Photo by Amy Chen
Maverick City Music is a Contemporary Christian group that attempts to shake the normalcy of CCM music, including collectives such as Hillsong, Bethel, Psallos, The Porter’s Gate, Red Rocks Worship, and People & Songs. They exist as a community of singers rather than a band of ten or fewer people who appear on stage. They hosted several writing camps before dabbling into music. Recently forming in 2018, they released two EP’s and one album:
- Maverick City Vol. 1 EP (2019)
- Maverick City Vol. 2 EP (2019)
- Maverick City Vol. 3, Part 1 (2020)
Lyrics can be found at https://genius.com/Maverick-city-music-you-keep-on-getting-better-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?
Maverick City makes several claims about God and Maverick City:
God is:
- good
- loving
- enough for mankind
- patient
- kind
- unchanging in nature
- friend of the saved
- unshakable (that is, sovereign)
- perfect
- daily providing new mercies
Maverick City:
- responds to God’s goodness, patience, and kindness with praise through singing
- stands on God’s truth as their foundation
- saw God act
- sees God as better as they grow in experience and knowledge of God
- sees God’s new mercies through personal experience
Side Note: To those who are sensitive to massive repetition, This song contains 17 alternating refrains of “Everyday gets sweeter” and “Everyday gets better”, and 69 repeats of “You keep on getting better”.
Score: 10/10
2. How much of the lyrics line up with Scripture?
These lyrics align with God’s inspired Word.
[Verse 1]
Line 1: God is good (Psalm 27:13, Psalm 31:19, Psalm 34:8, Psalm 107:1, Psalm 119:68, Psalm 145:9, Mark 10:18, Luke 18:19, Romans 2:4, and James 1:17). Maverick City Music sings in response.
Line 2: God is loving (Nehemiah 9:17, Psalm 17:7, Psalm 36:5-7, Psalm 63:3, Psalm 69:16, Psalm 117:2, Isaiah 54:8, John 3:16, John 13:34, John 15:13, Romans 5:6-8, Romans 8:37-39, Galatians 2:20, Ephesians 2:4-5, Ephesians 5:25, Titus 3:4, 1 John 4:8, and 1 John 4:16-19). Maverick City Music sings in response.
Lines 3 and 4: Regardless of what Maverick City goes through, God is our portion (Numbers 18:20, Deuteronomy 10:9, Deuteronomy 18:2, Joshua 13:33, Psalm 16:5, Psalm 23:5, Psalm 73:26, Psalm 142:5, Psalm 119:57, Psalm 142:5, Lamentations 3:24, and Ezekiel 44:28).
Lines 5-8: How does God remind Maverick City about his faithful lovingkindness? Verse 2 tells us.
[Chorus]
Lines 1-6: See Verse 1, line 1.
In its fourth iteration, it contains add-on’s that speak about:
- God is to be praised from sunrise to sunset (Psalm 113:3)
- God’s nature does not change (see Verse 2, line 3, below)
Its fifth iteration (though not titled as Chorus in the link provided) also contains an add-on about God’s perfect record. This references the holiness of God (Leviticus 11:44-45, Leviticus 19:2, Leviticus 20:7, and 1 Peter 1:15-16) and sinless life of Jesus (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).
[Verse 2]
Line 1: God shows His love through His patience with Maverick City (Exodus 33:19, Exodus 34:6, Numbers 14:18, Nehemiah 9:16-17, Nehemiah 9:30-31, Psalm 86:15, Psalm 103:8, Psalm 116:5, Psalm 145:8-9, Joel 2:13, Jonah 4:2, Romans 9:15, and James 5:11).
Line 2: He also shows it through His lovingkindness (Nehemiah 9:17, Psalm 17:7, Psalm 31:21, Psalm 36:7, Psalm 63:3, Psalm 69:16, Psalm 117:2, Isaiah 54:8, Isaiah 63:7, Ephesians 2:7, and Titus 3:4-6).
Line 3: God’s nature does not change (Numbers 23:19, Malachi 3:6, Hebrews 13:8, and James 1:17).
Line 4: Jesus stated in John 15:13-15 that greater love is to lay down one’s life for friends. A few short verses later, He called His Apostles “friends”. After that, He died for them by paying for their lawbreaking (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). This same friendship extends to Maverick City.
Line 5: That’s what David did in Psalm 103:1.
Line 6: Jesus is the Truth (John 14:6) and is the foundation for Maverick City’s faith (Matthew 7:24-27, Matthew 21:42, Acts 4:11, 1 Corinthians 3:10-11, Ephesians 2:20, 2 Timothy 2:19, and 1 Peter 2:6).
Line 7: To what could dethrone a sovereign God (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 8: A summary statement of the things they saw God do in lines 1-4.
[Bridge 1]
Line 1: From Maverick City’s perspective, their intellectual and experiential understanding of God increases their thankfulness, gratitude, and willingness to worship over time. The added phrases in further refrains of this line evidences this conclusion.
Lines 2-24: Repeats line 1 with some extra add-on’s that add to my conclusion in line 1. Line 12 contains a reference to Psalm 40:3. Lines 14, 18, and 20 are calls to Casper the friendly ghost.
In its second iteration, the extra add-on’s talk about:
- God’s revelation. This occurs in a variety of ways with too many Scripture to exhaustively list (I’ll include up to three per way). These include:
- Visions and dreams (Genesis 41:1-32, Daniel 2:1-45, and Matthew 1:18-24)
- Miracles (Exodus 3:1-6, 1 Kings 18:20-40, and 1 Samuel 17:1-51)
- Through Jesus (John 1:1, John 1:14, and Hebrews 1:1-2)
- Through Scripture (2 Timothy 3:16-17)
- God’s desire to be known personally, relationally (Acts 17:27, Romans 8:15, John 15:1-11, and Romans 11:16-24).
- More call-outs to Casper the friendly ghost.
[Spontaneous]
Lines 1-5: Essentially repeats portions of Chorus.
Line 6: See commentary on Bridge 1, line 1.
[Bridge 2]
Line 1 and 2: That is, because God, from Maverick City’s perspective, keeps “getting better”. See commentary on Bridge 1, line 1.
Lines 3-34: Repeats/essentially repeats line 1 and 2.
[Outro]
Lines 1-18: Repeats/essentially repeats Bridge 1, line 1.
Its add-ons include:
- New mercies every morning (Lamentation 3:22-23)
- A statement that might sound blasphemous when heard, but is not based on pausing. “Oh, my God” is the correct wording cited.
Score: 10/10
3. How would an outsider interpret the song?
While it might be tempting for unbelievers to render a boyfriend interpretation, Maverick City’s add-on’s explicitly state God as the object of their affection. With that in mind, I can’t see why those outside the camp of Christ would come to a different interpretation than I cited in section 1. Maverick City communicates in plain English. It might be possible that they would see Bridge 1’s relentless lyrics as “God is more moral than He was before”, but I highly doubt it.
Score: 10/10
4. What does this song glorify?
It glorifies God as good, loving, holy, unchanging, and our friend, among other things.
Score: 10/10
Closing Comments
Maverick City Music’s You Keep On Getting Better is highly Biblical. Maverick City worships God because He is good, loving, kind, patient, their portion, unchanging, sovereign, and provides daily renewed mercies, bringing Him glory. Maverick City responds in song, leaning on Him as their solid foundation for daily living, increasing in their appreciation for God’s goodness, which betters each day. Though unbelievers should easily come to the same view, Maverick City’s relentless refrains is a major distraction, making it difficult to appreciate their message.
I highly recommend this song for congregations that don’t share my view on massive repetition.
Final Score: 10/10
Artist Info
Track: You Keep On Getting Better (listen to the song)
Artist: Maverick City Music (Feat. Majesty Rose)
EP: Maverick City Vol. 2 (EP)
Genre: Contemporary Christian Music (CCM)
Release Year: 2019
Duration: 10:29
Agree? Disagree? Don’t be shy or have a cow! Calmly and politely state your case in a comment, below.
Updates:
03/25/2021 – Updated per repetition announcement. I moved my commentary to a side note and increased section 1’s score. This raised the overall rating, from 9.5/10 to 10/10.
Comments
Robert Peurifoy
This is my first hearing of this song and very impressed. Read the Youtube comments and know the use of “repetition” is not like by a lot of people. Having said that I have two comments. This music comes out of the Black Gospel tradition where repeated singing of a song or chorus is very common. Us “White” folks just don’t get it. We’re impatient and want to get worship over so we can make the game or the cafeteria. In the black tradition you couldn’t go to “The Game” or sat in a balcony for a movie. The only entertainment was the worship service which still can last today for 2-3 hours. Second is to question the song’s theology of “God is So Good.” Even as a pastor I was in my parents church where a previous music leader started the service with the “God is Good” statement where the congregation responds with “All the Time.” Since the unexpected and unnecessary death of my son I have refused to use that refrain. It has been 10 years since I have been there. I do not question the goodness of God. Now that I’ve lost both my children it’s just a difficult thing to say. Only in retrospect do we see that “God is good.”
Vince Wright
Robert,
Thank you for your comments! I am sorry to hear about your loss. I know what it’s like to lose a son and to struggle with God’s goodness in light of tragedy. it’s hard to see why God allows such things to occur. Yet, I came to the same conclusion as Peter when he said “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life.” (John 6:68).
-Vince Wright
Mari
Thank you for your comment Robert! I’m first generation American, my parents are from West Africa. I spend most of my life in African churches, and multicultural but predominately white led churches. In the latter there wasn’t much repetition. But in African and Black American churches I went to, there was always a lot of repetition. So I was so happy to see your recognition and commentary on this! I always saw it as really sinking into your soul. Kind of how we repeat verses to memorize. I think there are so many things we can learn from by being aware of how other cultures worship. Glad to see a group like Maverick City becoming more “mainstream.”
Shan
Sorry for your loss. Good point.
Spactus
I am new to your site and thank you for the care and time you spend on sharing your views. The first time I heard this song was last Sunday, when our church began singing it for the first time. After we sang it again this morning, I began googling for reflections from others who might have thoughts about the song, which led me to this page.
The refrain “You keep on getting better” struck me as troublesome. Yes, the repetition annoys me, though I am not always peeved by repetition of phrases in songs. In this case, “You keep on getting better” (particularly its repetition) seems to overshadow all other messages of the song, not only casting a greater focus on “me” in so doing, but also indirectly implying that God can “get better.” The comparitive language troubles me, along with how we often think of “better” in the English language: as a continuation of “good” toward “best.” God is good, but that has nothing to do with how *I* perceive or experience Him. Does that goodness truly improve?
Also, as it was sung in our service, “to me” was just sort of a whispery throw away line after all the repetitive “You keep on getting better.” Off the top of my head, I recall another song where God is said to improve, though in that case I believe the lyrics are more balanced and the word choice more on point: “He gets sweeter and sweeter as the days go by/ Oh, what a love between my Lord and I/ I keep falling in love with Him, over and over and over and over again.” Before we moved, at our last church we used to sing “God is Good” by Dustin Kensrue. This song and that one seem to have similar messages, though I believe “God is Good” says it more convincingly and honestly. Thoughts?
Vince Wright
Spactus,
Thank you for your comments and compliment, and welcome to The Berean Test!
In my experience, As I grow closer to God, I become more aware of my sin. From my perspective, this heightens my gratitude for the things God has done for me (and will continue to do). One could say that God “gets better” as I become more aware of how much I’ve failed him.
I also see it as my life improves for the better. From my perspective, as I draw closer to God, the range of areas where God makes me better increases. As does my gratitude for His Kindness to lead me through sanctification. It’s not that God improves, but from where I sit, God gets “better” over time. At least, my relationship with Him improves over time.
I can also see how this could your view, that from God’s perspective, God doesn’t change. Therefore, He does not get better. But, at the same time, I think it’s well-established that this song comes from our perspective because of the “to me” statement. This gives me reason to believe that Maverick City Music references their experiences as opposed to an objective, theological truth, much like the Psalms.
-Vince Wright
Brandi Harris
I don’t think God can get better when He is already perfect in all of His ways however the more I get to know Him, the more I learn, the closer I get to Him in my spiritual walk the more I love and adore Him. In a sense He just keeps on getting better to me.
Anna
Thank you for posting this. I cant help but agree with the last commenter. If we sing from our humanly perspective then yes God gets better. But isnt the point of worship to sing of God, who He is and His unchanging attributes? We run the risk of misrepresenting who God is by poor choice of words and simply, by putting us in the center instead of God Himself. This is in my opinion another good example of man-centered worship song which we have so many already. If you were to give yourself a whole day’s worth of listening to hymns of old you can see the stark lyrical contrast from then and now. We really dont need another man-centered song that feed into our own self-centered tendencies. Instead we need to be reminded of how wretched we were save God’s sovereign mercy that led Jesus to give up His life to ransom us.
Vince Wright
Anna,
Thank you for your comments!
I understand the need to focus on God in worship and not myself; However, I also came across a post by commenter Steve Barhydt on this subject that I think challenges our mindset when it comes to the personal pronoun “I” in worship music. Below are his words:
“For those who complain that Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) is too self centered I offer the following quantitative analysis:
There are 2423 words in the English KJV in Psalm 119…
The most used word is ‘thy’ (referring to God) at 209 occurrences.
The second most used word is ‘I’ at 142 occurrences.
Let’s take this a step further…
Nouns and pronouns for God (Thy, Thine, Thou, Thee, Lord) are used 285 times. (or 11.76% of the total word usage.)
Nouns and pronouns for the Psalmist (I, me, my ,mine, myself) are used 312 times (or 12.88% of the total word usage.)
What does this mean and why is it important?
First, to claim that a song is too self centered and, therefore, should not be sung in church because it has too many personal pronouns (I, me, my) is unsupportable in light of the fact that the Holy Spirit had no issues with inspiring the psalmists to refer to themselves multiple times in their songs.
Second, a lot of Christian music is about the relationship the believer has with the Almighty God (or that the unbeliever could have with Him.) Relationships are NOT one-sided. Songs about relationships are not going to have just one side represented in the lyrics.
As long as what the ‘I/me’ in the song is claiming or proclaiming does not contradict what the Scripture says about ‘I/me’, the song should be considered Biblical.”
-Vince Wright
Fiona
Could I ask how many of the ‘I’d in the bible that you mention, are actually God referring to Himself as opposed to a human ‘I’?
Vince Wright
Fiona,
Thank you for your inquiry! However, I don’t know what you’re talking about. Can you explain what you mean and how it’s relevant to this review?
-Vince Wright
Anthony Brunske
I think she means how many times does the word “I” or “me” refer to a human? An example would be “I cried out to the Lord” which would be a human “I” while God referring to Himself would be “I, the Lord, have spoken this”.
Vince Wright
Anthony,
Ok, thanks! I understand the question better now, but I still don’t see how that’s relevant to this review (or anything else for that matter).
-Vince Wright
Steve Barhydt
My quantitative analysis of Psalm 119 takes into account who the “I” is referring to.
Christie
“And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.”
Revelation 4:8
Doesn’t seem like the One worthy to be praised has an issue with repetitive praise and worship.
Maggie Carey
This is exactly what I was thinking. There is a lot of repetition in heaven. It is because they are overwhelmed by God’s beauty and glory and holiness. Like someone said, it helps let the truth sink in and touch our hearts. Much of the white race tend to be afraid of expressing emotions in church. A football game it’s okay, but not church. I, who am white, love expressive worship and using a song for meditating on beautiful truths. That’s what the repetition does. I am grateful to see young people enthusiastic about God in worship. He is a great God and worthy of all our praise and worship.
Pam Newman
Thank you very much for all the detail you put into this explanation. I appreciate all your time, research and analysis. I have one question, why the following reference: “Lines 14, 18, and 20 are calls to Casper the friendly ghost.” and ” More call-outs to Casper the friendly ghost.” I will have to admit, these statements throw me off. Thank you again for being so detailed in analyzing lyrics for this song.
Vince Wright
Pam Newman,
Thank you for your question! It’s part of a running joke that I sometimes do in reviews. I briefly talk about it on my Evaluation Criteria page.
-Vince Wright
Pam Newman
Thank you Vince! 😊
Mark Wagner
I see that a lot, if not most of MCM is very repetitious. Although the content and theology of their music my be biblical, I have serious reservations about it’s delivery.
This continuous repetition is for a purpose, I believe it is to create an emotional fervor. The problem created by emotionalism is that it is mistaken for some sort of manifestation of the Holy Spirit.
These people/worshipers then tend to merely seek-out the experience or the feeling, falsely thinking that they have encountered God.
Maggie Carey
How do you personally know when you have encountered God? The fruit of the Spirit is emotion. Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness Faithfulness, Self-Control. David danced before the Lord with all his might and was criticized by his wife because he looked foolish to her. God is worthy of extravagant praise! We don’t have to fear our emotions if they come in response to the goodness of God.
Matthew
Can someone explain the reference to Casper the friendly ghost? 😂
Vince Wright
Matthew,
Great question! It’s a running joke, poking some friendly fun at artists who sound like poltergeists in their song lyrics.
-Vince Wright
Jon
I understand that what is probably meant by “You keep on getting better” is that as they get to know God more, more of His goodness is revealed to them. However, that is not what that line says. The line says that He actually gets better. This is objectively false. To say God gets better is to say that God is not perfect. This blasphemy has no place in Christian worship.
RC
I echo the sentiments of those who find the bridge problematic. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He can’t “keep on getting better” because He does not change. Words have meaning. It’s not saying “the relationship keeps getting better” or “my understanding of God keeps getting better.” It’s literally saying “YOU keep on getting better.” The rest of the song is amazing, but that bridge bothers me to the point where I can’t sing that part of the song because, as is, it’s heretical. A subtle lyric change to “it keeps on getting better” wouldn’t bother me (though, simply as a personal preference, I could do with less repetition). But, as I said, words have meaning, and the bridge is problematic. No judgements for those who can justify it. I personally cannot.
Jedidiah
I love the song but the bridge brings a lot of questions and confusion in my mind. I personally don’t feel bridge”keep on getting better “.unless they come out and tell us what they meant. I think they had something they meant concerning the bridge
Lisa Simpson
Like others, I believe the bridge makes an inaccurate statement about God, because He does not change. The rest of the lyrics are amazing, but the bridge lyrics should be modified; I have found no scriptures that say God “keeps on getting better”. I do not consider this song to be appropriate for corporate Christian worship.
Chuck
I think I understand where the writer is coming from. I truly believe that our view of God should be better than when we first believed. I believe our faith and experience should be sweeter as we grow as believers. In some ways, perhaps our persecption of Him gets better because we see more clearly as we walk daily with Christ. I can testify each of these to be true in my life. However, there are much better ways of expressing that than with a statement that imply’s that God is lacking in any way. He is infinitely perfect in beauty, Love, Power, and holiness. I will assume the Good intentions of the composer. However I can not sing this song in my church, with out some form of rewording.