Timothy Brindle – The Preciousness of Time

Senior Admissions Counselor Timothy Brindle serves at Westminster Theological Seminary in Glenside, Pennsylvania. He also writes hip-hop music, becoming active in 2003 when he signed Lamp Mode’s first recording contract. He released five albums:

• The Great Awakening (2003)
• Killing Sin (2005)
• The Restoration (2012)
• The Collective (2013)
• The Unfolding (2018)

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1. What message does the song communicate?

Brindle focuses on time as his theme to present many, many points:

• Time is God’s invention
• God declares time’s beginning and end, both for individual lives and the world
• God entered into time and space through Jesus
• God is eternal, unbound from time’s limitations
• God is sinless
• God created the universe, which glorifies Him
• Time is subservient to God, not the other way around
• Time is a gift God gives us to repent and trust in Him
• Time is more important than things
• Time is something we cannot save; we can only spend it
• Many vain attempts to “save’ time like a bank account
• Our bodies will return to the dust that we were created from
• We will spend our eternity with God or separated from God
• The time we have is longer than it should be; we don’t deserve to remain alive because of transgressions
• Brindle thinks often about his wasted time
• Our time spent on worldly pursuits vs. God informs our allegiance and priorities
• Many spend too much time fantasying about the “time of our lives”
• Idling will ruin us
• God will search our minds, finding our works disgusting
• We can’t undo our mistakes
• We’ve been offered an opportunity to repent today and enter eternal life with God, for tomorrow may not come
• Jesus came to bear our sins, making forgiveness possible
• The Kingdom of God is at hand
• Compared to eternity, what we consider a “long life” is short
• Christ-followers often spend too much time in the world and not enough with God, furthering His Kingdom, or doing good to others
• We should live our lives in a way such that God will say “well done”

There is one part where I initially thought that Brindle judges the salvation (or lack thereof) of Michael Jackson, which he ought not do.  Such judging belongs to God because while Brindle sees his fruit, God examines his heart.  However, after examining Jackson’s song Remember the Time, Brindle was referencing this song to make the point that those in the lake of fire will regret their decision.

Score: 10/10

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

All of it is Biblical.

Lyrics posted with permission.*

[Verse 1]

I’ve got a whole lot to say about time
So now I’m a shout mine because it’s about time

Brindle is not mistaken!  This is one of the longest songs that I’ve reviewed.

God created time so He’s able to end it

According to Hebrews 1:2 and Hebrews 11:3, the Word of God prepared the “worlds” or “universe”, translated from the Koine Greek word “aión”, which means “ages” or “a cycle of time”.  These support Brindle’s statement that God created time.

Plus He entered time and came and descended
But He’s not ever bound by time

This references the eternal Word of God or Jesus (John 8:58, Colossians 1:13-17, and Hebrews 13:8), who became flesh, entering into time and space (John 1:1, John 1:14, and Philippians 2:5-7).

He’s eternally perfect so He’s never out His prime

Jesus is without sin (Isaiah 53:9, Matthew 27:24, John 19:4, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Hebrews 4:15, 1 Peter 1:18-19, 1 Peter 2:21-23, and 1 John 3:5) and doesn’t change (Numbers 23:19, Malachi 3:6, Hebrews 13:8, and James 1:17).

God always existed even with no time

Despite time’s non-existence, God is nonetheless 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).

Then He spoke things into existence in no time

“In no time” is an idiom for “very soon” or “quickly”.  According to Genesis 1:3-30, that which God spoke into existence became so; However, there is much debate whether the “it was so” instances are, from God’s perspective, shorter or longer days.  As I did with Hillsong’s evolution comments in So Will I, I won’t deduct points for Brindle’s young earth creationist view.

In His divine mind He decreed a time line

God declared the end of time from the beginning (Isaiah 46:9-10).

To display His glory to creatures and said, Time’s mine

The heavens, including the creatures therein, declare the glory of God (Psalm 19:1-4).

So time or fate is not the sovereign
In fact time is ruled by God the Father

Time does not rule over God.  Rather, it’s the other way around (see line 3).

Some say time will tell but actually it can’t
Because He’s already said what will happen in advance

Time cannot predict the future, but God can (2 Peter 1:20-21).

He’s the Lord of time-this rhymes is worshiping
He ain’t serving time- time is serving Him

Clever plays on words involving DC Comic’s Epoch (Lord of time) and the idiom “serving time”, meaning time in prison, to express God’s sovereignty over time (see lines 11 and 12).  God is not time’s prisoner.

See time is a space given by God in His kindness and grace
As He’s shining His face

Though we deserve death for breaking God’s Laws (Romans 6:23), God shows His grace by granting us time to repent and trust in Him (2 Peter 3:9) until the appointed time of judgment (Hebrews 9:27) when it will be too late to follow Jesus (Luke 16:19-31 and Revelation 20:15).

Yet it’s kind of funny-some say time is money
But time’s more precious than money, wine, or honey
Because we’re spending time- there’s no refunds
We’ll never see it again- there’s no reruns
If you lost your hummer it’s possible to cop another
But time is something we cannot recover
Yet I’m baffled
How some think they can preserve time inside of a time capsule

Brindle touches on an important point: time is not something we can save us and use later as we do with money, points, and cans of food.  We can only spend it, never to see it again.  When we say that we’re “saving time”, we’re not making deposits into our “time” savings account.  Rather, we allocate less of our day towards a specific task that took longer in the past, allowing for greater time spent on other things.  Yet, these truths haven’t stopped some people from futile attempts to treat time as a Swiss bank account! I agree with Brindle: I’m perplexed at such attempts.

The idiom “time is money” puts a strong emphasis on avoiding idling, using our time to earn money.  While it’s important to provide for our family, lest we become worse than unbelievers (1 Timothy 5:8), this phrase has great potential for idolatry where we value money more than God (Matthew 6:24, Luke 16:13, and 1 John 2:15-16).

But since the fall of man
The sands of time are turning us all back into salty sand

One of the curses brought upon Adam and Eve is that their bodies would return to the dust whence they came (Genesis 2:7 and Genesis 3:19), reiterated in Psalm 90:3, Psalm 104:29, Ecclesiastes 3:20, Ecclesiastes 12:7, and Job 34:15.

But our souls have an eternal destination
So use your time to make sure the best is taken
It’s either in preparation to better praise Him
Or further steps toward eternal separation

There are two destinations to choose: eternal life with God (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) or eternal life apart from God (Matthew 18:8, Matthew 25:41, Matthew 25:46, Mark 9:43, Jude 1:7, Revelation 14:11, and Revelation 20:10). Brindle asks us to choose today if we will serve God or our idols (Joshua 24:15).

[Chorus]

We’re on borrowed time all the time
And all the time we got is all the time we got
But one day all the time will stop
I think about all the time-time-time that I wasted
And I realized that my time had an end

To “live on borrowed time” is to live beyond when we’re expected to die.  See commentary on Verse 1, lines 17 and 18.

We’re on borrowed time all the time
And all the time we got is all the time we got
But one day all the time will stop
I think about all the time-time-time that I wasted

Repeats lines 1-4.

There isn’t much time left

Relative to eternity, I’m inclined to agree.  After all, Jesus is coming soon (Revelation 22:12 and Revelation 22:20).

[Verse 2]

On Wall Street a rich dude snorts lines
His morning devotion is the New York Times
And Time magazine at times it seems

Brindle compares one wealthy Wall Street who obsesses over new articles to drug addicts who snort cocaine. They made the choice that Brindle spoke about in Chorus, choosing their idols over God.

To keep with Brindle’s epoch theme, two major news sources have the word “time” in them.

Time flies as if time had some wings
But this is irony right
While most spend the time of their life trying to have the time of their life
Thinking lies are really true
If you’re busy killing time the truth is time is killing you
But you’re too cool- you love to take your time
You fool- God can come and take your time

Brindle spends his time (see what I did there?) listing unbeliever ironies:

• While they say “time flies”, meaning time seems to pass quickly, they spent much time lamenting about not having the “time of their lives”.
• While they spend time to tranquilize their boredom in sinful activities (2 Thessalonians 3:11 and 1 Timothy 5:13), they are storing up more of God’s wrath (Romans 2:5).  Thus, “time” will come back to haunt them.
• While they take their time chasing fantasies (Proverbs 12:11), they forget that God can take their time away (Job 1:21).

Then He’ll search your mind and surely find your works are slime

He searches our minds and fine none that are good (Psalm 53:1-3, Psalm 14:1-3, and Romans 3:10).  The sum of our works are filthy rags before God (Isaiah 64:6).

Once sin’s an eternal prime it takes eternity to serve the time
Reject Him and regret how your spurned this rhyme
You offended the Divine
In hell, like Michael Jackson, You’ll remember the time
Once your time is up you blasphemer
You can’t travel back with a flux capacitor
It’s such a massacre when Christ’s popping the sky
You’ll want to go back in time like Marty McFly
But you sharply despised Christ kindness my friend
And He gave you a lifetime to repent

Brindle warns unbelievers that no sin is worth eternal damnation.  The time to repent is now (2 Corinthians 6:2) because tomorrow, it might be too late (see commentary on Verse 1, lines 17 and 18).  Like in Michael Jackson’s song Remember the Time, they will spend time kicking themselves, wondering why they chose the things they did.  They cannot go back in time to undo their mistakes, much like Marty McFly did in Back to the Future.  They also cannot arrogantly boast that they will get right with God right before they die, thinking they have time (James 4:13-15).

So next time you’re asking what time is it
Know Christ can come to give times final tick
Your eternity hangs on what you do with time
So use it to trust the Savior of human kind

Brindle offers yet another warning, calling unbelievers to remember that their days are numbered (see Verse 1, lines 17 and 18).  Rather than living for the world or themselves, they should repent and trust in Jesus (Matthew 3:2, Matthew 4:17, Mark 1:15, Luke 24:47, Acts 2:36-38, Acts 3:19-21, Acts 20:21, and 2 Timothy 2:25-26) because eternal life with God is better than eternal damnation apart from Him.

Whose more than somebody

That is, Christ is more than a man, implying that He is God (Isaiah 9:6-7, Isaiah 43:10-11, Matthew 1:23, Matthew 9:1-8, Mark 2:1-12, Luke 5:17-26, John 1:1-3, John 1:14, John 5:17-18, John 8:23-25, John 8:28, John 10:30-33, John 14:9, John 20:28-29, Philippians 2:5-6, Colossians 1:16-19, Colossians 2:8-9, Titus 2:13, 1 Timothy 6:14-16, Hebrews 1:10-12, Revelation 1:8, and Revelation 22:13).

And at the right time Jesus Christ died for the ungodly

Quotes from Romans 5:6-8.

So when the fullness of time came the Ruler of time came
To pull us from prides chain
The time is fulfilled- His kingdom is at hand
So repent and believe and come cling onto the Lamb

Christ came when He was appointed to come, taking from us from the yoke of sin so that we could trust in Him (Romans 6:1-11, Romans 7:4-6, Galatians 2:19-20, 2 Timothy 2:11, and 1 Peter 2:24).

Also, Jesus warned us to repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand (Mark 1:15, Matthew 3:2, Matthew 4:17).

[Verse 3]

If you live to be 90 there’s an absurdity
Even that’s a blink compared to eternity

While the United Nations estimated a global life expectancy of 76.9, and 90 is a much longer life than the average person, and it seems to us a long time, it is but a vapor compared to eternity (Psalm 39:5, Psalm 89:47, Psalm 90:5-7, Psalm 102:3, Job 7:6-7, Job 9:25-26, Job 14:1-2, James 4:14, and 1 Peter 1:24).

Christians most of the time we don’t make the most of our time
So let’s refocus on Jehovah’s design
Yet I’m convicted
By how much of my time’s been wicked even since I’ve been Christian

I like that Brindle admits that he spends too much time on himself and not enough time for God, counting that wasted time as loss compared to knowing God (Philippians 3:8-10). While he knows that a day with God is better than thousands elsewhere (Psalm 84:10), the flesh, the world, and the devil are alluring, thieves who steal precious time away from following Jesus (John 10:10).

But time is ticking and life is a vapor

See lines 1 and 2.

So delight and then savor Christ whose our Savior
Please read Ephesians 5:16 and you’ll find we need to be redeeming the time

This singular verse summarizes Brindle’s entire song.  We should use our time wisely to serve and enjoy God instead of ourselves (Psalm 37:4).

Because we’ll give an account of what we did or didn’t do with our time

Every idle word (and presumed action) will be laid bare before God on judgment day (Matthew 12:36).

Don’t just sit in the house
Yeah Christ blood assures securely

While we are washed by the blood of Jesus (Ephesians 1:7, Hebrews 9:22, 1 Peter 1:2, and 1 Peter 1:18-19), that doesn’t absolve us from personal responsibility (Romans 6:1-7).

But our use of time affects our rewards and glory

Brindle reminds us that our heavenly rewards are contingent upon our works (1 Corinthians 3:10-15).

To the vine we’re attached

That is, Jesus (John 15:1-10).

So let’s bear fruit and work overtime like making time and a half

Bearing fruit is the Biblical term for doing good works to glorify God and further the Kingdom of God (Matthew 5:16, John 15:1-11, 1 Corinthians 3:9, 2 Corinthians 5:17, 2 Corinthians 9:8, Galatians 5:16-26, Ephesians 1:4, Ephesians 2:10, Ephesians 4:1, Philippians 1:6, Philippians 2:13, Colossians 1:10, 2 Thessalonians 2:17, 1 Timothy 2:10, 1 Timothy 6:18, 2 Timothy 2:21, 2 Timothy 3:17, Titus 2:7, Titus 2:14, Titus 3:1, Titus 3:8, Titus 3:14, Hebrews 10:19-25, 1 Peter 2:12, 1 John 1:7, and 1 John 2:6).  We should work hard at this initiative to the point that we’d receive the business equivalent of overtime (or time and a half) for our efforts; time spent working beyond expectations.

Excuse me teens- it’s useless to be glued as fiends
To the TV and computer screen
No time for folly and gossip and small is the profit
If spending all day at the malls we are shopping
No time to waste playing playstation or taking vacations

Brindle is not saying that we can’t spend time on things such as movies, the internet, or (my guilty pleasure), the Nintendo Switch.  His point is that we spend too much time on worldly pursuits and not enough time with God.

Today is the day of salvation

Quotes from 2 Corinthians 6:2.

For unsaved pagans don’t waste a moment
Please take time to share the great atonement

The unsaved are devoted to their idols.  We too should be devoted to God, taking the time to make disciples of others (Matthew 28:18-20).

Don’t spend it sinning- you’ll dead that syndrome

We’ve put the flesh to death (Romans 8:13, 1 Corinthians 9:27, Galatians 5:24, Ephesians 4:22, and Colossians 3:5).  How could we return to it (Romans 6:2, 1 Peter 1:14, and 1 John 3:9)?

Instead invest time of how to spread the kingdom
Instead of serving time
Let’s spend time serving the needs of others- and His worth will shine

Rather than remain imprisoned to sin (John 8:34, Romans 6:6, Romans 6:20-22, and 1 Corinthians 6:12), we should use our time wisely to spread the good news about Jesus to others (see lines 22 and 23) and provide for their needs (Proverbs 19:17, Proverbs 22:9, Matthew 25:35-40, Luke 6:38, Acts 20:35, Galatians 6:2, Philippians 2:4, Hebrews 13:16, and James 1:27).It glorifies God when we spend more time with Him and do as He commands.

And since we can’t rewind a minute

See Verse 2, lines 17-19.

Be careful to kill sin because there’s no time for sinning
So avoid sins poison and disaster

See line 24.

And in the end we’ll enter in the joy of our master

That is, we will hear “well done, good and faithful servant” from God (Matthew 25:21-23).

Score: 10/10

3. How would an outsider interpret the song?

Unbelievers will receive a fire hose blast of information.  As is customary for Christ-fearing rappers, Brindle’s language intermixes Christianity, pop culture references, and everyday language to make his points.

Examining my humungous list of points in section 1, I can only think of a few that unbelievers might not understand:

• The Kingdom of God
• Sin as lawbreaking (as opposed to making a mistake)

Score: 9/10

4. What does this song glorify?

It glorifies God when we spend more time with Him and to do as He commands.

Score: 10/10

Closing Comments

Timothy Brindle’s The Preciousness of Time is a great song.  Brindle spends a lot of time discussing, well, time.  We spend too much of it doing our own thing and too little with God, thinking we have “all the time in the world” to get right with Him.  We forget that we could die at any moment, when it will be too late to change our eternal destiny.  Today is the day of salvation, such that if we repent and trust in Jesus, we may inherit eternal life.  This song brings glory to God.  Unbelievers will catch the majority of Brindle’s points, challenging them to serve God instead of things.

This song is inspirational, but not appropriate for corporate worship.

Final Score: 9.5/10

Artist Info

Track: The Preciousness of Time (listen to the song)

Artist: Timothy Brindle

Album: Killing Sin

Genre: Hip Hop/Rap

Release Year: 2005

Duration: 5:45

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

*Copyright © 2005 Lamp Mode Recordings. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

Updates:

08/22/2023 – Fixed a bunch of typos.  Thanks to J for pointing out one of them!

01/03/2023 – D.I.D.A.C.T.I.C.’s comment helped me understand that Brindle wasn’t judging Jackson’s salvation.  He was referencing Remember the Time to make a point about regretting decisions.  This increased the song’s overall score from 9/10 to 9.5/10.