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
Video link.
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Lyrics:
[Verse 1]
We want an awareness, to recognize the worth
The weight of Your presence, Heaven on the earth
To notice Your beauty, to feel You drawing near
To witness Your glory, we know that You are here
[Chorus]
Holy Spirit of God, we surrender our hearts again
Move however You want, right here in our midst
Like a fire or flood, like a whisper or like the wind
Move however You want, right here in our midst
[Verse 2]
Give us new language, to speak Your Kingdom come
Give us new vision, to see Your will be done
You have our attention, You rule the atmosphere
Releasing Your power, oh, the evidence is clear, yes
[Bridge]
In our midst, there is fire all-consuming
In our midst, there is oil of anointing
In our midst, fresh revival, open heaven
In our midst, just imagine what could happen
Overview
Right up front we need to acknowledge that this is not a bad worship song. It's extremely well written, with an interesting melody and chords, plus our favorite meter, 12/8. However, this is clearly a song for charismatic churches. Cessationists would find many of its lyrics uncomfortable and probably doctrinally troubling. This is not a problem we will solve here, however.
The song does suffer from some of the overproduction common in the worship music business. The song starts out well enough with a fairly sparse mix that allows the listener to hear the space in the music. But soon it ramps up until there's an unrelenting white noise of multiple synth pads punctuated with snare hits and unnaturally clear vocals.
We count nine singers on stage, five guitars/bass, a drummer, a percussionist, a violinist and a cellist, plus an unknown number of keys and synths, surrounded by a choir of perhaps 25. To our ear, the cellist, the acoustic guitar, most of rhe backup singers, and the choir are never in the mix In fact, we would surmise by the way the violinist saws on her instrument at 1:30 that she, as well as most of the band, is overdubbed in post-production. Couple that with the unnaturally perfect vocals and what we have here is a studio recording pretending to be live worship.
The Music
As mentioned, the song is well written and interesting. The melody starts in a comfortable vocal range, but it soon becomes apparent it suffers from the common worship song malady: It's way too high for the men in the congregation, peaking out at a high F in the chorus. The tenor singer makes it sound easy, but it's not.
The verse chords are: V - IV - V - vi - I (3rd in bass)
Chorus: IV - I (3rd in bass) - IV - V -vi V - I (3rd in bass) - V - IV
Bridge: IV - V - I (3rd in bass) V - IV (repeat)
We omitted the various chord extensions beyond the triads.
The Lyrics
As mentioned, the typical cessationist church would not be comfortable with the lyrics of this song. Ideas like physically experiencing God's presence, revival, and of course the all-consuming fire, are not in the cessationist wheelhouse.
For the charismatic church, however, this song speaks powerfully to the desire for the presence and glory of God, coupled with the idea of surrender, in order that God might do as He pleases. Since we are charismatic in orientation, these concepts are part of our passion as well, to see King of kings move throughout the earth with salvation, judgment, and healing.
That does not mean the lyrics are without problems. The first problem is conceptual. In our opinion, the invitation for God's presence must be coupled with repentance and holiness. There is ample opportunity to include this because of the many lyrics.
Second, the songwriter speaks continually of personal experience; awareness, being witness to God's presence, feeling him, wanting vision, and telling Him that He can move in any manner He chooses. This last thing of course is an unnecessary statement, for if God moves He will do as He pleases. The songwriter has no control over this at all.
God doesn't need our permission, or even our agreement.
Worst of all, there is but a single tepid statement of worship, and that's in verse 1:
recognize the worth
This means that it's not really a worship song at all, it's a song of petition.
Third, specific problematic lyrics, the first of which is found in verse 3:
You rule the atmosphere
This is a troubling statement, no doubt written to sound fresh and clever, but when we open our Bible we find this:
Ep. 2:1-2 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.
The songwriter accidently (?) describes the devil.
Another problem lyric is:
just imagine what could happen
We don't find anything in the Bible that commends imagining things. He exceeds what we could even think:
Ep. 3:20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.
The Greek word here is noeó, which means an inner act of thoughtful perception... We would therefore suggest that if God exceeds our thoughtful perception, then our imaginations could lead us astray. It's not something we should sing about.
Conclusion
This song, as good as it is musically, needs to have the lyrics amended to make it suitable for (charismatic) church use.
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