Bad worship songs: Gratitude - Brandon Lake

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, Gratitude.

Video link.

Lyrics:

[Verse 1] All my words fall short 

I got nothing new
How could I express 

All my gratitude?

[Verse 2] I could sing these songs As I often do
But every song must end And You never do

[Chorus] So I throw up my hands
And praise You again and again
'Cause all that I have is a
Hallelujah, hallelujah
And I know it's not much
But I've nothing else fit for a King
Except for a heart singing
Hallelujah, hallelujah

[Verse 3] I've got one response
I've got just one move
With my arm stretched wide
I will worship You

[Bridge] So come on my soul, oh, don't you get shy on me
Lift up your song, 'cause you've got a lion inside of those lungs
Get up and praise the Lord

Overview

Sometimes it just takes one little thing to make a good worship song into a questionable one. For us it is the bridge, which sort of sticks out like a sore thumb. We will discuss it below. 

This song is expressed on a very personal level, as if the songwriter was alone in a room pouring out his heart to God. This means there is a lot of "I" and "my" in this song, when it could have been better suited to congregational sing with "we" and "us." This sort of "Me and God" context can possibly work, but worship leaders need to be careful that they're not selecting songs that make the congregation sing vicariously about other peoples' experiences.

Otherwise, this part of the song is a well done expression of worship. 

The music

So many worship songs are written in keys that only gifted tenors can sing. Gratitude also gets up pretty high, particularly the chorus. And, the chorus needs to be sung tenderly. So it's high, and it's tender, which is not an easy thing to combine.

Apart from that the melody is interesting and singable. 

We've always liked 6/8 or 12/8 songs. There's a lilt or flow to these time meters that often adds to the worship experience. 

The chord structure in the initial verses and chorus contains no surprises. The verse chords are I - vi - V - IV, and the chorus chords are I - V - IV - vi - V. The bridge chords begin with an extended time on the I chord, when lends itself to the declaratory nature of the lyrics. It eventually moves to the V chord, and ends with a vi - V turnaround.

It's here the harmonic structure changes. The chorus repeats, but with borrowed chords. It begins with the I chord as before, but instead of a V chord it uses the v chord. This suggests the tonality has moved to C Mixolydian, which has a minor five chord. The song continues to the IV chord, and then goes to the iv chord, another tonal surprise. Though the progression from the four major to the four minor (often with an added 6th on the four minor), is a not uncommon progression, particularly in jazz, it's somewhat surprising in a worship song.

The chorus closes by returning to the I chord, then v - IV - iv - V.

The harmonic interest in the chorus is increased by the melody. On the first "hallelujah" ('Cause all that I have is a Hallelujah, hallelujah) The melody is 1st degree, 2nd, 7th, and 1st again of the diatonic scale. In the key of B, the notes are B C#, A# and B. 

But the IV chord (the E chord) is sounding at this point, and the 7th degree (A#) in the melody is not found in the E chord (E - G# - B). This means the melody note puts A# against B (the 5th of the E chord is also the first degree of the diatonic major scale, while the melody note is the seventh degree of the diatonic major scale, thus a half step apart). 

It's writing like this that gladdens our hearts in a time of cookie cutter worship songs.

The bridge

After an extended time of intimate worship the song brings us to a very odd bridge, the topic of which is a self-exhortation. That is, the songwriter has decided that this is the time when he should command his soul:

So come on my soul, oh, don't you get shy on me
Lift up your song, 'cause you've got a lion inside of those lungs
Get up and praise the Lord

Having spent three verses and several choruses praising the Lord, the songwriter seems to think he as a worshipper has not measured up. "Get up and praise the Lord," he tells himself, as if this has not been already happening.  

Further, the figurative lion he claims is in his lungs makes no sense. Now we know that the roar of a lion is a formidable thing, which is why Jesus is called the Lion of the Tribe of Judah (Rev. 5:5). There is an angel who has a shout like the roar of a lion (Rev. 10:3). Otherwise, the roar of a lion is not often found in the pages of Scripture (Job 4:10, Psa. 22:13, Ps. 22:13, Pr. 19:12, Pr. 28:15, Is. 5:29, Jer. 2:15, are references to a roaring lion). But mostly a roaring lion is a negative thing: 

Jer. 12:8 My inheritance has become to me like a lion in the forest. She roars at me; therefore I hate her.

But we also see the lion's roar in the voice of the Lord proclaiming judgment:

Am. 1:2 He said: “The LORD roars from Zion and thunders from Jerusalem; the pastures of the shepherds dry up...

We could not find a verse, however, about a person's worship compared to roaring like a lion in a positive way. 

We don't know the songwriter's basis of understanding regarding these lion lyrics, but it is clear he views this as an untapped potential for a Christian. In any case, we think that introducing uncertainty into a song detracts from the worship we are offering and should be avoided.

Conclusion

The song has many commendable aspects to it. It is melodically and harmonically interesting, it most certainly is worship offered directly to God, and there is no obvious heresy anywhere. It might be viewed as excessively personal for a congregational setting, and the puzzling bridge lyrics are perhaps problematic. So rather than issuing a recommendation, we would toss this back to the worship leader to make a careful decision about using the song.