Maverick City Music (Feat. KJ Scriven & Chandler Moore) – Man of Your Word

Collective group Maverick City Music is a community of singers that formed in 2018.  They released five EP’s and two albums, including:

• Maverick City Vol. 1 EP (2019)
• Maverick City Vol. 2 EP (2019)
• Maverick City Vol. 3, Part 1 (2020)
• Maverick City Vol. 3, Part 2 (2020)
• You Hold It All Together (EP, 2020)
• Maverick City Christmas (EP, 2020)
• Move Your Heart (EP, 2021)

They were nominated last year for two GMA Dove awards, including Gospel Worship Recorded Song of the Year (Promises) and Gospel Worship Album of the Year (Maverick City Vol. 3, Part 1).

Also, check out my reviews of Promises, Refiner and You Keep on Getting Better.

Lyrics can be found at https://genius.com/Maverick-city-music-man-of-your-word-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?

God’s Word can be trusted.  That is, if He says that He will do something, we can trust that He will accomplish it.  This includes:

• Breaking the yoke of slavery to sin
• Keeping His promises, including:
  • He finishes the good work He starts
  • He is with us
  • He is patient with us
• Declaring us as His children

Side Note: To those who are sensitive to massive repetition, in Bridge, the same line repeats 13 times in a row, followed by another 14 of another.

Score: 10/10

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

Almost all of it agrees with the Bible where I found clarity.  There are a few minor unclear points sprinkled throughout this song.  I only deducted 1 point for my guesswork.

[Intro]

Line 1: Delicious!

Line 2: Yes.

Line 3: Repeats line 1.

Line 4: References Numbers 23:19, that God keeps His word.

Line 5: Repeats line 2.

Line 6: I assume “It” means “the Bible”?  Based on how I heard it sing, this sounds like a new idea that doesn’t connect with Line 4, so it’s probably not referencing God as an “it”.

[Verse 1]

Lines 1 and 2: Quotes from Mark 9:23.  While it’s tempting that this verse (and line) supports the Word of Faith movement, we must understand that Jesus also said that whatever we ask in His name, only that which glorifies the Father will He do (John 14:13).

Lines 3-5: Jesus has the power to transform us from our former lives enslaved to sin into surrender and faith in Him (Romans 6:1-11, Romans 7:4-6, Galatians 2:19-20, 2 Timothy 2:11, and 1 Peter 2:24).

Side Note: According to all the rabbis and Jews that I’ve interacted with over the years, the word “Yahweh” is a mispronunciation of the Tetragrammaton YHWH or YHVH.  While they find this pronunciation offensive, I won’t deduct points.

Line 6: That is, God is faithful (Numbers 23:19, Deuteronomy 7:9, Psalm 33:4, Psalm 91:4, Psalms 119:90, Lamentations 3:22-23, 1 Corinthians 1:9, 1 Corinthians 10:13, 2 Thessalonians 3:3, 2 Timothy 2:13, Hebrews 10:23, 2 Peter 3:9, and 1 John 1:9).  Maverick City Music lists examples later in the song.

[Pre-Chorus]

Lines 1 and 2: See Intro, line 4.

[Chorus]

Lines 1 and 2: Essentially repeats Pre-Chorus.

Line 3: Essentially repeats Intro, line 4.

Lines 4 and 5: Essentially repeats the first line of Pre-Chorus, combined with a few calls to Casper the friendly ghost.

Line 6: Repeats Pre-Chorus.

Lines 7 and 8: Pauses mid-sentence and finishes repeat of Intro, line 4.  Maverick City Music commands us to sing with them.

NOTE: Later in the song, Chorus contains a line that says “Your Word is written in stone, yes, it is”.  I’ll address this in Interlude.

[Verse 2]

Lines 1-6: Essentially repeats Verse 1.

[Refrain]

Lines 1 and 2: This is based on Philippians 1:6, that God finishes the good work that He starts in us.

Lines 3-5: One of God’s promises is that He will be with us every step we take (Deuteronomy 31:6-8, Joshua 1:5-9, Psalm 23:4, Psalm 46:1, Psalm 139:7-10, Isaiah 41:10, Jeremiah 23:23-24, Zephaniah 3:17, Matthew 6:25-34, Matthew 28:20, John 14:16-17, Hebrews 13:5, Romans 8:38-39, and Revelation 3:20).  God has never failed to do that and will not start with me.

Line 6: Patience is another promise God intends to keep (Exodus 33:19, Exodus 34:6, Numbers 14:18, Nehemiah 9:16-17, Nehemiah 9:30-31, Psalm 86:15, Psalm 103:8, Psalm 116:5, Psalm 145:8-9, Joel 2:13, Jonah 4:2, Romans 9:15, James 5:11).

Lines 7 and 8: Repeats lines 3 and 4.

Lines 9-12: This is another Casper reference, followed by what I can only describe as “crowd appeal”.  Insofar as I am unaware, it’s not unbiblical to do this in Christian music.

[Bridge]

Lines 1-13: Essentially repeats Pre-Chorus, line 1, with examples including physical healing and freedom from a reprobate mind.  The idea is that if God declares it (as opposed to man a la Word of Faith), then it will come to pass because we can trust God on His Word.

Line 14: Probably borrowed from Hillsong’s Who You Say I Am.  Who does God say we are?  Maverick City Music tells us later.

Lines 14-27: Repeats line 14 with examples of what God says we are:

• (Adopted) chosen children of God (John 1:12-13, John 14:18, Romans 8:14-17, Romans 8:23, Romans 9:1-8, Galatians 3:26, Galatians 4:5-7, Ephesians 1:3-14, Ephesians 2:11-22, Hebrews 9:15, and 1 John 3:1-3).
• Not forsaken (Deuteronomy 31:6, Joshua 1:8-9, 1 Chronicles 28:20, Psalm 118:6, Lamentations 3:22-23, and Hebrews 13:5-6).
• Loved by God (John 3:16, Romand 5:6-8, and 1 John 4:9-10).
• Comes from legends?  I’m not sure what Maverick City Music means by this, but I’m guessing Adam and Eve.

[Interlude]

Lines 1-7: Technically, this is true, as God wrote with His finger the 10 commandments on two stone tablets (Exodus 34:1).  However, I think Maverick City Music is repeating the same idea started in Intro, line 4: God keeps His Word.  The rest of these lyrics adds evidence to this interpretation.

As for line 5, I must address Genesis 6:6, Genesis 6:7, Exodus 32:12-14, Deuteronomy 32:36, Judges 2:18, 1 Samuel 15:11, 1 Samuel 15:35, 2 Samuel 24:16, 1 Chronicles 21:15, Psalm 90:13, Psalm 106:45, Psalm 135:14, Jeremiah 18:8, Jeremiah 26:3, Jeremiah 26:13, Jeremiah 26:19, Jeremiah 42:10, Joel 2:13-14, Amos 7:3, Amos 7:6, Jonah 3:9-10, and Jonah 4:2.  All these verses, depending on translation, state that God “repented”.  In most of these, the word “repent” comes from the transliterated Hebrew word nacham, which means “to be sorry” or “console oneself”.  God is not repenting in the New Testament sense, that is, a turning away from sin and towards Godliness.  “Sorrow” is a better word to describe how God felt.

Also, Numbers 23:19 and 1 Samuel 15:29 compare how man is different from God.

Thanks to Reasons for Hope for providing an answer to this!

[Outro]

Lines 1-4: A clever connection between the phrase “I am who You say I am” introduced in Bridge, line 14 to God’s title “I AM” found in Exodus 3:14.  Maverick makes the point again that God declares what they are.

Lines 5-23: Repeats previous lines in various ways.

Score: 9/10

3. How would an outsider interpret the song?

God keeps His promises, and His adherents believe Him.  Whether it be interpreted as Christianity, Isalm, or Hinduism is up for an unbeliever’s debate.  Maverick City Music makes it clear which deity they refer to with the word “Yahweh”, though it might offend the Jews.  The aforementioned guesswork in section 2 also might elude unbelievers.

Score: 8/10

4. What does this song glorify?

It glorifies God in that we trust His promises and His Word, even if a few of Maverick’s lyrics are not 100% clear.

Score: 9/10

Closing Comments

Maverick City Music’s Man of Your Word is decent.  Its main thrust is about how we can trust God at His Word.  He completes us, is patient with us, and present in our lives, bringing glory to God.  There are a few ambiguous lines that require guesswork to comprehend.  Unbelievers will know it’s Christian, even if they can’t discern from the lyrics some of its finer details.

It’s hard for me to recommend this song; However, I probably won’t say anything if worship leaders decide to use it.

Final Score: 9/10

Artist Info

Track: Man of Your Word (listen to the song)

Artist: Maverick City Music (Feat. KJ Scriven & Chandler Moore)

Album: Maverick City Vol. 3 – Part 1

Genre: Gospel

Release Year: 2020

Duration: 9:03

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

Updates:

10/24/2021 – I missed an obvious reference to “Yahweh” in my review.  I updated my commentary in section 3 and conclusion and raised its scoring a bit.  However, the overall score was unaffected.  Thank you Linita Clinton for finding this!

07/19/2021 – To keep reviews consistent, I increased the score for section 3, increasing this song’s overall rating from 8.5/10 to 9/10.

03/25/2021 – Updated per repetition announcement.  I updated my commentary to a side note and increased section 1’s score.  This increased the overall rating, from 8/10 to 8.5/10.