Photo by Glen Carrie
Brandon Lake is an American worship leader who formerly worked 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)
- Coat of Many Colors (2023)
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-thats-who-i-praise-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?
Lake wants to have faith like many Biblical figures, including Daniel, Moses, and Mary sister of Martha, among others. He also praises Jesus who is:
- Mover of the mountains
- Raiser of the bodies
- Breaker of the chains
- Holder of the heavenly throne
- Not of the defeated
- Highest of the names
- Roarer of the Lion of Judah
- Worthy of the names
- Messiah of the rising
- Days of the ancients
- Giver of the grace
- Receiver of the glory
Score: 10/10
2. How much of the lyrics line up with Scripture?
It has more Biblical references than a KJV Gospel tract.
[Verse 1]
Line 1a: References 2 Samuel 6:14-22.
Lines 1b-2: References Acts 16:16-40.
Lines 3 and 4: References Daniel 3:1-30.
Line 5: References Exodus 14:21-29.
Line 6: That is, the land promised to Abraham and his descendants (Genesis 12:1-3).
Line 7: What can man do to me (Psalm 27:1, Psalm 118:6, Isaiah 51:12, and Hebrews 13:6)?
[Chorus]
Line 1: That is, praise through song (2 Samuel 22:1-51, Psalm 13:6, Psalm 18:43-49, Psalm 21:8-13, Psalm 27:1-6, Psalm 28:6-9, Psalm 51:14, Psalm 57:1-7, Psalm 59:16, Psalm 63:7, Psalm 69:29-36, Psalm 89:1, and Psalm 108:1-4).
Line 2: Lake praises He who moves mountains (Matthew 17:20), rose from the dead (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) and breaks chains (Acts 16:16-40).
Line 3: Essentially repeats line 1.
Line 4: Jesus is seated in heaven (Matthew 22:44, Acts 2:33, Acts 7:55-56, Romans 8:34, Ephesians 1:20, Colossians 3:1, Hebrews 1:3, Hebrews 8:1, Hebrews 10:12, Hebrews 12:2, 1 Peter 3:22, and Revelation 3:21), is undefeated (summarized in Isaiah 14:27), and whose name is above all others (Philippians 2:9).
Line 5: A rephrasing of line 1.
Side Note: Chorus’ second and third iteration contains two additional lines. The first is that for God, nothing is impossible (Genesis 18:14, Jeremiah 32:17, Jeremiah 32:27, Zechariah 8:6, Matthew 19:26, Mark 10:27, and Luke 1:37). The second essentially repeats line 5.
[Verse 2]
Lines 1 and 2: References John 12:1-8.
Line 3: References Daniel 6:1-29.
Lines 4-6: References Joshua 6:20.
[Bridge]
Line 1: Jesus is both the Lion of Judah (Revelation 5:5) and the slain Lamb (Isaiah 53:7, John 1:29, John 1:36, Acts 8:32, 1 Peter 1:19, Revelation 5:6-8, Revelation 5:12-13, Revelation 6:1, Revelation 7:9-17, Revelation 12:11, Revelation 13:8, Revelation 14:1-10, Revelation 15:3, Revelation 17:14, Revelation 19:7-9, and Revelation 21:9).
Line 2: If He wasn’t worthy then He wouldn’t have those names.
Line 3: Essentially repeats Chorus, line 5.
Line 4: See Chorus, line 2.
Line 5: References Daniel 7:9, Daniel 7:13, and Daniel 7:22.
Line 6: Repeats line 2.
Line 7: Essentially repeats Chorus, line 5.
[Outro]
Line 1: Repeats Chorus, line 5.
Line 2: Enjoyment of food.
Line 3-7: Lake sacrificially surrenders to the Son of God (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), recognizing that he received grace (Genesis 15:6, Exodus 33:19, Psalm 32:1-2, Romans 3:21-24, Romans 4:3-8, Romans 5:1-2, Romans 5:6-8, Romans 5:15-21, Romans 6:14, Romans 8:1-4, Romans 9:14-16, Romans 11:5-6, Galatians 2:21, Galatians 3:6, Galatians 5:4, Ephesians 1:7, Ephesians 2:4-9, 2 Thessalonians 2:16, Titus 2:11, 1 Timothy 1:15-16, and James 2:23).
Line 8: See Chorus, line 4.
Line 9: Essentially repeats Chorus, line 5.
Score: 10/10
3. How would an outsider interpret the song?
They will likely see many Biblical characters they recognize, demonstrating their faith and Lake wanting to be like them. Unbelievers will also conclude Lake praises Christ, who is explicitly mentioned in Outro and hinted at throughout the song. They may not understand all of the titles of Jesus in depth, but should easily conclude that Christ holds them.
Score: 10/10
4. What does this song glorify?
Jesus. Nuff said.
Score: 10/10
Closing Comments
Brandon Lake’s That’s Who I Praise is centered on Jesus as the object of his worship. He desires the faith of famous Biblical figures, wishing to praise Him who is many things, including chain-breaker, risen, and does the impossible. These bring Him glory. Even if unbelievers don’t understand the deeper meanings of Jesus’ titles, they should easily interpret them to mean Christ. The other parts are also easily comprehensible.
This song is suitable for corporate worship.
Final Score: 10/10
Artist Info
Track: That’s Who I Praise (listen to the song)
Artist: Brandon Lake
Album: N/A
Genre: Rock
Release Year: 2024
Duration: 3:48
Agree? Disagree? Don’t be shy or have a cow! Calmly and politely state your case in a comment, below.
Comments
Matt J
After going through the lyrics of this song, I’ve come to the conclusion this isn’t a song we should do in our churches. Here’s my thoughts why. Too many praise and worship songwriters today take what the Bible says out of context and create ideas and images that aren’t what Scripture actually says. Also, there are words like I or me or my are used 41 different times in the song and yet God or Jesus is only 3 times. Some of the other names for God are used another 4 times, and unfortunately this is a pattern for some song writers. They put far too much focus on us as human beings and what we’re going to do or what we have done and not on our loving, merciful, gracious, life giving God and Father. They talk about the things that we do or that we’re going to do and not focus enough on God, who is truly worthy of worship. This song also includes some un-Biblical promises like we will see the “promised land” or “I’m gonna get that promise, Just like Jericho, Yeah I know what’ll make it fall”. Scripture doesn’t promise us that we will get a promised land like the nation of Israel. There’s also 10 or so places in the song that tries to put us into the narrative of Scripture which can be a bad way to interpret Scripture. When we read God’s Word, we should be asking questions like, “What did this mean to the people it was written to when it was written to them and what is the application of that to us today?” It’s important to remember that passages like Moses parting the Red Sea or Peter walking on the water with Jesus are descriptions of incidents in the Bible, they are not prescriptions of things we should expect to happen in our lives as well.
Zach
Yeah, this song isn’t focused on human beings at all also it’s not saying that we will go over and take over Israel
Lynn
I agree so much with this comment, and was surprised at the rating it got. Were the song changed to a more direct “He’s a breaker of chains, He’s the undefeated”, etc. I would 100 agree but I feel that this song’s pronoun choices and placement makes it more of a celebration of what I’m gonna do than focusing on God’s miracles. Good song for the radio, not so much for corporate worship.
Zach
Not really a celebration of what I’m doing when it’s saying this is what I’m doing. It doesn’t even say it. It’s a good thing to do. Also, just the first few Psalms are entirely based on what David is going to do or is doing In response to God or just in general Just because it has personal pronouns and it does not mean it’s human focused
Derek S
The lyrics and message are great!
I would disagree about it being suitable for corporate worship. Some elements of this song are too difficult to sing along with a large congregation. Singability should be considered more than it was.
Vince Wright
Derek,
Thank you for your comments!
I don’t disagree, but the rating is purely on the lyrics.
-Vince Wright
Mike
Amazing – this song is one of those promise, word filled songs. It’s like you’re singing straight from the Bible.