Brandon Lake – Gratitude

Brandon Lake is a former American worship leader for Bethel Music and Maverick City Music.  He released four albums and one EP, including:

• Closer (2016)
• House of Miracles (2020)
• House of Miracles (Live) (2021)
• Almond Eyes (EP, 2021)
• Help! (2022)

He won a GMA Dove Award for Gospel Worship Recorded Song of the Year (This Is a Move (Live), 2019) and Songwriter of the Year in 2021.  He was also awarded in 2021 for his work on Graves into Gardens, receiving credit for a GMA Dove for Worship Recorded Song of the Year and a Billboard award for Top Christian Song, both in 2021.

Also, check out my reviews of Son of Heaven, Too Good To Not Believe, Pour Me Out, We Praise You, and This Is a Move.

Lyrics can be found at https://genius.com/Brandon-lake-gratitude-lyrics.

Side Note: For this review, I examined the studio version.

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?

Though Lake cannot find the words or song to satisfactorily thank God, he worships Him because He is eternal and a King.  Lake thinks that his only method is to physically worship God, imploring others to sing loudly alongside him.  While a noble response, I make a case in section 2 why obedience is our sole reply.

Score: 8/10

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

Much of this song aligns with the Bible, except in Chorus and Verse 3, where it states that Lake’s sole response to gratitude is physical signs of worship.

[Verse 1]

Lines 1-4: Human language cannot adequately capture how grateful Lake is for God’s immeasurable gifts (2 Corinthians 9:14-15).

[Verse 2]

Lines 1-4: Lake contrasts his human limitation of songs that end with God’s eternal existence (Deuteronomy 33:27, 1 Chronicles 16:34, Job 36:26, Psalm 48:14, Psalm 90:2-4, Psalm 102:12, Psalm 102:26-27, Proverbs 8:23, Isaiah 40:28, Isaiah 41:4, Habakkuk 1:12, John 17:5, Romans 1:20, 1 Corinthians 2:7, Ephesians 1:4, Hebrews 1:11-12, 1 Peter 1:20, 2 Peter 3:8, Revelation 1:8, Revelation 11:17, and Revelation 22:13).

[Chorus]

Lines 1-7: Lake worships God (Psalm 86:12, Psalm 103:1-2, Psalm 103:22, Psalm 119:10, and Psalm 138:1).  His offering is a broken and contrite heart, acceptable to God (Psalm 51:17 and Isaiah 66:2), Lake’s 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).

The word ‘Hallelujah” is a compound Hebrew phrase, with “hallelu” meaning “a joyous praise in song” and “jah” or “yah”, which refers to the Tetragrammaton YHWH/YHVH. Put together, we are singing “we joyfully praise God in song” when we use this word.

I’ll explain in my commentary to Verse 3 why this is not “all I have”.

Line 8: Repeats line 4.

[Verse 3]

Lines 1-4: This is not completely correct.  Worship isn’t just about outstretched arms or praising God at church on Sunday.  It goes much deeper than that.

Worship comes from an old English word, “woerthship”, which means “to proclaim to another their value and worth”.  How do we show God that we value him?  Hands raised towards the sky is how we show it physically.  But, complete and total surrender to God in obedience (Psalm 43:5, Isaiah 64:8, Matthew 10:38, Matthew 11:28-30, Matthew 16:24, Mark 8:34-38, Mark 10:28, Luke 9:23, Luke 14:27, John 15:1-11, Romans 6:13, Romans 12:1-2, Galatians 2:20, Philippians 2:5-8, Hebrews 11:6, James 4:7-10, and 1 Peter 5:6) encompasses every area of our lives.  God controls our finances, work ethic, political views, and how we interact with the world.  Surrender is how we show that we love God more than anything else.  It is the deepest form of worship that exists.  If we love God, we will keep His commandments (John 14:15 and 1 John 5:1-5).

[Bridge]

Lines 1-3: Lake encourages others to express worship through loud singing or shouting (Psalm 47:1, Psalm 65:13, Psalm 66:1, Psalm 98:4, Psalm 100:1, and Isaiah 44:23).

Lines: 4-11: Repeats/essentially repeats lines 1-3.

Score: 8/10

3. How would an outsider interpret the song?

Unbelievers will likely interpret this song as christians worshipping their God with arms high, shouting, and singing because He exists forever as their ruler.  They will probably think it’s Christian because Lake worships his King with the word “hallelujah”.  The jury’s out on whether or not they will know that Lake didn’t mention obedience that also glorifies God.

Score: 6/10

4. What does this song glorify?

While it glorifies God that Lake shows gratitude through physical signs of worship, he is incorrect that worship is our sole reply.  Obedience is another method to show gratitude.

Score: 8/10

Closing Comments

Brandon Lake’s Gratitude is decent.  Though I am grateful that Lake wants us to worship God with our hands in the air, alongside loud singing, God’s eternal existence, and God’s Kingship, he is incorrect that such physical worship is our sole response.  I’ve argued in section 2 that obedience is also how we show God how much we love Him.  Unbelievers will likely conclude similarly, though perhaps not knowing that obeying God also glorifies Him.

I cannot recommend this song for corporate worship.

Final Score: 7.5/10

Artist Info

Track: Gratitude (listen to the song)

Artist: Brandon Lake

Album: House of Miracles

Genre: Contemporary Christian Music (CCM)

Release Year: 2020

Duration: 5:38

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

Updates:

06/28/2022 – Removed criticism that Lake didn’t explain why we worship God.  I also cleaned up redundancies and updated section 4 to remove my claim that obedience is our sole reply.  This increased the song’s rating from 5.5/10 to 7.5/10.  Thanks to Steve Barhydt for commenting!