Originally, when I received this request, it came to me under the artist Michael W. Smith. A kind user who goes by the name “lost or just less found” pointed out to me that UPPERROOM is the original artist. Thank you lost! You helped the original artist be found.

UPPERROOM is a church based in Dallas, Texas. Opening its doors in 2010, it started with little pomp, much like this website. Today, they have attracted over 100 staff who sing, write, and play music in worship nearly 20 times per week. Pastor Michael Miller leads this organization and planted a second church in Denver. Elyssa Smith, who wrote Surrounded (Fight My Battles), leads worship at their Denver location.

A producer from global worship superstar Michael W. Smith heard Elyssa’s song on YouTube, prompting this cultural phenomenon to prominently record his own version in his 2018 live album Surrounded. His album popularized her song and catapulted UPPERROOM into the spotlight, leading to their first full-length album To The One, released on February 22, 2019.

Previously recorded work are all live alums, mixing covers with original work. This includes Live from Upper Room (2016), Moments (2018), Moments II (2018), and Moments Color 003 (2019).

Lyrics can be found at https://genius.com/Upperroom-surrounded-fight-my-battles-lyrics. While I realize that the live version has additional lyrics, this review will be for the recorded version from their album Moments.

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?

While sections Chorus and Spontaneous have some meat to chew on (more on that in section 2), the excessive duplication throughout these lyrics significantly distracts from what little message it had regarding Christ’s relentless presence and what I can only assume is The Last Supper. While UPPERROOM’s intended use of repetition is to usher in the Holy Spirit, my experience is not what they expected.

Most of you know by now that I dislike excessive repetition, to put it mildly. Imagine how I felt, when almost the entire song consists of the same lyrics, washed, rinsed, and repeated ad infinitum several times. It is like a sub-par roller coaster: I wanted desperately for it to end, breathing a sigh of relief when it stopped. Below were my counts for the worst offenders:

This is how I fight my battles – 28 times (including derivatives)

It may look like I’m surrounded, but I’m surrounded by You – 17 times (including derivatives)

This is beyond lazy. It’s criminal! And I don’t mean smooth criminal either.

While I understand that UPPERROOM singing about themselves might seem self-centered, it appears testimonial in nature, much like the writings of Paul in several of his epistle’s. I cannot criticize them for this utilization of the pronoun “I”.

Score: 6/10

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

All lyrics are biblical assuming my estimate in section Spontaneous, line 2, is correct. Given the loose connection to Christ’s body and blood in section Spontaneous, we will assume “You” refers to Jesus throughout these lyrics.

[Verse]

Line 1: How does UPPERROOM fight their battles? This is not addressed until section Spontaneous. An interesting choice for a section name!

Line 2: This also makes little sense until we reach section Spontaneous.

Lines 3-8: Repeats line 1.

[Chorus]

Line 1: A portion of line 2.

Lines 2 and 3: Reminiscent of Psalm 23:4, Christ’s presence envelops dire scenarios, real or imagined.

Lines 4-9: Repeats lines 2 and 3.

[Bridge]

Line 1: The power of Christ’s shed blood washes away sins (Ephesians 1:7, Colossians 1:14, Hebrews 9:22, 1 Peter 1:2, and 1 Peter 1:18-19).

Lines 2-4: Repeats line 1.

[Spontaneous]

Line 1: Repeats Verse, line 1. Serves as an introduction for UPPERROOM to give context to its meaning.

Line 2: What table is that? My best guess is what is colloquially known as The Last Supper, the meal to which Jesus instituted communion (or the Eucharist, if you’re Roman Catholic). The Bridge and the next two lines are my best clues to contextualize this phrase, with the body representing Christ’s battered body and the cup representing His shed blood (see Matthew 26:17–30, Mark 14:12–26, Luke 22:7–39, John. 13:1–17:26, and 1 Corinthians 11:23-29). This could have been much clearer.

Lines 3 and 4: That is, overcome death. He rose again (see Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24, John 20, Acts 1:3, Acts 3:15, Acts 4:33, and 1 Corinthians 15:3-8).

All other sections after [Spontaneous] derive from preceding lyrics or add nothing valuable to my evaluation. There is little point analyzing them.

Score: 9/10

3. How would an outsider interpret the song?

This song is highly confusing to unbelievers. How does being surrounded by “You” somehow make Christians fight their battles? Saying it 1,000 times will not help it make more sense to those outside the camp of Christ.

Score: 4/10

4. What does this song glorify?

God’s glory is in these lyrics, uplifting the power, power, wonder-working power in the blood of the lamb, despite my by annoyance and a strong desire to cease listening.

Score: 10/10

Closing Comments

The strong asset attained from UPPERROOM’s Surrounded (fight my battles) is adherence to Biblical accuracy. Beyond that, their redundant and relentless recurrence of two particular passages heavily diverts attention away from their otherwise good message of Christ’s presence, shed blood, resurrection, and God’s glory.

I am not sure what Michael W. Smith’s producer saw in this song, but apparently, he saw something different than I do. Perhaps he is not nearly annoyed at relentless repetition as I am.

Final Score: 7.5/10

Artist Info

Track: Surrounded (Fight My Battles) (listen to the song) (buy the song)

Artist: UPPERROOM

Album: Moments (buy the album)

Genre: Rock

Release Year: 2018

Duration: 5:49

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

Updates:

03/27/2020 – Upon further reflection and prayer, I decided that repetition does not impact an unbeliever’s interpretation or the lyrics’ inherent glorification of God. Therefore, I updated my commentary sections 3 and 4 and updated my score in section 4, raising this review from 7/10 to 7.5/10.

03/14/2019 – Upon re-examination, I realized that I was too harsh on UPPERROOM for their endless use of repetition. While I am personally against such use, that is no reason to give it an overall 3/10 rating, especially since its Biblical score was high. Thank you Beeb294 on Reddit for pointing this out!

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