Photo by Derek Thomson
A website such as this dedicated to reviewing songs by popular Christian artists is almost invariably obligated to review at least one Chris Tomlin song. With 13 album releases, 23 Dove Awards, 1 Grammy, and over 7 million records sold, Tomlin is a pretty popular dude. However, have we bothered to consider the theology behind his music?
Consider Good Good Father. It has quite the catchy tune with a great title, played across churches across the globe. Originally released as a single, it was certified platinum based on sales and streaming figures. But, how does it compare with the Bible?
Update: I recently found out that Housefires is the original artist for this song. Therefore, the credit will go to them.
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1. What message does the song communicate?
It is a song about how good the Father is and how loved we are by Him.
Housefires starts off the song by contrasting God’s Word with other thoughts and stories about God, a great opening, and a lead-in to the oft-repeated Chorus. He also touches on other attributes of God, including His omniscience, omnipresence, and perfection. While the name of God is not explicitly mentioned, these other attributes solidify Him as the subject.
When it says “you tell me that you’re pleased”, what is God pleased with? Our faithfulness? Jesus? Our rebellion? The last is erroneous; However, Housefires’ statements about God drawing us into love inform us that God is not pleased with mutiny.
Also, Bridge’s statement, “perfect in all of your ways to ways”, can be viewed several ways: It is about His perfect ways in fruition via personal relationship, that His ways are perfect for everyone, including us, and that His ways are only perfect for us, but not necessarily perfect for non-Christians. The third is false; however, still a viable interpretation. Housefires could be clearer.
Side Note: To those annoyed by massive repetition, Bridge’s second iteration repeats “perfect in all of Your ways” 24 times in a row.
Score: 8/10
2. How much of the lyrics line up with Scripture?
Most of it lines up with Scripture; However, I am concerned about God’s pleasure in Verse 1.
[Verse 1]
Oh, I’ve heard a thousand stories of what they think you’re like
Perhaps several of them are from false Christs or false teachers (Matthew 24:5-31, Mark 13:6-27, and Luke 21:1-28).
But I’ve heard the tender whisper of love in the dead of night
In the same way that a sheep hears, recognizes, and understands the voice of its shepherd, Housefires has learned to do the same with the voice of God (see John 5:25, John 10:1-27, Hebrews 3:7-19, and Revelation 3:20).
And you tell me that you’re pleased
As stated in section 1, Housefires doesn’t tell us how God takes pleasure, whether it’s our faithfulness (Matthew 25:23), Jesus (Matthew 3:17, Matthew 17:5, Mark 1:11, Mark 9:7, Luke 3:22, Luke 9:34-35, and 2 Peter 1:17), or something else.
And that I’m never alone
There are numerous Biblical examples where God is with His people, prominently, within Moses and Israel’s journey from Egypt to the Promised Land. He leads as a cloud by day and pillar of fire by night (Exodus 13:21). He promised Joshua that He would never leave nor forsake him (Joshua 1:5 and Joshua 1:9). He grants the same to Housefires and us as well (Hebrews 13:5).
[Chorus]
You’re a Good, Good Father
It’s who you are, It’s who you are, It’s who you are
That is what 1 Chronicles 16:34, Psalm 23:6, Psalm 27:13, Psalm 31:19-20, Psalm 34:8, Psalm 86:5, Psalm 100:5, Psalm 106:1, Psalm 119:68, Psalm 135:3, Psalm 136:1, Psalm 145:9, Lamentations 3:25, Nahum 1:7, Matthew 19:17, Mark 10:18, and Luke 18:19 tells us about God.
And I’m loved by you
It’s who I am, It’s who I am, It’s who I am
Housefires and us are the recipients of God’s lovingkindness (Nehemiah 9:17, Psalm 17:7, Psalm 36:5-7, Psalm 63:3, Psalm 69:16, Psalm 117:2, Isaiah 54:8, John 13:34, Romans 8:37-39, Ephesians 5:25, Titus 3:4, 1 John 4:8, 1 and John 4:16-19), though it came at a huge cost (John 3:16, John 15:13, Romans 5:6-8, Galatians 2:20, and Ephesians 2:4-5).
[Verse 2]
Oh, I’ve seen many searching for answers far and wide
But I’ve known we’re all searching
For answers only you provide
This principle, as eloquently captured in Colossians 2:6-8, rests upon the God as the source of all truth (John 14:6), with the Bible as our guide (Hebrews 4:12 and 2 Timothy 3:16-17).
Cause you know just what we need
Before we say a word
Indeed, because God knows all things (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).
[Bridge]
Cause’ you are perfect in all of your ways
You are perfect in all of your ways
You are perfect in all of your ways to us, aah
You are perfect in all of your ways
Oh, you’re perfect in all of your ways
You are perfect in all of your ways to us
Essentially the same line repeated six times. God’s ways are perfect (Leviticus 11:44-45, Leviticus 19:2, Deuteronomy 32:4, 2 Samuel 22:31, Psalm 12:6, Psalm 18:30, Psalm 19:7-11, Psalm 25:8, Psalm 92:15, Isaiah 26:7, Matthew 5:48, Mark 10:18, Luke 18:19, Romans 12:1-2, and 1 Peter 1:16). While “us” is specific to Christians, there is potential that others can misunderstand it, thinking that God’s ways are only perfect to us, as opposed to everyone.
[Verse 3]
Oh, it’s love so undeniable
I, I can hardly speak
Peace so unexplainable
I, I can hardly think
This is an experiential description of entering the Presence of God, as described in Romans 11:33 and Ephesians 3:8.
As you call me deeper still
As you call me deeper still
As you call me deeper still
Into love, love, love
Not just with Him (Acts 17:27, Romans 8:15, John 15:1-11, and Romans 11:16-24) but with one another (see Proverbs 17:17, Proverbs 20:6-7, Mark 12:29-31, Luke 6:35, Romans 13:8-10, 1 Corinthians 13:1-8, 1 Corinthians 13:13, 1 Corinthians 16:14, Ephesians 4:2-3, Colossians 3:14, 1 Peter 4:8, 1 John 3:16-18, 1 John 4:7-11, and 1 John 4:21).
Score: 8/10
3. How would an outsider interpret the song?
An unbeliever would have to be either really dense or not paying attention to think that this song would be about an earthly father loved by an earthly son or daughter. As I mentioned in section 1, Housefires sings about the Father’s omniscience, omnipresence, and perfection. These are attributes that only belong to God.
I hope that unbelievers will see the connection between God’s pleasure and His drawing us into love to avoid concluding that He is OK with wrongdoing. It’s hard to say if they will miss it.
Score: 8/10
4. What does this song glorify?
The entire song epitomizes God’s love for us, glorifying Him. Housefires accurately portrays God’s omniscience and omnipresence; However, they potentially limit God’s perfection in scope and do not explain how God is pleased, somewhat veiling His glory.
Score: 8/10
Closing Comments
Housefires’ Good Good Father is a decent, albeit flawed, song. Though its powerful lyrics biblically capture God’s goodness and love for us, it also does not explain how God is pleased, both acting as minor hindrances to God’s inherent glory. Unbelievers will interpret most of it accurately.
These make it harder to recommend for corporate worship.
Final Score: 8/10
Artist Info
Track: Good Good Father (listen to the song)
Artist: Housefires
Album: Housefires II
Genre: Contemporary Christian Music (CCM)
Release Year: 2014
Duration: 8:05
Agree? Disagree? Don’t be shy or have a cow! Calmly and politely state your case in a comment, below.
*Copyright © 2014 Housefires Sounds (ASCAP) Tony Brown Publishing Designee (NS) Common Hymnal Digital (BMI) worshiptogether.com Songs (ASCAP) sixsteps Music (ASCAP) Vamos Publishing (ASCAP) Capitol CMG Paragon (BMI) (adm. at CapitolCMGPublishing.com) All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Updates:
10/04/2022 – Cleaned up review to conform commentary on repetition to conform with other reviews, removed an inaccuracy that Housefires hinted that God was not pleased with sin, and clarified my commentary to move closer to Tim’s comment. Although I slightly bumped up my rating for section 1, this did not affect my overall score.
01/10/2021 – After reading Greg, and re-reading my review and Housefire’s lyrics, I’m not sure why I wrote that I had an issue with Chorus. I removed my comments and slightly raised my score on section 1, pushing its overall score into the green, from 7.5/10 to 8/10.
08/13/2020 – Part of the closing comments ended up in section 4. I moved it down.
Comments
Tim Bausum
Hey brother,
I appreciate the work that you do. I am working up an analysis of this song, and I would like to suggest just a couple of things to think about. First a few comments on repetition. I agree that too much is too much, and when I lead this song I do the bridge twice and move on, but I think it is important when we think about repetition in worship songs that we consider the Psalms. There are numerous examples in the Psalms of repeated phrases like “Your steadfast love endures forever.” All too often people write off great songs because they get bored with the repetition, and I wonder how they feel reading Psalm 118, or Psalm 136. In Ps. 136 there are 26 verses each containing two lines, one of which is the repeated phrase “Your steadfast love endures forever.”
I recognize that you did not write off this song for that, but I am often disappointed by the auto-disdain that many show towards repeating phrases in songs. If the phrase is good and honors God, it may be worth repeating…
Next, Pat Barrett and Tony Brown (the song’s authors) did an interview with Worship Together in which they discuss the bridge with the addendum “To Us.” They’re thought behind that is that He is absolutely perfect in all of His ways, and that means even in His personal interactions with us. Though I agree the line could be misunderstood, I don’t think it is necessary to understand it as limiting God’s perfect-ness.
And the last thing is not a critique of your post, but a suggestion I make to anyone who wants to use this song in corporate worship. Never sing only this song in a service. If I am ever asked to lead worship and only have time for 1-2 songs, I will choose something else. This song, though it is a great song and I love it, simply does not stand strong enough on its own to sing without also singing about Jesus and the work He has done/is doing for His people. This song is meant to respond to deep truths about God with a simple refrain that reminds us why those deep truths matter to each of us personally. It does not speak of what God has done, it tells us He is perfect, omnipotent, and some other things, but it does not spell out why, and it does not tell us what any of His ways are, or give any insight into what answers He provides for us other than to love us.
I unabashedly lead this song on a somewhat regular basis, but never without some more stout songs to help us understand who God is and what He has done for us.
Again, I am grateful for your work in doing these analyses, and I think you mostly nailed this one, just wanted to offer my (admittedly unsolicited) two cents worth. God bless you!
Vince Wright
Tim,
Thank you for your comments! I appreciate your gratitude for my important work and suggestions for improvement.
Regarding repetition: When I started this site, I deducted points for songs with massive repetition. Others helped me to realize that this was a personal issue and not from a place of objectivity. I still mark it for those of us who don’t prefer it, though I regonize there is usefulness. For example, much of my learning process involves repetition.
As for “to us”, I hear what you’re saying. The statement is still technically true, even if some might misunderstand it as limiting God’s perfection. I’ll pray about this.
Finally, I appreciate your thoughts about outside service use!
-Vince Wright
Joshua James Brown
The part I have always felt like I’m stumbling over when I’m singing this song is in verse 3: “peace so unexplainable, I, I can hardly think.” I know that God’s peace surpasses our understanding (Philippians 4:7). But that is different to saying that His peace causes us in experience to ‘hardly be able to think’, which is what I interpret from what the lyrics say. In fact, Philippians 4:7 says that God’s peace will “guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” I just feel uncomfortable with how this song seems to present God’s peace as something that stops us from thinking, rather than something that transcends our thinking and then even protects our thinking as we experience it. Would love to hear people’s thoughts on this. Thanks
Vince Wright
Joshua,
Great question! I don’t think this lyric is suggesting that we check our brains at the door. Rather, their experience of God’s peace is so strong and so personal at that very moment that thinking becomes difficult, but not impossible. I happen to have the same experience in those rare moments when I feel God’s overwhelming and outpouring love surrounding me. The same is true when I’m experiencing a sunset at the beach, riding a roller coaster, and cuddling with my wife. In those moments, I’m more focused on the experience than thinking. However, your caution to “guard your hearts” is well taken. We must test every spirit to see if they are from God (1 John 4:1).
-Vince Wright
Joshua James Brown
Thanks Vince! That’s a helpful and charitable way to approach it. I really appreciate you responding.
God bless! 🙂
Vince Wright
Joshua,
My pleasure! God bless as well!
-Vince Wright
Doug Hughes
Songs like this with overly repetitive lyrics tend to draw my attention away from the very one I am worshipping! It’s beyond annoying and causes me to lose focus. Another issue is that it puts almost equal attention on the saved as it does on the Savior-much like so many other outwardly focused experiential songs of the day. Finally, this song will never stand the test of time. The church won’t be singing this 20 years from now once it’s catchy tune fades. IMHO, if it’s not timeless, it’s not good good enough to be singing it to Almighty God.
Tom Jameson
It’s safe to assume that a “Worship” group would singing about Jesus, wether they say His name directly in the song or not. If you follow the group, know what they’re about, know the song writer/s and what they’re about, then it’s a easy assumption. So many overly ridiculous analytical complaints about a Simple worship song, simple arrangement. Like it or don’t like it, but beyond that just be quiet with all this blah blah blah. No wonder non believers feel like the “christian” community is a bunch of hypocrites. These comments sound no different than that of a pop tune being torn to pieces by a bunch of people that have nothing better to do than Complain about Everything!
Greg
I don’t understand why the issue with the repetitive in songs(Good Good, Who You Are, Who I Am)
Have you ever had a great meal and said more than once this is good!? Or That was great!?.
Received a gift and thanked the giver more than once?
The second Good drives the point deeper.
The second and third “Who you are” magnifies, drives a nail in the fact or subject Good Good Father.
The second and third “Who I am” encourages, promotes the relationship, and removes doubt.
Oh, by the way…..Cool website!!
Be Blessed!
Vince Wright
Greg,
Thank you for your comments!
Yes, I’ve had a great meal and requested a second helping, even a third. Yet, I’ve also noticed that as I continue to eat, my appetite for the same item wanes with each bite. The first bite is amazing, the second is great, the third is pretty good. After that, I still enjoy it, but it doesn’t quite have the same “mmmmmm” as the first. This concept follows a pattern called the law of diminishing returns, where each bite of the same food is less enjoyable and satisfactory than the last.
While I understand the benefits of repetition and how it helps people meditate on the Word of God, for me, it’s like when I eat. A few bites is great, but too much becomes unenjoyable. For me, when it comes to worship music, variety is the spice of life. I realize that my view on repetition biases my reviews, so I recommend taking my comments with a grain of salt.
Upon rereading my commentary, and comparing it to Housefire’s lyrics, I’m uncertain why I have an issue with Chorus. The threefold repeat (who you are, who you are, who you are, etc.) is fine with me, and I suppose I saw more stanza repeats than existed in the lyrics. I’ve removed my comments on Chorus and slightly raised its score. This song is now in the green!
-Vince Wright
Steve Barhydt
I had written my comment before church this morning and, surprise, we sang this song this morning!
I noticed that although it does not directly address why God is pleased with me, the third verse contains the repeated phrase “and You draw my deeper still into love.”
To me this spoke to the realization that God can be both pleased with where I am and not satisfied as to where I could, and probably should, be.
The constant call of the Holy Spirit to a deeper relationship with God negates the “I’m good enough” concept. I will NEVER be all the God wants me to be. There will always be room for growth.
Therefore, I believe the song addresses your concern about “spiritual stagnation” even though it may not specifically give the criteria for God’s pleasure.
Nichole
My biggest problem with this song is “ But I’ve heard the tender whisper of love in the dead of night and you tell me that you’re pleased.” I agree that God is there in our darkest times, but if we are in sin, He’s not whispering that He’s pleased. None of us are perfect. He is pleased when we turn from our sin and live in obedience to Him. Sometimes we are in dark places because of testing, because of the sins of others against us, because we live in a sinful world… each of those dark times, God will be pleased with us IF we are standing firm in our faith and obedience to Him. Another reason for dark times may be the discipline of the Lord, if we are in sin, have wandered away. He is not pleased with us in our wandering. He loves us still, but the Bible is very clear, He is NOT pleased.
Anyone, Christian or not, can very easily apply that line to their dark circumstance and quench the Holy Spirit’s conviction and grieve Him. For this reason alone, I believe, is reason enough to not sing or listen to this song.
(Isaiah 63:10, Ephesians 4:30, Acts 7:51 to give a few references)
Neal Cruco
Nichole,
While your points are sound, I’m not following your conclusion. Housefires is simply saying that they have heard God’s love and encouragement while in a dark place. Where do you get “God is pleased with us even when we stray away from Him” from? Any line in any song can be misinterpreted, and as you say, being in a dark place doesn’t mean we’ve strayed from God.
Nichole
Neal,
My concern is that the song doesn’t say that God was pleased because they were abiding in Him. The song says, they were in a dark place and they heard God say He’s pleased. It doesn’t address living a life pleasing to God at all, which is a condition for just about every promise we have in Christ. It’s incredibly immature at best, and misleading. The Bible teaches we are to test ourselves and see if we are in the faith (2 Corinthians 13:5).
Our culture today, even our church culture, is very self serving. Self-serving attitudes are not pleasing to God. We exist to worship and bring glory to God. He is who we should be serving. Many Christians today are in a dark place in their lives because they are putting themselves #1. I feel this song is telling them God is happy with them regardless. A great example is David after his affair with Bathsheba. He was in a very dark place. Even though David is known as a man after God’s own heart, God was definitely not pleased with him at that time.
In summary, how can I be misinterpreting the song, if the song doesn’t address repentance or the need to live a life pleasing to God? Maybe I’m just missing something…
Vince Wright
Nichole,
Thank you for your comments!
You’ve provided a reason for why God might be pleased with us and many more for why God is not pleased. I’ve searched the lyrics to see if it gives us one. Sadly, it does not! In my review, I was assuming that He was pleased because of Christ’s faithfulness, but there is no justification for this assumption. Yes, God takes pleasure with our faithfulness (Matthew 25:23); However, I can see how this ambiguous line could be interpreted as “God is pleased with our wickedness”.
I’ve updated my review.
-Vince Wright
Steve Barhydt
I believe this to be a case of “demanding a song to be a sermon.”
The lyrics do not address a Christian living in sin because that has nothing to do with the message of the song.
The point of the song is the contrast between the world’s warped view of God and the intimate truth that we have as believers that He is a “Good Father”.
I would also say that “I’ve heard the tender whispers” when my life style was out of line with His will for me telling me that He loves me, I’m not alone, and gently guiding me back to Him. My own children often would do things that were displeasing to me. I still expressed my love and support of them even while I tried to correct their misbehavior.
We don’t require every passage of scripture to fully explain every one of our doctrines. Nearly every verse of the Bible, taken in isolation, can, and has been, misused. That’s why we have good hermeneutics to look at the Bible as a whole. A 2 to 3 minute song cannot do this and it is unreasonable to expect it to.
As Neal said above “any line of any song can be misinterpreted”. A song should not be penalized because something negative can be read into it.
Vince Wright
Steve,
Thank you for your comment!
I agree that the lyrics do not address living in sin; However, that is not why I recently downgraded this song. It due to the ambiguous statement “And you tell me that you’re pleased”. What is God pleased with? It doesn’t tell us. I agree that I should not expect songs to be sermons; However, my concern is that many will think “God is pleased with me, so I don’t need to change”.
-Vince Wright
Nichole
Hi Steve!
I think your line “God can be both pleased at where I am and not satisfied as to where I could, and probably should be” is exactly what I’m referring to. It is so common to hear teaching that God is pleased with me no matter where I am, many people who hear “God is Love” or “God is good”, have no idea that God demands repentance. That no, God is not pleased with me if I’m habitually sinning.
The question is not wether or not God loves us. Yes, He died for us while we were still in sin. Yet, a Holy, Righteous, Just, God cannot be pleased with sin no matter how much He loves us. The question is not even wether God is good – but what does good mean? Good does not mean doing everything we think is right. Pleased does NOT equal love. A loving God disciplines His children. If we do not receive disciple we are illegitimate children (read Hebrews 12). Therefore, discipline (not being pleased with me where I am), is both good and loving.
These songs are being sung in churches with masses of unbelievers (endearingly referred to as “seekers”) who probably think good is acceptance and tolerance (isn’t that what we teach our kids in our culture today?).
I believe as leaders, as mature Christians, it is so very important we are not leading them astray with any part of our lives or services: song, speech, or action.
And, every hymn in the hymnals is a sermon. They are so rich in doctrine, they are better than many of today’s pastor’s sermons. Why are we willing compromise on today’s worship music?
Steve Barhydt
Nicole,
I find it telling that you jumped on my statement about “God can be both pleased at where I am and not satisfied as to where I could, and probably should be” while completely ignoring my observation that the song states that God is calling us “deeper still into love.”
My statement addresses both His love shown by His pleasure and the need to be constantly moving closer to Him which will purge the sin from my life. Because you cannot get closer to Him and stay the way you are,
No one, other than you, is talking about God being pleased with us “habitually sinning” or us refusing His discipline.
My two comments taken together are my position on this song. That 1) It is not about God being pleased with us sinning but reflects a contrast between the world’s view of mean, demanding God and our experience with Him as a loving Father, and 2) God is constantly calling us into a deeper relationship with Him.
As to hymns, I disagree that “every hymn in the hymnals is a sermon” Older hymns were definitely more verbose than today’s music. This, in my opinion, is not a compromise of doctrine but rather a reflection of the difference in musical styles over the years.
Church Musician
Hi. Like what you’re setting out to do here. I would encourage you to look to the Psalms for basic criteria for what makes a song “good” for God-honoring, Christian worship. Every Psalm seems to have at least three basic elements: 1) Identifying God explicitly by name (most often “God” and/or “Lord”). 2) Giving us something to *do* – i.e. praise, confession, lament, thanks, etc. and 3) Tells/shows us WHY we are to be doing that thing.
Even the shortest Psalms have all of those things. For example, here is the ESV translation of Psalm 117:
“Praise the Lord, all nations! Extol him, all peoples! 2 For great is his steadfast love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord!”
In the case of “Good, Good Father” the most important element = WHO we are talking about, is never identified. The pattern from the Psalms is clear – vague pronouns do not suffice. With so many ideas and ways of “doing church” out there these days, we must at the very least be clear about who is the object of our worship. And we must give a biblical reason WHY the one true God should be worshiped. It can be a simple as verse 2 of Psalm 117, but it must be true. Imaginary fluff like “I’ve heard the tender whisper…in the dead of night…” is not helpful. Your interpolation of the shepherd imagery from the gospel of John, Hebrews, Revelation, is a nice thought – but it’s a huge jump to a conclusion that is simply nowhere to be found in the text of this song. These words could be about literally ANYTHING, since the object is only ever indicated by vague pronouns. This kind of vague language is not the pattern for worship we are given in Scripture. We have specific examples in the Psalms. As we look to the “Lord’s Prayer” as a model for prayer, we should look to the Psalms as models for singing music for worship.
Vince Wright
Church Musician,
Thank you for your comments!
There are a few things that lead to a Heavenly Father interpretation:
1) “Good Father” is mentioned in the Chorus.
2) That “you” can know what we require without speaking.
3) That “you” is perfect in all of “your” ways to us.
While the first could possibly be about an earthly father who does earthly good and the second could, on some level, know something about our needs without our words, the third only belongs to God. No mere human on earth could ever hope to be perfect in their ways, whether to us or someone else.
I agree that under the model you presented, this song would be inappropriate for corporate worship. These are criteria that I’ve never considered when recommending a song for corporate worship. You’ve given me something worth thinking about.
I plan to go through all the Psalms to see if this pattern holds. If so, expect to see a massive overhaul of recommendations and an update to my review criteria page a few weeks/months from now.
-Vince Wright
Steve Barhydt
Vince,
Your review of the first verse is good but I think you lose some of the overall context of what the songwriter is saying by breaking it down line by line….
Oh, I’ve heard a thousand stories of what they think you’re like
But I’ve heard the tender whisper of love in the dead of night
And you tell me that you’re pleased
And that I’m never alone
What does the world think about the Christian God?
Many think that, if He exists at all, He is a mean, old man sitting on His throne with a huge magnifying glass just looking for a reason to fry us “ants’ for messing up. Or that He is an absent Father, Who has abandoned us at our time of need.
What is the songwriter’s response to this type of thinking?
To summarize, “in the darkest times of my life, I’ve heard You there, telling me that I am loved and that I am not alone.” (see Deuteronomy 31:6; Deuteronomy 31:8; Isaiah 41:10-13; Psalms 55:22; 1 Peter 5:7; 2 Timothy 1:7; Psalm 23)
That, my dear Church Musician is not “Imaginary fluff ” but great comfort to those who are going through the “valley of the shadow of death.” I’ve heard that “still small voice” 1Ki 19:12 KJV (or as the ESV translates it “the sound of a low whisper”) many times in my life and it has renewed my faith and strength.
In fact, this is one of the many reason why He’s a “Good, Good Father”!!!
Additionally, as you know I have often turned to the Psalms as proof of the inclusion of a song into what is considered “Biblical music”. Most often in the terms of whether or not a song is too self -centered as opposed to God-centered.
So you know that I consider the Psalms to be a very important guide to modern music.
The “Lord’s Prayer” is a wonderful template for how to pray However, there are many prayers in the Bible and throughout history that don’t adhere to the exact pattern of the Lord’s Prayer.
Likewise, the Psalms are A guide not THE guide (that is to the exclusion of others)
From David Guzik :: Study Guide for Ephesians 5
https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/guzik_david/StudyGuide2017-Eph/Eph-5.cfm?a=1102019
Ephesians 5: 19-20
Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
a. Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord: When we are filled with the Spirit, we will have a desire to worship God and to encourage others in their worship of God.
i. The connection with being filled with the Spirit and praise is significant. Those who are filled with the Spirit will naturally praise, and praise is a way that we are filled with the Spirit.
b. Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs: This variety suggests that God delights in creative, spontaneous worship. The most important place for us to have a melody unto God is in our heart. Many who can’t sing a beautiful melody with the voice can have beautiful melodies in their heart.
i. The emphasis is more on variety than on strict categories. “We can scarcely say what is the exact difference between these three expressions.” (Clarke)
***end of quote***
I would agree that a lot of Christian Music does not directly reference God by name and would also agree that the Psalms do.
However, to hold all music to an arbitrary “Psalmic formula” thereby requiring direct references to the Godhead is, in my opinion, unnecessarily strict and, based on the David Guzik quote above, is not taking the whole counsel of God into consideration.
There is no way that, when taken in the whole context of this song (as opposed to line by line) that this song could refer to anyone but God the Father even though His name is never mentioned.
Vince, you already give a penalty when a song is too vague in it’s references to God. I see no reason to completely revamp your review criteria or to re-review past songs.
Vince Wright
Steve,
Thank you for your comments!
You’re right about missing the forest for the trees. I don’t believe I did that in this review, but it’s something to keep in mind when it comes to a line by line examination of lyrics. Although in my reviews, I stop at the lyrics themselves and don’t consider things like artist theology, intent, or other songs in an album. Rarely, that works to my detriment, but that’s how I roll.
Regarding the first criteria mentioned by Church Musician, I think it would be acceptable for a song to contain indirect references to God so long that it’s clear that the lyrics refer to God/Jesus/Father/Holy Spirit/etc and not easily mistaken as a boyfriend/girlfriend. What I hadn’t thought about are the other two criteria, that the song gives us something to do and explains why.
If I were to adopt this, it would be on my recommendation on appropriateness to modern worship and wouldn’t affect my reviews or ratings.
-Vince Wright
Steve Barhydt
Vince,
I’m glad to hear that the scoring system will not change.
For me personally, I’m still not comfortable taking an arbitrary set of criteria exclusively based on the Psalms to ascertain whether or not a song meets an “appropriateness to modern worship”
Given enough time I am sure that we could find many things that the Psalms have in common. Here are just a few that come to mind. All of them were written in Hebrew. All of them were written by men. All of them were written over 2500 years ago. Should these also be criteria for modern congregational worship? Of course not 🙂 So why we should we take the three proffered by Christian Musician as a required template?
Plus I think Christian Musician is just plain wrong.
“Giving us something to *do*” implies a command, a requirement, or, at the very least, a suggested course of action. This is distinctly different than something that we “do” in response to God’s love and provision.
Psalm 2:11 -12
11 Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.
These ARE commands
Psalm 3:4-5
4 I cried unto the LORD with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill. Selah.
5 I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for the LORD sustained me.
These are NOT commands but responses.
Psalm 23 (KJV)
1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
I do not see a command in this Psalm to “do” anything.
In very allegorical language, we are told the benefits of having the Lord as our Shepherd but it is written as a set of privileges not imperatives.
Also, if the three “criteria” were truly THE guidelines for worship then ALL songs in the Bible should follow them, not just the Psalms.
2 Chron 5: 12-13
12 Also the Levites which were the singers, all of them of Asaph, of Heman, of Jeduthun, with their sons and their brethren, being arrayed in white linen, having cymbals and psalteries and harps, stood at the east end of the altar, and with them an hundred and twenty priests sounding with trumpets:)
13 It came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the LORD; and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of musick, and praised the LORD, saying, For he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever: that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the LORD;
14 So that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud: for the glory of the LORD had filled the house of God.
This simple 10 word song was so accepted by God that His presence palpably filled the temple. It contains NO command.
Revelation 5:9-10
And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;
And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth
Again, no command.
I could go on but I hope that my point has been made.
Vince Wright
Steve,
Thank you for your comments!
I inquired with a few pastoral staff. They made the point in agreement with you, that we should not limit ourselves to an arbitrary set of criteria when giving recommendations for corporate worship. Though I happen to disagree for other reasons, they cited Reckless Love as an example of an appropriate worship song that doesn’t fit the criteria. It doesn’t tell us to do anything.
I agree with your analysis and will not make recommendations based on these criteria. I shouldn’t have jumped the gun so quickly. In hindsight, I shouldn’t have said “expect to see a massive overhaul of recommendations”, as if I already accepted his proposal when I had not. Lesson learned for the next recommendation.
-Vince Wright
Edward Barnett
When I hear the “you’re a good good father” I wonder what is the reason for the 2nd good. Adding the 2nd good is really redundant as it doesn’t add any more good to God’s character. The 2nd good only adds more padding to the song. With the “it’s who you are” repeated 3 times seems to me that he is attempting to convince himself of God’s goodness. Is this because the writer had an abusive father? The repetitiveness is what spoils the song for me, when I first heard the song I thought this is better than most praise and worship songs today. But when I hear it now I’m ready to move on the next song.
Vince Wright
Edward,
Thank you for your thoughts! I have the following for your consideration.
Throughout the ministry of Jesus, one of the starters he often stated is “truly, truly”. Insofar as I am aware, there are 19 Bible verses that contain this phrase. I do not believe Jesus was trying to convince Himself. In the Koine Greek, it is recorded that He uses the word “Amēn” twice which, to us, is added at the end to indicate endorsement, or “so be it”. In the case of Jesus, He is making a strong claim that is His original idea that was not learned from another man/woman. Similarly, I believe “good, good” is a strong claim about the goodness of the Father.
As for the triple-repeated “it’s who you are” and “it’s who I am”, that is a fair claim in terms of padding.
-Vince Wright
dave
I have an issue with the chorus which you don’t address. You talk about the first part of “I’m loved by you, it’s who I am, …”. Yes we are loved by God, that’s correct. I have an issue with “it’s who I am”. Those words make it sound like I/we are deserving of His love. What’s scriptural about that. I always change the words to “inspite of who I am”. That I find is more online with scripture.
Vince Wright
Dave,
Thank you for your concern!
I don’t think that it’s communicating if we deserve/don’t deserve God’s love. Rather, it’s an identity claim: we are loved by God. That’s who we are.
-Vince Wright
Seth
I have to agree with Dave on this. I understand that it is meant to be an Identity meaning, but ever since I first heard this song it doesn’t come across that way to me. If you look at the previous line it states “You’re a Good Good Father Its who YOU ARE Its who YOU ARE” Which God is a Good Good Father, because of both who He is, and by His very nature. The next line goes “And I’m loved by you, It’s who I am its who I am,” which yes I am loved by God, but not because of who I am but because of who He(God) is. The way the song is written and the way the song is presented sounds more like it means he loves us because of who we are. Again I know that it is not the intended interpretation of the song is but If I interpret this song in this way then I feel its not a good song to sing on two accounts. First I can never be passionate about the lyrics as they are written Because my mind does not interpret the song the intended way, and Second if I interpret it this way what is there to say someone else won’t interpret it this way.
There is another small thing I don’t know if I like. In the first verse it say “and you tell me that you’re pleased.” I understand that God is pleased with us in that we are made righteous through Christ when we accept his gift, but if you look at all the stories of the Old Testament and even stories of Jesus with his disciples, there are several points in which God is very displeased with his followers.
Neal Cruco
Seth,
I have to agree with Vince here- it’s an identity claim. I’m not following your argument. The lyrics go “And I’m loved by you, it’s who I am”, not “And I’m loved by you because of who I am”. God is a good Father. That’s (part of) His identity. Similarly, we are loved by Him. That’s (part of) our identity in Him. There is no “because of” in either line that would support your interpretation.
If you can’t in good conscience support this song, then don’t. But the “because of” clause that you’re mentioning is nowhere to be found in the song, either implicitly or explicitly. (Of course, an explanation of what a good Father is, and how they act, is also nowhere to be found… but that’s another story.)
Tom
I appreciate your reviews but wonder why you fail to discuss the musical context of the songs. A case in point, I don’t have any major issues with the lyrics to “Good Good Father” but I find the music setting vapid and and entirely too repetitive…if you sing a phrase such as “It’s who I am” over and over again it starts to become meaningless.
Great worship songs are dependent on an appropriate blending of both the lyrical and musical context. My opinion is that “Good Good Father” fails markedly in this regard.
tastywallet
Tom,
Great question! I do not discuss the musical context due to my own personal choice to limit the scope of reviews to analyzing the lyrics as compared to the Bible and how it affects its message, usage for unbelievers, and inherent glorification of God. I understand that there’s more to music than lyrics; However, I stand by my decision.
-TastyWallet
Neal Cruco
My primary problem with this song is that it doesn’t really state why God is good. Some people grow up in abusive homes and never learn what a good father really is. Combine this with the common non-Christian belief that God is a sadistic, bloodthirsty tyrant, and it seems clear to me that this song really doesn’t go into enough detail. Especially when this concept of God being a good father is the central message. Something like the second verse of 10,000 Reasons (“You’re rich in love…”) would have been appreciated, and Tomlin could have stripped out some of that annoying repetition which pads the song.
tastywallet
Neal,
A fascinating observation! Although I might argue that the Bridge offers a response: God is perfect in all His ways. However, I understand your point regarding the abused son or daughter. It’s hard to see a good heavenly Father when one experienced a rotten earthly one. Even my own answer doesn’t address the question with a lot of detail, something that will give me serious reconsideration on my own review.
-TastyWallet