William McDowell – The Cry

William McDowell is an American Gospel artist.  He released six albums, including:

• As We Worship (2009)
• Arise (2011)
• Withholding Nothing (2013)
• Sounds of Revival (2016)
• Sounds of Revival II: Deeper (2017)
• The Cry: A Live Worship Experience (2019)

Lyrics can be found at https://genius.com/William-mcdowell-the-cry-live-from-chattanooga-tn-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 is a prayerful cry of expectation, that God would cause revival to occur.  This prayer acknowledges that God rules it all, hears us, and will respond to our persistence, though assumed that it will be on His timetable.

The only reason why we know that this is the Christian or Judaism God is because McDowell uses the term “Lord” to describe Him and McDowell’s spontaneous reference to 2 Kings towards the end of the song.  It’s not immediately clear which deity McDowell refers to.

Score: 9/10

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

The whole song is Biblical.

This song does not contain a Verse/Chorus/Bridge structure.  Therefore, I assigned stanzas to each paragraph.

[Stanza 1]

Lines 1-4: This is a deep, heartfelt prayer offered to God (Psalm 61:1-4), who will respond to us.  However, let the reader understand that He responds on His timing, not ours (2 Peter 3:9).  It also says that God will satisfy us (Psalm 16:11, Psalm 17:15, Psalm 37:4, Proverbs 19:23, Matthew 6:33, and Philippians 4:11-19).

[Stanza 2]

Lines 1 and 2: Repeats ideas in Stanza 1, lines 1 and 2.

Line 3: That is, God is sovereign (Genesis 1:1, Deuteronomy 4:39, Deuteronomy 10:14, Joshua 2:11, Nehemiah 9:6, Psalm 29:10, Psalm 45:6, Psalm 50:7-15, Psalm 93:1-2, Psalm 115:3, Psalm 135:6, Isaiah 43:13, Isaiah 45:9-10, Isaiah 46:10, Lamentations 5:19, Daniel 4:35, Romans 9:19-21, Ephesians 1:11, Hebrews 1:8, James 4:15, Revelation 4:11, and Revelation 20:11).

Line 4: Repeats Stanza 1, line 4.

[Stanza 3]

Lines 1-4: Repeats Stanza 1.

[Stanza 4]

Lines 1-4: Repeats Stanza 2.

[Stanza 5]

Line 1: That is, we ask in faith without doubting (James 1:6).

Lines 2-4: Much like the persistent widow in Luke 18:1-8, we won’t stop asking until God responds.  Yet, we also recognize that God will ultimately decide based on His will and not ours, based on His glory (John 14:13).

Line 5: According to John 1:14, Jesus shows us God’s glory. This line asks God to show us Jesus.

[Stanza 6]

Lines 1-5: Repeats Stanza 5.

[Stanza 7]

Line 1: See commentary on Stanza 5, lines 2-4.

Lines 2-8: Repeats line 1.

[Stanza 8]

Lines 1-5: A prayer that we would witness God’s power manifest in revival, that many people would repent and trust in Him (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) and receive spiritual cleansing (Exodus 20:20, Psalm 19:9, Psalm 51:10-19, Proverbs 14:2, and Proverbs 23:17, and 1 John 1:9).

Line 6: As promised in 1 John 5:14.

[Stanza 9]

Lines 1-6: Repeats Stanza 8.

[Stanza 10]

Lines 1-6: Repeats Stanza 8.

Side Note: In between these sections, McDowell makes a few remarks that draw from 2 Kings 13:18-19.

[Stanza 11]

Lines 1-12: Repeats Stanza 7, line 1.

Score: 10/10

3. How would an outsider interpret the song?

Unbelievers will think we are desperately and unceasingly crying to the Lord for revival.  It’s hard to know if they will think it’s the Judaism God or Christian God judging solely from the lyrics and audio provided.  However, aside from this issue, the rest of the song is written in everyday language and easy to comprehend.

Score: 9/10

4. What does this song glorify?

It glorifies God when we pray expecting Him to respond.  Our persistence and honesty also bring Him glory.

Score: 10/10

Closing Comments

William McDowell’s The Cry is good overall.  It calls us to prayerfully and consistently call out to God for revival, patiently waiting for Him to answer, bringing Him glory.  Although it could offer more identifiers that would distinguish McDowell’s God from Judaism, unbelievers will easily interpret this song similarly.

Although I would like to see this song more clearly identify “Lord” as the Christian God Vs. Judaism, It’s also not a big deal considering that both are the same God, minus Jesus and the Holy Spirit as God.  I still find it appropriate for corporate worship.

Final Score: 9.5/10

Artist Info

Track: The Cry (Live From Chattanooga, TN) (listen to the song)

Artist: William McDowell

Album: The Cry: A Live Worship Experience

Genre: Gospel

Release Year: 2019

Duration: 8:04

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

Updates:

01/30/2023 – The album Perfect Vision 2020 was incorrectly attributed to this William McDowell.  Therefore, I removed it.  Thanks to Michael Ramsey for finding it!