Matisyahu – King Without A Crown

Matthew Paul Miller, known as Matisyahu meaning “Gift of God”, is an American Reggae Orthodox Jewish artist.  Starting his career in 2000, he released six albums:

• Shake Off the Dust… Arise (2004)
• Youth (2006)
• Light (2009)
• Spark Seeker (2012)
• Akeda (2014)
• Undercurrent (2017)

He also appeared in two films: A Buddy Story (2010) as Chassid and The Possession (2012) as Tzadok.

In 2006, Matisyahu was “awarded” an Esky for the Most Lovable Oddball, calling him “the most intriguing reggae artist in the world”.

Lyrics can be found at https://genius.com/Matisyahu-king-without-a-crown-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 is written by a Jew and not a Christian.  Therefore, it should not surprise us that this song is knee-deep in Judaism, without any references to Christianity.  This is more an issue with outsiders to Christianity (see section 3) than those of us who follow Jesus.  By “God”, Matisyahu references the Father; However, I will also refer to Jesus as God throughout this review.

Matisyahu presents truth-claims, most of which are facts and a few that are false.

Facts

• Apart from God, we cannot have anything.
• Matisyahu prays daily to know God better.
• Matisyahu hungers and thirsts for intimacy with God.
• Matisyahu cannot exist without God, both literally and in terms of personal identity.
• The world blinds Matisyahu.
• God’s light destroys darkness.
• Matisyahu believes he experienced God’s Presence, giving himself over to God.
• We must lay down our pride, relinquishing slavery to self to follow God.

Fiction

• God is everything we need (see section 2).
• Matisyahu can fight demons with “all his might” and become completely dependent on God at the same time.
• God is not vexed.  Section 2 explores three definitions of “vexed” and why they all fail according to Scripture.

Score: 7/10

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

Much of it agrees with Scripture; However,

• Verse 1 says “you’re all that I need”; However, we literally cannot survive without water.
• Verse 1 contains two statements where Matisyahu relies on self to fight, contrary to later Verses that state he relies on God.
• Verse 3 states that God is not vexed; However, this is simply not true, based on definitions of “angered”, “cursed”, and “distressed”.

[Verse 1]

Line 1: The lyrics identify “You” as God later in this song.

I understand that Matisyahu attempts to communicate that God is the greatest thing that we could desire, focusing our eyes on Jesus (Hebrews 12:2); However, even Matisyahu cannot survive without air and water!  God provides these needs that we require (Genesis 2:15-16, Genesis 9:3, Genesis 22:8, Exodus 16:1-36, Psalm 18:2, Psalm 34:10, Psalm 81:10, Psalm 84:11, Psalm 107:9, Proverbs 10:3, Malachi 3:10, Matthew 6:25-30, Matthew 7:7-8, Matthew 21:22, John 14:13-14, John 14:26, John 15:1-10, John 15:16, Romans 8:32, Ephesians 3:20, Philippians 4:19, 2 Corinthians 9:8, and 2 Corinthians 12:9).  God is the best need that we require; However, other needs exist.

Line 2: Praying daily and spending time with God are good spiritual practices for Godly living.  Jesus left us with this example, spending time alone with the Father in prayer (Matthew 14:1-13, Matthew 26:29, Matthew 26:42, Mark 6:30-32, Mark 14:36, Luke 4:1-2, Luke 4:14-15, Luke 5:16, Luke 6:12-13, Luke 22:39-44, and John 18:11).

Lines 3 and 4: Matisyahu hungers and thirsts for more of God (Psalm 42:1-3, Psalms 63:1, Psalm 84:2, Psalm 119:81, and Psalm 143:6).

Line 5: Literally, Matisyahu cannot exist without God because God created all things (Genesis 1:1, Nehemiah 9:6, Psalm 8:3-8, Psalm 33:6, Psalm 96:5, Proverbs 3:19, Isaiah 37:16, Isaiah 42:5, Isaiah 45:18, Isaiah 66:1-2, John 1:1-3, Ephesians 3:9, Colossians 1:16, and Revelation 4:11).

Figuratively, Matisyahu’s spiritual practice of daily devotion to God mentioned in line 2 causes him to become less like himself and more like God (John 3:30).  Thus, his entire identity rests in God.

Line 6: Not literal air, but the Holy Spirit’s presence.  Jesus breathed upon His Apostles, commanding them to receive the Holy Spirit in John 20:22, connecting breath to the Holy Ghost, though this is likely not what Matisyahu intended.  My best guess is that Matisyahu cannot live without God.

Lines 7 and 8: When we focus on our problems instead of Jesus (Hebrews 12:2), the world can appear bleak.  In part, because Satan is the ruler of this world, along with his lackeys (Ephesians 2:2).

Lines 9-12: Unfortunately, these lines communicate dependence on self to fight the darkness and demons that surround Matisyahu.  While I appreciate Matisyahu’s desire to fight against demonic forces, this “pull yourself up by your own bootstraps” approach does not demonstrate reliance on God (
Proverbs 16:2, Proverbs 16:25, Proverbs 21:2, Luke 12:16-21, Romans 12:3, and 2 Corinthians 3:5).

Line 13-15: HaShem is one of the names of God that literally means “the name”, showing up in Leviticus 24:11 and Deuteronomy 28:58.  He is the light that defeats darkness (Psalm 107:10-16, Luke 1:79, John 1:1-13, John 12:46, Ephesians 5:8, Colossians 1:13, 1 Peter 2:9).

Line 16: Most likely, references God appearing as a pillar of fire at night, guiding the ancient Israelites into the Promised Land (Exodus 13:21-22, Exodus 14:24, Exodus 40:34-38, Numbers 14:14, Deuteronomy 1:33, Nehemiah 9:12, and Nehemiah 9:19).

Lines 17 and 18: I was about to take back my earlier commentary on lines 9-12, that line 17 is an indirect reformation of his attempts to defeat darkness through himself; However, line 18 contradicts this rationale.

[Hook]

Lines 1-2  My best guess is that Matisyahu’s love for God is higher than anything else, far beyond the four walls of his home.  He describes how he feels, not necessarily that his love for God is bigger than God’s love for us.

Lines 3 and 4: Does Matisyahu rely on himself, as he states in Verse 1, lines 9-12 and 17-18, or does he fully devote himself to God in surrender (Isaiah 64:8, Matthew 10:38, Matthew 11:28-30, Matthew 16:24, Mark 8:34-38, Mark 10:28, Luke 9:23, Luke 14:27, John 15:1-11, Romans 6:13, Romans 12:1-2, Galatians 2:20, Philippians 2:5-8, Hebrews 11:6, James 4:7-10, and 1 Peter 5:6), as stated here?  This is a contradiction.

Line 5: That is, the Messiah.  He wants Jesus, asking us to tell others about Him (Matthew 28:18-20).

Lines 6-10: Repeats lines 1-5 sans Great Commission.

[Verse 2]

Lines 1-6: It is only when we humble ourselves before God, honest with who we are that we can migrate from slavery to sin (John 8:34, Romans 6:6, Romans 6:20-22, and 1 Corinthians 6:12) to alive with Christ (Romans 6:1-11, Romans 7:4-6, Galatians 2:19-20, 2 Timothy 2:11, and 1 Peter 2:24).

Lines 7 and 8: God prepares goodness and lovingkindness for those who are His (Psalm 23:5-6).

Lines 9 and 10: In the same way that Peter, who took his eyes off Jesus and began to drown (Matthew 14:22-33), so too with God rescue those who call upon Him (2 Samuel 22:4, Psalm 18:3, Psalm 55:16, Joel 2:32, and Acts 2:21).

Lines 11 and 12: Creation points to God’s existence (Psalm 19:1-4 and Romans 1:18-20).

Lines 13-16: Describes broken people who are dead in their sin (Psalm 14:1-3, Psalm 53:1-3, Proverbs 21:16, Luke 15:11-24, Romans 3:10, Romans 3:23, Romans 6:23, Ephesians 2:1, Colossians 2:13, and 1 Timothy 5:6).

Line 17: What sound was that?  My best guess is the sound of God.  After all, it is difficult to hear Him until we first humble ourselves.

Line 18: Probably a reference to Psalm 30:5.

Lines 19 and 20: That is, to surrender self for God (Isaiah 64:8, Matthew 10:38, Matthew 11:28-30, Matthew 16:24, Mark 8:34-38, Mark 10:28, Luke 9:23, Luke 14:27, John 15:1-11, Romans 6:13, Romans 12:1-2, Galatians 2:20, Philippians 2:5-8, Hebrews 11:6, James 4:7-10, and 1 Peter 5:6).

Line 21: Repeats line 20.

[Verse 3]

Line 1: References Psalm 121:1-2.

Lines 2-4: In the same way that God surrounded Mount Sinai with His display of lightning and sounds of thunder (Exodus 19:16-19), so too Matisyahu has experienced God.

Line 5: The subject “You” subtlely shifts from his audience to God.  This occurs for us Christians when we run to Jesus (Matthew 11:28-30); However, Matisyahu likely references Psalm 62:1-2.

Line 6: What does Matisyahu mean by “vexed”?

If he means “angered”, God is angry with the wicked every day (
Psalm 7:11).  He is angry because we break His Laws.  Therefore, Matisyahu is mistaken if this was his intended meaning.

If he means “cursed”, according to Galatians 3:13, Christ 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), became a curse on our behalf when He was crucified for our sins.  Matisyahu is still incorrect if he meant “cursed”.

If he means “distressed”, once again, he is not correct!  Take a look at Jeremiah 8:18-22, Jeremiah 9:1-3, and Hosea 11:8-11.  These aren’t the words of these prophets, God is speaking of His sorrow, sadness, and tears, caused by the actions of humans.

Lines 7-12: Repeats lines 1-6.

Score: 7/10

3. How would an outsider interpret the song?

Unstudied unbelievers will likely believe that it’s about losing ourselves over to the God that Matisyahu serves.  It was not likely written to those outside the camp of Christ, much less Judaism, given its heavy usage of Old Testament and Hebraic concepts, terminology, and names of God.  It won’t detract much from Matisyahu’s overall message; However, Matisyahu’s inaccurate statements mentioned in earlier sections muddy the waters, especially for those who are considering Christianity.

Score: 5/10

4. What does this song glorify?

How does one rate God’s inherent glorification from a song mostly accurately written about the God of Judaism (the same as the Christian God sans New Testament) and contains a few false statements that are contrary to Scripture?  I decided to take an average of other scores and rounded down.

Score: 6/10

Closing Comments

Matisyahu’s King Without A Crown is an average song for those who adhere to Judaism and may offer some benefit to Christ-followers.  It contains a series of truth claims, most of which adhere to Scripture, including our need for God’s closeness, distancing from self to follow God, and slavery to sin apart from God.  It also contains statements that are either contrary or unbiblical, including “God is everything I need”, reliance on self vs. God, and that God is not vexed.  Unbelievers will likely understand its basic message, even if Matisyahu’s terminology requires several Google searches.  Still, its heavy focus on Old Testament may become a stumbling block towards Jesus.

I cannot recommend this for corporate worship.

Final Score: 6.5/10

Artist Info

Track: King Without A Crown (listen to the song)

Artist: Matisyahu

Album: Shake off the dust… Arise

Genre: Reggae, Hip Hop/Rap

Release Year: 2004

Duration: 3:42

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

Updates:

03/25/2021 – Updated per repetition announcement.

05/11/2020 – Thanks to Neal’s commentary on why Jews and Christians don’t necessarily worship the same God, my intent was to explain why I’m not applying a two-point penalty in section 2.  In hindsight, Matisyahu was clear as to which god he serves; therefore, no explanation is required.