Hillsong Young and Free – Wake

The popularity of Hillsong never ceases to amaze me.  It’s not just the sales, radio plays, and frequency in worship sets.  I myself have reviewed nine of their songs, all of them with highly favorable scores.  Their hits So Will I and Who You Say I Am carry high search volumes on Google.  They are also my two most popular reviews.

I have two Hillsong reviews scheduled for this month.  The first Hillsong Young And Free’s Wake.  The second, to be released on January 27th is Hillsong United’s Touch the Sky.

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?

The pronoun “we” riddled throughout the lyrics makes it easy to see that “You” is the object of worship.  However, “You” contains not a single reference that uniquely identifies God as its identity, aside from the capitalization.  No attributes of God.  Nothing that directly quotes from Scripture.  In fact, if we drop the capitalization and release it on the mainstream market, I think most Christians would agree that the pronoun “you” would not refer to God at all, unless it was sung in church or Christian radio.

Yes, we have a relationship with God and that is great to sing about, but Wake is simple to misconstrue as something other than Christianity.  I don’t have a problem if a Christian artist wants to sing a love song that’s not about God, but an artist should clearly identify the subject.

Score: 5/10

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

We will assume that “You” refers to God for this section, despite my commentary in section 1.  This will cost a few points.

With that in mind, much of it agrees with the Bible, with some educated guesses in a few spots.

Lyrics posted with permission.*

[Verse 1]

At break of day, in hope we rise

Probably a vague reference to Psalm 113:3, that we rise early in the morning to praise God.

We speak Your Name, we lift our eyes

The identity of “You” is not identified, as mentioned in section 1.  For this section, we will assume that the name is God.

Tune our hearts into Your beat
Where we walk, there You’ll be

Regardless of our location, God is there.  This refers to God’s omniscience (see 1 Kings 8:39, 1 Chronicles 28:9, Psalm 44:21, Psalm 139:4, Psalm 147:4-5, Isaiah 40:28, Matthew 10:30, John 16:30 [reference to Jesus], John 21:17 [reference to Jesus], Acts 1:24, Hebrews 4:13, and 1 John 3:20).

[Verse 2]

With fire in our eyes, our lives a-light
Your love untamed, it’s blazing out

That is because God is love (1 John 4:8).

The streets will glow forever bright
Your glory’s breaking through the night

This is true because God’s light drives out the darkness (see Psalm 107:10-16, Luke 1:79, John 1:1-13, John 12:46, Ephesians 5:8, Colossians 1:13, 1 Peter 2:9

[Pre-Chorus]

You will never fade away, Your love is here to stay
By my side, in my life, shining through me everyday

Another reference to omniscience.  We carry the light that God gives us and bring it into dark places (see Matthew 5:14-16, Ephesians 5:8, 1 Peter 2:9, 1 John 1:5-7, and 1 John 2:7-11).

[Chorus]

You wake within me, wake within me
You’re in my heart forever

Jeremiah 17:9 tells us that the human heart is deceitful of all things and is desperately wicked; However, with God inside me, He creates a clean heart within me (Ezekiel 36:26 and 2 Corinthians 5:17).

You wake within me, wake within me
You’re in my heart forever

Repeats lines 1 and 2.

[Bridge]

Forever, forever, forever in Your love
Forever, forever, forever in Your love
Forever, forever, forever in Your love
Forever, forever, we know that…

Probably a reference to Psalms 89:1, although it doesn’t really add anything to the song.

Score: 6/10

3. How would an outsider interpret the song?

Most likely, the same as I.  Hardly anyone will think that this is about God unless sung in church; However, they will understand that Hillsong really loves the subject.

Score: 3/10

4. What does this song glorify?

I’m not sure.  I want to believe that this is about God, but there isn’t enough evidence to justify that assumption.

Score: 5/10

Closing Comments

Hillsong Young and Free’s Wake is my first disappointment produced by this Australian megachurch.  Its lyrics are closer to that of a generic object of worship than the Lord of Creation.  Yes, if we assume God, it does agree with the Bible; However, the lack of referential content makes it difficult to believe that it’s about God.

Yes, if congregations sing this in church, it does help to justify God as “You”; However, it would be much easier to simply find a different track for worship.

Final Score: 5/10

Artist Info

Track: Wake (listen to the song)

Artist: Hillsong Young and Free

Album: We Are Young & Free (Live)

Genre: Pop

Release Year: 2013

Duration: 4:35

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

*Copyright © 2013 Hillsong Music Publishing (APRA) (adm. in the US and Canada at CapitolCMGPublishing.com) All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Updates:

05/07/2021 – Per Artist Theology announcement, I expanded the red text to encourage others to study Hillsong’s theology.

03/24/2021 – Updated per repetition announcement.  I also increased my score for sections 1 3, and 4 and updated commentary in all three sections.  This significantly raised the overall score, from 2/10 to 5/10.

07/03/2019 – Thanks to Jonathan Dixon for pointing out the obvious “we” pronoun from the perspective of the singer, I updated the review.  However, the severe lack of clarity makes it difficult to justify a higher rating.