Photo by Kara Eads
Contemporary Christ artist Phil Wickham was 18 years old when he began his career in 2002. Since then, he released ten albums, including:
- Give You My World (2003)
- Phil Wickham (2006)
- Cannons (2007)
- Heaven & Earth (2009)
- Response (2011)
- The Ascension (2013)
- Children of God (2016)
- Living Hope (2018)
- Christmas (2019)
- Hymn of Heaven (2021)
He received a Dove award in 2019 for Worship Recorded Song of the Year for his song Living Hope.
Also, check out my reviews of Battle Belongs, Tethered, The Secret Place, Messiah / You’re Beautiful, Christ Is Risen, Your Love Awakens Me, Great Things, Living Hope and This is Amazing Grace.
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?
We loudly worship an eternal God in His house because:
- He performed miracles.
- He gives us victory through Christ’s sacrifice and subsequent resurrection.
- He made us a royal priesthood.
- He gives us undeserved favor.
Score: 10/10
2. How much of the lyrics line up with Scripture?
All of it.
Lyrics posted with permission.*
[Verse 1]
We worship the God who was
We worship the God who is
We worship the God who evermore will be
That is, Phil Wickham worships an eternal God (Deuteronomy 33:27, 1 Chronicles 16:34, Job 36:26, Psalm 48:14, Psalm 90:2-4, Psalm 102:12, Psalm 102:26-27, Proverbs 8:23, Isaiah 40:28, Isaiah 41:4, Habakkuk 1:12, John 17:5, Romans 1:20, 1 Corinthians 2:7, Ephesians 1:4, Hebrews 1:11-12, 1 Peter 1:20, 2 Peter 3:8, Revelation 1:8, Revelation 11:17, and Revelation 22:13).
He opened the prison doors
References Paul and Silas released from prison in Acts 16:26.
He parted the raging sea
References Moses’ parting of the red sea in Exodus 14:21.
My God, He holds the victory
Verse 2 explains this in more detail.
[Chorus]
There’s joy in the house of the Lord
There’s joy in the house of the Lord today
And we won’t be quiet
We shout out Your praise
There’s joy in the house of the Lord
Our God is surely in this place
And wе won’t be quiet
We shout out Your praisе
(Oh-oh-oh) We shout out Your praise
Repetitions aside, these two Verses and bridge provide reasons why we worship God, refusing to become silent (Psalm 100:4-5). Wickham also alludes to God’s omnipresence (1 Kings 8:27, Psalm 139:7-12, Proverbs 15:3, Jeremiah 23:23-24, Colossians 1:17, and Hebrews 4:13).
[Verse 2]
We sing to the God who heals
Examples of Jesus’ healings include Matthew 8:3, Matthew 9:29-30, Matthew 20:34, Mark 1:41-42, Mark 8:22-25, Luke 5:13, Luke 7:14-15, and Luke 22:51.
We sing to the God who saves
We sing to the God who always makes a way
‘Cause He hung up on that Cross
Then He rose up from that grave
We praise because God saved us through Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection as summarized by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:1-9.
My God’s still rolling stones away
Wickham shifts imagery to allude to spiritual reawakening (Romans 6:1-11, Romans 7:4-6, Galatians 2:19-20, 2 Timothy 2:11, and 1 Peter 2:24).
[Bridge]
We were the beggars
Now we’re royalty
Contrasts the lowest and highest positions in society, alluding to dead in sin (Proverbs 21:16, Luke 15:11-24, Romans 6:23, Ephesians 2:1-2, Colossians 2:13, and 1 Timothy 5:6) and royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9).
We were the prisoners
Now we’re running free
Contrasts deadness in sin to alive in Christ (Romans 6:1-11, Romans 7:4-6, Galatians 2:19-20, 2 Timothy 2:11, and 1 Peter 2:24).
We are forgiven, accepted
Redeemed by His grace
We received God’s undeserved favor (Genesis 15:6, Exodus 33:19, Psalm 32:1-2, Romans 3:21-24, Romans 4:3-8, Romans 5:1-2, Romans 5:6-8, Romans 5:15-21, Romans 6:14, Romans 8:1-4, Romans 9:14-16, Romans 11:5-6, Galatians 2:21, Galatians 3:6, Galatians 5:4, Ephesians 1:7, Ephesians 2:4-9, 2 Thessalonians 2:16, Titus 2:11, 1 Timothy 1:15-16, and James 2:23).
Let the house of the Lord sing praise
Essentially repeats Chorus, line 2.
‘Cause we were the beggars
Now we’re royalty
We were the prisoners
Now we’re running free
We are forgiven, accepted
Redeemed by His grace
Let the house of the Lord sing praise
Essentially repeats lines 1-7.
[Outro]
We shout out Your praise
There is joy in this house
There is joy in this house today
We shout out Your praise
We shout out Your praise
Essentially repeats Chorus, lines 2 and 4.
Score: 10/10
3. How would an outsider interpret the song?
Unbelievers should easily conclude that Christians worship God because of Jesus’ sacrifice. Why Christians? Wickham uses terms such as “God”, Lord”, cross” and “rolling stones away” that firmly point in that direction.
The only part they might not understand is the beginning of Bridge, which references spiritual deadness and our royal priesthood.
Score: 9/10
4. What does this song glorify?
It glorifies God, calling us to worship Him because of what He has done for us.
Score: 10/10
Closing Comments
Phil Wickham’s House of the Lord is great. It provides rationale for why we worship God and won’t stay silent about it. Chiefly, because we who were spiritually dead are made alive in Christ through His sacrifice and resurrection. This brings glory to God. Unbelievers should be able to piece most of this together without much research.
While I much prefer deeper theological concepts when I worship, I recommend this for corporate worship for congregations looking for a 2021 version of general praise.
Final Score: 9.5/10
Artist Info
Track: House of the Lord (listen to the song)
Artist: Phil Wickham
Album: Hymn of Heaven
Genre: Rock
Release Year: 2021
Duration: 4:17
Agree? Disagree? Don’t be shy or have a cow! Calmly and politely state your case in a comment, below.
*Copyright © 2021 Phil Wickham Music (BMI) Simply Global Songs (BMI) Cashagamble Jet Music (BMI) Be Essential Songs (BMI) (admin at EssentialMusicPublishing.com). All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Comments
Gar
Hi Vince, thank you for your exegesis of this song. I really was confused and concerned about the reference to “royalty” but your explanation has eased my mind. I am still not that comfortable with the implications of the specific word because it is a little bit of a stretch from the association with earthly status, privilege, and monarchism, but I do like the song for a corporate worship situation despite my reservations. Maybe a way to address it is to specify and quote the scripture to give context before leading worship with the song.
John
I also struggled with the word “royalty” but found it quite easy to substitute the words “royal priests” instead, which is right out of 1 Peter.
Stu
We are planning to sing this song in our church but I was challenged by a brother that the use of the phrase ‘house of God’ – and so glorifying the place of worship over the body could be unbiblibal? What are your thoughts?
Genuinely keen to sing the song but don’t want to be biblical.
He feels that for those new to faith, or young in faith like our children, phrases like “joy in the House of the Lord” are a significant stumbling block.
…“We need to be cautious about this. It comes with warnings from Jesus…
There are plenty of songs which will convey what you are trying to achieve about joy in being back together worshipping our God. We can do what you want to do, without mentioning the contentious “House of The Lord”.
Vince Wright
Stu,
Great questions!
The “house of the Lord” can mean a specific place of worship or God’s Presence. The phrase “house of the Lord” (and equivalent phrases) appears in many places throughout Scripture, including Psalm 23:6, Psalm 27:4, Psalm 122:1, and 1 Samuel 1:7. While 1 Samuel 1:7 references the temple, the other passages listed indicate God’s Presence. Revelation 21:3 confirms this, stating that God’s dwelling place is with man, that He will dwell with us and us with Him. I don’t understand how this phrase is contentious, especially since it appears in the Bible.
I’m not sure how this song glorifies the building over God. The song starts with worshipping the God who was, is, and will be, which gives praise and glory to God instead of the place of worship. It then talks about His acts, leading to Chorus.
Finally, if you want to find out if the phrase “joy in the House of the Lord” is a significant stumbling block to new converts, one suggestion is to share with them a copy of the lyrics and ask them what they think it means.
-Vince Wright
Kyle
Great Response Vince,
I appreciated your dealing with the scripture and pointing out the truth of God’s Presence as reference to how biblical authors use some of these phrases. However many of the scripture reference from the Old Testament kinda reinforce the issue that may come up in reference to singing this song. Even some of the references you mentioned are either talking about the tabernacle or the house of the lord in a future tense, as in the new heaven and new earth. Or they are referencing the very literal physical tabernacle that was where the presence of God rested. Obviously Jesus in the new testament changed that and 1 Peter 2 speaks very clearly to the fact that we are living stones and a royal priesthood (Something that I think Phill is referencing in this song.)
I completely agree with you that this song is not glorifying the building over the people of God. In fact I bet Phill wrote this song with a healthy biblical view that the house of the lord is us, his people, full of his spirit. But I also think that a vast majority of the people who walk into a contemporary worship gathering (where this song is most likely to be played) hear the idea of the “house of the Lord” and think it is in reference to the building. Pop culture just emphasizes this idea and honestly I use to think that the church building was a place God lived that it was special somehow. I think when we look to Jesus and the new testament authors we see them work really hard to help us understand that once Jesus died on the cross we have direct access to God and the temple system is now obsolete. Hence the house of the lord in very generic terms can be very misleading and I do believe it can become a theological stumbling block.
Maggie
Phil Wickham is not talking about the house of the Lord being an actual church or building…..he’s talking about Gods holy spirit being inside us! He wrote this song in lock-down during the pandemic and wanted it to be made clear that no we won’t be quiet and the devil will not destroy our joy in the Lord for he lives inside us! I watched his video on why he wrote this song <3
Kyle
I tend to agree, I think that most people who hear this song and therefore sing it tend to think about the “house of the Lord” being the physical building they walked into. I don’t think that the song is at all unbiblical. I honestly believe that Phil Wickham had in mind the scriptural bases that we are in fact the temple and the house of the lord, hence his repeated imagery of royalty also mentioned in 2 Peter. In our context we stay away from this type of message that reinforces the fact that our building on one day a week is special, I think in this way it goes against what Jesus and the new testament authors worked so hard to emphasize.
Michael Ramsey
How did the final score not get a 10 out of 10 lol. I thought non-believers score didn’t impact the final rating?
Vince Wright
Michael,
Great question!
Where did I say that the unbeliever’s score does not impact the final rating? I don’t recall saying that.
-Vince Wright
Tom
We have started singing this song in our church recently, and I’ve had some of the similar concerns with the ‘house of the Lord’ phrase in the song.
As some mentioned above, the context of that phrase in the OT generally refers to the actual ‘house’ of God, the tabernacle or temple. David’s desire to go there, to be there, to dwell there forever is related to his experience of going to this place, yes to meet with God, but it is about the place. I’ve never heard the idea that it is referring to God’s presence – the tabernacle/temple were the place where God’s presence dwelt/where God would appear most clearly to His people, but I’ve not heard that phrase used to describe God’s presence in and of itself.
Others have previously mentioned one of the issues – the number of people in churches that then sing this song and think it is referring to the church building/chapel/auditorium as ‘the house of the Lord’, as if we have gone back to OT temple worship days. We as those in Christ are clearly called the temple of the Holy Spirit/God, rather than a building or dwelling place. There are a lot of churches and well-known worship groups that still see the building as a tabernacle type building and we come there to meet with God and experience Him. I think this song can, even if it’s not Phil’s intention, come across this way.
The other point I’d say to show how it’s confusing is the use of ‘let the house of the Lord sing praise’. If ‘the house of the Lord’ refers to God’s presence, does he now mean, ‘let the presence of the Lord sing praise’? Surely this phrase is referring to the place or even people. I think this confuses things more and makes me nervous others will be confused too.
Why not just sing ‘there’s joy in the presence of the Lord’ or ‘there’s joy amongst the people of the Lord’, if that IS what is meant? That to me seems clearer and more Biblical.