Housefires – Build My Life

My first “review” of Housefires’ most famous song, Good Good Father, turned out to be a mulligan.  Not because it was a bad review, but because I incorrectly attributed the lyrics to Chris Tomlin, who popularized it.  I owe it to them to give a proper introduction.  Especially since Tomlin received a GMA Song of the Year award in 2016 for his version of their lyrics.  Sometimes life isn’t fair…

Forming in 2014, Housefires came off the heels of Grace Midtown, a band formed from Grace Midtown Church in Atlanta, Georgia that had released two albums, Songs for the City (2009) and Unhindered (2010).  Both were live albums.

Housefires released three self-titled albums: Housefires (2014), Housefires II (2014), and Housefires III (2016), along with We Say Yes (2017).  Once again, they are all live albums.

As of this writing, Housefires has not received a prestigious award for their work.  This review will be on Build My Life, from their album Housefire III.

Pat Barrett was formerly a member of Housefires and is one of the original authors of this song.  I’ve included him as a separate entry within the Song Review Index.

Lyrics can be found at https://genius.com/Housefires-build-my-life-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?

Housefires’ main messages include:

• Jesus is worthy of praise;
• He is the only One who can save;
• There is none like Him;
• His name is above all others;
• He is unique;
• He leads us in His love;
• He is the foundation of our faith
• He is holy;
• He is loving;
• We live for Him; and
• We will build an unshakable life with Him as the foundation.

I am happy to see the name “Jesus” splashed across the Chorus, as opposed to resorting to pronouns.

Score: 10/10

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

The entire song agrees with the Bible.

[Verse 1]

Lines 1-4: Housefires tell us why God is worthy later in the song.

[Verse 2]

Line 1: Borrowed from Philippians 2:9.

Line 2: This is true because Jesus is sinless (see Isaiah 53:9, Matthew 27:24, John 19:4, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Hebrews 4:15, 1 Peter 1:18-19, 1 Peter 2:21-23, and 1 John 3:5).

Lines 3-5: Repeats Verse 1, lines 3-4.

[Chorus]

Lines 1 and 2: While Revelation 4:8 describes Jesus specifically as holy, since Jesus is God, we can also apply Leviticus 11:44-45, Leviticus 19:2, Leviticus 20:7, and 1 Peter 1:15-16.

God’s uniqueness can be found in 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.

Lines 3 and 4: Housefires’ prayer that their childlike faith does not wane.

Line 5: A request for us to decrease and for God to increase in our lives, consistent with the attitude of John the Baptist in John 3:30.

Line 6: In contrast to Psalm 5:8, Psalm 25:5, and Psalm 27:11-12, this line does not explain why God should lead us in His love.

Lines 7-13 – Repeats lines 1-6.

[Post-Chorus]

Lines 1 and 2: Repeats half of Chorus, line 6.

[Bridge]

Lines 1-4: The foundation, according to Matthew 7:24-27 and 1 Corinthians 3:10-15, is Jesus.  Given that God is love (1 John 4:8), one can argue that “love” is the foundation of our faith.  It is on this firm and solid foundation that we build our house with works, good or bad.  While the house itself might not be shaken, bad works will be burned up.

Lines 5-8: Repeats lines 1-4.

[Pre-Chorus]

Line 1: See commentary in Chorus, line 1.

[Interlude]

Lines 1-5: This requires complete and total surrender to God, consistent with Isaiah 64:8, Matthew 10:38, Matthew 11:28-30, Matthew 16:24, Mark 8:34-38, Mark 10:28, Luke 9:23, Luke 14:27, John 15:1-11, Romans 6:13, Romans 12:1-2, Galatians 2:20, Philippians 2:5-8, Hebrews 11:6, James 4:7-10, and 1 Peter 5:6.

Score: 10/10

3. How would an outsider interpret the song?

I firmly believe unbelievers will immediately recognize this to be a Christian song.  There is way too much evidence to suggest otherwise, including:

• The explicit mention of Jesus;
• Holiness;
• Living for Jesus;
• Name above all names; and
• Filling our hearts with Jesus.

I can’t think of anything they would not comprehend.

Score: 10/10

4. What does this song glorify?

It’s hard to see how this song would seek to glorify anyone other than Jesus given my earlier commentary.

Score: 10/10

Closing Comments

Housefires’ Build My Life is a good song.  It provides ample reasoning for why we worship Jesus, including His salvation, guidance, and love as the foundation for our faith.  This glorifies God.  Unbelievers should be able to interpret similarly.

Final Score: 10/10

Artist Info

Track: Build My Life (listen to the song)

Artist: Housefires

Album: Housefires III

Genre: Contemporary Christian Music (CCM)

Release Year: 2016

Duration: 8:11

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

Updates:

05/09/2022 – Upon reexamining this song, I realized that my criticism regarding this song not providing why we worship Jesus lacks merit, alongside love as the foundation vs. Jesus.  I also re-examined the unbeliever’s interpretation, concluding that it’s clearer than I initially thought.  Thus, I updated my review and significantly improved its score, raising it from 6/10 to 10/10 with a recommendation for corporate worship.

06/24/2021 – Updated section 3 to be consistent with other reviews, lowering its score from 7.5/10 to 6/10.

03/24/2021 – Updated per repetition announcement.  I also increased section 1’s score.  Combined with an error in my math, this raised the overall rating from 7/10 to 7.5/10.