Photo by Liane Metzler
Ryan Ellis is a professional Canadian Ice Hockey player….wait a minute. Wrong Ryan Ellis. Let’s try this again.
Ryan Ellis is a professional race car driver…hold on. I did it again. Sorry about that! Third time’s the charm, right?
Ryan Ellis is a professional baseball player…Ok, that’s it. Wikipedia, you’re fired! I’ll look elsewhere.
Ryan Ellis is a new Christian artist. He released his self-titled album this year. Whew, finally found the right one!
Lyrics can be found at https://genius.com/Ryan-ellis-christian-heart-of-the-father-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?
Jesus is the most intimate, personal, wonderful, and powerful relationship that Ellis possesses. All others fall laughably short of knowing Christ. He is Ellis’ place of safety. The Holy Spirit leads Ellis to the heart of the Father. Ellis worships God.
The only issue I have is within Chorus, line 3. More specifically, the concept of singing louder every day is perplexing. What does Ellis mean by this?
Side Note: To those annoyed by massive repetition, Bridge essentially repeats the same line 8 times.
Score: 9/10
2. How much of the lyrics line up with Scripture?
Most of it aligns with God’s inspired Word, except for potentially Chorus, line 3. This statement is confusing to me.
[Verse 1]
Lines 1-4: All other relationships pale in comparison to knowing Jesus (Philippians 3:8-10).
[Chorus]
Line 1: There is power in the name of Jesus (Mark 16:17, Luke 10:17, Acts 3:6, Acts 3:12-16, Acts 4:30, Romans 10:13, and Philippians 2:9-11). He is the source of living water (Jeremiah 17:13, Zechariah 14:8-9, John 4:7-26, John 7:37-39, Acts 2:1-13, Revelation 6:9-11, Revelation 7:13-17, Revelation 21:6-7, and Revelation 22:1-5).
Line 2: The Holy Spirit leads Ellis to the Father. The closest Verse I could find is John 16:13, which it says that the Holy Spirit leads us to the truth.
Line 3: Though Psalm 98:4 instructs to praise loudly, the “louder” aspect gives me pause. Louder than what? What does this look like? There is some confusion here.
Line 4: Essentially repeats line 2.
[Verse 2]
Lines 1-4: Describes Christ as Ellis’ refuge (Ruth 2:12, 2 Samuel 22:3-4, Psalm 3:3, Psalm 5:11, Psalm 18:30, Psalm 27:1, Psalm 32:7, Psalm 34:22, Psalm 41:2, Psalm 46:1, Psalm 57:1, Psalm 59:1, Psalm 61:3, Psalm 91:1-16, Psalm 118:8, Psalm 121:7-8, Psalm 138:7, Proverbs 18:10, Proverbs 30:5, Nahum 1:7, 2 Thessalonians 3:3, and 1 John 5:18).
[Bridge]
Line 1: We praise God through song (2 Samuel 22:1-51, Psalm 13:6, Psalm 18:43-49, Psalm 21:8-13, Psalm 27:1-6, Psalm 28:6-9, Psalm 51:14, Psalm 57:1-7, Psalm 59:16, Psalm 63:7, Psalm 69:29-36, Psalm 89:1, and Psalm 108:1-4).
Lines 2-8: Repeats/essentially repeats line 1. Line 6 contains a call to Casper the friendly ghost.
[Outro]
Lines 1 and 2: Essentially repeats Bridge, line 1.
Line 3: Yes.
Score: 9/10
3. How would an outsider interpret the song?
Unbelievers will conclude that Ellis worships and adores Jesus. The word “Jesus” is explicitly stated in Chorus. I’m uncertain if they will be as confused as I was about praise ringing louder.
Score: 9/10
4. What does this song glorify?
It glorifies Jesus that Ellis worships Him as the most important being in Ellis’ life, only slightly veiled by one statement that is unclear.
Score: 9/10
Closing Comments
Ryan Ellis’ Heart Of The Father is good overall. It proclaims Christ as Ellis’ top priority, where all other intimate relationships pale in comparison to knowing Him. He is power, living water, and defense. Ellis worships him. These glorify God. Unbelievers should easily interpret similarly. The only issue is confusion regarding daily louder praise. I’m not sure what this means.
Assuming that others can answer this, this song is appropriate for corporate worship.
Final Score: 9/10
Artist Info
Track: Heart Of The Father (listen to the song)
Artist: Ryan Ellis
Album: Ryan Ellis
Genre: Pop
Release Year: 2022
Duration: 4:04
Agree? Disagree? Don’t be shy or have a cow! Calmly and politely state your case in a comment, below.
Comments
Chad T Hoffman
Great review. Thank you. Personally, I would interpret “let your praise ring louder” to be a metaphor for either more people praising Him as time moves on, or that Ellis’s (our) worship becomes deeper and more intense.
Other than not finding the phrase in the Bible, I like line 3. As we get get closer to the end times, I hope to hear praise for Him getting louder than it was when I first started praising Him.