Big Daddy Weave – Overwhelmed

Big Daddy Weave is an American Contemporary Christian artist whose name derives from his nickname “Big Daddy” (due to his…generousness) and “Weaver”, with the last character “r” dropped for flow.

Beginning with his career in 1998, he released ten albums, including:

• Neighborhoods (2001)
• One and Only (2002)
• Fields of Grace (2003)
• What I Was Made For (2005)
• Every Time I Breathe (2006)
• What Life Would Be Like (2008)
• Christ Is Come (2009)
• Love Come to Life (2012)
• Beautiful Offerings (2015)
• When the Light Comes (2019)

Big Daddy Weave received a GMA Dove Award for Christmas Album of the Year for his work on Christ Is Come in 2010.

Also, check out my reviews of God Is In This Story, I Know, Redeemed, and Jesus I Believe.

Lyrics can be found at https://genius.com/Big-daddy-weave-overwhelmed-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.

1. What message does the song communicate?

Weave is completely immersed in the wonder, beauty, act, majesty, and glory that is God.  Cleaned and made whole, and forgiven because of Jesus, he unashamedly goes before God laying out his requests.

Side Note: To those annoyed by massive repetition, the Outro repeats start in the middle of Chorus and are in a foreign language.  It is done tastefully, despite repeating two lines 11 times.

Score: 10/10

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

The whole kit and kaboodle.

[Verse 1]

Lines 1 and 2: The heavens declare God’s glory (Psalm 19:1-4).

Line 3: That is, Weave is completely surrounded by God’s Presence (1 Kings 8:27, Psalm 139:7-12, Proverbs 15:3, Jeremiah 23:23-24, Colossians 1:17, and Hebrews 4:13).

[Verse 2]

Lines 1 and 2: To Weave, God’s voice is both a still, small voice like in 1 Kings 19:12 and a booming display such as Moses’ interaction on the mountaintop in Exodus 3:1-9.

Line 3: See Verse 1, line 3.

[Chorus]

Line 1: Weave obeys Psalm 37:4.

Line 2: God is beautiful (1 Chronicles 16:29, Psalm 27:4, and Psalm 29:2).

Note: This line changes in subsequent repeats in Chorus, which is about the glory of God’s Presence.  John 1:14 is an excellent passage to describe this phenomenon.

Line 3: Essentially repeats Verse 1, line 3.

Lines 4 and 5: Weave boldly approaches God’s throne and makes his petitions known to Him (Philippians 4:6 and Hebrews 4:16).

Line 6: Repeats line 3.

[Verse 3]

Lines 1 and 2: That is, to free those enslaved by sin (Psalm 119:45, Isaiah 58:6, Isaiah 61:1, John 3:16-21, John 8:31-36, John 10:10, Acts 13:38-39, Romans 6:1-23, Romans 8:1-4, Romans 8:20-21, 1 Corinthians 6:12, 1 Corinthians 7:21-23, 2 Corinthians 3:17, Galatians 2:4, Galatians 3:13, Galatians 3:22, Galatians 5:1, Galatians 5:13, Colossians 1:21-23, Hebrews 2:14-15, and 1 Peter 2:16 ).

Line 3: Similar to Verse 1, line 3, except that Weave is overwhelmed by God’s actions in addition to His Presence.

[Bridge]

Lines 1-3: God is beautiful (see Chorus, line 2, first instance), there is none like Him (Exodus 8:10, Exodus 9:14, Deuteronomy 3:24, Deuteronomy 33:26, Jeremiah 10:6, 1 Samuel 2:2, 2 Samuel 7:22, 1 Kings 8:23, 1 Chronicles 17:20, Psalm 86:8, Psalm 89:6, Psalm 113:5-6, Jeremiah 10:7, Isaiah 40:18, and Isaiah 46:9), and His beauty is the highest.

Lines 4-9: Follows the same structure as lines 1-3, though describing God’s glory (Exodus 16:7, Exodus 24:17, Exodus 40:34-35, Leviticus 9:23, 1 Chronicles 29:11, Psalm 3:3, Psalm 8:1, Psalm 19:1-4, Isaiah 6:1-3, Isaiah 40:5, Isaiah 42:8, Isaiah 58:8, Isaiah 60:1, Habakkuk 2:14, John 1:14, John 17:22, Romans 3:23, 2 Corinthians 3:18, 2 Corinthians 4:6, Philippians 4:19, Hebrews 1:1-3, Revelation 21:10-14, and Revelation 21:23) and wonder (Psalm 33:8-9).

[Outro]

Line 1: Swahili for “You are noble”, that is, the highest or most supreme (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 2: Swahili for “You are amazing”, which is a synonym for wonderful.  See Bridge, lines 7-9.

Lines 3-22: Repeats lines 1 and 2.

Score: 10/10

3. How would an outsider interpret the song?

Weave’s language is everyday and clear for unbelievers, except for Outro.  Not that Outro adds anything to the song, except for that nice, foreign language flair.  All the points I’ve made in section 1 are easily understood by those who don’t follow Christ.  The opening to Verse 3 is the most obvious marker that this is a Christian song given its reference to the cross.

Score: 10/10

4. What does this song glorify?

It glorifies God.  Who else?  He’s such an awesome God!  There’s no one like Him.

Score: 10/10

Closing Comments

Big Daddy Weave expresses his feelings in Overwhelmed.  His Presence, glory, beauty, and wonder envelope him, alongside His Lovingkindness as shown through the cross, compelling Him to seek forgiveness, forsake folly, and boldly approach His throne.  These bring Him glory.  Unbelievers should easily interpret similarly.

I highly recommend this song for corporate worship.

Final Score: 10/10

Artist Info

Track: Overwhelmed (listen to the song)

Artist: Big Daddy Weave

Album: Love Come to Life

Genre: Contemporary Christian Music (CCM)

Release Year: 2012

Duration: 5:30

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