Phil Wickham – 1,000 Names

Contemporary Christian artist Phil Wickham was 18 years old when he began his career in 2002.  Since then, he released ten albums, including:

• Give You My World (2003)
• Phil Wickham (2006)
• Cannons (2007)
• Heaven & Earth (2009)
• Response (2011)
• The Ascension (2013)
• Children of God (2016)
• Living Hope (2018)
• Christmas (2019)
• Hymn of Heaven (2021)
• Hymn of Heaven (Acoustic Sessions) (2022)

He received a Dove award in 2019 for Worship Recorded Song of the Year for his song Living Hope.

Also, check out my other Phil Wickham reviews.

Lyrics can be found at https://genius.com/Phil-wickham-1000-names-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?

Wickham worships God by proclaiming back to Him His names/titles and acts. Some title given by Wickham are acts.  These include:

Names/Titles

• Creator
• Doctor
• Loyal
• Rock of Ages
• Great I AM
• Eternal King and lowly servant
• Alpha and Omega
• Son of Man
• Lion of Judah
• Lamb of God
• Second Adam
• Messiah (or the Christ)

Acts

• Loving
• Shows undeserved favor and restraint
• Breaks bondage
• Rose from the dead
• Guides
• Glorified by the Father as flesh
• Parted the seas
• Made a way for forgiveness to be possible
• Merciful
• Will return to earth

Score: 10/10

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

The entire song overflows with Scriptural goodness.

[Verse 1]

Lines 1 and 2: God is Creator (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).

Lines 3 and 4: Anyone who comes to Christ with their brokenness and burdens will be given rest (Matthew 11:28-30).  He is the Great Physician (Matthew 9:12, Mark 2:17, and Luke 5:31).

Lines 5 and 6: He is faithful to keep His promises (2 Timothy 2:13), though we must understand that this is based on God’s timing, not ours (2 Peter 3:9).

Lines 7 and 8: That is, to respond to the things listed in lines 1-6.  Wickham explains his response in Chorus.

[Chorus]

Lines 1 and 2: Wickham wasn’t kidding!  According to https://christiananswers.net/dictionary/namesofgod.html, there are 950 names and titles of God.  If we plumb the depths of Scripture, I’m certain we will find more!  A few examples are given throughout this song, especially in Bridge.

Lines 3-6: This likely isn’t an exaggeration either.  According to John 21:25, the whole world cannot contain all the books that record all the things Christ did.  If we add the acts of the Father and Holy Spirit to the mix, a million is probably a great understatement!  This song contains a few examples that gives Wickham pause.

Line 7: Repeats line 1.

Line 8: Bridge contains several names and titles of God that he will sing back to Him.

Line 9: Essentially repeats line 8.

[Verse 2]

Lines 1 and 2: According to Jesus, greater love is sacrificing for friends (John 15:13).  Yet, the Son of God took it a step further, by laying His life down for His enemies as well; us who are rebellious and undeserving of His forgiveness (Romans 5:6-8).

Lines 3 and 4: The Parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15:11-32 paints a vivid picture of God’s patience.  The father waits expectantly for his wayward, spendthrift son to come home so that he can embrace his son.  In the same way, God patiently waits for us to repent.  When we do, the angels rejoice (Luke 15:7 and Luke 15:10).  As do the servants of the Father (Luke 15:23-24).

Lines 5-8: The title “bondage-breaker” is one of Wickham’s making.  It refers to God who transforms lives from their deadness in sin to alive in Christ (Romans 6:1-11, Romans 7:4-6, Galatians 2:19-20, 2 Timothy 2:11, and 1 Peter 2:24).

[Bridge]

Line 1: The term “Rock of Ages” comes from Augustus Toplady’s 1776 hymn of the same name. Though not found explicitly in the bible, it derives from Isaiah 26:4, which is about God as an everlasting foundation. 1 Corinthians 10:4 calls this rock “Christ”. He is the firm foundation to which Phil Wickham stands (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).

Line 2: The name “I AM” comes from Exodus 3:14. Jesus claims to be the same “I AM” in John 8:24 and John 8:58. Though none of these passages are explicit on the qualifier “great”, He is greater (Deuteronomy 10:17, Psalm 8:3-4, Psalm 147:5, Job 26:14, Isaiah 40:28, and Isaiah 55:8-9).

Line 3: He is the eternal Ruler (Exodus 15:18, Psalm 10:16, Psalm 29:10, Psalm 92:8, Psalm 145:13, Psalm 146:10, Isaiah 9:6, Isaiah 11:10, Lamentations 5:19, Daniel 4:3, Daniel 4:34, Daniel 6:26, Micah 4:7, Micah 5:2, Matthew 2:1-6, John 12:15, John 18:37, 1 Timothy 1:17, 1 Timothy 6:13-16, 1 Peter 5:1, Revelation 11:15, Revelation 17:14, and Revelation 19:11-16).

Line 4: Curiously, the phrase “alpha and omega”, which signify the beginning and the end of the Greek alphabet, comes from the beginning and the end of the book of Revelation.  Namely, Revelation 1:8 and Revelation 22:13.  The latter reference explains what this means: He is the beginning and the end.  In other words, God is eternal (Deuteronomy 33:27, 1 Chronicles 16:34, Job 36:26, Psalm 48:14, Psalm 90:2-4, Psalm 102:12, Psalm 102:26-27, Proverbs 8:23, Isaiah 40:28, Isaiah 41:4, Habakkuk 1:12, John 17:5, Romans 1:20, 1 Corinthians 2:7, Ephesians 1:4, Hebrews 1:11-12, 1 Peter 1:20, 2 Peter 3:8, Revelation 1:8, Revelation 11:17, and Revelation 22:13).

Line 5: He is both Lord over all (or Lord of lords; 1 Timothy 6:15 and Revelation 19:16) and came to serve (Matthew 20:28, Mark 10:45, and John 13:1-17).

Line 6: This is a specific title of Jesus that, according to Got Questions, references His humanity, humility, deity, and fulfillment of prophecy.

Line 7: Christ is of the tribe of Judah (Matthew 1:3-16 and Luke 3:23-33). Judah was known as a lion (Genesis 49:9). Jesus is known as the Lion of Judah (Revelation 5:5), though not the same lion that is Satan in 1 Peter 5:8.

Line 8: References both His resurrection (Matthew 28:1-20, Mark 16:1-20, Luke 24:1-12, John 20:1-29, Acts 1:3, Acts 3:15, Acts 4:33, and 1 Corinthians 15:3-8) and moniker as the Lamb of God (Isaiah 53:7, John 1:29, John 1:36, Acts 8:32, 1 Peter 1:19, Revelation 5:6-8, Revelation 5:12-13, Revelation 6:1, Revelation 7:9-17, Revelation 12:11, Revelation 13:8, Revelation 14:1-10, Revelation 15:3, Revelation 17:14, Revelation 19:7-9, and Revelation 21:9).

Line 9: Derives from 1 Corinthians 15:45-49.

Line 10: God guides us (Psalm 32:8, Psalm 37:23-24, Psalm 73:23-24, Psalm 119:105, Isaiah 30:21, Isaiah 48:17, Isaiah 58:11, Proverbs 3:5-6, Proverbs 16:9, Proverbs 20:24, Psalm 25:4-9, Psalm 25:9-10, Luke 1:78-79, John 14:26, John 16:13, and Romans 8:14).

Lines 11 and 12: John 1:14 summarizes these lines, speaking of the Son who became man as the Father’s glory.

Line 13: References Exodus 14:21.  According to https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Red_Sea, the Red Sea that Moses parted is part of the Indian Ocean.  Thus, the ocean was parted.

Line 14: This is probably a reference to Matthew 19:26, which itself foreshadows Christ’s sacrifice, to which forgiveness is impossible without (Hebrews 9:22).

Lines 15 and 16: Another title made up by Wickham.  This one references Jesus’ defeating death (Isaiah 25:8, Hosea 13:14, Luke 20:35-36, 1 Corinthians 15:24-26, 1 Corinthians 15:55-57, 2 Timothy 1:10, and Hebrews 2:14).

Line 17: As supported in Exodus 33:19, Psalm 86:5, Psalm 145:9, Lamentations 3:22-23, Luke 6:36, Romans 9:15-16, Ephesians 2:4-5, Titus 3:5, Hebrews 4:16, and 1 Peter 1:3.

Line 18: As demonstrated on the cross (John 3:16, Romans 5:6-8, and 1 John 4:9-10).

Line 19: As concluded by Peter in Matthew 16:13-20 and Mark 8:27-30, who received it from the Father.  The words “Christ” and Messiah” are synonyms.

Line 20: References Jesus’ second coming (Matthew 24:43, Acts 1:9-11, 1 Corinthians 11:26, 1 Thessalonians 5:2-4, 2 Peter 3:10, Revelation 16:15, and Revelation 19:11-16).

[Outro]

Line 1: 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, we are singing “we joyfully praise God in song” when we use this word.

Line 2: Essentially repeats Chorus, line 8.

Lines 3-6: Repeats Bridge, lines 17-20.

Lines 7 and 8: Repeats line 1.

Line 9: Yes.

Line 10: A call to Casper the friendly ghost.

Score: 10/10

3. How would an outsider interpret the song?

They will conclude that Wickham knows a lot of names of God and stuff that He does.  Some of these names are specific to the Christian God, including Son of God, Lamb, Great I Am, and Messiah.  Others will be new or difficult to comprehend without deeper research, including Rock of Ages, Second Adam, Yahweh’s glory, and Ocean-parter (for those who don’t know the Red Sea is oceanic).  Yet, the non-understood titles do little to distract from the song’s main focus and message.

Jewish scholars will quickly point out that we’re probably mispronouncing YHWH/YHVH.  Thus, some Jewish people will take offense to the name “Yahweh”.  However, this is more an issue with use than interpretation.  It’s difficult to say Christians are wrong if the offended don’t know how to pronounce it!

Score: 8/10

4. What does this song glorify?

Wickham glorifies God by listing His attributes and acts as examples of the thousand-plus titles/names of God and million-plus acts performed.

Score: 10/10

Closing Comments

Phil Wickham’s 1,000 Names is unique.  It tells us that Wickham sings back to God His many attributes and acts, some of which are listed in this song.  There’s a mix of the usual names/titles such as Son of God, Lamb, and Great I AM intermixed with the lesser known Rock of Ages, Alpha and Omega, and Second Adam.  It also contains a list of usual acts such as His loving sacrifice that makes forgiveness possible, His resurrection from the dead, and triumphant return to earth, bringing Him glory.  Unbelievers will get the general gist of this song, even if they aren’t 100% familiar with all of the listed titles and/or acts of God.

I highly recommend it for corporate worship.  Even if unbelievers aren’t aware of all the titles, it takes little from their interpretation of the song.  Some Jewish people might take offense at “Yahweh” though.

Final Score: 9.5/10

Artist Info

Track: 1,000 Names (listen to the song)

Artist: Phil Wickham

Album: Hymn Of Heaven

Genre: Contemporary Christian Music (CCM)

Release Year: 2021

Duration: 5:45

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