Josh Baldwin – Stand In Your Love

American artist Josh Baldwin serves as a worship leader with Bethel Music.  He released three albums, including:

• Changing (2008)
• Rivers (2011)
• The War Is Over (2017)

Lyrics can be found at https://genius.com/Josh-baldwin-stand-in-your-love-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?

Baldwin leaves his fearful dark past behind, standing on the solid rock that is “You”.  It is in “Your” name that breaks strongholds, clears tombs, and frees people.

Whose name is that?  Christians will be quick to assume that it’s the name of Jesus (especially if sung in a church context), but the author doesn’t make it clear.  There are no attributes described that are unique to the Christian God that could not apply to a human being, except emptying out a grave with resurrection power.  That is something a deity could do but not a mere human.

Score: 6/10

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

Since it refers to a deity and not a human being, I’ve subtracted only one point to assume “You” and “Your” is the Christian God.  Under this assumption, the lyrics agree with the Bible.

[Verse 1]

Lines 1-4: Sin is crouching at the door, desiring Baldwin.  Rather than giving in, he resists it (Genesis 4:7 and 1 Corinthians 10:13).

[Chorus]

Lines 1 and 2: Baldwin obeys God’s command to cease fear, trusting Him (Genesis 15:1, Joshua 1:9, Deuteronomy 31:6, 1 Chronicles 28:20, Psalm 23:4, Psalm 27:1, Psalm 34:4, Psalm 56:3-4, Psalm 94:19, Psalm 115:11, Psalm 118:6, Isaiah 35:4, Isaiah 41:10-13, Isaiah 43:1, Isaiah 54:4, John 14:25-27, Romans 8:15, Romans 8:38-39, 2 Timothy 1:7, Hebrews 13:5-6, 1 Peter 3:13-14, 1 Peter 5:6-7, and 1 John 4:18).

Lines 3-6: Repeats lines 1 and 2.

[Verse 2]

Lines 1-3: Rather than burying shame and remain shackled by his past, Baldwin moved on.  The implication is that, based on Bridge 1, the power to leave is based on the name of Jesus (Romans 6:1-11, Romans 7:4-6, Galatians 2:19-20, 2 Timothy 2:11, and 1 Peter 2:24).

Line 4: Repeats Verse 1, line 1.

[Bridge 1]

Line 1: See commentary on Verse 2, lines 1-3.

Lines 2 and 3: Jesus has the power to resurrect from the dead, both physically (Matthew 9:18-26, Mark 5:21-43, Luke 7:11–17, Luke 8:40-56, and John 11:38-44) and spiritually, that is, He gives us the Holy Spirit who lives in 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).

Line 4: That is, the name of Jesus (Mark 16:17, Luke 10:17, Romans 10:13, Romans 10:19, Acts 3:6, Acts 3:12-16, Acts 4:30, and Philippians 2:9-11),

Lines 5-8: Repeats lines 1-4.

[Bridge 2]

Lines 1-4: That is, God is Baldwin’s foundation (Deuteronomy 32:4, 1 Samuel 2:2, 2 Samuel 22:47, Psalm 18:31, Psalm 28:1, Psalm 62:2, Psalm 94:22, Psalm 118:22, Isaiah 28:16, Matthew 7:24-27, Matthew 21:42, Acts 4:11, 1 Corinthians 3:10-11, Ephesians 2:20, 2 Timothy 2:19, and 1 Peter 2:6).

Lines 5-12: Repeats lines 1-4.

[Outro]

Lines 1-4: Repeats Bridge 2, lines 1-4.

Score: 9/10

3. How would an outsider interpret the song?

Baldwin left his past and trusts in some deity as his foundation, with power to resurrect.  They won’t know who unless they hear it at church or learn of Baldwin’s testimony.

Score: 4/10

4. What does this song glorify?

It’s difficult to justify that it implicitly glorifies God since Baldwin did not clarify whose name does the great and wonderful things in this song.  Still, if we assume it’s God, it agrees with Scripture.  I’ll go halfway.

Score: 5/10

Closing Comments

Josh Baldwin’s Stand In Your Love is somewhat unclear.  If we assume God, its message of transformation in Jesus could be found as Baldwin trusts in Him as his solid foundation, bringing God glory.  If we don’t make any assumptions, it could be any god with claimed resurrection power, confusing especially to unbelievers.

It’s a positive message and, perhaps with some prompting, worship leaders could attempt to redeem it, but I recommend looking elsewhere.

Final Score: 6.5/10

Artist Info

Track: Stand In Your Love (listen to the song)

Artist: Josh Baldwin

Album: Victory (Bethel) (Live)

Genre: Rock

Release Year: 2018

Duration: 3:41

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

Updates:

04/05/2022 – Slightly raised section 3’s score and added the word “somewhat” to “unclear” in Closing Thoughts.  This did not affect the song’s overall rating.

03/25/2021 – Updated per repetition announcement.