Photo by Max Goncharov
Child of the King was originally written by Christian and Country artist, songwriter, and singer Cindy Walker. See Cindy Walker Biography to read more about her background and accomplishments in Country music.
Lyrics can be found at https://genius.com/Gaither-vocal-band-child-of-the-king-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 contrasts life apart from God, dead in trespasses and sins, to life with God, full of light and blessings. Walker is an (adopted) child of Jesus, free to praise Him now and for all eternity. It is for these reasons that she can call herself a “child of the King”, contrasted with her starting point as “wretched and poor”. It has Psalms written all over it!
Score: 10/10
2. How much of the lyrics line up with Scripture?
All the lines in this song agree with the Bible.
[Verse 1]
Line 1: This is a good description of Isaiah 64:6. Historically, the rags Isaiah had in mind are dirty, bloody, menstrual rags that are unclean, unkempt, and ready to be tossed aside.
Lines 2 and 3: Casts an accurate description of an unbeliever’s life prior to receiving Christ. We are dead in sin without Him (Proverbs 21:16, Luke 15:11-24, Romans 6:23, Ephesians 2:1, Colossians 2:13, and 1 Timothy 5:6).
Lines 4-7: That is, Jesus saved me. John 3:16 and Romans 5:6-8 are great summary passages for these lines. Jesus as King of Kings can be found in Isaiah 9:6, Isaiah 11:10, John 12:15, 1 Timothy 6:13-16, Revelation 17:14, and Revelation 19:11-16.
[Chorus]
Line 1: Yes yes yes!
Line 2: An adopted child, mind you (John 1:12-13, John 14:18, Romans 8:14-17, Romans 8:23, Romans 9:1-8, Galatians 3:26, Galatians 4:5-7, Ephesians 1:3-14, Ephesians 2:11-22, Hebrews 9:15, and 1 John 3:1-3 )!
Line 3: That is, His Holy Spirit lives in me (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). I like the added word royal, which fits nicely with Verse 1, line 5.
Line 4: That is, migration from death in sin to life in Christ (Romans 6:1-11, Romans 7:4-6, Galatians 2:19-20, 2 Timothy 2:11, and 1 Peter 2:24).
Line 5: I am now free to worship Him (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 6:1-23, 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 6: Repeats line 2.
[Verse 2]
Line 1: See Chorus, line 2.
Line 2: It is a place to which Jesus is preparing for those who are His (John 14:3).
Lines 3 and 4: See Chorus, line 2.
Line 5: That is, to be made holy via washing in His blood (Ephesians 1:7, Hebrews 9:22, 1 Peter 1:2, and 1 Peter 1:18-19).
Line 6: That is, His love bears all things (1 Corinthians 13:7).
Lines 7 and 8: Refers to 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).
Score: 10/10
3. How would an outsider interpret the song?
Unbelievers should come to the same conclusion as I without any problem; However, some of its terminology (e.g.; child of God, wretched and poor, blessed by His blood) will likely fall on deaf ears.
Score: 7/10
4. What does this song glorify?
It glorifies God.
Score: 10/10
Closing Comments
Gaither Vocal Band’s Child of the King hits all the right marks. Highly Biblical, with a great message, though perhaps some of its terminologies may perplex the unsaved. Still, its interpretation is easy to follow for all people and brings glory to God.
Given the many statements of self throughout the lyrics, I am hesitant to recommend this song for Sunday service. It seems more appropriate for prayer, self-reflection, or a concert than corporally worshipping the God who made us.
Final Score: 9.5/10
Artist Info
Track: Child of the King (listen to the song by Gaither Church Band)
Artist: Cindy Walker
Album: N/A
Genre: Contemporary Christian Music (CCM)
Release Year: 1961
Duration: N/A
Agree? Disagree? Don’t be shy or have a cow! Calmly and politely state your case in a comment, below.
Updates:
03/23/2021 – Updated per repetition announcement.
10/12/2020 – Commenters Neal Cruco and Steve Barhydt both challenged me on my criticism that the song is self-focused. I re-examined the lyrics and my own Biblical analysis, prayerfully seeking wise counsel. What I saw is personified humility, describing one’s self as trajected from a state of lowliness to an adopted child of God. I updated the score from 8.5/10 to 9.5/10. I also plan to go back and examine all other reviews that I criticize a song for similar reasons.
Also, Steve is correct: Cindy Walker is the original author. Since I already wrote the review under the requester’s submitted artist, I added an entry in the Song Review Index for Cindy and added her information to the introduction.
Comments
nealcruco
I don’t get your problem with testimonial songs. Neither this song nor No Longer Slaves is focused on us, but rather what God has done for us. There is no praise or honor or glory being given to self, but only to God. God is just as glorified when we praise Him for what He has done for us as He is when we praise Him for who He is. Could you please explain why you penalize songs for doing the former?
Vince Wright
Neal,
After reading Steve’s comments, studying the Scripture, talking with wise people (including my wife), and self-reflection, my issue primarily is the usage of “I”, “me”, and “my”. However, as commenter Steve pointed out, so are the Psalms! Without any other criticism to replace it with, I bumped up its score. I’ll be examining other songs by which I made this criticism, including No Longer Slaves.
-Vince Wright
Steve Barhydt
Actually this song is rather old (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OS3kY-DnzM for Skeeter Davis singing it in 1967)
As to it being too self-centered, I would say it’s no more self-centered than my (or anyone’s) personal testimony.
Read Psalms 23. In the KJV there are 17 references to “me, my, I, etc” and 12 to “the Lord, His,etc”
In this song, that ratio is 13 for “me, my, I, etc.” and 11 for “God, His, etc.”
This would make Psalm 23 mathematically more self centered than this song.
(Note: My counts could be off a bit, I’m doing it just to illustrate a point.)
Testimonial songs (as you acknowledge that this is one) are, by there very nature, testifying about what God did for us (me).
The summation of the Chorus is “Praise God, Praise God, I’m a child of the King.” This gives the glory back to God.
Steve Barhydt
It appears that a Cindy Walker actually wrote the song (https://swbts.searchmobius.org/record=b1287461~S1)
Vince Wright
Steve,
Once again, you make a great point! I didn’t realize that the Psalms had so much “me” and “I” in them! That was the basis for my criticism of self-centeredness (to respond to Neal’s comments).
I’ll have to pray on it and verify the correct original artist as Cindy Walker. The implication of this commentary requires several updates to previous reviews.
-Vince Wright
scribe44
The second live of the chorus, “His royal blood now flows through my veins”, is actually taken by word of faith proponents to be literal. I did not realize this until recently a lady told me that she does not want the vaccine because it changes the DNA, which would cause her to be separated from Christ & lose her salvation. She is of the belief that when we are saved that the DNA of Jesus replaces our own DNA.
Sounds very similar to the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation of the Communion elements.