Who wrote is he worthy

A founding member of the Square Peg Alliance, a group of musicians who are “really like each other”, Andrew Peterson has been active since 1996.  This folk rock, roots rock, and country gospel musician released a whopping 19 albums, including Love and Thunder (2003), Counting Stars (2010), and The Burning Edge of Dawn (2015).

He also published several books, including The Ballad of Matthew’s Begats (2007) and The Wingfeather Saga, a series of four books released between 2008 and 2015.  He won the Christie Award for Young Adult Fiction in 2009 for his second book of this series, North! Or Be Eaten (2009).

Lyrics can be found at https://genius.com/Andrew-peterson-is-he-worthy-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?

The entire song focuses on Christ as the returning, ruling, reigning King, who will create a new heaven/earth, is worthy to open the scroll, and deserves our praise and obedience.  Peterson manages to accomplish this with little repetition, stretching out his lyrics by adding the obvious answers to his rhetorical questions.  Not that it’s a bad thing.

While the feelings references at the beginning might bother some, it is minimal and does not bother me.

Score: 10/10

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

100% of these lyrics align with the Bible.

[Verse 1]

Line 1: A question of feeling.  The brokenness of the world started in Genesis 3 and is a major theme throughout the entire Bible.

Line 2: Another feelings-based question.  It should not be surprising that we are attacked for our faith (Luke 6:22, John 15:18-20, John 16:33, 2 Timothy 3:12, 1 Peter 4:12-19, and 1 John 3:13).

Line 3: This question is more objective, speaking of God’s light conquering darkness (Psalm 107:10-16, Luke 1:79, John 1:1-13, John 12:46, Ephesians 5:8, Colossians 1:13, and 1 Peter 2:9).

Line 4: Our first hint of end times, pointing to Isaiah 65:17, Isaiah 66:22, 2 Peter 3:10-13, and Revelation 21:1-5.

[Verse 2]

Line 1: Quotes from Romans 8:19-23.

Line 2: See commentary in Verse 1, line 4.

Line 3: Yes, because God is light (Psalm 27:1, Psalm 119:105, Psalm 119:130, Matthew 4:16, John 1:1-8, John 8:12, Ephesians 5:14, James 1:17, 1 Peter 2:9, 1 John 1:5-7, and Revelation 21:23).

Line 4: Although 2 Peter 1:12-15 has a specific context of the growth of Christian virtue, the larger context is the reminder of truths we already know to stay connected to God.

[Chorus]

Lines 1 and 2: No one!  It made John weep (Revelation 5:1-5).  Until…

Line 3: Christ!  He is worthy to open the scroll (Revelation 5:6-10).

Line 4: He is the sacrificial lamb who paid for the sins of mankind (Isaiah 53:1-12, Matthew 20:28, Mark 10:45, John 1:29, John 3:16, John 19:30, Acts 4:12, Acts 20:28, Romans 5:6-10, Romans 6:23, 1 Corinthians 1:30, 1 Corinthians 6:20, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Galatians 1:3-4, Galatians 3:13, Ephesians 1:7, Colossians 2:14, 1 Timothy 2:6, Titus 2:14, Hebrews 9:12, Hebrews 9:15, Hebrews 9:22, Hebrews 9:26, 1 Peter 1:17-21, 1 Peter 2:24, 1 Peter 1:18-19, 1 John 1:7, 1 John 2:1-2, and Revelation 5:9).

[Refrain 1]

Lines 1-4: According to Revelation 5:12 yes, Christ is worthy of praise.

[Verse 3]

Line 1: As demonstrated on the cross (Romans 5:6-8).

Line 2: He lives in us (Acts 6:5, Romans 8:9-11, 1 Corinthians 3:16, 1 Corinthians 6:16-19, Galatians 4:6, Ephesians 5:18, and 2 Timothy 1:14) and convicts us (John 16:8).

Line 3: I hold the unpopular opinion that God does not love everyone, at least, not in the way our westernized minds things about God’s love.  Yes, He loves the world (John 3:16) and showed His love through sacrifice (Romans 5:6-8), but He hates those who unrepentantly work iniquity (Psalm 5:5), love violence (Psalm 11:5), and seven other types of people (Prov. 6:16-19).  He loves those who love Him (Proverbs 8:17) and we demonstrate we love God through obedience (John 14:21 and 1 John 5:3).

Line 4: That is, Christ will return (Matthew 24:43, Acts 1:9-11, 1 Corinthians 11:26, 1 Thessalonians 5:2-4, 2 Peter 3:10, and Revelation 16:15).

[Bridge]

Lines 1-4: Contextualizes Exodus 19:6 within Revelation 7:9-17 and Revelation 20:4-6 in a New Testament sense.

[Refrain 2]

Lines 1-8: Equivalent derivative of Refrain 1.

Score: 10/10

3. How would an outsider interpret the song?

Unfortunately, most unbelievers will be completely lost.  The theology is too deep for the average non-Christian to comprehend.  Yes, they will immediately recognize this as Christian given the explicit name-drops of Jesus and God; However,  it heavily utilizes figurative references that come straight out of Scripture.  It requires more than a basic understanding of Christianity to comprehend its meaning.

Score: 7/10

4. What does this song glorify?

It glorifies the One who is worthy to open the scroll and open its seals.

Score: 10/10

Closing Comments

Don’t let the unbeliever score keep you from enjoying Andrew Peterson’s Is He Worthy?  It has a great message that focuses on Christ’s second coming, contains Biblically accurate references, and glorifies Jesus.

While I would not recommend this to seeker-sensitive churches, those whose congregations are hungry for heavier theology should consider adding this one to their worship sets.

Final Score: 9.5/10

Artist Info

Track: Is He Worthy? (listen to the song)

Artist: Andrew Peterson

Album: Resurrection Letters, Volume I

Genre: Contemporary Christian Music (CCM)

Release Year: 2018

Duration: 4:33

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

Howdy, folks. It’s 11:00 and I just got back to the hotel after tonight’s show in Indiana. I wanted to chime in really quick and say a few things. First, I’m so glad you guys have opinions on the matter! It tells me you care about the song, and by extension, me. Please hear me: I receive your defensiveness about the song as affection and support. However, you should know a few things.

1) Chris is a great fan of my music. We’ve gotten to know each other a bit over the years, partly because he comes to the BTLOG shows whenever he can, and I really like him.

2) I was immediately thrilled that he wanted to cover “Is He Worthy?” People (including me) cover other people’s songs all the time, and it’s about the highest compliment one songwriter can pay another. When a songwriter has a platform like Chris’s, it’s an even bigger thrill.

3) His album HOLY ROAR was due to release this fall, and he had probably chosen all the songs already before he heard this one. The fact that he put this one on it was a small miracle because, from my understanding, they had to do it at the eleventh hour in order to make the deadline. Ben and I were texting and emailing them parts and files in a hurry to help as much as we could. We wanted the song to be on his record, and we wanted it to be great. Not only that, Chris and Ed were very concerned about honoring the original version. They let us hear the progress and even asked for input. Of course there will be differences, and that’s part of the fun of covers, you know? It’s fine if you prefer mine to his, but PLEASE don’t insult him or his producers. Build up. Don’t tear down. That’s in the Bible. 🙂 And for the record, there are some things in Chris’s version that I totally love.

4) One reason I’m glad Chris is covering it is that he’s helping song leaders around the country imagine themselves playing it in their own churches. While I hear from lots of people who are singing it in their churches, I also hear people say they’d like to but they’re not sure how it would work, whether because of the liturgical vibe or the intimidating piano part. I’ve led it with a guitar and it worked great. Ben’s church sometimes does it with just quarter notes/chords on the piano, and after a few weeks his church settled on signing the questions and the answers the whole time. There are several ways to simplify it, and this will help people figure that out.

5) Here’s the biggest thing I want to say. Imagine with me for a moment. If I asked God to let me write and sing about him twenty five years ago, and much of my music has been about trying to draw people’s hearts towards the beauty of Jesus and the Gospel, and a friend of mine texted one day and said, “I want to help one of these songs reach as many people as possible,” and then the song was a hit and millions of people sang it to worship the King, and most of the world came to think of that song as the OTHER guy’s song, and I resented that even a little bit–then, folks, my whole career would be one giant exercise in missing the point. Sure, you have to do some self-promotion, but the whole time you’re hoping the work takes on a life of its own and exists outside of the artist’s sphere. You want the kids to grow up and move out of the house, so to speak. When you sing “It Is Well With My Soul,” you aren’t usually thinking about Phillip Paul Bliss and the tragedy that led to those gorgeous words. I think we’d all agree that the hymn has transcended the hymn-writer. It isn’t his song anymore, it’s the church’s. And for a song like “Is He Worthy?” that’s exactly what I want.

So, while i understand the range of emotions you guys have expressed over this, it’s really simple. I wrote a song about Jesus. I want lots of people to sing it to him. Chris is helping that happen. And if more folks discover my other songs in the process, and I get to keep making more music, then awesome. I’ll take it.

Thanks, all!