Bad Worship Songs - Throne Room - Jesus Culture

Audio link here.
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From time to time we post the lyrics of what we consider to be poorly written 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.

But too often, the ones we select from are largely limited to what is playing now. It's sort of an Overton Window of worship music. That's not always bad, because there is some very good music being written and played on mass media.

But "what's playing now" is based on a variety of factors, including marketability, production, and content. The gatekeepers determine what access there is, and Jesus Culture has gained access to the market and is using it to continue to promulgate its material. That makes sense. What doesn't necessarily happen is continued high quality.

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. Throne Room. There are some good parts, especially the first half of the chorus. But on the whole, there's just not enough here to consider it a good worship song.

Ok, Let's look at the song.

Verse one

Dream after dream, 
You are speaking to me, 
breathing word after word of kingdom come
Here at Your feet, 
I can see the unseen, 
truly one look at You and I'm undone

I run to the throne room
I run to the throne room

Read verse one aloud. Does it even make sense? Not really. There's a sense here of some disparate phrases cobbled together without regard to a cohesive narrative.

The song starts with the idea that God is speaking to the songwriter with a series of dreams about "kingdom come." Fair enough. We might object to this on the basis that we are forced to sing about the songwriter's experiences which may not be our own. Lauren Daigle also does this in the first line of her song "You Say:" I keep fighting voices in my mind that say I'm not enough. 

Those are intensely personal expressions, which in our view are outside the boundaries of corporate worship. In that vein, the song does tend to be self referential as a whole (19 uses of referents like I, me, and my).

But we will table this objection and move on to consider the implications of the unfolding storyline.

Ordinarily, the opening lines of a song establish or speak to the theme upon which the rest of the song's lyrics are built. But "kingdom come" is not the theme. This song will not be about manifestations of the kingdom on earth, like healings, salvations, the building of His church, or even a revelation of the King himself to the nations. In fact, the song swerves in the opposite direction, from earth up to his throne room, in keeping with the song's title.

Thus the introductory concept, "kingdom come," is Red Herring.

We also note that verse one says, here at your feet, then later says, I run to the throne room. Are we not already in the throne room if we are at His feet?

Happily, verse one does give us one well-stated concept that speaks to the theme: One look at You and I'm undone. Theological implications aside, this does speak to the central theme of the song.

Chorus

And I fall on my face
With angels and saints
And all I can say is
Holy, holy, holy are You, God
My heart can't contain
The weight of Your name
And all I can say is
Holy, holy, holy are You

As mentioned, the first half of the chorus is thematically excellent. The lyrics speak of the gathering of heaven and earth to worship, The premise we mined from in verse one, one look at You and I'm undone, is built upon by the phrase and all I can say is Holy. Indeed, when confronted with the glory of God, one does not run to the throne room or casually toss around meaningless phrases. Even the angelic beings in heaven are circumspect, singing only the word "holy." The song gets this right.

But then the lyrics turn puzzling. What does the songwriter mean by my heart can't contain the weight of Your name? It has the dubious virtue of being a near rhyme, but little else to recommend it. Is the limitations of the human heart (not the organ of course, but rather the soul) related to the weight of God's name? How? What does it mean for God's name to have weight? Isn't weight borne, not contained? How is this muddled statement relevant to the narrative?

This is what we mean by a songwriter not causing confusion in the mind of the worshiper.

Verse Two

Grace upon grace, 
all my fear falls away 
only Your perfect love for me remains
Oh, time after time 
You stay close by my side 
burning fire inside I can't contain

There is a little less ambiguity here than in verse one, but we are still left with a level of disquiet as to the meaning of certain phrases.

The opening statement, grace upon grace, is a Bible reference: John 1:16 For from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace. It can be difficult to do justice to concepts of this magnitude in a song, which the songwriter attempts to do. She asserts that unending grace causes her fear to leave, leaving God's perfect love. Maybe it's quibbling, but actually perfect love drives out fear (1Jn. 4:18). 

But the big problem with this verse is that it begins with a comfortable grace and love thing, but ends with an uncomfortable, uncontainable burning fire. This is a big swing in concepts, which is bad continuity. But at least the idea of containing is properly used. Containing fire is conceptually consistent. Containing weight is not.

The last thing to note with this verse is the sloppy use of language: Time after time You stay close by my side suggests on one hand an intermittent series of connections with God (time after time), but then acknowledges God's faithful presence (You stay close by my side). So, is God constantly close, or does He at times draw near and then distance Himself? Or, is the songwriter speaking to God's faithfulness in view of her own on again/off again? Or perhaps, she is singing of a repeated re-encounter of His grace?

But then she sings of the burning fire inside. So is He just near, or is He the fire burning inside? 

We know this might be nit-picking, but it's not too much to ask for some precision in language. 

The Bridge

I run to the throne room
Before You, the only One
I run to the throne room
Before You, I'm overcome
I run to the throne room
Before You, the only One
I run to the throne room
Before You, I'm overcome

There is little to attract our attention here, either positive or negative. We might simply ask how the picture of running combines with being before Him yet also being overcome. Also, we were previously told we were at His feet, but now we are running to that place. In addition, the bridge is largely built on telling God what the songwriter is doing, and it's an unremarkable activity. Why is running to the throne room so important to tell God we are doing it?

Conclusion

We are not looking for a theological treatise. And this song certainly isn't that. Production-wise it's certainly well-crafted. But as far as lyrics, well, we would long for more than just a hint that we are worshiping the Christian God. And we would want it to articulate a vision of heaven (given the title of the song) that inspires us to an elevated level of worship with increased knowledge of the nature of this Holy God.

We don't think the song does this. We cannot recommend it.