Bad Worship Songs - Tremble, By Mosaic MSC (Bentley, Fieldes, Figueroa, McManus)

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, Tremble.

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Video link.

Lyrics:

[Verse 1]
Peace, bring it all to peace
The storms surrounding me, let it break at Your name
Still, call the sea to still
The rage in me to still, every wave at Your name

[Chorus]
Jesus, Jesus, You make the darkness tremble
Jesus, Jesus, You silence fear

Bridge

Your.name is a light that the shadows can't deny

Your name cannot be overcome

Your name is alive, forever lifted high

Your name cannot be overcome

[Verse 2]
Breathe, call these bones to live
Call these lungs to sing, once again, I will praise

Overview

The linked video features a woman named Tabea Lee singing live, and we find her performance extremely refreshing. It is clearly the live vocal because of slight imperfections in tuning and some inconsistency in her tone. But it's these human elements that make real music so distinct from the over-produced, auto-tuned messes that are so common today. 

Further, Ms. Lee simply stands at a mic with her guitar and sings. No histrionics, no pained expressions, no emoting, no enraptured state. Just singing. Well done.

Contrast this with another version of this song, where the lead singer's voice is extremely flat in tone, breathy, perfectly in tune, and compressed. The percussion elements sound like synthesizer effects added post-production, and the crowd noise sounds like a sound track. This version sounds almost fake compared to the first video.

The Music

The production is simple and transparent. There aren't three guitars, seven vocalists, and five keyboards. We can hear every word Ms. Lee sings. This sort of clarity and dare we say, honesty, is severely lacking in every genre of music, and sadly, worship music had followed this trend.

The verse chords are vi - IV - I - V (repeated), a common and unadorned progression that underscores the simplicity of the song.

The chorus chords are IV - vi - V (repeated), again a common progression.

The bridge chords are IV - I - V, IV - I - vi (repeated).

The melody is interesting. The verse actually starts reminiscent of Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes" in mood. It's a pleasant and interesting melody with no vocal gymnastics required, except it gets a little high in the bridge. But at least the melody leads up to the high note, making it easier to sing.

The Lyrics

Having touted the band, the singing, the production, and the songwriting, we now turn to the unfortunate lyrics.

Our typical practice is to read the lyrics aloud, which helps to determine if there is a coherent story being told, if they make sense, and to whom they are directed. For example, songs that address the congregants are descriptive, declarative, or exhortative, not worship. Other songs have the purpose of teaching, and are also not worship songs. 

In this case the entire song is sung directly to Jesus, which is our primary criteria for deeming a song to be a worship song. But songs sung to God are not automatically worship. Like prayer, song lyrics can be petition, confession, or intercession. These sort of lyrics we would not call worship. The key component in worship is the praise and adoration of our savior, along with statements of His greatness and glory, His nature and characteristics, and His mighty deeds.

The song's title, "Tremble," is barely mentioned and is not explored at all. "Your Name" should have been the title to the song. The song continuously appeals to and credits "your name." The entire song revolves around the benefits and remedies of it, as if the simple existence of Jesus' name does things, like a magic incantation. 

This trend in worship music is somewhat troubling.

Now certainly we are commanded to pray in the name of Jesus (Jn. 14:13), and there are examples all over the Book of Acts of people doing so (Ac. 3:6, Ac. 8:12, Ac. 9:27, Ac. 10:48, Ac. 16:18). So yes, the Name is powerful. Yet there is also the famous example of the seven sons of Sceva using the name of Jesus and getting beat up by demons (Ac. 19:13). Therefore, there is so much more to the Name than just inserting it into our prayers.

Verse one is petition. The songwriters are asking God to do things for them personally:

• Bring peace
• Break the storms
• calm the sea
• still the rage 

We need to be careful with these kinds of statements, since congregational singing means that everyone is sharing in the lyrics being sung. In this case, the congregation is being forced to sing about some pretty specific situations that they might not be party to. Since worship music is essentially sung prayers, these congregational prayers ought to reflect a more universal, less specific set of petitions when in a congregational setting. Particularly in the case of rage. Why sing about such a thing, with the implicit assumption that every person in the building is in the same situation?

Also, we need to note the grammatical error in the second stanza:

The storms surrounding me, let it break at Your name

The tense changes from plural to singular. However, we need to acknowledge that some lyric transcripts contain correct grammar by rendering "storms" as the singular "storm." 

While the first verse was solely concerned about seeking relief from the troubles surrounding the songwriters, verse two is a new topic about about restoring the songwriters' former passion. Stanza one alludes to bones, a theme that surely has been overdone over the last few years, as has the use of the word "lungs" found in stanza two: 

• "You've got a lion inside of those lungs" (Brandon Lake)

• "Our hearts will cry, these bones will sing" (Cody Carnes)

• "It's your breath in my lungs" (Cody Carnes)

• "This is the sound of dry bones rattling" (Elevation)

• "Can the dry bones live, can the dead hearts sing" (Charity Gayle)

• "Fill my lungs with the wind of Your Spirit." (Hillsongs)

The chorus:

Jesus, Jesus, You make the darkness tremble
Jesus, Jesus, You silence fear

The lyrics have moved on to another new topic, Jesus Himself (not just His Name). Both statements are true here, but not terrible worshipful so much as being statements of what He does. One minor quibble is the use of the word "fear," which is another word overused in worship songs of recent years. If the songwriters were to be lyrically consistent, Jesus would be silencing the darkness, not fear. Fear doesn't make noise, anyway.

In the bridge the songwriters once again invoke "Your Name" with several somewhat odd and obtuse statements of praise:

Your.name is a light that the shadows can't deny

Your name cannot be overcome

Your name is alive, forever lifted high

Your name cannot be overcome

It seems the songwriters are mangling John 1:5:

The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not overcome it.

Problems: 

• His Name is never described in the Bible as a light. Further, whatever it is that the shadows can't deny is a really strange way to sing about God. We don't think any dark forces should ever be memorialized in a worship song, A Mighty Fortress is Our God notwithstanding.. 

• Is it really His Name that cannot be overcome? How does this work?  As mentioned, the light cannot be overcome (John 1:5). And His church cannot be overcome (Mat. 16:18). He Himself has overcome the world (John 16:33). Good overcomes evil (Romans 12:21). Our faith overcomes the world (1 John 5:4). 

But nothing about His name. It's not an unbiblical claim, it's abiblical. 

•  Sigh... Jesus' name is not alive, He as the Risen One is: 

Rev. 1:18 I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.

Conclusion

So what do we have here? A misnamed, pleasant, singable song about Jesus' Name, with superficial, trite, vague, almost incomprehensible lyrics. We think this is a wasted opportunity to write a song about how nations, demons, and the church tremblw for example, or a song about how Jesus brings benefits to our lives, or, how at the Name of Jesus every knee will bow. 

The song is not specifically heretical, it just not very profound. With so much really good worship music available, we should not settle for vague, confusing songs that sound pretty but not much else.

We cannot recommend this song, but we would not object to its use.