Bad worship songs: Worthy (Elevation/Brown, Furtick)

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, Worthy. 

Video found here.

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Lyrics:

[Verse 1]
It was my cross You bore
So I could live in the freedom You died for
And now my life is Yours
And I will sing of Your goodness forevermore

[Chorus]
Worthy is Your name, Jesus
You deserve the praise
Worthy is Your name
Worthy is Your name, Jesus
You deserve the praise
Worthy is Your name

[Verse 2]
And now my shame is gone
I stand amazed in Your love undeniable
Your grace goes on and on
And I will sing of Your goodness forevermore

[Chorus]
Worthy is Your name, Jesus
You deserve the praise
Worthy is Your name

Overview

We should begin by saying that this is not a Bad Worship Song. It's a rather good one. In a world where worship songs are mostly over-produced, pretentious, and uninspired, it's refreshing to run across a song that has something to say without a lot of gimmickry. Now, this song doesn't do this perfectly, since the mood lighting and laser beams still appear in the video. But musically, the production is transparent and clear. There is no overbearing wall of sound. There is very little gyrating or enraptured bobbing up and down.

It is a legitimate worship song, in that it describes and celebrates attributes of God in a manner that is mostly directed to Him and without being excessively self-referential. 

It is not without its problems, however. But first, the music.

The Music

As mentioned, the production of this song does not overwhelm the listener. There aren't 7 keyboards and 4 guitars. It's in a singable range without large leaps. It's almost like the songwriters and performers considered the fact that they would be worshiping the God of heaven and earth when they put the song together.

Very refreshing, indeed.

The chords are simple and straightforward, with no real surprises.

Intro: vi - I - IV - V

Verse: I - Vsus - V - I/first inversion - IV - I/V - V (repeat)

Chorus: IV - A - I/first inversion - vi - V - I/first inversion - vi

Bridge: IV - ii - VI - V - 1/first inversion

The Lyrics

We previously alluded to some problems, but in fact they're somewhat minor quibbles. 

Problem #1: In the first verse we see this:

It was my cross You bore

 There is no Bible verse that tells us this. Rather, He bore the cross as the Lamb of God, whose blood was spilled to wash away sin. We who are saved are called to bear our own crosses: 

Mt. 16:24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

Now, it is true that Jesus carried the burden of our sin to the cross. Therefore, it would have been so simple to write these lyrics:

It was my sin You bore

There. No more controversy. No need to stop and think about the lyrics. Worship flows on, unbroken by questions.

Problem #2: The second verse says, 

And now my shame is gone

We undertake to lay our finger on any verse that tells us that Jesus removed our shame. The Bible may say so, but no verse comes to mind. The Greek word for shame is aischuné, and none of the 6 occurrences of the word is connected with forgiveness, the cross, or any similar thing. Another Greek word, kataischuno, uniformly refers to someone who would be brought to shame. That is, this word changes the orientation of the shame. The songwriters present it as shame being taken away from us, while this Greek word means the shame is brought to and laid on the sinner. 

We find this idea clearly illustrated here:

1Co. 1:27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.

So once again the songwriters chose a word that might give the worshiper pause. Worship songs should not rip us out the moment to consider what the words mean.

In this case, the solution again is so simple:

And now my sin is gone

This makes the them consistent with the change we made for verse one. 

These are basic biblical concepts that should not be messed with. Song lyrics tend to cement ideas in our minds, so we should always endeavor to make sure they are true ideas.

Conclusion

This song contains all the proper elements for a worship song. Aside from some lyrical issues, we happily recommend it.