Bethel Music is a powerhouse organization, spanning several artists, containing several songs I reviewed previously, including Rita Springer’s Defender, Housefires’ Build My Life and Good Good Father, Kari Jobe’s Forever, Phil Wickham’s This is Amazing Grace and Living Hope, and Cory Asbury’s controversial song Reckless Love.

Raise a Hallelujah will be the second review under the label “Bethel Music”, the first being No Longer Slaves. We will tackle the studio version.

Lyrics can be found in https://genius.com/Bethel-music-raise-a-hallelujah-live-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?

It is a call to action, that Bethel will “raise a hallelujah” and calls us to “sing a little louder”, with eight different ways, including:

In front of the enemy,

Louder than doubt,

Utilizing song as a tool,

In the midst of trials and tribulations,

With every fiber of their being,

While witnessing darkness run away,

While experiencing the mysteries of God, and

In fear of losing Him.

There are two reasons Bethel offers to justify praise, namely, because the King defeated death and heaven fights for them. Though the name of God or Jesus is not explicitly named, these rationale clarifies the recipient of Bethel’s praise, namely, Jesus Christ.

I find the repetition in Verses 1, 2, and the Chorus refreshingly clever. Putting it at the beginning threw me off and has a poetic feel to it. However, the Bridge seems lazily written, offering recycled lyrics, a minor issue on this otherwise excellent message.

Score: 9/10

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



All lyrics are Scripturally sound.

[Verse 1]

Lines 1-4: The word ‘Hallelujah” is a compound Hebrew phrase, with “hallelu” meaning “a joyous praise in song” and “jah” or “yah”, which refers to the Tetragrammaton YHWH. Put together, we are singing “we joyfully praise God in song”.

Bethel joyfully praises God in song:

in front of their enemies (1 Kings 18:36-40, Psalm 23:5 and Daniel 6:10-11),

to drown out unbelief (1 Kings 18:20-40),

to weaponize music (Psalm 150:1-6), and

to acknowledge God as One who fights our battles (Deuteronomy 3:22, Deuteronomy 20:4, Joshua 23:10, and Romans 8:31).

[Chorus]

Line 1: Despite the trials of this life, praise and worship are Bethel’s response, reminiscent of Christ’s response to persecution in Matthew 5:11-12 and the Apostles in Acts 5:41. Also, see Romans 5:3, 2 Corinthians 12:10, Colossians 1:11, Colossians 1:24, Hebrews 10:34, Hebrews 12:4-11, and James 1:2.

Line 2: Perhaps louder than unbelief, as described in Verse 1, line 2.

Lines 3 and 4: Clear references to the resurrection of Jesus (Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24, John 20, Acts 1:3, Acts 3:15, Acts 4:33, and 1 Corinthians 15:3-8).

[Verse 2]

Lines 1-4: A second list of actions associated with Bethel’s praise, that they praise:

with their whole heart (Psalm 86:12, Psalm 103:1-2, Psalm 103:22, Psalm 119:10, and Psalm 138:1),

while watching God’s light drive out darkness (Psalm 107:10-16, Luke 1:79, John 1:1-13, John 12:46, Ephesians 5:8, Colossians 1:13, and 1 Peter 2:9),

while experiencing the unfathomable mysteries of God (Job 11:7-12), and

in the middle of doubts, that God abandons. The Scriptures assure us He does not (Deuteronomy 31:6, Psalm 118:6 and Hebrews 13:5–6).

[Bridge]

Recycled lyrics from Verse 1, with a different opener: “sing a little louder”.

Score: 10/10

3. How would an outsider interpret the song?

Non-followers of Jesus will easily recognize this as praise and worship, and will probably not mistake it for worship of someone else other than the God of the Bible. That is, unless they don’t understand that the King who defeated death refers to Jesus. This is a possible, but not likely scenario.

Score: 9/10

4. What does this song glorify?

The entire song focuses on worshipping the God of creation, obviously glorifying Him.

Score: 10/10

Closing Comments

Bethel Music’s Raise a Hallelujah is an excellent song that stirs our hearts towards worship. Highly biblical, wonderful message, and easily accessible to unbelievers are hallmarks woven throughout each stanza.

While I found the Bridge to be lazy writing, worship leaders will have to decide if they want their congregation singing about what they want to do for God, rather than, well, worshipping God. I personally do not think this penalizes the song per my review, but it’s something worth considering. It might be useful as a lead-in first song to prepare our hearts for worship.

Final Score: 9.5/10

Artist Info

Track: Raise a Hallelujah (listen to the song) (buy the song)

Artist: Bethel Music

Album: Victory (live) (buy the album)

Genre: Contemporary Christian Music (CCM)

Release Year: 2019

Duration: 4:04

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

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