Wholehearted – A Thousand Hallelujahs

Wholehearted is a band that desires to write Christ-centered music that is Biblically accurate.  They released three albums, including:

• Wholehearted (2010)
• Fearless Love (2012)
• Sovereign God (Live) (2017)

Lyrics can be found at https://genius.com/Victory-worship-a-thousand-hallelujahs-lyrics.  Though, Wholehearted’s version does not contain “Spontaneous”.

Side Note: I originally wrote this review for Victory Worship.  However, a commenter informed me that Wholehearted is the original artist.  I’ll leave Victory Worship’s entry in the Song Review Index page and create a new one for Wholehearted.

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?

We as Christians praise God for all eternity, based on the sum of His works.  He has total control of our minds and hearts, without anyone else to compare.  He is set apart, omnipotent, and eternal.  In response, we, along with the rest of creation, will declare His greatness.

Side Note: To those who are sensitive to massive repetition, Bridge repeats the same two lines six times in a row.

Score: 10/10

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

This song is Biblical.

[Verse]

Lines 1 and 2: We show God’s value and worth when we obey Him (Matthew 25:34-40, John 14:15, John 14:21-24, John 15:10-14, 1 Peter 1:14-15, 1 John 2:3-5, 1 John 4:19-20, 1 John 5:2-3, and 2 John 1:6).

Line 3: That is, we rejoice because of what God did for us (Psalm 66:1-4, Psalm 126:3, Isaiah 12:4-6, Isaiah 25:9, Philippians 3:1, Philippians 4:4, and Revelation 19:1-7).

Line 4: A rhetorical question.  The answer, of course, is no one (Exodus 8:10, Exodus 9:14, Deuteronomy 3:24, Deuteronomy 33:26, Jeremiah 10:6, 1 Samuel 2:2, 2 Samuel 7:22, 1 Kings 8:23, 1 Chronicles 17:20, Psalm 86:8, Psalm 89:6, Psalm 113:5-6, Jeremiah 10:7, Isaiah 40:18, and Isaiah 46:9).

Line 5: Repeats line 4.

[Chorus]

Line 1: Not literally 1,000, but 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).

The word ‘Hallelujah” is a compound Hebrew phrase, with “hallelu” meaning “a joyous praise in song” and “jah” or “yah”, which refers to the Tetragrammaton YHWH. Put together, we are singing “we joyfully praise God in song” when we use this word.

Line 2: Essentially repeats line 1.

Lines 3 and 4: Every knee will bow and confess Jesus is Lord (Romans 14:11 and Philippians 2:10-11).  This is further demonstrated in Spontaneous, where the name of Jesus is explicitly given.

[Bridge]

Lines 1 and 2: God is:

• Holy (Leviticus 11:44-45, Leviticus 19:2, Leviticus 20:7, Romans 6:1-14, Ephesians 4:1, Colossians 1:10-14, 1 Peter 1:13-16, and 1 Peter 2:16)
• Strong and Mighty (Genesis 1:1-31, Job 11:7-11, Psalm 33:6, Jeremiah 32:17, Romans 4:17, Hebrews 1:3, and Jude 1:24-25)
• Everlasting (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)

Lines 3-12: Repeats lines 1 and 2.

Score: 10/10

3. How would an outsider interpret the song?

Christians worship God and Jesus.  This conclusion is clear to unbelievers, based on Wholehearted’s everyday language combined with attributes of God and explicit uses of “God”, “Jesus”, and “hallelujah”.

Score: 10/10

4. What does this song glorify?

It glorifies God that it calls us to praise, honor, and worship Him.

Score: 10/10

Closing Comments

Wholehearted’s A Thousand Hallelujahs is a great song.  It shows that God’s mighty works compel us to worship.  He is holy, omnipotent, and eternal.  One day, every knee will bow and confess Jesus as Lord, bringing Him glory.  Unbelievers should easily interpret this song.

I highly recommend it for corporate worship, though perhaps with fewer repeats of Bridge.

Final Score: 10/10

Artist Info

Track: A Thousand Hallelujahs (Live) (listen to the song)

Artist: Wholehearted

Album: Sovereign God (Live)

Genre: Rock

Release Year: 2017

Duration: 4:55

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

Updates:

08/24/2023 – Dodge informed me that Wholehearted is the original artist.  I updated this review to reflect this change.

04/29/2021 – The original article did not include Victory Worship’s 2019 release One Moment.