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Contemporary Christian artist Phil Wickham was 18 years old when he began his career in 2002. Since then, he released 11 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)
- I Believe (2023)
He received four Dove awards for his work, including Songwriter of the Year – Artist (2022), Worship Recorded Song of the Year (2019, 2022), and Worship Album of the Year (2022).
Also, check out my other Phil Wickham reviews.
Lyrics can be found at https://genius.com/Phil-wickham-manger-throne-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?
Though Jesus could have came to the earth with guns blazing, as it were, the Father intended Him to more humble beginnings, as prophecied by the ancients. The Father’s plan is for His only begotten Son to become man, live a sinless life, teach the people, die for our sins, and rise again. Through this, God is glorified, in part, because Wickham bends his knees to serve Him and invites the rest of us to follow suit.
My chief complaint is that this song says Jesus reigns as a baby. This is unsupported Biblically.
Score: 8/10
2. How much of the lyrics line up with Scripture?
Almost all lyrics are in agreement with the holy Scriptures, except for the part of Chorus that says Jesus reigns from His manger throne.
[Verse 1]
Lines 1-8: Jesus’ comments in Matthew 26:53-54 inform us that, yes, He could have came to earth and conquered it by force. However, as Jesus stated in this same passage, “How then would the Scriptures be fulfilled?” Indeed, this was not the Father’s plan, which was for Christ to become one of us (Philippians 2:7). Scripture must be fulfilled (Matthew 26:56), which includes the Messiah’s birthplace in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2), among other prophecies.
[Chorus]
Line 1: Jesus is glorified (John 1:14, John 17:22, 2 Corinthians 3:18, 2 Corinthians 4:6, Philippians 4:19, Hebrews 1:1-3, and Revelation 21:10-14).
Line 2: This is incorrect.
Luke 1:33 tells us that He “will reign” over the house of Jacob forever and ever. This is written in the future tense. He has not yet ascended the throne, but He will someday.
Matthew 2:2 states that the Magi were looking for Him who “has been” born King of the Jews. The phrase “has been” is written in the present perfect continuous tense. This means that an action has started in the past, but it continues in the present.
If we are to reconcile these two statements, then it cannot be the case that Jesus “reigns from His manger throne”. He is a King yes, but not a King on a throne. That was given up during His descention and was not reclaimed until after His ascension (Philippians 2:5-11).
Lines 3 and 4: Wickham surrenders to Jesus (Psalm 43:5, 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).
[Verse 2]
Lines 1-4: Makes the same point as Verse 1, lines 1-6.
Line 5: Bethlehem is Jesus’ birthplace (Luke 2:1-7).
Line 6: Jesus is Creator (John 1:1-3 and Colossians 1:15-16).
Line 7: He paid for our 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) so that we could be redeemed from it (John 3:16, Romans 5:6-8, 1 Corinthians 6:20, Hebrews 5:9, Hebrews 9:28, 1 Peter 1:18-19, 1 John 1:9, and 1 John 2:2).
Line 8: His resurrection proves that death could be conquered (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), which makes eternal life with Him possible (Mark 10:29-30, John 3:15-16, John 3:36, John 4:14, John 5:24, John 5:39-40, John 6:27, John 6:40, John 10:28, John 17:3, John 20:31, Romans 5:21, Romans 6:22-23, Romans 8:18, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, Galatians 6:8, 1 Timothy 1:16, 1 Timothy 6:12, 2 Timothy 2:11, Hebrews 5:9, 1 Peter 5:10, 1 John 2:23-27, 1 John 5:10-13, 1 John 5:20, Jude 1:20-21, Revelation 3:5, Revelation 7:16-17, and Revelation 21:3-4).
[Bridge]
Line 1: Christ came from heaven and become one of us on earth (John 3:13 and Philippians 2:5-7).
Line 2: Summarizes His entire ministry from birth to death.
Lines 3 and 4: See commentary on Chorus, line 2, concerning Jesus’ Kingship. Also, line 3 borrows from the end of Verse 1 in Isaac Watts’ Joy To The World.
Lines 5 and 6: He rose from the dead (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).
Lines 7 and 8: Repeats lines 3 and 4.
Lines 9-16: Repeats lines 1-8
Line 17: Wickham draws us to hail Christ as King.
Line 18: Repeats line 17.
Score: 8/10
3. How would an outsider interpret the song?
Wickham uses everyday language to communicate clearly that this is a Christmas song. It speaks of Jesus as God who became man, that He could easily conquer earth and force us to serve Him, but chose the Father’s plan to meekness and die for His people as a man, rising again to put death in its place. Wickham explicitly uses the words “Jesus”, “Bethlehem”, “manger”, and “cross”, making such a conclusion easier to reach. However, they probably won’t know that Jesus reigning from His manger throne is incorrect.
Score: 7/10
4. What does this song glorify?
It glorifies Jesus as the meek Messiah who died for us and resurrected, compelling Wickham and others to worship Him. It does not glorify Him that this song says that Jesus reigns when He does not.
Score: 8/10
Closing Comments
Phil Wickham’s Manger Throne is mostly helpful. It reminds us that Jesus chose humility over force to conquer our hearts, as well as conquering death. This brings Him glory. Unbelievers should easily conclude similarly. However, it does not glorify Jesus that this song is wrong about Him ruling as a newborn.
It’s difficult to recommend this song for corporate worship.
Final Score: 8/10
Artist Info
Track: Manger Throne (listen to the song)
Artist: Phil Wickham
Album: N/A
Genre: Contemporary Christian Music (CCM)
Release Year: 2023
Duration: 4:21
Agree? Disagree? Don’t be shy or have a cow! Calmly and politely state your case in a comment, below.
Updates:
12/19/2023 – Thanks to Neal Cruco’s comments, I realized that this song inaccurately reported that Jesus reigned as a baby. Therefore, I lowered this song’s overall score from 10/10 to 8/10 and removed my recommendation for corporate worship.
Comments
Neal Cruco
Hi Vince,
I heard this song for the first time at church this morning, so your timing with this review is impeccable. I liked it in general, but I cannot support its central premise of a “manger throne”. These two things never existed simultaneously, now or in the past.
“Though he was God,
he did not think of equality with God
as something to cling to.
Instead, he gave up his divine privileges;
he took the humble position of a slave
and was born as a human being.
When he appeared in human form,
he humbled himself in obedience to God
and died a criminal’s death on a cross.
Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor
and gave him the name above all other names,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.”
– Philippians 2:6-11 (NLT)
The miracle of the Incarnation is that God the Son took on flesh and was born as an (outwardly) ordinary baby to an ordinary woman. He was 100% God and 100% man. But even though He never gave up His divinity, He did give up His “divine privileges” – His majesty, His dominion, His kingship – and lived among us, experiencing every part of human life except for sin. That is to say, He had no throne while He was on earth. He did not even have a home (Matthew 8:20). (Also, see your critique of the chorus of “Prince of Heaven”, by Hillsong.)
Then, after His death and resurrection, He ascended to His Father, and what He had willingly given up for us was returned to Him. He is still 100% God and 100% man, eternally interceding for us, but He no longer holds the humble position that He did on earth. He is now seated at the Father’s right hand (Acts 2:33; Psalm 110:1), the place of highest honor in heaven. He does not rule now from a “manger throne” and never did. He rules from a position of absolute honor and authority (Matthew 28:18), as is His right. In fact, when He comes again, it will be just like Wickham describes in Verse 1 – He will come in His royal majesty, with all the host of heaven behind him (Revelation 19:11-16), and strike either awe or terror into the hearts of everyone on earth.
So, as much as I like the song overall, I find the Chorus’ description of a “King who reigns from a manger throne” to be unsupportable by Scripture. If you have found a way to Biblically combine “the Kingship of Jesus with His frail state in a manger”, I am certainly open to it.
Vince Wright
Neal,
Thank you for your comments!
Luke 1:33 tells us that He “will reign” over the house of Jacob forever and ever. This is written in the future tense. He has not yet ascended the throne, but He will someday.
Matthew 2:2 states that the Magi were looking for Him who “has been” born King of the Jews. The phrase “has been” is written in the present perfect continuous tense. This means that an action has started in the past, but it continues in the present.
If we combine these two statements, then I understand now why you object to Chorus. It says “King who reigns from a manger throne”. Yes, He is a King and yes, I could potentially defend the “manger throne” aspect by stating it represents what He will become and not what He is. But, this one line “King who reigns from a manger throne” says that He is reigning as a baby. I missed that, so thank you for helping me find it!
I updated my review.
-Vince Wright
Neal Cruco
Vince,
Thanks for your reply! It seems I was a bit wrong too, since Matthew 2:2 does record the Magi describing Jesus as the King of the Jews. So He gave up His throne, but not His kingship as I had thought. In fact, He wasn’t the first king without a throne; David also spent long periods of time in that situation. And since David is a prominent forerunner or “shadow” of Christ, that parallel becomes very meaningful to me.
One other thing, if I can be nitpicky: your revised critique of Line 2 of the Chorus uses the word “descention”. This is not a word; I believe you intended to write “descension”.
Vince Wright
Neal,
We both learned something new!
Thanks for the correction! Grammarly didn’t pick it up. I updated it.
-Vince Wright
Jason Henry
Thank you guys for this valuable discussion! We sang this song this past week (in June, I know), and as I was writing my own blog post about it, this post and these comments were really helpful in thinking through what the song means. (I also didn’t realize until just now that we chose the same Unsplash image for this song. It was a pretty clear winner in the “manger” category! 😂)
That said, I disagree with your conclusion regarding the image of the manger throne being unbiblical. I think this is only a problem if one is overly literal in one’s interpretation of the song. The manger throne is a visual representation of the character of Christ, his divine and human nature, and his reign; it’s not an actual piece of furniture. Further, the song is being sung to King Jesus as he is today: resurrected, reigning, and present with his people by his Spirit. It’s not addressed to 8 lb. 6 oz. tiny baby Jesus. So the issue of whether the infant Christ was actually reigning from his manger is beside the point.
The way this song teaches the unity of Christ’s divinity and humanity, the mystery of his glory in humility, and the arc of birth-death-resurrection-reign is too valuable to ban it from congregational worship over a misunderstanding. Let the metaphor be a metaphor!
(I would also be cautious about letting the phrase “divine privileges” carry too much weight in interpreting Philippians 2:7. Only the NLT adds this level of specificity; most translations simply say “emptied himself.”)
Neal Cruco
Hi Jason,
Thank you for your challenge! Regarding the phrase “manger throne”, I of course believe it’s a figure of speech. But I still believe it’s incorrect. I see the manger as a symbol of humility and the depths that Jesus lowered Himself to- the King of the universe being born in an animal shelter and laid in a feeding trough. The throne is a symbol of the power, authority, and sovereignty that is His right through His divine nature. Together they form a pleasing contrast- but not a present contrast. And since (as you said) the song is being sung to Jesus today, not 2,000 years ago, I find it inaccurate to describe him as ruling from a “manger throne”, even symbolically. He is no longer humbled, but exalted.
As for the exact translation of Philippians 2:7, you are correct- the literal Greek translation is “…he emptied himself…”. However, as that is not a particularly clear phrase, there is much debate over its meaning. We know Jesus gave up something, and it wasn’t His entire divine nature. So it must be something less, and “he gave up his divine privileges” is the interpretation of the NLT translators. But they aren’t the only Biblical scholars to come to that interpretation- the translators of the NASB, a very literal translation, added the footnote “i.e. laid aside His privileges” to this verse. So even though we may never know exactly what “he emptied himself” means in this life, I think the NLT’s interpretation is reasonable.
Daniel Villa
Hi everyone, I heard this song two weeks ago. I like it and commended the song to our group. The “manger throne” does not offend me or theologically. The same emphasis is expressed in Isaiah’s ruler-child. The ruler is both all powerful and meek. Did the baby Jesus rule from the manger? Yes, God ruled every step of the way in the Christ’s event.