Jeremy Riddle – All Hail King Jesus

Happy Resurrection Day!

Easter is a time to remember how much Jesus loves us.  It cost Him greatly to become one of us, subject Himself to the frailty of human existence, and to suffer and die for us on the cross.  Last Friday, we remembered His death.  Today, we celebrate His resurrection!

Each year, I honor this momentous occasion by reviewing an Easter-themed song.  For 2023, I’ve chosen to examine Jeremy Riddle’s All Hail King Jesus.

Jeremy Riddle is an American Contemporary Christian artist.  He served as the worship community pastor at the Redding, California location for Bethel Church from September 2011 to June of 2019.  He left Bethel because he “felt the Lord leading [him] back to Southern California”.  According to this Facebook post, he was increasingly troubled by the lack of Vital Scriptural teaching, which makes me wonder if he left Bethel for theological reasons.  It is for these reasons that I’ve chosen not to associate him with Bethel on the Resources page.

Riddle released a respectable 17 albums.

According to this page, “Riddle has received numerous awards for his work including being named GMA Dove Award Songwriter of the Year in 2011 and 5-time GMA Dove Award Winner for Song of the Year for “Furious”, “This Is Amazing Grace” and “Sweetly Broken”.”

Lyrics can be found at https://genius.com/Jeremy-riddle-all-hail-king-jesus-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?

This song touches on key elements of Jesus’ death and resurrection.  We who are indwelled with the Holy Spirit worship Him as the risen Lord and King.  In fact, all creation will bow the knee, confessing that He is Lord.

Score: 10/10

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

All of it is Biblical.

[Verse 1]

Lines 1-4: By “a moment”, Riddle references the three days that Jesus was dead, laid in the tomb (Matthew 27:59-61).  Riddle calls it the “darkest day” because Jesus, who is God (Isaiah 9:6-7, Isaiah 43:10-11, Matthew 1:23, Matthew 9:1-8, Mark 2:1-12, Luke 5:17-26, John 1:1-3, John 1:14, John 5:17-18, John 8:23-25, John 8:28, John 10:30-33, John 14:9, John 20:28-29, Philippians 2:5-6, Colossians 1:16-19, Colossians 2:8-9, Titus 2:13, 1 Timothy 6:14-16, Hebrews 1:10-12, Revelation 1:8, and Revelation 22:13), died.

We could also interpret that first line as the moment when darkness engulfed the crucifixion site (Matthew 27:45, Mark 15:33, and Luke 23:44); However, later Verses make this interpretation difficult to conclude.

[Verse 2]

Line 1:  The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).

Line 2: His shed blood cleanses us from all unrighteousness (Ephesians 1:7, Hebrews 9:22, 1 Peter 1:2, and 1 Peter 1:18-19).

Line 3: “It is finished” (or Telestai/”Paid In Full”) were Jesus’ final statements before he breathed his last breath (John 19:30).

Line 4: You mean Jesus’ death isn’t the final ending?  Please tell me more!

[Pre-Chorus 1]

Line 1: After Jesus died, there was an earthquake, and the veil split (Matthew 27:51 and Mark 15:38).  The veil is what separated the outer and inner courts of the temple, where the inner court is the “holy of holies” where God dwelled.  Only the high priest could enter, and that was only once a year (Hebrews 9:1-9).  This tearing signified that God would no longer dwell within this singular temple.  Rather, through the Holy Spirit, He would live in us believers as His living temple (1 Corinthians 3:16).

Line 2: Not literally, as there is no Scripture that supports heavenly roaring that immediately follows Christ’s death.  Figuratively, this coincides with the darkness in Verse 1, and the “sky lit up” in Verse 3.

[Chorus]

Line 1: Christians worship Jesus (Matthew 2:11, Matthew 14:33, Matthew 21:9, Matthew 28:8-9, Matthew 28:16-17, Luke 24:50-53, John 12:13, and John 20:28) as our King (Isaiah 9:6, Isaiah 11:10, Micah 5:2, Matthew 2:1-6, Luke 1:32-33, John 12:15, John 18:37, 1 Timothy 6:13-16, Revelation 17:14, and Revelation 19:11-16).

Line 2: Jesus is Lord.  Period (1 Timothy 6:15 and Revelation 19:16).

Line 3: Repeats line 1.

Line 4: Christ is the world’s 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).

Side Note: In some iterations, this is repeated twice.

[Verse 3]

Lines 1-4: Jesus was about to be raised from the dead (Matthew 28:1-20, Mark 16:1-20, Luke 24:1-12, John 20:1-29, Acts 1:3, Acts 3:15, Acts 4:33, and 1 Corinthians 15:3-8)

[Pre-Chorus 2]

Line 1: See opening commentary on Verse 1, lines 1-4.

Line 2: References the Holy Spirit that was breathed on the disciples of Jesus in John 20:22.  Through Him, we are new creatures (2 Corinthians 5:17) with the Holy Spirit dwelling within us (Acts 6:5, Romans 8:9-11, 1 Corinthians 3:16, 1 Corinthians 6:16-19, Galatians 4:6, Ephesians 5:18, and 2 Timothy 1:14).

[Bridge]

Lines 1 and 2: Let them because they will (Isaiah 45:43, Romans 14:11, and Philippians 2:10-11).

Lines 3 and 4: Summarized in Psalm 66:4.

Lines 5-7: Repeats/essentially repeats line 4.

Score: 10/10

3. How would an outsider interpret the song?

Those outside Christianity would immediately know it’s Christian merely by the song’s title.  It also mentions the cross, indirectly references the resurrection, and explicitly mentions “Jesus” and the “Holy Spirit” by name.  This song contains a good mix of Christianese and everyday language, where the everyday helps explains Christian terminology such as “Savior” and “sinner”.  Aside from deeper research, they probably will not understand the significance of the torn veil or that the Roman cross wasn’t designed for sinners.  However, they should easily put together the main points: Jesus died for us, He rose again, and Christians worship Him.

Score: 8/10

4. What does this song glorify?

It glorifies Jesus as the One whose death absolves us from the curse of sin, free to worship Him as our Lord and King.

Score: 10/10

Closing Comments

Jeremy Riddle’s All Hail King Jesus is an excellent Easter song.  It has all the things you’d expect: Jesus’ death by crucifixion, the torn veil, earthquake, Jesus laid in the tomb, His resurrection, and believers worshipping Him as their King.  These glorify God. Unbelievers will likely comprehend this song’s main elements, though perhaps missing what it means that the veil was torn.  The latter isn’t a big deal, but the former should be addressed.

I highly recommend this song for corporate worship.

Final Score: 9.5/10

Artist Info

Track: All Hail King Jesus (listen to the song)

Artist: Jeremy Riddle

Album: More

Genre: Rock

Release Year: 2017

Duration: 8:18

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

Updates:

04/13/2023 – My apologies!  My first draft of this song contained me criticizing “There on the cross made for sinners” based on the historical nature of Roman vs. Old Testament law in terms of how God metes out punishment.  It was supposed to be updated to Romans 6:23 in support this, but I forgot to hit the “save” button before it went live.  I just pressed “save” now.  Thank you Michael Ramsey for pointing out my error!