Cloverton – God Help Me To Be

Cloverton is an American Christian band.  They released three EPs and two albums, including:

• Cloverton – EP (2009)
• The End Is the Beginning EP (2012)
• Patterns (2013)
• We Sing Joy EP (2014)
• Bloom (2017)

Lyrics can be found at https://genius.com/Cloverton-god-help-me-to-be-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?

Cloverton prays to God, that he would remember that He:

• Is near those who are near to Him
• Is the #1 priority
• Created all things good
• Is the source of hope and light
• Helps Clovertron to become a generous giver
• Leads Cloverton
• Takes away the consequences of lawbreaking

Score: 10/10

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

The entire song reflects God’s inspired Word.

[Verse 1]

Lines 1 and 2: Cloverton must decrease so God can increase (John 3:30).

Line 3: God’s is the priority Kingdom (Matthew 6:33).

Lines 4-6: Stated over and over again in Genesis 1 to end each day of creation.

[Verse 2]

Lines 1-3: Walk by faith not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).

Lines 4-6: Cloverton possesses God’s light (Matthew 5:14-16, Ephesians 5:8, 1 Peter 2:9, 1 John 1:5-7, and 1 John 2:7-11).

[Chorus]

Line 1: 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 2 and 3: Repeats line 1.

Line 4: Let it be so.

[Verse 3]

Lines 1 and 2: Cloverton desires to do the the opposite of the rich young ruler (Matthew 19:16-22, Mark 10:17-27, and Luke 18:18-23).

Line 3: That is, in obedience to God (Matthew 25:34-40, John 14:15, John 14:21-24, John 15:10-14, 1 Peter 1:14-15, 1 John 2:3-5, 1 John 4:19-20, 1 John 5:2-3, and 2 John 1:6).

Line 4: God leads and Cloverton follows (Psalm 32:8, Psalm 37:23-24, Psalm 73:23-24, Psalm 119:105, Isaiah 30:21, Isaiah 48:17, Isaiah 58:11, Proverbs 3:5-6, Proverbs 16:9, Proverbs 20:24, Psalm 25:4-9, Psalm 25:9-10, Luke 1:78-79, John 14:26, John 16:13, and Romans 8:14).

Line 5: Quotes from John 1:29.

Line 6: God is personalized.

Score: 10/10

3. How would an outsider interpret the song?

The end of Verse 3 is the dead giveaway that it’s a Christian song.  Unbelievers will see this as a prayer offered up to God.

The only thing unbelievers might misunderstand is the notion of sin, which to many of them is more about mere mistakes than breaking God’s laws.

Score: 9/10

4. What does this song glorify?

It glorifies God that Cloverton prays things that are consistent with Scripture.

Score: 10/10

Closing Comments

Cloverton’s God Help Me To Be is an excellent prayer.  This includes intimacy with God, prioritizing God, reminders that He is Creator, believable, source of hope, and source of light.  He also takes away the sins of the world.  These points bring Him glory.  Aside from potentially misunderstanding the word “sin”, unbelievers should easily interpret similarly.

I highly recommend this song for corporate worship.

Final Score: 9.5/10

Artist Info

Track: God Help Me To Be (listen to the song)

Artist: Cloverton

Album: Patterns

Genre: Rock

Release Year: 2013

Duration: 5:55

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

Updates:

09/04/2024 – Fixed the first word in Intro, replacing “American” with “Cloverton”.  Thanks to C. Michael Pilato for finding it!

Related reviews:

Aaron Shust – My Savior My God Hillsong Worship – Yahweh Travis Cottrell – The Reason Vineyard Worship – Change My Heart Oh God MercyMe – To Not Worship You Phil Wickham – Your Name is Holy Branan Murphy – Life Is Hard. God Is Good.