Brandon Lake – Hard Fought Hallelujah

Brandon Lake is an American worship leader who formerly worked for Bethel Music and Maverick City Music.  He released five albums and one EP, including:

• Closer (2016)
• House of Miracles (2020)
• House of Miracles (Live) (2021)
• Almond Eyes (EP, 2021)
• Help! (2022)
• Coat of Many Colors (2023)

He will release King of Hearts in June 2025.

He won 21 different awards, more than I care to list out.

Also, check out my other Brandon Lake reviews.

Lyrics can be found at https://genius.com/Brandon-lake-hard-fought-hallelujah-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?

Lakes worships God amid testing.  God is gracious, patient, and faithful.

Side Note: To those who don’t like massive repetition, you’re going to love Bridge!  It’s nothing but repetitious filler.

Score: 10/10

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

Almost all of them do, except for part of Verse 2.  Humility breaks down pride and trials can foster humility.  While Lake is willing to swallow His pride to praise God through the struggle, trials in it of themselves cannot break it.

[Verse 1]

Lines 1-8: Lake will praise God no matter what (Romans 14:8, Philippians 1:20, Philippians 2:17, 1 Corinthians 3:22-23, and 1 Thessalonians 5:10).

[Chorus]

Lines 1-4: See commentary on Verse 1.  Also, 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. Put together, we are singing “we joyfully praise God in song” when we use this word.

Lines 5 and 6: God is gracious and compassionate in His patience with Lake (Exodus 33:19, Exodus 34:6, Numbers 14:18, Nehemiah 9:16-17, Nehemiah 9:30-31, Psalm 86:15, Psalm 103:8, Psalm 116:5, Psalm 145:8-9, Joel 2:13, Jonah 4:2, Romans 9:15, and James 5:11).

Line 7: He is also trustworthy (Numbers 23:19, Deuteronomy 7:9, Psalm 33:4, Psalm 91:4, Psalms 119:90, Lamentations 3:22-23, 1 Corinthians 1:9, 1 Corinthians 10:13, 2 Thessalonians 3:3, 2 Timothy 2:13, Hebrews 10:23, 2 Peter 3:9, and 1 John 1:9).

Lines 8-11: Essentially repeats lines 1-4.  Also, Lake calls out to Casper the friendly ghost.

[Verse 2]

Lines 1 and 2: For God’s light drives out darkness (Psalm 107:10-16, Luke 1:79, John 1:1-13, John 12:46, Ephesians 5:8, Colossians 1:13, and 1 Peter 2:9).

Lines 3-6: Lake’s humility through the struggle keeps him honest and breaks down pride, not the struggle itself.  Trials exist to better character, but only for those willing to be trained by it (Romans 5:3-5, Hebrews 12:4-11, and James 1:2-4).  Faith is one of the many results of such testing and character refinement.

Line 7: Yes X 2.

Lines 8 and 9: That is, Lake’s goal is resting on God (Matthew 11:28-30).

[Bridge]

Line 1: Enjoyment of food followed by yes.

Line 2: More Casper references followed by an act of surprise.

Lines 3-11: Essentially repeats line 2.

[Outro]

Lines 1-4: Nothing new here.  Moving on.

Score: 9/10

3. How would an outsider interpret the song?

Outsiders to Christianity will likely conclude that Christians go through turmoil and will keep to their faith through it.  The words “hallelujah” and “God” will help them interpret this song as either Judaism or Christian.  Close enough.

Score: 10/10

4. What does this song glorify?

God is worthy of Lake’s worship amid suffering.

Score: 10/10

Closing Comments

Brandon Lake’s Hard Fought Hallelujah is personal.  Lake praises God despite the obstacles that he’s facing, making it more difficult to give God the due worship He deserves.  Still, Lake is unwavering in his faith, willing to endure suffering to adore Him.  This unabashed trust glorifies Him.  Unbelievers should interpret similarly with little issue.

I hesitate to recommend this song for corporate worship, chiefly, because it’s more about “me” and the things I am going through and less about “we” in our joining together to worship Him.  It also contains a minor error about struggle thwarting pride.

Final Score: 9.5/10

Artist Info

Track: Hard Fought Hallelujah (listen to the song)

Artist: Brandon Lake

Album:  N/A

Genre: Rock

Release Year: 2024

Duration: 5:19

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

Related reviews:

Brandon Lake – That’s Who I Praise Brandon Lake – Coat of Many Colors Brandon Lake – Count’em Brandon Lake & Phil Wickham – Love Of God Cody Carnes & Benjamin William Hastings – Take You At Your Word Jeremy Camp – There Will Be A Day Charity Gayle (Feat. David Gentiles) – New Name Written Down in Glory Travis Cottrell – The Reason