Vertical Worship – Worthy, Worthy

Contemporary Christian band Vertical Worship began in 2012 as a music collective born out of Harvest Bible Chapel in Chicago, Illinois.  Formerly known as Vertical Church Band, they released eight albums and four EP’s, including:

• Live Worship from Vertical Church (2012)
• The Rock Won’t Move (2013)
• Vertical EP (2013)
• White EP (2014)
• Church Songs (2015)
• Frontiers (2016)
• Vertical Worship (2017)
• Bright Faith Bold Future (2018)
• Planetarium EP (2018)
• Yes I Will – EP (2019)
• Yes I Will: Songs from Vertical Worship (2020)
• Grace Is On Our Side (2020)

Also, check out my reviews of Faithful Now, Yes I Will, 1000 Tongues, Do What You Want To , Found in You, and Spirit of the Living God.

Lyrics can be found at https://genius.com/Vertical-worship-worthy-worthy-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?

It speaks of our limited ability to comprehend God’s fullness, whether in written format or within our minds.  Yet, He has revealed Himself through nature, miracles, and Christ.  He is set apart, worthy of our applause.  Jesus will come again and lead us to His eternal Kingdom, where we will worship Him eternally.

Side Note: To those sensitive to massive repetition, Chorus repeats itself four times to end the song, with an interlude in between.

Score: 10/10

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

The entire song faithfully adapts Biblical ideas.

[Verse 1]

Lines 1-4: If all the books cannot contain all the wonderful works of Jesus (John 21:25), how much more could they record all of His unsearchable greatness (Psalm 145:3)?

[Pre-Chorus]

Lines 1-3: This puts many things into perspective:

• The vastness of God and the limits of human language (See Verse 1).
• God has revealed Himself through creation (Psalm 19:1-4 and Romans 1:18-20), miraculous signs, and Jesus (Colossians 1:15-17).
• We sing because the little He reveals show us He is worthy of praise (more on that in Chorus).

[Chorus]

Line 1: Quotes from part of Revelation 4:8, stating that God is holy (Leviticus 11:44-45, Leviticus 19:2, Leviticus 20:7, and 1 Peter 1:15-16) and almighty (see 48 references in the Old Testament and 10 in the New Testament).

Line 2: God deserves praise (1 Chronicles 16:25, 2 Samuel 22:4, Psalm 96:4-5, Psalm 145:3, and Revelation 4:11).

Line 3: Alludes to every knee bowing and confessing Jesus as Lord (Romans 14:11 and Philippians 2:10-11).  While believers will weep for joy, with their tears wiped away (Isaiah 25:8, Revelation 7:17, and Revelation 21:4), unbelievers will experience weeping due to punishment (Matthew 8:11-12, Matthew 22:13, Matthew 25:30, and Luke 13:28).

Line 4: Repeats line 2.

Lines 5-11: Appears in later iterations in various quantities.  Essentially repeats lines 1-4.

[Verse 2]

Lines 1 and 2: Essentially repeats the same ideas in Verse 1, though Vertical Worship is singing these truths.

Lines 3 and 4: Vertical Worship and others prostrating themselves (1 Kings 8:54, 2 Chronicles 6:13, Ezra 9:5, Psalm 95:6, Isaiah 45:23, Daniel 6:10, Luke 22:41, Acts 7:60, Acts 21:5, Ephesians 3:14-19, and Philippians 2:10-11) to a God that exists spiritually (John 4:24).

[Verse 3]

Line 1: This describes the second coming of Christ that will come with the sound of a trumpet (1 Thessalonians 4:16).

Line 2: We will meet the Lord in the air (1 Thessalonians 4:17) and will be lead to the everlasting Kingdom of God (Revelation 21:1-9).

Line 3: We will offer eternal praise (Nehemiah 9:5, Psalm 30:12, Psalm 52:9, Psalm 86:12, Psalm 89:1, Psalm 115:18, Psalm 145:1-2, Psalm 145:21, and Revelation 5:9-13).

Line 4: See Chorus, line 2.

Score: 10/10

3. How would an outsider interpret the song?

Vertical Worship uses borderline sophisticated language that is not esoteric to unbelievers.  The words in Chorus are a dead giveaway that Christians worship their holy God.  They should have little to no issue arriving at similar conclusions to section 1.

Score: 10/10

4. What does this song glorify?

It glorifies God as worthy of worship who will come back to take us into His Kingdom, where we will forever praise Him.

Score: 10/10

Closing Comments

Vertical Worship’s Worthy, Worthy is worthy.  As one would expect from the title, the song speaks of God’s worthiness to receive our adoration.  Though our words are inadequate to fully describe God, He still reveals Himself through our limitations, bringing Him glory.  Unbelievers should have little to no problem interpreting this song.

I highly recommend this song for corporate worship.

Final Score: 10/10

Artist Info

Track: Worthy, Worthy (listen to the song)

Artist: Vertical Worship

Album: The Rock Won’t Move

Genre: Rock

Release Year: 2013

Duration: 5:18

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