Elevation Worship & Maverick City Music (Feat. Chris Brown) – Mercy

Elevation Worship is a church-led band that was created in 2007.  They join Bethel Music and Hillsong as the “big three” that has the biggest reach in modern Christian music.  They released many albums and EP’s.

They also won nine awards, including two Billboard for Top Christian Artist (2021) and Top Christian Song (Graves into Gardens, 2021), and two GMA Dove awards for Spanish Language Album of the Year (Aleluya (En La Tierra), 2020) and Worship Recorded Song of the Year (The Blessing (Live), 2020).

Also, check out my other Elevation Worship reviews. 

To put it succinctly, Maverick City Music is the audience on stage.  Recently, they have collaborated with other artists such as Elevation Worship, Chandler Moore, and Brandon Lake to produce music.

They released seven EP’s and ten albums, including:

• Maverick City Vol. 1 EP (2019)
• Maverick City Vol. 2 EP (2019)
• Maverick City Vol. 3, Part 1 (2020)
• Maverick City Vol. 3, Part 2 (2020)
• You Hold It All Together (EP, 2020)
• Maverick City Christmas (EP, 2020)
• Move Your Heart (EP, 2021)
• Jubilee (EP, 2021)
• Como En El Cielo (Spanish, 2021)
• Old Church Basement (with Elevation Worship, 2021)
• Jubilee: Juneteenth Edition (2021)
• Tribl I (with Tribl, 2021)
• Venga Tu Reino (2021)
• A Very Maverick Christmas (2021)
• Breathe (EP, 2022)
• Simple Adoración (2022)
• Kingdom Book One (2022)

They won three awards last year, including one Billboard Music Award for Top Gospel Album for their album Maverick City Vol. 3 Part 1 and two GMA Doves: New Artist of the Year and Worship Album of the Year (Old Church Basement).

Also, check out my previous Maverick City Music reviews.

Lyrics can be found at https://genius.com/Elevation-worship-and-maverick-city-music-mercy-lyrics.

Side Note: Throughout this review, I will refer to both artists as Elevation & Maverick.

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 this artist’s theology’s potential blessings and dangers by visiting Resources.

1. What message does the song communicate?

Though Elevation & Maverick broke God’s laws and deserve death for their error, Christ’s mercy triumphs over His judgment.  He rescues them from their fate, washing them clean of their guilt and shame through the wonder-working power of His blood.  In response, they stand redeemed.

Score: 10/10

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

The whole thing lines up with Scripture.

[Verse 1]

Lines 1-6: Elevation & Maverick are new creations (2 Corinthians 5:17) based on God’s mercy (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 ).

[Chorus]

Line 1: Elevation & Maverick are spiritually alive, no longer dead in their lawbreaking (Romans 6:1-11, Romans 7:4-6, Galatians 2:19-20, 2 Timothy 2:11, and 1 Peter 2:24).

Line 2: They are more than conquerers (Romans 8:37).

Line 3: See Verse 1, lines 1-6.

Line 4: They are washed by Christ’s blood (Ephesians 1:7, Hebrews 9:22, 1 Peter 1:2, and 1 Peter 1:18-19).

Lines 5 and 6: It is based on grace, not works (see Scripture on mercy in commentary on Verse 1, lines 1-6).

Lines 7-9: Essentially repeats lines 3 and 4, followed by a call to Casper the friendly ghost and food satisfaction.

[Verse 2]

Lines 1-5: They are right: they deserve eternal separation from God for violating His Laws (Matthew 18:7-9, Matthew 25:41, Matthew 25:46, Mark 9:43, Romans 6:23, Jude 1:7, and Revelation 14:11).

Line 6: See Verse 1, lines 1-6.

[Interlude (1)]

Line 1: Another Casper reference.

Lines 2 and 3: Clarifies Chorus, line 4, that this is Jesus’ blood.  He is the Savior (Isaiah 45:21-22, Hosea 13:4, Luke 1:47, Luke 2:11, Acts 13:23, 1 Timothy 2:3, Titus 2:13-14, and 1 John 4:14).

[Bridge]

Lines 1 and 2: A rhetorical question with an obvious answer: yes, yes it was.  See Verse 2, lines 1-5.

Lines 3 and 4: Elevation & Maverick found freedom in Christ (Psalm 119:45, Isaiah 58:6, Isaiah 61:1, John 3:16-21, John 8:31-36, John 10:10, Acts 13:38-39, Romans 6:1-23, Romans 8:1-4, Romans 8:20-21, 1 Corinthians 6:12, 1 Corinthians 7:21-23, 2 Corinthians 3:17, Galatians 2:4, Galatians 3:13, Galatians 3:22, Galatians 5:1, Galatians 5:13, Colossians 1:21-23, Hebrews 2:14-15, and 1 Peter 2:16).

Lines 5 and 6: See commentary on lines 1 and 2.

Lines 7 and 8: Essentially repeats lines 3 and 4.

Lines 9-16: Repeats lines 1-8.

Side Note: Bridge’s second iteration contains background singers who sing “Hallelujah”.  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.

[Interlude (2)]

Line 1: Essentially repeats Chorus, line 4.

Line 2: Borrows from Lewis E. Jones’ hymn Power in the Blood.

Lines 3 and 4: The washing power available to the first-century disciples of Jesus is available to us.

Lines 5-17: Either borrows from Lewis E. Jones’ hymn Power in the Blood or contains equivalent statements.

[Outro]

Line 1: Elevation & Maverick’s sins are as far from them as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12).

Lines 2-5: Borrows from Robert Lowry’s hymn Nothing But the Blood of Jesus.

Lines 6-11: Repeats/essentially repeats lines 2 and 3.

Score: 10/10

3. How would an outsider interpret the song?

This song explicitly mentions the name of Jesus, the power in the blood, the cross, and sin.  These are obvious pointers to Christianity.  This song contains a good mixture of everyday and Christianese language, with the former explaining the latter.  Unbelievers will most likely conclude that Christians believe Jesus rescued them from death, which they deserved for their sin.  Although they don’t understand the strength of Jesus’ blood, they will know that Christians believe in said power.  Although the word sin is often misunderstood by unbelievers as mere mistakes, Elevation & Worship connect it to spiritual death.

Score: 10/10

4. What does this song glorify?

It glorifies Jesus as the One who saves people from the consequences of sin.

Score: 10/10

Closing Comments

Elevation Worship & Maverick City Music’s Mercy is great.  It reminds us that Jesus liberated us from our fate: spiritual death.  His blood cleanses us, bringing Him glory.  Unbelievers should have little to no issues interpreting similarly.

I highly recommend this song for corporate worship.

Final Score: 10/10

Artist Info

Track: Mercy (listen to the song)

Artist: Elevation Worship & Maverick City Music (Feat. Chris Brown)

Album: Old Church Basement

Genre: Contemporary Christian Music (CCM)

Release Year: 2021

Duration: 8:36

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