Phil Wickham – Manger Throne

Contemporary Christian artist Phil Wickham was 18 years old when he began his career in 2002.  Since then, he released 11 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)
• Hymn of Heaven (Acoustic Sessions) (2022)
• I Believe (2023)

He received four Dove awards for his work, including Songwriter of the Year – Artist (2022), Worship Recorded Song of the Year (2019, 2022), and Worship Album of the Year (2022).

Also, check out my other Phil Wickham reviews.

Lyrics can be found at https://genius.com/Phil-wickham-manger-throne-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?

Though Jesus could have came to the earth with guns blazing, as it were, the Father intended Him to more humble beginnings, as prophecied by the ancients.  The Father’s plan is for His only begotten Son to become man, live a sinless life, teach the people, die for our sins, and rise again.  Through this, God is glorified, in part, because Wickham bends his knees to serve Him and invites the rest of us to follow suit.

My chief complaint is that this song says Jesus reigns as a baby.  This is unsupported Biblically.

Score: 8/10

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

Almost all lyrics are in agreement with the holy Scriptures, except for the part of Chorus that says Jesus reigns from His manger throne.

[Verse 1]

Lines 1-8: Jesus’ comments in Matthew 26:53-54 inform us that, yes, He could have came to earth and conquered it by force.  However, as Jesus stated in this same passage, “How then would the Scriptures be fulfilled?”  Indeed, this was not the Father’s plan, which was for Christ to become one of us (Philippians 2:7).  Scripture must be fulfilled (Matthew 26:56), which includes the Messiah’s birthplace in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2), among other prophecies.

[Chorus]

Line 1: Jesus is glorified (John 1:14, John 17:22, 2 Corinthians 3:18, 2 Corinthians 4:6, Philippians 4:19, Hebrews 1:1-3, and Revelation 21:10-14).

Line 2: This is incorrect.

Luke 1:33 tells us that He “will reign” over the house of Jacob forever and ever. This is written in the future tense. He has not yet ascended the throne, but He will someday.

Matthew 2:2 states that the Magi were looking for Him who “has been” born King of the Jews. The phrase “has been” is written in the present perfect continuous tense. This means that an action has started in the past, but it continues in the present.

If we are to reconcile these two statements, then it cannot be the case that Jesus “reigns from His manger throne”.  He is a King yes, but not a King on a throne.  That was given up during His descention and was not reclaimed until after His ascension (Philippians 2:5-11).

Lines 3 and 4: Wickham surrenders to Jesus (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).

[Verse 2]

Lines 1-4: Makes the same point as Verse 1, lines 1-6.

Line 5: Bethlehem is Jesus’ birthplace (Luke 2:1-7).

Line 6: Jesus is Creator (John 1:1-3 and Colossians 1:15-16).

Line 7: He paid for our 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 9:15-26, 1 Peter 1:17-21, 1 Peter 2:24, 1 John 1:7, 1 John 2:1-2, and Revelation 5:9) so that we could be redeemed from it (John 3:16, Romans 5:6-8, 1 Corinthians 6:20, Hebrews 5:9, Hebrews 9:28, 1 Peter 1:18-19, 1 John 1:9, and 1 John 2:2).

Line 8: His resurrection proves that death could be conquered (Isaiah 25:8, Hosea 13:14, Luke 20:35-36, 1 Corinthians 15:24-26, 1 Corinthians 15:55-57, 2 Timothy 1:10, and Hebrews 2:14), which makes eternal life with Him possible (Mark 10:29-30, John 3:15-16, John 3:36, John 4:14, John 5:24, John 5:39-40, John 6:27, John 6:40, John 10:28, John 17:3, John 20:31, Romans 5:21, Romans 6:22-23, Romans 8:18, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, Galatians 6:8, 1 Timothy 1:16, 1 Timothy 6:12, 2 Timothy 2:11, Hebrews 5:9, 1 Peter 5:10, 1 John 2:23-27, 1 John 5:10-13, 1 John 5:20, Jude 1:20-21, Revelation 3:5, Revelation 7:16-17, and Revelation 21:3-4).

[Bridge]

Line 1: Christ came from heaven and become one of us on earth (John 3:13 and Philippians 2:5-7).

Line 2: Summarizes His entire ministry from birth to death.

Lines 3 and 4: See commentary on Chorus, line 2, concerning Jesus’ Kingship.  Also, line 3 borrows from the end of Verse 1 in Isaac Watts’ Joy To The World.

Lines 5 and 6: He rose from the dead (Matthew 28:1-20, Mark 16:1-20, Luke 24:1-12, John 20:1-29, Acts 1:3, Acts 3:15, Acts 4:33, and 1 Corinthians 15:3-8).

Lines 7 and 8: Repeats lines 3 and 4.

Lines 9-16: Repeats lines 1-8

Line 17: Wickham draws us to hail Christ as King.

Line 18: Repeats line 17.

Score: 8/10

3. How would an outsider interpret the song?

Wickham uses everyday language to communicate clearly that this is a Christmas song.  It speaks of Jesus as God who became man, that He could easily conquer earth and force us to serve Him, but chose the Father’s plan to meekness and die for His people as a man, rising again to put death in its place.  Wickham explicitly uses the words “Jesus”, “Bethlehem”, “manger”, and “cross”, making such a conclusion easier to reach.  However, they probably won’t know that Jesus reigning from His manger throne is incorrect.

Score: 7/10

4. What does this song glorify?

It glorifies Jesus as the meek Messiah who died for us and resurrected, compelling Wickham and others to worship Him.  It does not glorify Him that this song says that Jesus reigns when He does not.

Score: 8/10

Closing Comments

Phil Wickham’s Manger Throne is mostly helpful.  It reminds us that Jesus chose humility over force to conquer our hearts, as well as conquering death.  This brings Him glory.  Unbelievers should easily conclude similarly.  However, it does not glorify Jesus that this song is wrong about Him ruling as a newborn.

It’s difficult to recommend this song for corporate worship.

Final Score: 8/10

Artist Info

Track: Manger Throne (listen to the song)

Artist: Phil Wickham

Album: N/A

Genre: Contemporary Christian Music (CCM)

Release Year: 2023

Duration: 4:21

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

Updates:

12/19/2023 – Thanks to Neal Cruco’s comments, I realized that this song inaccurately reported that Jesus reigned as a baby.  Therefore, I lowered this song’s overall score from 10/10 to 8/10 and removed my recommendation for corporate worship.