Jon Egan – What You Said

Jon Egan is the former leader of New Life Church’s band Desperation Band between 2002 and 2017.  Under his leadership, the band released:

• Desperation (2003)
• From the Rooftops (2004)
• Who You Are (2006)
• Sessions & Remixes EP (2007)
• Everyone Overcome (2007)
• Light Up the World (2009)
• Update: Live (2011)
• Center of it All (2012)
• Banner (2014)

He also released Unveil (Live) in 2019 under his own name.

Also, check out my review of This Changes Everything.

Lyrics can be found at https://genius.com/Jon-egan-what-you-said-live-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?

God’s Word is unchanging, He is good, and he does good things.  Egan worships Him for it and tells others about it, wanting others to follow his lead.

Although the word “God” or any similar title is absent, Egan has used many pet Christian phrases that Christians will immediately recognize, including “valley of death”, “no height and no depth”, and especially “Your promises are yes and amen”.

Side Note: To those annoyed by massive repetition, the song’s end repeats the same two lines 6 times in a row.

Score: 10/10

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

The entire song follows Scripture’s lead.

[Verse 1]

Lines 1 and 2: Egan’s circumstances do not alter God’s Word (Psalm 119:89, Isaiah 40:8, Matthew 24:35, Mark 13:31, John 10:35, and 1 Peter 1:25).

Line 3: Repeats line 2.

Line 4: See line 1.

Lines 5 and 6: Repeats/essentially repeats line 2.  The latter portion of line 6 is inherently rejective.

Lines 7-12: Repeats/essentially repeats lines 1-6.

[Chorus]

Line 1: God is both the embodiment of goodness (1 Chronicles 16:34, Psalm 23:6, Psalm 27:13, Psalm 31:19-20, Psalm 34:8, Psalm 86:5, Psalm 100:5, Psalm 106:1, Psalm 119:68, Psalm 135:3, Psalm 136:1, Psalm 145:9, Lamentations 3:25, Nahum 1:7, Matthew 19:17, Mark 10:18, and Luke 18:19) and does good things (Exodus 33:19, Psalm 13:6, Psalm 23:6, Psalm 27:13, Psalm 31:19, Psalm 34:8, Psalm 84:11, Psalm 100:5, Psalm 107:1, Psalm 118:29, Psalm 119:68, Psalm 145:9, Matthew 7:11, Mark 10:18, Luke 11:13, Luke 18:19, Romans 2:4, Philippians 1:6, James 1:17, and 1 Peter 2:1-3).

Line 2: Essentially rephrases line 1.

Line 3: God keeps all His promises (Numbers 23:19, Joshua 21:45, Joshua 23:14, 1 Kings 8:56, Romans 4:21, 2 Corinthians 1:20, 1 Thessalonians 5:24, Hebrews 10:23, and 2 Peter 3:9).

Line 4: Repeats line 1.

[Spontaneous (1)]

Lines 1 and 2: Essentially repeats the second part of Chorus, line 1.

[Verse 2]

Lines 1-4: Essentially rephrases/repeats Verse 1, lines 1 and 2.  It could potentially be borrowing from Romans 8:38-39 as well.

Line 5: This comes from the Koine Greek term “Pistis”, which means “persuasion”.  It’s one of the terms that translates to the English word for “faith” and appears in several passages of Scripture.

Line 6: Egan worships God with all of his heart (Psalm 86:12, Psalm 103:1-2, Psalm 103:22, Psalm 119:10, and Psalm 138:1).

Line 7: Egan will tell others about God (Matthew 28:18-20).

Line 8: Essentially repeats line 7.

[Spontaneous (2)]

Line 1: Egan asks others to follow his example in Verse 2, line 7

Line 2: Egan surrenders to God (Psalm 43:5, 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).

Line 3: More on this in Refrain.

Line 4: Essentially repeats line 3.

[Refrain]

Line 1: This is borrowed from 2 Corinthians 1:20.

Line 2: A statement that summarizes the entire song.  See commentary on Verse 1, lines 1 and 2.

Lines 3-12: Repeats lines 1 and 2.

Score: 10/10

3. How would an outsider interpret the song?

As stated in Section 1, “You” is never given a proper title. However, of the three phrases mentioned in that Section, “Your promises are yes and amen” is the most recognizable from an unbeliever’s perspective. They are likely to think Egan is likely telling others about how great God is and wants others to delcare it.

Score: 10/10

4. What does this song glorify?

It glorifies God that Egan proclaims God’s unalterable Word and his worship therein, informing others of His kindness.

Score: 10/10

Closing Comments

Jon Egan’s What You Said is Biblical.  It declares God’s promises, that He will do everything He said He would.  He is good and kind, a message that Egan proclaims from the rooftops as his personal act of worship.  These points glorify God.  Unbelievers should easily interpret similarly.

Although not my cup of tea, it is appropriate for corporate worship.

Final Score: 10/10

Artist Info

Track: What You Said (Live) (listen to the song)

Artist: Jon Egan

Album: Unveil (Live)

Genre: Contemporary Christian Music (CCM)

Release Year: 2019

Duration: 6:49

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