CCM Radio Edition.

February 26, 2018. Today we’ll be taking a look at “O’Lord” by Lauren Daigle which currently sits at #2 on the 20theCountdownMagazine.

Today’s  song is an older one. I’m curious as to how this has risen to the #2 spot now. Lauren Daigle has an amazing voice. The melody is catchy and anthemic. The song is a pep talk that addresses the Lord as someone who is coming to make everything better… for the singer who is standing her ground where hope can be found. We’ll get to why this is a problem in the lyric, but first let’s give the song a listen and read through the lyrics.

Music Video

Lyrics (via K-Love)

Though times it seems
Like I’m coming undone
This walk can often feel lonely
No matter what until this race is won
I will stand my ground where hope can be found
I will stand my ground where hope can be found

Oh, O’Lord O’Lord I know You hear my cry
Your love is lifting me above all the lies
No matter what I face this I know in time
You’ll take all that is wrong and make it right
You’ll take all that is wrong and make it right

Your strength is found
At the end of my road
Your grace it reaches to the hurting
Still through the tears and the questioning why
I will stand my ground where hope can be found
I will stand my ground where hope can be found

Oh, O’Lord O’Lord I know You hear my cry
Your love is lifting me above all the lies
No matter what I face This I know in time
You’ll take all that is wrong and make it right
You’ll take all that is wrong and make it right
(Right, so right)
Make it right
(Right, so right)
Make it right, right

I will stand my ground
I will stand my ground

I will stand my ground where hope can be found
I will stand my ground where hope can be found

Oh! O’Lord O’Lord I know You hear my cry
Your love is lifting me above all the lies
No matter what I face this I know in time
You’ll take all that is wrong and make it right (take all what is wrong)
You’ll take all that is wrong and make it right
(Right, so right)
Make it right
(Right, so right)
Make it right, right

Writers: Joe Williams and Paul Mabury

Discussion

It’s clear that the aim of this song is to serve as a blanket encouragement to the listener. It is unclear if this encouragement is aimed at believers only or if its aim is more universal. The song is an attempt to share a gospel of wrongs being made right without any mention of the Law. The problem presented in the song is purely emotional and circumstantial. The singer feels undone, lonely, weak. The answer presented is to “stand my ground where hope is found”. What does that mean? Hope in what, that my circumstances will turn around? That I won’t be lonely anymore? That my life will be brought back together? Is that the Hope of the Gospel? These are not the Gospel, though each might be a by-product of the Gospel. The problem of our lives isn’t limited to us being victims of a fallen world… our primary problem is that we are sinners, guilty of sin and deserving of God’s Wrath.

Ephesians 2:1-3 (ESV) And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

The problems cited in the song… the malady the song seeks to remedy for the listener… is a symptom, a byproduct of our primary problem… of sin.

Romans 5:12-14 (ESV) Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.

Our problem is sin. Death is only in this world because of sin. And it isn’t just our problem… but all of creation.

Romans 8:19-21 (ESV) For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

With this in mind, and only with this in mind, are we ready to present the Hope of Salvation, the Hope of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is the wrong that He has righted… Our wrong, our guilt, our transgression. We are not mere victims, we are the guilty party. And the Christ has already atoned for our sin in His finished work on the cross.

Romans 5:15-21 (ESV) But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

This is what we need… we need grace, we need forgiveness, we need justification, we need reconciliation. This is our deepest need and the very Hope of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Colossians 1:9-20 (ESV) And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

Amen. This is the Hope of Salvation from not only temporal death, or loneliness, or weakness, or despair… but from the very Wrath of God. Christ gave Himself to atone for our sin or reconcile us to Himself for eternity… making peace by His blood on His cross in our place.

Ephesians 2:4-10 (ESV) But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Conclusion

The song isn’t an evil song filled with false doctrine, it’s an empty song pushing an empty gospel. I decided to leave this song in the middle category, because I wanted to discuss Law and Gospel. The Promise of the Gospel is far greater than the improvement of temporal circumstance, it is the Promise of being made right with God, reconciled to Him, and forgiven of our sin, and the Hope of the Resurrection in Christ Jesus to eternal life.

Hebrews 13:20-21 (ESV) Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Amen.
In Christ Jesus,
Jorge