Photo by Natalya Letunova
This review is upon request. To submit a song for review, contact me.
Award-winning Christian sensation Lauren Daigle, much like other artists, took a stab at writing her own Christmas music. One such tune is Light of the World, written five to six years before her 2019 award cleanup at Dove, Billboard, and Grammy awards for her work on Look Up Child and You Say, both of which received mediocre Berean Test scores.
This will be my eighth Lauran Daigle review.
Lyrics can be found at https://genius.com/Lauren-daigle-light-of-the-world-lyrics.
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1. What message does the song communicate?
As expected for a Christmas song, it centers around baby Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah, with all its usual references of Prince of Peace, angelic singing (Biblically weak at best), and anticipation of His arrival. There are two things I find particularly clever:
- The progression from anticipation to His arrival that started in Verse 1 and moved into Verse 2 by rewording the famous Christmas song O Come, O Come, Emmanuel. The middle portion in Verse 2 is a bit inaccurate to its context (see section 2), but I appreciate the effort!
- The phrase “Behold your King” in Bridge 2, as spoken by Pilate during Jesus’ trial, signifying His crucifixion. I’m not sure if this was intentional or not, but if it was, props to Daigle!
The repeated Chorus line, though appears seven times, is spaced out enough to remain acceptable.
Score: 9/10
2. How much of the lyrics line up with Scripture?
Most of the lyrics agree with Scripture; However, I take minor exceptions with the entire Pre-Chorus and part of Verse 2’s progression statements.
[Verse 1]
Lines 1 and 2: That is, the Israelite people were looking for the promised Messiah, though their view of His identity was limited to a conquering king, perhaps citing 2 Samuel 7:12–16 as their proof text and not realizing relevant prophecies concerning Him, that He would be a suffering servant rather than a conquering ruler.
Line 3: References the popular unauthored Christmas song O come, O come, Emmanuel, and continues the idea started in lines 1 and 2. Emmanuel (or Immanuel) means “God with us” and is prophesied in Isaiah 7:14.
Lines 4 and 5: A prayer offered by a little girl for God’s peace on earth. Those who follow Him will have internal peace (John 14:27, John 16:29-33, Romans 5:1, Ephesians 2:14-15, and Colossians 3:15).
[Pre-Chorus]
Lines 1 and 2: Probably not. According to Luke 2:13-14, there was a multitude of angels exalting Jesus. Though there were heavenly hosts and they announced the birth of Jesus, Scripture does not support that they were singing. Take a good look at Luke 2:13. It says “saying”. It comes from the Koine Greek word “legó”, which means “to say”. That doesn’t mean that angels can’t sing (Job 38:7’s “morning stars” could be seen as angels), but the text doesn’t say that they sang.
As for the Koine Greek term Aineo (to praise), according to Bible Study Tools, praiseworthy singing is a possible translation for this word. However, no major translation translates it with singing in mind.
[Chorus 1]
Lines 1-3: Another reference to Luke 2:14, opting to replace “God” with “Light of the world”, which itself finds support in Psalm 27:1, Psalm 119:105, Psalm 119:130, Matthew 4:16, John 1:1-8, John 8:12, Ephesians 5:14, James 1:17, 1 Peter 2:9, 1 John 1:5-7, and Revelation 21:23.
[Verse 2]
Line 1: That is, the beginning of redemption starts with Jesus’ birth, represented as Mary’s birth pains (Genesis 3:16, Luke 1:26-38, and Matthew 1:18-25).
Line 2: Combines Jesus as 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
) with God is love (1 John 4:8).
Line 3: A clever reworking of the classic song, describing progression; However, at this moment of time, the Christ has already come down, around 10 months prior, when Mary conceived as a virgin (Luke 1:26-38). Perhaps “Come out, come out Emmanuel” would be more accurate.
Line 4: A valid response to those who find rest in Jesus (Matthew 11:28-30).
Line 5: See commentary in Verse 1, lines 1 and 2.
Line 6: Jesus is understood to fulfill Isaiah 9:6, identifying Him as the Prince of Peace.
Line 7: The fulfillment of Isaiah 7:14 is recorded in Matthew 1:22-23. The Messiah has come!
[Chorus 2]
Lines 1 and 2: Repeats Chorus 1, line 1.
[Bridge 1]
Lines 1-4: See commentary in Verse 1, lines 1 and 2.
[Bridge 2]
Line 1 and 2: A clever nod to the events leading up the crucifixion of Jesus, recorded in John 19:14-15.
Line 3: See Verse 1, line 3.
[Chorus 3]
Lines 1-3: Repeats Chorus 1, line 1.
[Outro]
Lines 1-3: Repeats Verse 1, lines 1-3.
Score: 8/10
3. How would an outsider interpret the song?
It will be easy for unbelievers to understand Daigle’s intended message. Christians celebrate the long-awaiting Christ child through their celebration of Christmas. None of the errors I pointed out earlier will change this interpretation.
Score: 9/10
4. What does this song glorify?
The Chorus says it all: glory to God, who is the Light of the world! Though slightly hidden in a few hiccups along the way.
Score: 9/10
Closing Comments
Lauren Daigle’s Light of the World is a decent Christmas song, honoring the God-man born some 2,000 years ago. Though there is a contextual error in angelic utterances and inaccurate description of progression, Daigle glorifies God by proclaiming Christ’s birth to the masses.
It’s hard to recommend a song for Christmas usage that contains at least one Biblical inaccuracy, even if it’s minor. Consider it if you change “singing” to “saying” and “Come down, come down” to “Come out, come out”. On second thought, the latter might raise uncomfortable questions among children. Maybe it’s best to skip this one.
Final Score: 8.5/10
Artist Info
Track: Light of the World (listen to the song) (buy the song)
Artist: Lauren Daigle
Album: Christmas: Joy To The World (compilation) (buy the album)
Genre: Christmas, Contemporary Christian Music (CCM)
Release Year: 2013
Duration: 4:19
Agree? Disagree? Don’t be shy or have a cow! Calmly and politely state your case in a comment, below.
Updates:
10/25/2022 – Upon recent information from Heather’s comment on Joseph Mohr’s Silent Night, I updated my commentary on the singing angels. This raised the song’s overall score, from 8/10 to 8.5/10.
Comments
Kevin N
Proof yet again that Lauren needs to go and pursue a theology degree before writing too many more songs, LOL
Love the commentary… I’d have a hard time being un-biased myself, so, great work! One of my favourite Christmas songs.
Argument could be made that the angels were in fact singing. Luke 2:13 states, “…praising God and saying:..” The Greek word for “praising” (aineo, Str. #134), just like the English word, does at times mean actual singing with music for the express purpose of praising God. Not always, but by implication it can mean that. So, while it would be inaccurate to say that the angels were NOT singing, it would also be inaccurate to state that they WERE singing. Perhaps it may be most accurate to state that the angels COULD HAVE BEEN singing.
Vince Wright
Kevin,
Thank you for your comment! I agree. I think that is a more accurate way to put it. The possibility exists, but the text doesn’t support it definitively.
When I get a chance, I will examine my own commentary on this criticism and update it as required to communicate this.
-Vince Wright
Natalie Gilbert
Just curious your thoughts on “Angels We Have Heard on High.” Not asking for a full review, just brief thoughts. It’s a widely accepted carol that says the angels were “sweetly singing o’er the plains.” I see where you’re coming from, if technically the Bible doesn’t say they were singing. However, I wonder if that detail is very important. Like you kinda said, it doesn’t veil the gospel. The message that came out of their mouths is the same whether or not they were speaking or singing.
Vince Wright
Natalie,
Great question!
No, it’s not that important detail, which is why I would invoke a small penalty for it in all sections. The Shepherds weren’t singing either, while the singing angels are mentioned twice. I probably would have given section 2 a 7 to and 8, depending on how stiff I wanted to be over it. I would imagine that the entire song would receive around an 8 to an 8.5 since there are two errors.
I noticed that the singing angels show up in a LOT of Christmas songs, despite the Biblical text that says they were saying. It’s about as important as Mary Magdaline being a prostitute: the Bible doesn’t support it, but it alone takes away little from its overall message. If there’s more than one error included (e.g.; three kings vs. Magi), I think a stiffer penalty would be reasonable.
-Vince Wright
Kevin N
I’ve sometimes felt that Vince is too harsh with how a song takes liberties with scripture. But the implication of being a “Berean” is to use the Bible as a mirror, rather than “that which is accepted universally by Christians as true.”
Music puts words in our mouth. Words have power. What we declare to be true shapes who we are and what authority we place ourselves under.
Not saying that lyrics that declare that the angels were singing are going to lead us to Satan worship, but the principle that we examine our lyrics still applies. Reading and knowing the scriptures is imperative for every believer who intends to grow and share their faith. If we turn a blind eye to the little things, then we won’t be alert enough to detect the more important shortcomings of a Christian cultural icon’s theology (Here’s looking at you, Joel Osteen).