Covenant Worship (Feat. David & Nicole Binion) – Doxology

Much like Hillsong, Elevation Worship, and Jesus Culture, Covenant Worship is a band that developed in-house.  This band hails from Covenant Church in Dallas, Texas.  Beginning in 2009, they released four albums, including:

• Standing (2012)
• Kingdom (2014)
• Take Heart (2016)
• Sand and Stars (2017)

Lyrics can be found at https://genius.com/Covenant-worship-doxology-live-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?

As the song’s title says, this song offers liturgical praise to God.  It is an expanded version of Thomas Ken’s Doxology, written in 1674.  Verse 1 is his entire song.  The original version states that:

• We praise God, who is the source of all blessing.
• All God’s creation will worship Him.
• God’s position is above His heavenly host.
• God exists as a trinity of persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Covenant Worship adds the following:

• Several repeats of the word “hallelujah”.
• God loves everyone.
• Jesus liberates sinners as our Savior.

Unfortunately, they also add a few lines that are questionable at best and heretical at worst:

• The statement “Him who hears our faintest call” could either mean Christians as a whole or everyone.  As I’ll show in section 2, the latter view is unbiblical.
• The statement “There’s​ a breaking, in my favour” has the ring of “Word of Faith”, where Covenant Worship knows for certain that God will say “yes” to their prayers.  Yet, Scripture teaches that Paul was denied his request; his thorn on the flesh remained intact.  Maybe I am incorrect and they are prophets, but I don’t think that I am.

Side Note: For those who are sensitive to repetition, Chorus contains eight “hallelujah’s” in a row.

Score: 7/10

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

This song mostly agrees with the Bible; However, there is potential disagreement in Verse 2, line 2, and probable misalignment in Bridge.

[Verse 1]

Line 1: We praise God for the many blessings He gives us (1 Chronicles 16:34, 2 Chronicles 5:13, Psalm 7:17, Psalm 9:1-20, Psalm 107:8-9, Psalm 95:2-3, Psalm 106:1, Jeremiah 30:19, Jeremiah 33:11, 1 Corinthians 1:4-5, 2 Corinthians 4:15, 2 Corinthians 9:11-12, Colossians 3:16-17, and 1 Timothy 4:4-5).

Lines 2: All creation praises God (Psalm 19:1-4, Psalm 66:4, Psalm 103:22, Psalm 148:7-11, Psalm 150:1-6, Isaiah 55:12, Luke 19:40, and Revelation 5:13).

Line 3: God is sovereign over all creation, including His heavenly host (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 4: Also known as the trinity.

[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.  This fits the song’s theme of doxology.

Line 2: Repeats line 1.

NOTE: The second and third iteration repeats these lines, totaling eight “hallelujah”s.

[Verse 2]

Line 1: While some will balk at the idea that God’s love is without condition, there is a difference between unconditional love and unconditional relationship. When Covenant Worship says that God love “us”, they could either be referencing Christians or all people.  In either case, it doesn’t matter.  Our behavior, whether good or evil, does not change God’s love for us. He died for us while we were sinners (Romans 5:6-8). Nothing will separate us from His love (Romans 8:38-39). He is faithful even when we are faithless (2 Timothy 2:13). Of course, He also allows us to experience eternal separation from Him if that’s what we want (Matthew 18:8, Matthew 25:41, Matthew 25:46, Mark 9:43, Jude 1:7, Revelation 14:11, and Revelation 20:10), but that is a separate issue.

God’s relationship with us is not unconditional. When we decide to follow Jesus, He expects us to become holy (Leviticus 11:44-45, Leviticus 19:2, Leviticus 20:7, Romans 6:1-14, Ephesians 4:1, Colossians 1:10-14, 1 Peter 1:13-16, and 1 Peter 2:16) and to love everything else less than Him (Luke 14:25-33).  Yes, God’s love is unconditional; however, if we take our relationship with God seriously, then obedience is our only option.

Line 2: In this line, the identity of “our” matters more.  Chiefly, because He pays no attention to the pleas of disobedient sinners.  He hears those who do His will (John 9:31).  If “our” includes the former, then this statement is incorrect.

Lines 3 and 4: References Jesus, who paid the penalty for our lawbreaking (Isaiah 53:1-12, Matthew 20:28, Mark 10:45, John 1:29, John 3:16, John 19:30, Acts 4:12, Acts 20:28, Romans 5:6-10, Romans 6:23, 1 Corinthians 1:30, 1 Corinthians 6:20, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Galatians 1:3-4, Galatians 3:13, Ephesians 1:7, Colossians 2:14, 1 Timothy 2:6, Titus 2:14, Hebrews 9:12, Hebrews 9:15, Hebrews 9:22, Hebrews 9:26, 1 Peter 1:17-21, 1 Peter 2:24, 1 Peter 1:18-19, 1 John 1:7, 1 John 2:1-2, and Revelation 5:9).

[Bridge]

Lines 1-4: What does Covenant Worship mean by “breaking in my favor”?  It sounds to me like they communicate “God will respond affirmatively to my prayer”.  How do they know that?  After all, Jesus only answers us with a “yes” if it glorifies the Father (John 14:13-14).  Perhaps it would be better for Covenant Worship to communicate their struggle to build character (Romans 5:3-5, Hebrews 12:4-11, and James 1:2-4), where His strength is made perfect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:7-10).

Lines 7-12: Repeats lines 1-4.

Score: 7/10

3. How would an outsider interpret the song?

Unbelievers will see a worship song to God, specifically, the trinity that Christians preach.  However, I am deeply concerned about Covenant Worship’s prophetic statements in Bridge, that those outside Christianity will conclude that if they ask God, He will always say “yes” to them when it’s not the case.  Thankfully, it’s not their main message; However, it is teaching that leads many away from Jesus.

Score: 7/10

4. What does this song glorify?

While it glorifies God that Covenant Worship sings God’s praises, the possibility of “Word of Faith” and that God hears everyone, both unsupported by Scripture, thickly veils it.

Score: 7/10

Closing Comments

Covenant Worship’s Doxology is a mixed bag.  Yes, it praises the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as God, worthy because He offers blessings, salvation, and hope.  These bring glory to God.  However, there’s also a chance that it inadvertently showcases that God will always answer say “yes” to prayers, which is incorrect.  Aside from that, unbelievers should not find interpretation difficult.

I recommend sticking with the original Doxology by Thomas Ken.  Yes, it’s repetitious, but at least there’s no chance of error!

Final Score: 7/10

Artist Info

Track: Doxology (listen to the song)

Artist: Covenant Worship (Feat. David & Nicole Binion)

Album: Sand and Stars

Genre: Contemporary Christian Music (CCM)

Release Year: 2017

Duration: 7:58

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

Updates:

07/16/2021 – Per Artist Theology announcement, I expanded the red text to encourage others to study Covenant Worship’s theology.