Vertical Worship – Found in You

I finally had some extra time for this extra review!  This is the first of what I hope are many Friday reviews on songs that did not pass polling.

At the top of the list is Vertical Worship’s song Found in You, requested way back in August 2018.  I reviewed Spirit of the Living God more recently, receiving a favorable score.

Lyrics can be found at https://genius.com/Vertical-worship-found-in-you-live-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?

Vertical Worship starts off with…Casper the Friendly Ghost?  I get what is going on here, but when one reads the lyrics, seeing this many “Oh”s can be jarring, but not worth the fuss.  I’ll ignore it for grading purposes.  Casper would appreciate that.

We invite the explicitly identified “You” as God (that is, the Holy Spirit) to fill the tangible and metaphysical attributes of human existence with His presence.  He shapes the open-wide desires of our hearts in accordance with His will, where we find freedom, wholeness, and victory.  He removes doubt and fear, opening our spiritual blinders to see more clearly.

The song seems watered down.  Yes, the message is good, but it doesn’t seem great in the same way that Phil Wickham’s Living Hope stirs my heart.

Score: 7/10

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

I found all lyrics to align with the Bible.

[Intro]

Lines 1-7: Hello Casper the friendly ghost!  Great to see you!

[Verse 1]

Lines 1 and 2: Not that God needs an invitation to enter, but this request is the equivalent of opening the personal door that Christs knocks (Revelation 3:20).

Lines 3 and 4: There are great mysteries of God (Psalm 40:5, Psalm 72:18, Psalm 86:10, Job 5:8-9, Job 9:9-10, Job 11:7-9, Job 37:5, Job 42:3, Isaiah 40:28, and Romans 11:33) as revealed to us through the Holy Spirit (Romans 11:33, 1 Corinthians 2:10, Ephesians 1:9, and Ephesians 3:8).

[Chorus]

Lines 1 and 2: This expresses dependency on God to mold our inner-self to align with His (Psalm 51:10, Jeremiah 24:7, Ezekiel 11:19, Ezekiel 36:26, Romans 2:29, Romans 12:2, 2 Corinthians 5:17, and 2 Corinthians 7:10).

Lines 3 and 4: This is because He defeated 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).

[Post-Chorus]

Lines 1 and 2: Time for the ghostly solo!

[Verse 2]

Line 1: See commentary in Chorus, lines 1 and 2.

Line 2: Yes, because His perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18).

Line 3: That is, see spiritually.  Or put differently, spiritual blindness removed (2 Kings 6:17, Luke 24:31, John 3:3, John 9:39, Acts 26:12-18, 2 Corinthians 3:12-18, 2 Corinthians 4:6, and Ephesians 1:18).

Line 4: Repeats Verse 1, line 4.

[Bridge]

Line 1: That is, freedom from the enslavement of sin (Romans 6:6 and Romans 6:20-22).  Also, see Psalm 119:45, Isaiah 58:6, Isaiah 61:1, John 3:16-21, John 8:31-36, John 10:10, Acts 13:38-39, Romans 8:1-4, Romans 8:20-21, 1 Corinthians 6:12, 1 Corinthians 7:21-23, 2 Corinthians 3:17, Galatians 2:4, Galatians 3:13, Galatians 3:22, Galatians 5:1, Galatians 5:13, Colossians 1:21-23, Hebrews 2:14-15, and 1 Peter 2:16.

Line 2: God is in the business of heart surgery (Psalm 147:3 and Matthew 11:28-30).

Lines 3 and 4: Repeats lines 1 and 2.

[Outro]

Lines 1 and 4: Thank you for visiting Casper!  We’ll miss you.

Score 10/10

3. How would an outsider interpret the song?

Outsiders to Christianity should find interpretation intuitive and easy to comprehend.  Namely, that Christians worship God, placing their entire identity in Jesus.

Score: 10/10

4. What does this song glorify?

It glorifies God, though perhaps veiled by the water mixed with the Gospel.

Score: 9/10

Closing Comments

Vertical Worship’s Found in You is a decent song.  Though somewhat thinned out, it expresses a relational value, laying at Jesus’ feet our lives for His capable craftsmanship.  Its message is good but not great, easy for unbelievers to understand and brings glory to God.

I envision many churches worshipping with this song, but I wonder if we could do a bit better?  We could certainly do far worse though.

Final Score: 9/10

Artist Info

Track: Found in You (Live) (listen to the song)

Artist: Vertical Worship

Album: The Rock Won’t Move

Genre: Rock

Release Year: 2013

Duration: 4:23

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

Updates:

03/26/2021 – Updated section 1 to clarify that the message seems watered down, stripping it of its power.