Maverick City Music (Feat. Steffany Gretzinger & Chandler Moore) – Thank You

To put it succinctly, Maverick City Music is the audience on stage.  Recently, they have collaborated with other artists such as Elevation Worship, Chandler Moore, and Brandon Lake to produce music.

They released seven EP’s and ten 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)
• Jubilee (EP, 2021)
• Como En El Cielo (Spanish, 2021)
• Old Church Basement (with Elevation Worship, 2021)
• Jubilee: Juneteenth Edition (2021)
• Tribl I (with Tribl, 2021)
• Venga Tu Reino (2021)
• A Very Maverick Christmas (2021)
• Breathe (EP, 2022)
• Simple Adoración (2022)
• Kingdom Book One (2022)

They won three awards last year, including one Billboard Music Award for Top Gospel Album for their album Maverick City Vol. 3 Part 1 and two GMA Doves: New Artist of the Year and Worship Album of the Year (Old Church Basement).

Also, check out my previous Maverick City Music reviews.

Lyrics can be found at https://genius.com/Maverick-city-music-thank-you-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 is righteous and keeps His promises.  All human praise is inadequate to the amount of worship that God deserves.  Maverick City Music is grateful for this, alongside His saving them from their spiritual death through His death.  He keeps them on the straight and narrow, providing the way to undergo trials and tribulation.  Maverick City Music trusts that God will do what He says.

Verse 3’s first two lines are poetic, yet unclear.  While one could chalk these up as “poetic license”, they are unnecessarily vague.  Also, the portions that reference Christ’s death, salvation, and escaping the grave are hinted at, but not fleshed out more fully.  We are expected to understand what they are talking about without much explanation.

Side Note: To those annoyed by massive repetition, Refrain essentially repeats the first two lines four times, with only the tail end varying.  Parts of it show up again a second time, repeating the first 7 lines again and the seventh essentially 11 more times.

Score: 7/10

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

Almost the entire song aligns with God’s inspired Word.  Verse 3’s opening lines are poetic and unclear, but not shown to be unbiblical.

[Intro]

Lines 1-3: God is good (1 Chronicles 16:34, Psalm 23:6, Psalm 27:13, Psalm 31:19-20, Psalm 34:8, Psalm 86:5, Psalm 100:5, Psalm 106:1, Psalm 119:68, Psalm 135:3, Psalm 136:1, Psalm 145:9, Lamentations 3:25, Nahum 1:7, Matthew 19:17, Mark 10:18, and Luke 18:19) and 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).

Line 4: Repeats line 1.

[Verse 1]

Lines 1-4: The joy Maverick City Music feels by knowing Christ cannot be adequately expressed fully (1 Peter 1:8).

[Verse 2]

Lines 1-3: Essentially the same point as Verse 1.

Line 4: Repeats Verse 1, line 4.

[Pre-Chorus]

Line 1: Essentially the same point as Verse 1.

Line 2: Despite the things described in Verse 1, Verse 2, and the first line of Pre-Chorus, Maverick City Music will praise God.

[Chorus]

Line 1: Maverick City Music thanks God.

Lines 2-9: Repeats/essentially repeats line 1.

Line 10: Maverick City Music will explain later why they worship Him.

Chorus’ last iteration also contains a few instances where Maverick City Music prays for our families and for God to rescue our stories, which I presume means

[Verse 3]

Lines 1-3: I have no idea what Maverick City Music is talking about.  Maybe they are supposed to be metaphors for God’s love for us?  I’m aware that Zephaniah 3:17 tells us that God sings over us, and later Verses provide some explanation that addresses Chorus, line 10; However, these lines seem to me unnecessary filler.

Line 4: Essentially repeats Verse 1, line 4.

[Verse 4]

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

Line 2: Maverick City Music hints at Jesus’ sacrifice for their lawbreaking (Isaiah 53:1-12, Matthew 20:28, Mark 10:45, John 1:29, John 3:16, John 19:30, Acts 4:12, Acts 20:28, Romans 5:6-10, Romans 6:23, 1 Corinthians 1:30, 1 Corinthians 6:20, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Galatians 1:3-4, Galatians 3:13, Ephesians 1:7, Colossians 2:14, 1 Timothy 2:6, Titus 2:14, Hebrews 9:12, Hebrews 9:15-26, 1 Peter 1:17-21, 1 Peter 2:24, 1 John 1:7, 1 John 2:1-2, and Revelation 5:9).

Line 3: Another subtle reference.  This time, to their migration from deadness in their sin to life with 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 4.

[Bridge]

Line 1: Filler.

Lines 2 and 3: That is, the promise that God will be faithful.  See Intro, line 3.

Lines 4 and 5: God helped Maverick City Music wade through trials and tribulations so that they can endure it (1 Corinthians 10:13).

Line 6: Introduces the next section.

[Refrain]

Line 1: Essentially repeats Bridge, line 2.

Lines 2 and 3: Maverick City Music experiences God’s goodness first-hand.

Line 4: The word ‘Hallelujah” is a compound Hebrew phrase, with “hallelu” meaning “a joyous praise in song” and “jah” or “yah”, which refers to the Tetragrammaton YHWH. Put together, Maverick City Music says “we joyfully praise God in song” when they use this word.

Lines 5 and 6: Repeats lines 1 and 2.

Line 7:

Line 8: Repeats line 7.

Lines 9-19: Contains shouts to get their audience to sing along and repeats portions of lines 1-7, alongside one instance of a call-out to Casper the friendly ghost.

Score: 9/10

3. How would an outsider interpret the song?

Those outside Christianity will think that Maverick City Music thanks their deity for their uprightness, loyalty, and salvation.  Which deity?  Maverick City Music uses the word “Lord”, which could be any god or gods that use this title.  However, the word “hallelujah” has a specific Jewish and Christian meaning, narrowing the field to an Abrahamic god.  Yes, if unbelievers look up Maverick City Music, they will see that they meant the Christian God.  However, the lyrics are unclear on this point.  Still, whoever they are, Maverick City Music is grateful, to which unbelievers will pick up quickly.  This is especially so given that Maverick City Music’s language is everyday.

Score: 6/10

4. What does this song glorify?

It glorifies God as the faithful, good God who died for Maverick City Music so that they may attain life, diminished somewhat with its vagueness and lack of exploration.

Score: 7/10

Closing Comments

Maverick City Music’s Thank You is grateful, though not 100% clear.  Maverick City Music explains that their expression of thanks pales in comparison to what God deserves, which I’m grateful for.  God’s goodness, faithfulness, salvation, and aiding our escape from the grave are Biblical concepts; However, they are merely hinted at without much substance to explore, which would bring further glory to God.  Unbelievers who interpret solely based on the lyrics won’t be sure which Abrahamic faith Maverick City Music refers to, making interpretation more difficult.

For these reasons, I find it difficult to recommend this song for corporate worship.

Final Score: 7.5/10

Artist Info

Track: Thank You (listen to the song)

Artist: Maverick City Music (Feat. Steffany Gretzinger & Chandler Moore)

Album: Maverick City Vol. 3 – Part 1

Genre: Contemporary Christian Music (CCM)

Release Year: 2020

Duration: 7:30

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