resolution to the I chord, much weaker than a Dominant-Tonic, and even weaker than the Sub Dominant-Tonic resolution.  Yet it happens without being distracting. And even through this more basic construction the song still builds intensity.

The high point of the song, as mentioned, contains no words. Truly this moment is illustrative of Ro. 8:26:

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.

We simply run out of words to express His greatness, and are left with a wordless melody, as profound as it is simple.

If we have one complaint, by this time the range is approaching scream level. It's very high because the song basically jumped octaves from the verses through the pre-chorus.

The Lyrics

There is no controversy here. The lyrics are spot on, not complicated, and straightforward. The progression of ideas is logical and sensible.

As mentioned the song opens with statements of repentance in the verses. This doesn't happen very often in worship music, but is truly effective in setting the stage for the praise statements of the pre-chorus and chorus.

The bridges then chronicles our response to His presence and glory. 

Conclusion

This song requires a talented worship team. The sheer endurance necessary to maintain and increase the intensity is immense. Combined with the rhythmic variations and instrumental prowess needed, this is a difficult song to pull off successfully.

It is well worth the effort, however. We whole-heartedly recommend it.