Bethel Music – Be Enthroned

It’s hard to say which megachurch is bigger, Hillsong or Bethel Music.  Bethel is older, founded in 1952 and started releasing their music as early as 2001, with too many albums than I care to list.

Christians all over their world have heard their music, including hits such as Reckless Love, Ever Be, and You Make Me Brave.

Check out my other ten Bethel Music reviews!

Lyrics can be found at https://genius.com/Bethel-music-be-enthroned-live-lyrics.

Note to new users: This is a different kind of review site!  Read About the Berean Test and Evaluation Criteria prior to reading this review.  I strongly encourage you to consider the potential blessings and dangers of this artist‘s theology by visiting Resources.

1. What message does the song communicate?

Christ-followers join heaven and earth to worship our King.  God is worthy of praise.  Why is He worthy?  Chorus and Verse 2 hint at the answer: because God was slain and rose as our King.  For Christians, we interpret this as God paying for our sins through Jesus and resurrected on the third day.

Score: 10/10

2. How much of the lyrics line up with Scripture?

All of it agrees with Scripture.

[Intro]

Lines 1 and 2: A call to Casper the friendly ghost.

[Verse 1]

Lines 1-4: We join heaven and earth in singing God’s praises (Psalm 66:4, Psalm 96:1-2, and Isaiah 42:10-12).

[Verse 2]

Lines 1-4: That is, God demonstrates His love towards us in that while we were sinners, Christ died for us (John 3:16 and Romans 5:6-8).

[Chorus]

Lines 1 and 2: God is worthy of all praise (1 Chronicles 16:25, 2 Samuel 22:4, Psalm 96:4-5, Psalm 145:3, and Revelation 4:11 ) and sovereign (Genesis 1:1, Deuteronomy 4:39, Deuteronomy 10:14, Joshua 2:11, Nehemiah 9:6, Psalm 29:10, Psalm 45:6, Psalm 50:7-15, Psalm 93:1-2, Psalm 115:3, Psalm 135:6, Isaiah 43:13, Isaiah 45:9-10, Isaiah 46:10, Lamentations 5:19, Daniel 4:35, Romans 9:19-21, Ephesians 1:11, Hebrews 1:8, James 4:15, Revelation 4:11, and Revelation 20:11).

Line 3: God is:

• Slain (Isaiah 53:7, John 1:29, John 1:36, 1 Peter 1:19, Revelation 5:12, and Revelation 13:8).
• Risen (Matthew 28:1-20, Mark 16:1-20, Luke 24:1-12, John 20:1-29, Acts 1:3, Acts 3:15, Acts 4:33, and 1 Corinthians 15:3-8).
• King (Exodus 15:6, Exodus 15:11, 1 Chronicles 29:11, 2 Chronicles 20:6, Psalm 24:10, Psalm 93:1, Psalm 110:2-3, Psalm 104:1, Psalm 145:5, Psalm 145:12, Job 37:22, Isaiah 24:14, Isaiah 26:10, Hebrews 1:3-4, Hebrews 8:1, Revelation 4:1-11, and Revelation 19:7-16).

Lines 4 and 5: In response to God’s faithfulness, we worship God.  See lines 1 and 2.

NOTE: Its final iteration doesn’t add anything new to this song.

[Verse 3]

Lines 1-4: Our praises persist through all eternity (Nehemiah 9:5, Psalm 30:12, Psalm 52:9, Psalm 86:12, Psalm 89:1, Psalm 115:18, Psalm 145:1-2, Psalm 145:21, and Revelation 5:9-13).

Lines 5-9: Repeats lines 1-4.

[Interlude]

Lines 1 and 2: Specifies Jesus as the One worthy of our adoration.  See Chorus, lines 1 and 2.

[Bridge]

Line 1: We respond to God with praise and worship (See Verse 1). Combined with Chorus, line 2b.

Lines 2-9: Essentially repeats line 1.

Score: 10/10

3. How would an outsider interpret the song?

Unbelievers will know that Christians worship Jesus.  He is explicitly mentioned in Verse 3.

Though Chorus hinted at Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection, I am less confident that unbelievers would pick up on it.  This makes it difficult to think that, based on these lyrics alone, that those outside the camp of Christ will understand why we worship God.

Score: 6/10

4. What does this song glorify?

It glorifies God that we, His children, extol Him.

Score: 10/10

Closing Comments

Bethel Music’s Be Enthroned is good for Christians.  It magnifies Jesus as Lord and Ruler of all, joining heaven and earth to sing His praises because He died for us and rose again.  This glorifies God.  Unbelievers will understand that Christian worship Jesus, but unless they catch Bethel’s hints of death and resurrection, they likely won’t know why.

If used for corporate worship, consider explaining why we worship God before using it.  Especially for seeker-sensitive churches.

Final Score: 9/10

Artist Info

Track: Be Enthroned (Live) (listen to the song)

Artist: Bethel Music

Album: Have It All (Live)

Genre: Contemporary Christian Music (CCM)

Release Year: 2016

Duration: 8:05

Agree?  Disagree?  Don’t be shy or have a cow!  Calmly and politely state your case in a comment, below.

Updates:

06/11/2021 – Per Artist Theology announcement, I expanded the red text to encourage others to study Bethel Music’s theology.

03/17/2021 – Updated per repetition announcement.  Though I raised section 1’s score, this did not affect the overall score.