How Jenn Johnson sang a song into her phone on a country road after adopting her son — and how those unrehearsed words of gratitude became one of the most beloved worship anthems of the 21st century, winning Song of the Year at the 2023 GMA Dove Awards and topping the Billboard Gospel Chart through CeCe Winans’ iconic cover
Introduction: A Song Born on a Country Road
Some of the greatest worship songs in Christian history were born not in recording studios or songwriting retreats, but in the unguarded, unscripted moments of ordinary life — when someone is simply driving down a road and a truth so large and so personal that it cannot be contained suddenly pours out of them and into the air. Charles Wesley reportedly wrote hymns on horseback. Rich Mullins drove with the windows down. And in 2018, Jenn Johnson was driving on a long country road in northern California, freshly home from adopting her son, when she grabbed her phone and started singing.
What she sang into that phone — a raw, grateful, overflowing declaration of God’s faithfulness in her life — became the foundation of “Goodness of God.” It was refined, co-written with an extraordinary team of songwriters, professionally recorded at Bethel Church in Redding, California, and released in January 2019 on Bethel Music’s album Victory. Within months it had spread to churches around the world. Within two years it had been covered by one of the greatest voices in Gospel music history. And in October 2023 — four years after its release — it stood on the stage of the GMA Dove Awards in Nashville as Song of the Year. The song that began on a country road with a phone and a grateful heart had become the most celebrated worship song of its era.
Jenn Johnson: The Woman Behind the Voice
Jennifer “Jenn” Johnson was born on April 15, 1982, and grew up in the orbit of Bethel Church in Redding, California — one of the most influential evangelical churches in contemporary American Christianity. As a teenager, she found herself drawn deeply into worship, and it was at Bethel that she met Brian Johnson, son of the church’s senior pastor Bill Johnson. They married in 2000, and in doing so she became not just a member of Bethel’s community but a central architect of its worship culture.
Together, Brian and Jenn Johnson have been leading worship at Bethel Church for over 25 years. In 2001, they released their debut live worship album Undone as Brian & Jenn Johnson. But it was as part of the collective known as Bethel Music — which they co-founded — that their impact became global. Bethel Music is not merely a worship band. It is a worship community: a collective of resident songwriters, worship leaders, and musicians at Bethel Church who record live worship services and release them to the world. The collective has produced some of the most widely sung worship music of the past two decades, including “This Is Amazing Grace” (Phil Wickham), “No Longer Slaves,” “Raise a Hallelujah,” and dozens of others.
Jenn became President of Bethel Music in 2021 — a role she had effectively been fulfilling for years before the title was formalized. She is also the founder of Lovely by Jenn Johnson, a lifestyle brand focused on wholeness and beauty for women, and the author of the book All Things Lovely (2021). Premier Christianity magazine identified “Goodness of God” as the third-most sung worship song in the UK according to CCLI data — a staggering testament to a woman who began her worship ministry as a teenager in a California church and never stopped.
Her five children — Haley, Téa, Braden, Ryder Moses, and Malachi Judah — are woven through the fabric of her music. Two of them, Ryder Moses and Malachi Judah, were adopted. And it is from the journey of adoption — specifically the adoption of Ryder Moses — that “Goodness of God” was born.
Ryder Moses: The Adoption That Changed Everything
Ryder Moses Johnson. The name itself is a theological statement. “Ryder” suggests a journey — someone on the move. “Moses” means “drawn out of the water” — but in Jenn and Brian’s intentional selection, they understood it as pointing to a deeper meaning: deliverer, one rescued in order to rescue others. Ryder Moses: adopted deliverer. A child drawn out of one situation and placed into a family, just as Moses was drawn from the Nile and placed into Pharaoh’s household — and then used to deliver a nation.
The adoption process is rarely simple or painless. For the Johnsons, it involved a long season of waiting, uncertainty, paperwork, prayer, and the particular kind of emotional exhaustion that comes from loving a child before you can hold them. And it was during this season — specifically in the period after they had finally brought Ryder home — that Jenn found herself driving on a country road in northern California, overcome with gratitude.
In her own words, as shared in multiple interviews and summarized powerfully in her conversation with Worship Leader magazine: “I just was so overcome with the goodness of God in my life and that’s my song, you know, because God has just walked me through hell and high water and His voice and the power of His word have gotten me through everything and it’s my anchor.” She grabbed her phone — not a notebook, not a piano, not a recording setup — and sang what was in her heart into the phone’s voice memo app while driving. What came out was not a polished song. It was a testimony. A declaration. An overflowing of a heart that had seen God be faithful in the hardest places and could not stay silent about it.
Those raw recorded words became the seed of “Goodness of God.” Jenn later brought the melody and the heart of the song to a co-writing session that included her husband Brian Johnson, as well as professional CCM songwriters Ed Cash, Ben Fielding (of Hillsong Worship), and Jason Ingram. Together, they shaped the rough material into the structured, singable, theologically rich song that the world would come to know.
The Songwriters: A Team of Five
“Goodness of God” carries five writing credits — an unusually collaborative origin for a worship song that feels so intimate and personal. Each songwriter brought something essential to the final result.
Jenn Johnson provided the heart — the lived experience, the melody fragment, the emotional core. The song is, first and foremost, her testimony. Without her voice and her story, there is no song.
Brian Johnson — her husband and longtime musical partner — helped develop the musical structure and theological depth. Brian is himself an accomplished songwriter and worship leader at Bethel, and his fingerprints are on many of Bethel Music’s most enduring songs.
Ed Cash is one of the most decorated producers and co-writers in contemporary Christian music. He has written or co-written some of the most widely sung songs of the past two decades, including “How He Loves,” “Your Grace Is Enough,” and material for Chris Tomlin, Christy Nockels, and countless others. Cash also produced “Goodness of God,” handling the sonic architecture of the recording that would be released on Victory.
Ben Fielding is an Australian songwriter and worship leader with Hillsong Worship, whose credits include “What a Beautiful Name,” “This I Believe (The Creed),” and “King of Kings.” His contribution to “Goodness of God” connects the song to the broader global worship movement that Hillsong and Bethel have jointly shaped over the past two decades.
Jason Ingram is a Nashville-based songwriter and producer with multiple GMA Dove Awards to his name, known for his work with Chris Tomlin, Matt Maher, and Crowder. His expertise in shaping lyrics for congregational singability — clarity, repetition, emotional arc — helped give “Goodness of God” the structure that makes it so easy for a congregation to learn and internalize.
Scripture Foundation: Psalm 23 and the Pursuing God
The theological heart of “Goodness of God” is anchored most directly in Psalm 23:6 — one of the most famous verses in the entire Bible:
“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” — Psalm 23:6 (ESV)
The bridge of “Goodness of God” — “Your goodness is running after, it’s running after me” — is a direct and deliberate paraphrase of this verse, and the Hebrew behind the English word “follow” is the key to understanding why. The Hebrew word used in Psalm 23:6 is radaph, which means not merely to walk behind or accompany, but to pursue, to chase, to run after. It is the same word used for a pursuer or an enemy in hot pursuit. Machias Valley Baptist Church’s Pastor Zach explained it this way: “God often has to drive us, push and prod us, to go down the path we would rather not tread. Yet when we do, not only does He Himself follow us — ‘Goodness’ with a capital ‘G’ — but ‘goodness’ follows; that is, good results follow our obedience.”
The songwriters understood what most casual readers of Psalm 23 miss: David is not describing a gentle, passive God who happens to be nearby. He is describing a God who pursues His people with goodness and mercy the way a determined hunter pursues prey. The goodness of God is not waiting for you to deserve it. It is running after you — through the valley of the shadow of death, through the seasons you didn’t choose, through the roads you drove in tears with a phone recording your prayers.
The song also draws richly from several other scriptural streams. The opening lines echo Exodus 33:19, where God declares to Moses: “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you.” Psalm 89:1 in the Amplified Bible reads: “I will sing of the goodness and lovingkindness of the Lord forever; with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness from generation to generation” — the theological DNA of the chorus. Psalm 34:8 — “Taste and see that the Lord is good” — and Psalm 27:13 — “I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living” — provide further roots. And the bridge’s language of surrender — “With my life laid down, I surrender now, I give You everything” — echoes Romans 12:1: “Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”
Lyrical Analysis: Every Line a Declaration
Verse 1 — Morning to Night
I love You, Lord, for Your mercy never fails me All my days, I’ve been held in Your hands From the moment that I wake up until I lay my head Oh, I will sing of the goodness of God
The opening words — “I love You, Lord” — are arresting in their simplicity. This is not the language of theology from a distance. It is the language of relationship. The decision to open a worship song with “I love You” is rare and bold; it assumes an intimacy with God that the song will then spend its remaining lines justifying. “Mercy never fails me” is a claim of lifelong faithfulness — not a good season or a favorable moment, but a consistent, unbroken track record. “From the moment that I wake up until I lay my head” covers the entire arc of a day — morning prayers to evening rest — and says: every moment of every day, He has been there. The verse ends with a decision: “I will sing.” Not “I feel like singing” or “I am moved to sing” — but “I will.” It is a choice of the will, not merely an emotion of the moment.
Chorus — The Summary of a Life
All my life You have been faithful All my life You have been so, so good With every breath that I am able Oh, I will sing of the goodness of God
“All my life” is a sweeping, retrospective claim. It is the language of testimony, not aspiration. The singer is not hoping God will be faithful in the future. They are declaring that He already has been — from the first breath to the present moment. The phrase “so, so good” is theologically unpretentious and emotionally authentic. It doesn’t reach for a scholarly word. It says what you say when you mean it: so good. “With every breath that I am able” ties the act of worship to the very fact of biological life — as long as air fills these lungs, praise will fill this mouth. It is an echo of Psalm 150:6 and a rehearsal of eternity.
Verse 2 — Walking Through the Hard Places
I love Your voice, You have led me through the fire In the darkest night, You are close like no other I’ve known You as a Father, I’ve known You as a Friend And I have lived in the goodness of God
The second verse is where the song goes deeper than celebration into testimony. “You have led me through the fire” — this is not a metaphor for mild difficulty. It is the language of the furnace, of Daniel 3, of the refiner’s fire in Malachi 3. Jenn Johnson has said in her own words that “God has just walked me through hell and high water.” This verse is the honest acknowledgment of that. And the declaration is not “You rescued me from the fire” but “You led me through it.” The fire was real. The darkness was real. And God was closer in it than He is in the easy seasons — “close like no other.” The verse then moves from the fires of life to the character of God: Father and Friend. Creator-authority and covenant-intimacy. Both at once. And the final line — “I have lived in the goodness of God” — is the conclusion of a life examined: wherever I have been, whatever I have walked through, I have lived there. In His goodness. Always.
Bridge — Surrender and Pursuit
Your goodness is running after, it’s running after me Your goodness is running after, it’s running after me With my life laid down, I surrender now I give You everything Your goodness is running after, it’s running after me
The bridge is the emotional and theological climax. “Running after me” — radaph — the pursuing God of Psalm 23. But here is what makes the bridge theologically rich rather than merely poetic: the response to being pursued is not to run faster or to stand still and receive passively — it is to lay down your life and surrender. “With my life laid down, I surrender now, I give You everything.” When you know that the One running after you is the God of goodness and not a threat, the only rational response is to stop running and fall down in worship. The bridge is the moment in the song where testimony becomes surrender, and gratitude becomes consecration.
Timeline: From Phone Recording to Dove Award
Year
Event
1982
Jenn Johnson born April 15 in Redding, California
2000
Jenn marries Brian Johnson; joins Bethel Church worship leadership
2001
Brian & Jenn Johnson release debut live worship album Undone
2001
Bethel Music collective formally established; Jenn is a founding member
2017–2018
Jenn and Brian Johnson begin the adoption process for Ryder Moses Johnson (“adopted deliverer”)
2018
Jenn sings the raw melody and lyrics of “Goodness of God” into her phone while driving on a country road after bringing Ryder Moses home; the voice memo becomes the foundation of the song
2018–2019
Co-writing sessions with Brian Johnson, Ed Cash, Ben Fielding, and Jason Ingram; the song is developed, structured, and produced by Ed Cash
January 4, 2019
“Goodness of God” released as a promotional single ahead of the Victory album
January 25, 2019
Bethel Music’s Victory album released; “Goodness of God” is track 3
November 1, 2019
Radio single version released digitally
November 8, 2019
Song begins play on Christian radio stations; peaks at No. 15 on the US Hot Christian Songs chart
2020
Nominated for GMA Dove Award for Worship Recorded Song of the Year; Bethel Music releases alternate version on the album Peace
2021
CeCe Winans records her version of “Goodness of God” for her live album Believe For It; Jenn Johnson becomes President of Bethel Music
2021–2022
CeCe Winans’ version peaks at No. 6 on Hot Christian Songs and No. 2 on Hot Gospel Songs; surpasses 48 million streams and 320 million video views; becomes a #1 Billboard Gospel Radio hit; CeCe wins Grammy for Best Gospel Album (Believe For It) at the 2022 Grammy Awards
September 2022
CeCe Winans releases official music video for her version of “Goodness of God”; over 100 million views on TikTok alone
October 20, 2023
“Goodness of God” wins Song of the Year at the 54th Annual GMA Dove Awards in Nashville — presented by MultiTracks.com — four years after its initial release
2024–present
Song remains among the top-ranked worship songs globally on CCLI; listed as third-most sung worship song in the UK; continues to be sung in churches in dozens of languages on every continent
CeCe Winans: The Cover That Changed Everything
When CeCe Winans — the most awarded female Gospel artist of all time, with 15 Grammy Awards and 27 Dove Awards — chose to record “Goodness of God” for her 2021 live album Believe For It, she did not merely add a cover version to a catalog. She gave the song a second life that introduced it to an entirely different audience and took it to heights it had not previously reached.
CeCe’s version peaked at No. 6 on the Hot Christian Songs chart and No. 2 on the Hot Gospel Songs chart. It reached No. 1 on the Billboard Gospel Radio Chart. It accumulated over 48 million streams and an astonishing 320 million video views combined across platforms. On TikTok alone, her version gathered over 100 million views — making it one of the most viral Gospel videos in the platform’s history. At the 2022 Grammy Awards, her album Believe For It won Best Gospel Album, and the song was central to that recognition.
What CeCe brought to “Goodness of God” was the weight of a 40-year career of standing on stages and declaring the goodness of God through every personal and national storm. When she sang “I’ve known You as a Father, I’ve known You as a Friend,” audiences who knew her story heard the testimony behind the testimony. The song crossed from contemporary worship into Gospel, from predominantly white evangelical spaces into predominantly Black Gospel spaces, and in doing so it became one of the truly ecumenical worship anthems of the modern era — sung by virtually every tradition, in virtually every style.
Notable Recordings and Performances
Artist / Recording
Notes
Bethel Music & Jenn Johnson
Victory (2019); original live recording at Bethel Church, Redding, CA; the definitive original version
CeCe Winans
Believe For It (2021); peaked No. 6 Hot Christian Songs, No. 2 Hot Gospel Songs, No. 1 Billboard Gospel Radio; over 320M combined video views; Grammy Award-winning album
Bethel Music (instrumental)
Without Words: Genesis (2019); released November 15, 2019
Bethel Music (alternate)
Peace (2020); released April 10, 2020
Various worship teams
One of the most widely covered contemporary worship songs globally; arrangements in dozens of languages and styles across every denomination
South Fellowship, Machias Valley Baptist, and thousands of local churches
Adopted as a congregational standard in churches of every size and tradition; frequently paired with sermon series on Psalm 23, faithfulness, and God’s character
Frequently Asked Questions
Who wrote “Goodness of God”?
“Goodness of God” was co-written by Jenn Johnson, Brian Johnson, Ed Cash, Ben Fielding, and Jason Ingram. It was originally performed and recorded by Bethel Music and Jenn Johnson, released on the album Victory on January 25, 2019. Ed Cash also served as producer.
What inspired Jenn Johnson to write “Goodness of God”?
Jenn Johnson was inspired by the adoption of her fourth child, Ryder Moses Johnson (whose name means “adopted deliverer”). While driving on a country road in northern California after bringing Ryder home, she was overwhelmed with gratitude for God’s faithfulness and began singing into her phone. Those recorded words became the foundation of the song.
What Bible verse is “Goodness of God” based on?
The song’s bridge — “Your goodness is running after, it’s running after me” — is a direct paraphrase of Psalm 23:6: “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.” The Hebrew word for “follow” (radaph) means “to run after, pursue.” The song also draws on Psalm 89:1, Psalm 34:8, Psalm 27:13, Exodus 33:19, and Romans 12:1.
Did “Goodness of God” win any major awards?
Yes. “Goodness of God” won Song of the Year at the 54th Annual GMA Dove Awards on October 20, 2023 — four years after its initial release. CeCe Winans’ 2021 cover version also helped her album Believe For It win Best Gospel Album at the 2022 Grammy Awards. CeCe’s version reached No. 1 on the Billboard Gospel Radio Chart.
Who is Jenn Johnson?
Jenn Johnson (born April 15, 1982) is Co-Founder and President of Bethel Music, Senior Worship Pastor at Bethel Church in Redding, California, author of All Things Lovely (2021), founder of Lovely by Jenn Johnson, and mother of five children. She and her husband Brian Johnson have been leading worship at Bethel for over 25 years. “Goodness of God” is considered the defining song of her career and is currently listed as one of the top-three most sung worship songs in the United Kingdom by CCLI.
Legacy: What Makes a Song Last
It is worth pausing to ask: why does “Goodness of God” connect so deeply, so broadly, and so enduringly? Many worship songs are released every year. Most are forgotten within months. A few last a decade. Very few become the kind of song that a church in Nigeria and a church in Nebraska and a church in South Korea all sing on the same Sunday morning, with equal conviction and equal tears.
The answer is not primarily musical, though the music is excellent. The key of A-flat, the moderate rock tempo, the simple verse-chorus-bridge structure — these are well-crafted elements, but they don’t explain the song’s reach. The answer is theological and testimonial simultaneously. “Goodness of God” does something that the greatest worship songs always do: it puts into universally singable words a truth so personal that every individual worshipper feels it was written specifically about their own life.
When the congregation sings “I love You, Lord, for Your mercy never fails me,” they are not singing about Jenn Johnson’s adoption story. They are singing about their own story — their own fires, their own dark nights, their own moments of being held in hands they could not see. When they sing “Your goodness is running after me,” they are not thinking about Psalm 23:6 in the abstract. They are thinking about the moment they were sure they had gone too far, wandered too long, failed too completely — and discovered that Goodness had been running after them all along.
That is the gift Jenn Johnson gave the church when she grabbed her phone on that country road. Not a performance. Not a production. A testimony. And testimonies, when they are true, when they are rooted in Scripture, and when they are offered with the kind of transparency that costs something — those are the seeds that grow into songs that outlast the moment and outlive the singer. “Goodness of God” will be sung long after every chart position is forgotten, long after every streaming number is obsolete, long after the 54th Annual GMA Dove Awards is a footnote in a history book. It will be sung because the God it describes is still pursuing people on country roads, in adoption waiting rooms, in darkest nights and hardest seasons — and He is still running after them with the same relentless, irresistible goodness He always has been.
Songwriter: Robert Emmett (R.E.) Winsett | Written: 1942 | Genre: Southern Gospel / Worship Hymn | Award: GMA Dove Award – Song of the Year, 1969
Jesus Is Coming Soon song history: This article traces R.E. Winsett’s 1942 Southern Gospel hymn from its World War II setting to its Scripture-rich message about the Second Coming of Christ, its historic Dove Award recognition, and its lasting place in church worship.
The Origin Story: Born in the Shadow of World War II
There are songs that transcend their moment of writing—songs that feel like they were composed for every generation at once. Jesus Is Coming Soon is one of those songs. Written in 1942 by Robert Emmett Winsett, this timeless Southern Gospel anthem emerged from one of the darkest chapters in modern history.
When Winsett penned the opening line—“Troublesome times are here, filling men’s hearts with fear”—the United States had just been jolted into World War II following the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. The Great Depression had already spent a decade hollowing out American communities. Freedom, as the song declares, was genuinely “at stake.” Winsett wasn’t writing metaphor; he was writing headlines.
In the midst of global upheaval, Winsett turned not to despair but to prophecy—anchoring his words in the New Testament’s great hope of Christ’s return. The song was published in 1942, yet it barely caused a stir at first. Winsett would never see it become the beloved standard it is today. He passed away on June 26, 1952, at age 76, unaware that his modest gospel tune was destined to top the charts, win the gospel world’s highest honor, and be sung in sanctuaries across generations and continents.
Songwriter Biography: Robert Emmett Winsett (1876–1952)
Early Life and Musical Formation
Robert Emmett Winsett was born on January 15, 1876, on a farm in Bledsoe County, Tennessee—a rural stretch of Appalachian foothills near the town of Pikeville. From the very beginning, music was woven into his DNA. By the age of seven, young Robert had already experienced a religious awakening and written his first song—a remarkable gift that hinted at a lifetime of sacred creativity.
Winsett was proficient on nine musical instruments and possessed a rare natural gift for harmony. He formalized his musical education at the Bowman Normal School of Music, graduating in January 1899. The training gave structure to his natural gifts, and within a few years he was ready to share them with the world.
Publisher, Evangelist, and Churchman
Around 1903, Winsett founded the R.E. Winsett Song Book Publishing Company in Dayton, Tennessee—one of the earliest gospel music publishing houses in the American South. His first solo compilation, Union Revival Songs, appeared in 1906. Over the next five decades, Winsett authored and compiled dozens of gospel songbooks, with his final publication—Best of All (1951)—selling over one million copies. Across all his titles, total sales exceeded ten million copies.
But Winsett was more than a publisher. He served as a Church of God preacher, evangelist, and pastor. He was also part of the originating committee of the Assemblies of God—one of the founding voices of the American Pentecostal movement—and played a role in establishing a town in Oklahoma during the land-rush era of American expansion. He was, in the truest sense, a builder: of music, of community, and of faith.
Legacy and Honors
In his lifetime, Winsett composed approximately 1,000 gospel songs—a staggering output by any measure. After his death, the gospel world gradually recognized the magnitude of his contribution. In 1969—seventeen years after he died—his song Jesus Is Coming Soon won the very first GMA Dove Award for Song of the Year, beating out the entire Southern Gospel catalog of the era. In 1973, he was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame, and in 2002 into the Southern Gospel Music Hall of Fame.
Scripture Foundation: What the Bible Says About Christ’s Return
Jesus Is Coming Soon is not simply a catchy chorus—it is a carefully constructed theological proclamation rooted in the New Testament’s teaching on eschatology (the doctrine of last things). Every verse and the chorus itself draw from specific scriptural threads.
Primary Texts
1 Thessalonians 4:16–17 — “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.” This passage is the direct inspiration for the chorus: “trumpets will sound… all of the dead shall rise… righteous meet in the skies.”
Matthew 24:42–44 — “Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming… Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” The urgency of Christ’s unexpected return drives the entire song’s call to “Christians, awake!”
Revelation 22:12, 20 — “And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me… Even so, come, Lord Jesus!” The title phrase “Jesus is coming soon” echoes Christ’s own words in the Revelation.
Matthew 24:12 — “Because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.” Verse 2 draws directly on this imagery: “Love of so many cold… evils abound.”
Romans 2:5–16 — Paul’s teaching on the Day of Judgment undergirds the warning tone of the chorus: “Many will meet their doom.”
2 Peter 3:10 — “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night.” The theme of sudden arrival connects to the song’s “morning or night or noon.”
The song’s theology is thoroughly evangelical and pre-millennial in its orientation—it treats the second coming as imminent, visible, and accompanied by a literal trumpet call and bodily resurrection. For congregations that hold to a futurist reading of Matthew 24 and Revelation, this song serves as a powerful affirmation of the blessed hope.
Verse-by-Verse Lyrical Analysis
Verse 1: “Troublesome Times Are Here”
Troublesome times are here, filling men’s hearts with fear, / Freedom we all hold dear, now is at stake; / Humbling your heart to God, saves from chast’ning rod, / Seek the way pilgrims trod, Christians awake!
Winsett opens in pure pastoral urgency. Written in 1942, “troublesome times” was not a vague spiritual metaphor—it was a live newspaper report. The world was at war; freedom was literally at stake as fascism and imperialism swept across Europe and Asia. Yet Winsett’s response is not despair or nationalism—it is humility before God. The phrase “chast’ning rod” alludes to Hebrews 12:6: “For the Lord disciplines the one He loves.” The call to “seek the way pilgrims trod” echoes the imagery of Hebrews 11’s Hall of Faith—the saints who walked by faith through their own troublesome times. The final two words, “Christians, awake!” function as an alarm bell: the song begins not with comfort but with a summons to spiritual alertness.
Verse 2: “Love of So Many Cold”
Love of so many cold, losing their home of gold, / This in God’s Word is told, evils abound; / When these signs come to pass, nearing the end at last, / It will come very fast; trumpets will sound.
Verse 2 is the most theologically dense and, for some interpreters, the most contested verse of the song. Winsett draws from Matthew 24:12 (“the love of many will grow cold”) and Luke 21:28 (“when these things begin to happen, look up”). The phrase “losing their home of gold” may allude to the parable of the Prodigal Son—the squandering of spiritual inheritance—or to the broader theme of Revelation’s imagery of heavenly treasure forfeited through unfaithfulness. The urgency intensifies: “it will come very fast.” This verse functions as a prophetic warning—a signal that those who miss or dismiss the signs will be caught unprepared. Notably, many contemporary worship recordings omit this verse, focusing instead on verses 1 and 3 for their more broadly applicable themes.
Verse 3: “Troubles Will Soon Be O’er”
Troubles will soon be o’er; happy forevermore, / When we meet on that shore, free from all care; / Rising up in the sky, telling this world goodbye; / Homeward we then will fly, glory to share.
If verse 1 is alarm and verse 2 is warning, verse 3 is pure doxology. The tone shifts dramatically from minor-key anxiety to major-key triumph. “Troubles will soon be o’er” mirrors 1 Corinthians 15:54—”Death is swallowed up in victory.” The image of meeting “on that shore” draws on the ancient hymnody of heaven as a promised land across the water—Canaan imagery applied to eternal life. “Rising up in the sky” is the rapture or resurrection in plain language, echoing 1 Thessalonians 4:17. “Telling this world goodbye” is one of the most memorable lines in Southern Gospel literature—a moment of joyful finality. And “glory to share” reminds believers that this homecoming is not private but communal: the entire redeemed company arrives together. This verse is the theological heart of the song’s hope.
The Chorus: “Jesus Is Coming Soon”
Jesus is coming soon, morning or night or noon; / Many will meet their doom, trumpets will sound; / All of the dead shall rise, righteous meet in the skies, / Going where no one dies, heavenward bound.
The chorus is a masterclass in compressed theology. In eight lines and fewer than 50 words, Winsett captures the full arc of eschatological teaching: the imminence of Christ’s return (“morning or night or noon”—alluding to Matthew 24:42 and the unexpected hour), the judgment (“many will meet their doom”), the resurrection (“all of the dead shall rise”—1 Thessalonians 4:16), the gathering of the redeemed (“righteous meet in the skies”—1 Thessalonians 4:17), and the eternal state (“going where no one dies”—Revelation 21:4). The final phrase “heavenward bound” became so iconic that the Singing News used it as a metaphor for the entire genre. The repetition of this chorus after each verse functions as a doxological refrain—a repeated proclamation of the church’s ultimate hope above every troublesome circumstance.
Historical Timeline
Year
Event
January 15, 1876
Robert Emmett Winsett born on a farm in Bledsoe County, Tennessee
~1883 (age 7)
Winsett experiences religious awakening and writes his first song
January 1899
Graduates from Bowman Normal School of Music
~1903
Founds R.E. Winsett Song Book Publishing Company in Dayton, Tennessee
1906
Publishes Union Revival Songs, his first solo songbook compilation
1914
Serves on originating committee of the Assemblies of God
1942
Jesus Is Coming Soon written and published; WWII context shapes its lyrics
1951
Publishes Best of All, his final songbook; sells over 1 million copies
June 26, 1952
R.E. Winsett passes away in Dayton, Tennessee, age 76
1967
The Sheltons record the first professional version on Halo Records (Heart Felt Gospel)
1968
The Inspirations record the song; debut it on Gospel Singing Jubilee TV program
1969
The Oak Ridge Boys record Jesus Is Coming Soon on album It’s Happening!
April 1969
Song wins Song of the Year at the 1st GMA Dove Awards—the first Dove Award ever given
January 1970
Song reaches #1 on inaugural Singing News airplay chart, held by multiple groups simultaneously
1973
R.E. Winsett posthumously inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame
2002
R.E. Winsett inducted into the Southern Gospel Music Hall of Fame
Present
Song remains a staple in Southern Gospel, bluegrass gospel, and traditional church worship worldwide
Notable Recordings and Covers
Year
Artist / Group
Album / Label
Significance
1967
The Sheltons
Heart Felt Gospel (Halo Records)
First professional recording; discovered the song through a piano teacher; directly inspired the Inspirations
1968
Roger McDuff
—
Early recording that helped spread the song’s popularity
1968
The Inspirations
Jesus Is Coming Soon (Mark V Studios)
Pivotal recording; TV debut on Gospel Singing Jubilee launched the song into widespread popularity
1969
The Oak Ridge Boys
It’s Happening! (HeartWarming)
Album won Dove Award Album of the Year; their version became the most widely known recording
1969
Blue Ridge Quartet
—
One of several groups recording in the same year, reflecting the song’s viral spread
1969
The Prophets
—
Contributed to the multi-artist #1 charting on Singing News
1970
The Florida Boys
—
Featured prominently in the song’s multi-month Singing News #1 run
1971
J.D. Sumner & The Stamps Quartet
—
Brought the song to broader audiences through their vast touring reach
1971
The Easter Brothers
—
Bluegrass gospel interpretation
~1970s
Ralph Stanley
—
Bluegrass legend brought the song into Appalachian gospel tradition
~1970s
The Primitive Quartet
—
Traditional quartet arrangement in mountain gospel style
2009
Dailey & Vincent
—
Contemporary bluegrass-gospel duo reintroduced the song to new audiences
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Who wrote “Jesus Is Coming Soon” and when?
Jesus Is Coming Soon was written and composed by Robert Emmett (R.E.) Winsett in 1942. Winsett was a prolific Tennessee-born gospel songwriter, publisher, and Church of God minister who authored approximately 1,000 gospel songs in his lifetime. He wrote the tune—officially titled “Troublesome Times”—against the backdrop of World War II and published it through his own R.E. Winsett Song Book Publishing Company in Dayton, Tennessee.
2. What award did “Jesus Is Coming Soon” win?
The song won Song of the Year at the very first GMA Dove Awards ceremony in 1969—making it the inaugural recipient of what became gospel music’s most prestigious honor. The Dove Awards are hosted annually by the Gospel Music Association, and “Jesus Is Coming Soon” holds the distinction of being the first song ever to receive the Song of the Year award. Notably, the same awards night also saw the Oak Ridge Boys’ album It’s Happening!—which featured the song—win Album of the Year, and Bill Gaither win Songwriter of the Year.
3. What Scripture is “Jesus Is Coming Soon” based on?
The song draws primarily from 1 Thessalonians 4:16–17, which describes the Lord descending from heaven with the trumpet of God, the dead in Christ rising first, and believers being caught up to meet Him in the air. Additional scriptural threads include Matthew 24:42–44 (the call to watchfulness and readiness), Revelation 22:12 and 20 (Christ’s own declaration “I am coming soon”), Matthew 24:12 (love growing cold, referenced in verse 2), and 2 Peter 3:10 (the Day of the Lord coming unexpectedly). The song essentially compresses the New Testament’s eschatological hope into three verses and a chorus.
4. Why is the second verse sometimes left out of recordings?
Verse 2—with lines like “love of so many cold,” “evils abound,” and “when these signs come to pass”—draws from Matthew 24:12 and Luke 21:28, passages that some theologians interpret as referring to the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 rather than the end times. For congregations and groups that hold to a preterist or amillennial reading of these passages, the verse’s application to the Second Coming is theologically disputed. As a result, many recordings and hymnals opt to use only verses 1 and 3, which carry the more universally applicable themes of spiritual urgency and eschatological hope without the sign-watching framework of verse 2.
5. How can this song be used in worship today?
Jesus Is Coming Soon is a powerful worship tool for any context focused on Advent, eschatology, evangelism, or simple congregational encouragement. Its fast, singable tune makes it accessible to all ages, while its theological depth rewards deeper study. In a worship service, it pairs naturally with sermon series on 1 Thessalonians 4–5, the Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24–25), or Revelation. It can also serve as an altar-call song, given its urgency to “Christians, awake!” and its warning that “many will meet their doom.” For churches with piano or organ traditions, the original four-part harmony arrangement is especially effective. Modern worship bands can also reimagine it with contemporary instrumentation while preserving the integrity of the original lyrics and message.
Have a worship song you’d like to see featured? Leave a comment below or contact us at vbccarthage.org. This post is part of our ongoing Worship Song Deep Dive series.
How a vacation drive through Scotland during Queen Elizabeth’s Silver Jubilee gave Pastor Jack Hayford a song that would reshape congregational worship for generations — and why it still rings out in churches around the world more than four decades later
Introduction: When Royalty Points to a Greater King
There is something about the sight of genuine royalty that does something to the human heart. The flags. The fanfare. The processions. The sense that the person before you occupies an entirely different order of existence from ordinary life — that they carry in their person a dignity and authority that commands reverence. Even people who claim to have no interest in monarchy find themselves stopping in their tracks when the royal standard appears on the horizon.
In the summer of 1977, an American pastor named Jack Hayford was driving through the rolling landscape of Great Britain — through England, Wales, and up into Scotland — experiencing exactly that sensation. The entire country was alive with color and celebration. Queen Elizabeth II was marking the 25th anniversary of her coronation, and the British people’s love for their monarch filled every street and village with a warmth and loyalty that this Californian found deeply moving. But as Jack and his wife Anna drove from castle to castle, from one symbol of royal majesty to the next, something more than admiration for the Queen began stirring in his heart.
A question formed: If people respond to earthly royalty with this kind of loyalty, dedication, and joy — what should our response to the King of all kings look like? From that question came the song “Majesty, Worship His Majesty” — a forty-five-word expression of royal praise that would become one of the most widely sung worship songs of the 20th century, one of only a handful of contemporary worship songs included in The United Methodist Hymnal, and the song most closely associated with the name of one of America’s most beloved “pastors to pastors.”
Jack Hayford: Pastor, Teacher, and “Pastor to Pastors”
Jack William Hayford was born on June 25, 1934, in Los Angeles, California — entering the world with a life-threatening illness that his family believed was healed through miraculous intercession. That experience of divine intervention at the very beginning of his life set the tone for everything that followed: a life lived in constant awareness of a God who is not distant, not indifferent, and not limited by human expectations.
Hayford felt called to ministry early and pursued it with extraordinary dedication. He was ordained in the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel and earned his theological training at Life Pacific University (then known as LIFE Bible College), where he later served as president from 1977 to 1982. But it was as a local church pastor that he made his most enduring mark.
In 1969, Jack and Anna Hayford arrived at a struggling Foursquare congregation in Van Nuys, California — the First Foursquare Church of Van Nuys — with just 18 members. Over the next thirty years, under his pastoral leadership and worship philosophy, it grew into one of the largest and most influential churches in southern California, eventually known as The Church on the Way, with a membership exceeding 12,000. Christianity Today magazine described him as “the Pentecostal Gold Standard” — a man who combined charismatic conviction with theological depth, pastoral warmth, and ecumenical generosity that drew leaders from every tradition to his door. He was, by widespread consensus, a “pastor to pastors” — the person other leaders called when they needed wisdom, prayer, or simply someone who had navigated every season of ministry with integrity intact.
Over the course of his life, Hayford authored more than 50 books, wrote more than 500 hymns and choruses, founded The King’s University in 1997 (originally in Los Angeles, later in Southlake, Texas), and served as President of The International Church of the Foursquare Gospel from 2004 to 2009. He married his beloved Anna in 1955; they were together for 63 years until her death in 2018. He later married Valarie Lemire. He died peacefully in his San Fernando Valley home on January 8, 2023, at the age of 88, having eaten dinner with his wife and spoken with one of his grandchildren the evening before. His memorial service was held on February 18, 2023.
Of all his hundreds of compositions, one song stood above the rest. One song became so identified with his name that when people across the world learned of his passing, the tribute they returned to again and again was not a Scripture, not a book title, not a sermon — but a song. That song was “Majesty.”
The Origin Story: A Royal Vacation and a Royal Revelation
In his own words, from his essay “The Birth of Majesty” published on his official ministry website, Jack Hayford describes the song’s genesis:
“In 1977 my wife Anna and I spent our vacation in Great Britain, traveling throughout the land from the south country and Wales to the northern parts of Scotland. It was the year of the Silver Jubilee — the 25th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth’s coronation — and the spirit of celebration and honor for royalty was everywhere. The enthusiasm of the English people for their monarch was infectious. I began to realize that Christ wants His church to have the same sense of loyalty and fellowship.”
The couple visited historic sites including Blenheim Palace — the birthplace of Winston Churchill and one of England’s grandest stately homes — and traveled north through Wales into Scotland, where the castles and highland landscapes added a further dimension of ancient majesty to the journey. The flags were flying. The people were celebrating. And everywhere they went, the symbols of royalty — the heraldry, the pageantry, the unashamed public deference to a sovereign — were on full display.
As they drove, something shifted in Hayford’s understanding. The Foursquare Church’s official tribute after his death put it this way: he became mindful “that the provisions of Christ for the believer not only included the forgiveness for sin, but provided a restoration to a royal relationship with God as sons and daughters born into the family through His Majesty, Our Savior Jesus Christ.” He was filled, he later wrote, “with a powerful sense of Christ Jesus’ royalty, dignity, and majesty.” He seemed to feel something new of what it meant to belong to the King.
Then, on one of those drives — the precise location lost to memory but the moment itself unforgettable — the opening lyrics and melody of “Majesty” came to his heart all at once. He did not stop the car. He continued driving and asked Anna, who had a notebook beside her on the seat, to write down the words and melody line as he dictated them. “Because of this,” Hayford later wrote with obvious delight, “she still laughingly insists that she ‘wrote’ ‘Majesty’!”
The basic structure of the song was complete in that car. After returning home to Van Nuys, California, Hayford refined and completed it. It was first published in 1978 (some sources cite 1981 for the formal copyright registration with Rocksmith Music) and was introduced to the wider world through the growing worship music movement of the late 1970s and early 1980s. CCLI (Christian Copyright Licensing International) assigned it song number 1527 — a number that places it among the earliest contemporary worship songs to be formally licensed for congregational use.
The Scripture Foundation
Hayford’s favorite Scripture — the one he identified as most closely connected to “Majesty” — was Psalm 93:1:
“The LORD reigns, He is robed in majesty; the LORD is robed in majesty and armed with strength.” — Psalm 93:1
But the song draws from a wider stream of royal praise passages throughout Scripture. One of the most relevant is 1 Chronicles 29:11, which David prayed at the dedication of the temple materials he had assembled for his son Solomon:
“Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O Lord, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all.” — 1 Chronicles 29:11
The song also echoes Revelation 4 and 5, where the heavenly throne room erupts in the declaration that the Lamb who was slain is worthy to receive “power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing” (Revelation 5:12). Hayford was not simply drawing a poetic analogy between British royalty and Christ’s kingship. He was pointing to the reality that the entire biblical narrative culminates in the enthronement of the King of all kings — and that earthly royalty, at its best, is a pale shadow of that ultimate sovereignty.
The phrase “Jesus who died, now glorified, King of all kings” is the song’s most explicitly Christological statement. It compresses the entire gospel into seven words: death, resurrection, and eternal reign. The One who stooped to die is the same One now exalted to the throne. Earthly majesty is temporary. His is eternal.
Lyrical Analysis: Every Word Counts
“Majesty” is one of the shortest major worship songs ever written. At just 45 words, it packs extraordinary theological density into an almost crystalline economy of language. There is not a filler word in the entire text. Let’s examine it line by line.
Majesty, worship His Majesty; Unto Jesus be all glory, honor and praise.
The song opens with its title word as a direct command: worship His Majesty. “Majesty” here is not primarily an adjective describing God — it is a title, a throne name. It declares that the One being addressed occupies the supreme position of royal authority in the universe. The second line does what no earthly court would dare do: it directs ALL glory, honor, and praise to Jesus — not to the institution, not to the church, not to the leader, not to any tradition. Everything flows to Him.
Majesty, kingdom authority, Flows from His throne, unto His own, His anthem raise.
“Kingdom authority” is a carefully chosen phrase. Hayford understood worship not merely as an emotional experience but as a political act — an alignment of the worshipper with the sovereign rule of Christ over all things. When believers gather to worship, they are not simply expressing private feelings. They are acknowledging a kingdom, affirming a throne, and placing themselves within the order of that kingdom as “His own.” The phrase “His own” is both intimate (we belong to Him) and royal (we are His subjects, His inheritance). “His anthem raise” calls the congregation to active proclamation — not passive reception of blessing, but active declaration of the King’s greatness.
So exalt, lift up on high the name of Jesus; Magnify, come glorify, Christ Jesus the King.
The bridge functions as a musical fanfare — a trumpet call to worship. Three verbs in quick succession: exalt, magnify, glorify. All three are transitive — they require an object, and in each case, the object is the same Person. Jesus. Christ Jesus the King. Hayford has been careful throughout the song to be explicitly Christological rather than generically theistic. This is not a song about a vague divine presence or a spiritual force. It is a song about a named Person — Jesus — who has a specific identity: He is the Christ, the anointed one, the long-awaited Messiah; and He is the King, the sovereign ruler of all creation.
Majesty, worship His Majesty; Jesus who died, now glorified, King of all kings.
The final section returns to the opening declaration and then closes with the hymn’s most theologically packed line: “Jesus who died, now glorified, King of all kings.” Past tense — died. Present tense — glorified. Eternal title — King of all kings. The crucifixion is not denied or minimized. It is the very foundation of the glorification. He is King precisely because He was willing to die. The title “King of all kings” draws from Revelation 19:16, where Christ is revealed at His return with the name “King of Kings and Lord of Lords” written on His robe and on His thigh. Hayford was inviting every congregation that sang this song to rehearse the confession of the New Jerusalem — to practice, in the present tense, the worship that will fill eternity.
Timeline: The Life of a Song
Year
Event
1934
Jack William Hayford born June 25 in Los Angeles, California
1955
Marries Anna Smith; begins full-time ministry
1969
Appointed founding pastor of The Church on the Way, Van Nuys, CA — 18 members at founding
1977
“Majesty” composed during vacation drive through England, Wales, and Scotland during Queen Elizabeth’s Silver Jubilee; Anna writes down the words while Jack drives
1977–1982
Hayford serves as President of Life Pacific University while also pastoring The Church on the Way
Song spreads rapidly through evangelical and charismatic churches; arranged by Eugene Thomas for broader use
1989
Included in The United Methodist Hymnal (#176) — one of very few contemporary worship songs to achieve formal denominational hymnal status
1990s
The Church on the Way grows to over 12,000 members; Hayford recognized as one of America’s leading megachurch pastors
1997
Hayford founds The King’s University in Los Angeles
1999
Steps down as senior pastor of The Church on the Way after 30 years
2004–2009
Serves as President of The International Church of the Foursquare Gospel
2018
Anna Hayford passes away after 63 years of marriage
January 8, 2023
Jack Hayford passes away peacefully at home at age 88; tributes pour in from around the world; “Majesty” rings out across thousands of churches in his honor
2023–present
“Majesty” continues to be sung in churches worldwide; listed in Our Great Redeemer’s Praise (United Methodist new collection); rated among top 100 contemporary hymns globally
Notable Recordings and Performances
Artist / Context
Notes
Jack Hayford / Church on the Way
Original congregational recording; introduced to the broader church through Foursquare and charismatic networks
Ron Kenoly
One of the earliest and most widely heard CCM recordings; introduced “Majesty” to a new generation of contemporary worshippers
Michael W. Smith
Performed live at numerous large-scale events; helped cement the song’s status as a cross-denominational standard
Maranatha! Music
Included on multiple praise compilations; spread the song into tens of thousands of evangelical churches through the 1980s–90s
Life Pacific University
Recorded a special remix of “Majesty” in tribute to Hayford in early 2023 following his passing; he was described as being “thrilled to hear it”
Various artists
Covered by choirs, worship teams, and solo artists across every denomination and on every continent
Hayford’s Own Interpretation: What the Song Means
In his essay “The Birth of Majesty,” Hayford offered his own theological interpretation of the song he had written. His words are worth reading in full:
“‘Majesty’ is not merely a call to worship the Lord — it is a declaration that He is worthy of that worship. He is fully worthy. ‘Majesty’ is also a statement of the fact that our worship, when begotten in spirit and in truth, can align us with His Throne in such a way that we draw on His life, power, and resources. His kingdom authority flows from His throne — and can flow from our lives as we worship Him.”
This interpretation reveals the profound pastoral purpose behind the song. Hayford was not simply writing a beautiful expression of adoration. He was writing a theological statement about the nature of worship itself: that genuine worship is not merely vertical (human being to God) but also transformational — it changes the worshipper, aligns them with heaven’s purposes, and enables them to live as citizens of the kingdom they declare. When we say “kingdom authority flows from His throne unto His own,” we are confessing that as His own — as His people — we have access to the power and authority of that kingdom. Worship is the doorway.
Hymnologist Donald Hustad, one of the most respected voices in 20th-century Christian music scholarship, noted that Hayford’s concern in writing the song was pastoral as much as theological: “We need to cultivate a sense of the majestic presence of God. He is a close friend, by his grace, but he is also the majestic, holy, awesome God of the universe and we need constant reminding not to take His royal presence lightly.”
Why “Majesty” Crossed Every Denominational Line
One of the most remarkable facts about “Majesty” is that it achieved something almost unheard of for a contemporary worship song written in the charismatic/Pentecostal tradition: it was formally included in The United Methodist Hymnal (#176). For a song to cross from the praise-and-worship world into one of the mainline Protestant church’s official hymnals is an extraordinarily rare achievement. It speaks both to the song’s theological clarity and its musical accessibility.
The reason is not hard to identify. “Majesty” contains no distinctively Pentecostal theology. It does not reference spiritual gifts, does not use charismatic vocabulary, and does not presuppose any particular worship style. What it does contain is something every Christian tradition agrees on: Jesus Christ is Lord. He died. He is glorified. He is King of all kings. He deserves all glory, honor, and praise. Those are not charismatic convictions. They are catholic — in the original sense of the word — convictions: held universally by the whole church across every tradition and every century.
Hayford himself was a deeply ecumenical figure. He was known for his ability to build bridges across denominational lines, and his ministry drew leaders from Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran, Anglican, and Catholic backgrounds who found in him a man who loved Jesus more than he loved a label. “Majesty” is the musical expression of that ecumenism: a song so Christologically focused, so theologically sound, and so musically simple that the whole church can sing it together.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who wrote the worship song “Majesty”?
“Majesty, Worship His Majesty” was written by Jack William Hayford (1934–2023), founding pastor of The Church on the Way in Van Nuys, California. It was composed in 1977 during a vacation in Great Britain and first published in 1978 by Rocksmith Music.
What inspired Jack Hayford to write “Majesty”?
The song was inspired by a 1977 vacation through England, Wales, and Scotland during Queen Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee — the 25th anniversary of her coronation. Observing the British people’s deep loyalty and reverence for their monarch, Hayford was moved to reflect on Christ’s far greater kingship and the church’s call to a similar — and even deeper — devotion.
What does “Majesty” mean theologically?
According to Hayford himself, “Majesty” is both a declaration that Christ is fully worthy of worship and a statement that genuine worship aligns the believer with God’s throne and His kingdom authority. The song affirms the death, resurrection, and eternal reign of Jesus Christ as the King of all kings.
Is “Majesty” in any denominational hymnals?
Yes. “Majesty” appears in The United Methodist Hymnal (#176) — one of very few contemporary worship songs written in the charismatic tradition to be formally included in a mainline Protestant hymnal. It has also appeared in Methodist, Foursquare, and many other denominational songbooks worldwide.
When did Jack Hayford die?
Jack Hayford passed away peacefully at his home in the San Fernando Valley, California, on January 8, 2023, at the age of 88. His memorial service was held on February 18, 2023, and was available to watch online. At the time of his passing, “Majesty” rang out across thousands of churches worldwide in tribute to his life and legacy.
Legacy: The Song That Outlived Its Author
Jack Hayford is gone, but “Majesty” is not. Every Sunday, in churches from Van Nuys to Nairobi, from Seoul to São Paulo, congregations rise to sing the forty-five words that came to a California pastor on a country road in Scotland in the summer of 1977. They may not know the story of the Silver Jubilee, the drive through the Highlands, or Anna Hayford’s laughing claim to have “written” the song from the passenger seat. But they know what the words mean.
They know that Jesus died. They know He is glorified. They know He is King of all kings. And in the act of singing those words together — of exalting, magnifying, and glorifying His name as a body — they do exactly what Hayford always said the song was designed to do: they align themselves with the throne, draw on His kingdom authority, and take their place as His own, raising His anthem.
That is the legacy of “Majesty.” Not a chart position. Not an award. Not a streaming number. A legacy of congregations, generation after generation, turning their faces toward the King and saying — because they believe it, because they choose it, because nothing in earth or heaven is more true — Majesty, worship His Majesty. Unto Jesus be all glory, honor and praise.
How a young Anglican vicar’s Trinity Sunday assignment gave the global church one of its most enduring confessions of faith — and how a Victorian composer’s perfect melody made it immortal
A Song Already Being Sung
Most worship songs begin with a human feeling. They open with “I” — what the singer has experienced, what the singer has received, what the singer is feeling in this moment. “Holy, Holy, Holy” does something altogether different. It does not begin with the worshipper at all. It begins with the throne room of God, where the song is already in progress, and it simply invites the congregation to join in.
That distinction — captured so beautifully by literary scholar Madeleine Forell Marshall, who observed that this hymn “does not initiate praise but is rather an invitation to join an endless song” — is the key to understanding why “Holy, Holy, Holy” has endured for nearly two centuries, crossed virtually every denominational line, and appeared in more hymnals than almost any other single text in the English language.
The hymn was written by Reginald Heber, an Anglican vicar, for a single Sunday on the church calendar. It outlasted him, outlasted the century in which he lived, and outlasted entire traditions of worship music that seemed far more contemporary and relevant. It has been sung by the Choir of King’s College Cambridge and by Hillsong United. It has appeared in Anglican, Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic, and countless other hymnals. It has been performed by Steven Curtis Chapman, Sufjan Stevens, and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. It is, by any measure, one of the greatest hymns ever written in the English language — and its story begins with a very ordinary assignment: prepare a hymn for Trinity Sunday.
Reginald Heber: The Man of Letters
Reginald Heber was born on April 21, 1783, in Malpas, Cheshire, England. From his earliest years, he was known as a man of exceptional literary gifts — described by those who knew him as “the man of letters.” He attended Brasenose College, Oxford, where his poetry won him two distinguished academic awards and where he developed the deep love of language and theology that would shape the rest of his life. At Oxford, he formed a close friendship with Henry Hart Milman, the poet and church historian who would later serve as a crucial curator of Heber’s hymn manuscripts after his death.
In 1807, Heber was appointed vicar of Hodnet, a small parish in Shropshire, England — a post he would hold until 1823. By all accounts, the years at Hodnet were among the richest of his life. He was a devoted pastor who cared deeply for his congregation, spending seven or eight hours each day in his study, reading Scripture, church history, theology, and the great literature of many cultures. His wife later recalled that he would begin every day with family devotions before retreating to that study, and it was in that context — rooted in disciplined biblical meditation — that Heber wrote a hymn or poem for every Sunday of the liturgical year.
This was a radical act in its day. Anglican authorities of the early 19th century largely disapproved of the singing of original hymns in worship services, preferring the older tradition of metrical psalms. There was considerable informal hymn-singing in parishes, but Heber understood that the church needed a stronger, richer congregational voice. He wrote hymns not to defy the authorities but to demonstrate — in text after magnificent text — what the church was missing. “Holy, Holy, Holy” was his argument made in song.
In 1823, Heber accepted the appointment as Bishop of Calcutta — a position of enormous responsibility that required him to oversee the Church of England’s work across all of India, Ceylon, and Australia. His health was already fragile, and the harsh conditions of India made them worse. He threw himself into the work with characteristic intensity: traveling constantly, preaching, training Indian clergy, and carrying the pastoral care of a diocese spanning half the globe. He died suddenly on April 3, 1826, at just 42 years of age, after what is believed to have been a stroke while visiting a congregation in Trichinopoly (modern-day Tiruchirappalli). He was found in a bathing pool, where he had apparently gone to relieve heat exhaustion after preaching to a large crowd.
Heber never saw “Holy, Holy, Holy” in print. The text was first published posthumously in A Selection of Psalms and Hymns for the Parish Church of Banbury (Third Edition, 1826), and then more definitively in the collection his widow edited: Hymns Written and Adapted to the Weekly Church Service of the Year (London, 1827) — one of the first hymnals in history to organize its contents by the church’s liturgical calendar. The manuscript of his hymns, in his own handwriting, was donated to the British Library in 1864 by his old friend Milman, where it remains today as Add MS 25704. It can be dated to approximately 1820–1821, placing the composition of “Holy, Holy, Holy” in the middle of his rich Hodnet years.
The Scripture Behind the Song
Heber drew the imagery and language of “Holy, Holy, Holy” primarily from two of the most dramatic throne-room visions in all of Scripture: Isaiah 6 and Revelation 4.
In Isaiah 6, the prophet is undone by a vision of God seated on a high and exalted throne, with the train of His robe filling the temple. Seraphim — six-winged creatures of fire — fly above Him, calling to each other in an unceasing antiphon:
“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory.” — Isaiah 6:3
In Revelation 4, the Apostle John is caught up into heaven and sees a similar scene: a throne blazing like jasper and carnelian, surrounded by 24 elders in white robes with golden crowns, a sea of glass like crystal before the throne, and four living creatures — cherubim — who cry out day and night without ceasing:
“Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.” — Revelation 4:8
The elders, overwhelmed by the sight of God’s glory, fall down before the throne and cast their golden crowns before Him, crying: “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power.” This is the scene Heber is painting in verse two, where the “saints adore Thee, casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea.”
The threefold “holy” — known in church history as the Trisagion or Tersanctus, and preserved in the Latin liturgy as the Sanctus — is one of the most ancient elements of both Jewish and Christian worship. It appears in Isaiah’s temple vision, in John’s heavenly vision, and in the worship traditions of the church stretching back to the earliest centuries of Christian prayer. By building his hymn on this foundation, Heber was not simply borrowing vivid imagery. He was connecting every congregation that sings this hymn to the longest unbroken chain of worship in human history.
A Verse-by-Verse Analysis
Verse 1 — The Morning Invitation
Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty! Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee; Holy, holy, holy! Merciful and Mighty! God in Three Persons, blessed Trinity!
The opening stanza does three things simultaneously: it declares the holiness of God, it frames worship as the first act of the day (“early in the morning”), and it makes the hymn’s Trinitarian confession explicit in its very first verse. “God in Three Persons, blessed Trinity” is not a conclusion saved for the end — it is the opening declaration. Heber is not working up to the Trinity; he begins there, because Trinity Sunday demanded nothing less.
The pairing of “merciful and mighty” in the third line is a masterstroke of theological balance. God is not merely powerful — a deity of raw force. Nor is He merely tender — a sentimental idea of divine friendliness. He is both: infinitely mighty in His sovereignty and infinitely merciful in His love. That combination is the heart of the Christian gospel, and Heber captures it in four words.
One feature unique to this text, noted by the Hymnology Archive, is that every single line ends with a rhyme on the same sound (y/ee): Almighty, Thee, Mighty, Trinity. Heber sustains this sound through all sixteen lines of the hymn — a feat of remarkable poetic discipline that gives the text an almost chant-like resonance, as if the very sounds of the words are reverberating in a great hall.
Verse 2 — Heaven Joins the Song
Holy, holy, holy! All the saints adore Thee, Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea; Cherubim and seraphim falling down before Thee, Which wert, and art, and evermore shalt be.
If the first verse places the congregation on earth at the beginning of the day, the second verse lifts their eyes to heaven and shows them who else is singing. The imagery is directly drawn from Revelation 4: the glassy sea, the golden crowns, the cherubim and seraphim prostrate before the throne. By including this stanza in congregational worship, Heber was accomplishing something profound: he was making ordinary Sunday morning worshippers aware that they are not the only ones singing.
The last line — “which wert, and art, and evermore shalt be” — is the hymn’s first fully eternal statement. God does not exist within time as we do; His being spans past, present, and future in perfect wholeness. This is the same language the four living creatures use in Revelation 4:8 (“who was, and is, and is to come”), and it sets up everything that follows in the hymn: a God this eternal, this holy, and this present is worthy of unceasing worship.
Verse 3 — The Honest Confession
Holy, holy, holy! Though the darkness hide Thee, Though the eye of sinful man Thy glory may not see, Only Thou art holy; there is none beside Thee, Perfect in power, in love, and purity.
This is the verse that separates “Holy, Holy, Holy” from lesser hymns of praise. Most songs of adoration keep the singer in a posture of uninterrupted triumph. Heber, with the pastoral sensitivity of a man who had read deeply and cared genuinely for struggling souls, inserts an honest admission: sinful human eyes cannot fully see God’s glory. There is a darkness. There is a limitation. We worship what we cannot fully comprehend.
But having acknowledged that darkness, Heber does not leave the singer there. The confession becomes a declaration of God’s unique holiness: “Only Thou art holy; there is none beside Thee.” The very limitation of human sight becomes a testimony to the incomparable nature of God. And then the stanza closes with one of the most compact and comprehensive theological statements in all of hymnody: “Perfect in power, in love, and purity.” Three attributes. Three perfections. The God who is beyond our sight is also beyond our ability to improve upon.
Verse 4 — All Creation Joins
Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty! All Thy works shall praise Thy name in earth, and sky, and sea; Holy, holy, holy! Merciful and Mighty! God in Three Persons, blessed Trinity!
The fourth and final stanza is a return to the first — almost identical in language — but now the meaning has been dramatically expanded. Having traveled from morning worship on earth, to the throne room of heaven, through the honest admission of human sinfulness, and back to the eternal perfection of God, the congregation arrives at the grand finale: all creation — earth, sky, and sea — joins the song. The repetition of the first verse now feels inevitable, like the final chord of a great symphony: the same notes, but weighted with everything that came before.
This closing movement echoes Psalm 148, which calls on the sun, moon, stars, mountains, trees, animals, and all people to praise the LORD. It echoes the end of the Psalter in Psalm 150: “Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.” And it echoes the vision of Revelation 5:13, where every creature in heaven, earth, and sea cries out in worship. Heber was not simply concluding his hymn. He was placing every singing congregation inside the great chorus of all creation.
The Tune That Made It Immortal: NICAEA
Heber’s text is magnificent, but it found its true voice only when paired with the tune composed by John Bacchus Dykes for the first edition of Hymns Ancient and Modern in 1861. Dykes, who was at the time a minor canon and precentor at Durham Cathedral, had not originally been invited to contribute to the project. When he heard it was underway, he wrote to William Henry Monk, the musical editor, essentially asking if he could still send some tunes. The tune he submitted for Heber’s text became the most celebrated of his career.
Dykes named the tune NICAEA — a deliberate tribute to the First Council of Nicaea, held by the Emperor Constantine in A.D. 325, which formally defined and defended the doctrine of the Trinity against the Arian heresy. The naming was not accidental: a Trinity Sunday hymn defending Trinitarian doctrine, set to a tune honoring the council that established Trinitarian orthodoxy, constitutes one of the most elegant acts of theological coordination in the history of church music.
The tune opens with an ascending major triad — the three notes of a chord rising one by one — which hymnologists have long interpreted as a subtle musical homage to the Trinity itself. From there, NICAEA moves with what scholars have described as “solid harmonies and subtle chromaticism,” lend ing it a chant-like, processional character that suits the grandeur of the text perfectly. Few leaps and many repeated consecutive notes give it the feel of ancient plainchant modernized for the Victorian congregational voice.
Hymnologist Erik Routley, one of the 20th century’s most respected voices on church music, wrote of NICAEA: “It is the noblest of Dykes’s tunes, and on the strength of it alone Dykes earns immortality in the annals of hymnody. His other tunes may be indispensable and beyond price, but they are ‘of their age’ in a sense in which this is not.” The text and the tune have been virtually inseparable since 1861. To sing one is to hear the other.
Timeline: Two Centuries of Worship
Year
Event
1783
Reginald Heber born on April 21 in Malpas, Cheshire, England
c. 1807
Heber appointed vicar of Hodnet, Shropshire; begins writing hymns for every Sunday of the church year
c. 1820–1821
“Holy, Holy, Holy” composed at Hodnet; manuscript (Add MS 25704) preserved in the British Library
1823
Heber appointed Bishop of Calcutta, overseeing the Church of England in India, Ceylon, and Australia
1826
Heber dies suddenly in Trichinopoly, India, on April 3 at age 42. Hymn published posthumously in A Selection of Psalms and Hymns for Banbury
1827
Heber’s widow publishes Hymns Written and Adapted to the Weekly Church Service of the Year — one of the first liturgical hymnals organized by the church calendar
1861
John Bacchus Dykes composes the tune NICAEA for Hymns Ancient and Modern (first edition) — the text-tune pairing that becomes permanent
1864
Heber’s friend H.H. Milman donates original manuscript of hymns to the British Library
1906
Included in The English Hymnal, edited by Ralph Vaughan Williams; reaches new generations of worshippers
1986
Included in The New English Hymnal — still in active use in Anglican worship
Late 1990s–2000s
Hillsong United, Steven Curtis Chapman, and other contemporary artists record their own versions, introducing the hymn to new generations
2000s–2010s
Sufjan Stevens records an acclaimed version; the Choir of King’s College Cambridge performs it to worldwide audiences
Present
Hymnary.org lists the hymn in thousands of hymnals across denominations and languages; actively sung in churches worldwide
Notable Recordings and Covers
Artist / Ensemble
Style
Notable Feature
Choir of King’s College, Cambridge
Classical choral
Regarded as the definitive choral recording; Dykes’s four-part harmony unchanged
Mormon Tabernacle Choir
Grand choral
Massive orchestral arrangement; widely aired on TV and radio broadcasts
Steven Curtis Chapman
Contemporary Christian
Accessible CCM arrangement that brought the hymn to new audiences in the 1990s
Hillsong United
Modern worship
Demonstrates the hymn’s natural fit in contemporary congregational worship
Sufjan Stevens
Indie folk/art
Intimate, sparse arrangement; reached secular audiences unfamiliar with hymns
2nd Chapter of Acts
Jesus Movement
Early contemporary Christian recording that introduced the hymn to the 1970s CCM world
Norton Hall Band
Modern hymn
Popular among Reformed congregations; faithful to original melody with fresh arrangement
Why Tennyson Called It the World’s Greatest Hymn
The poet Alfred Lord Tennyson — the Poet Laureate of Great Britain during much of the Victorian era — is often cited as having called “Holy, Holy, Holy” the world’s greatest hymn. Whether the quote is precise or apocryphal, the claim has endured because it rings true to those who know the text. “Holy, Holy, Holy” is not the most emotionally expressive hymn ever written. It is not the most poetically dazzling. What it is, is the most theologically complete — and the most cosmically ambitious.
In four stanzas and sixty-four words per verse, Heber manages to: address God as Triune, place the singer in a morning act of devotion, transport them to the eternal throne room of heaven, honestly confess the limits of sinful human perception, describe three of God’s defining perfections, and finally gather all creation into one grand chorus of praise. No other hymn in the English language accomplishes all of that in the same space, with the same simplicity, and with the same architectural elegance.
It is the rare kind of writing where you cannot remove a single word without losing something irreplaceable. Every line is weight-bearing. Every image is load-bearing theology dressed as poetry. That is why it has been called the world’s greatest hymn — and why, two hundred years after a young Anglican vicar in rural Shropshire first wrote it for a single Sunday service, it is still being sung, in every language and in every corner of the earth, by the people who know that the song in heaven has never stopped.
Legacy: The Hymn That Outlasted Its Century
“Holy, Holy, Holy” is not merely a beloved old hymn. It is an act of theological formation disguised as a song. Every time a congregation sings it, they are confessing the Trinity, rehearsing the imagery of heaven, acknowledging the limits of sinful human sight, and joining their voices to the eternal worship of the cherubim and seraphim who have never — not for a single moment — stopped their song. The hymn does not grow old because the God it describes does not change.
Reginald Heber died at 42, far from home, in a country he had gone to serve out of love for Christ. He never heard his hymn set to Dykes’s immortal melody. He never saw it in a printed hymnal. He never knew that it would outlast the Victorian era, the British Empire, the rise and fall of entire theological movements, and still be sung by thousands of congregations on every continent in the 21st century.
But then, that is perhaps the most fitting thing of all. Heber didn’t write “Holy, Holy, Holy” to be remembered. He wrote it because he believed the most important thing a congregation could do on Trinity Sunday was look up — away from themselves, away from their circumstances, away from everything that feels so pressing and so permanent — and see the throne of God, and the sea of glass, and the endless cascade of heavenly worship, and know that the holiest sound in the universe is the one that has been ringing since before the world was made:
Holy, holy, holy — Lord God Almighty. All Thy works shall praise Thy name in earth, and sky, and sea. Holy, holy, holy — merciful and mighty, God in Three Persons, blessed Trinity.
Reginald Heber (1783–1826) was an Anglican bishop, poet, and hymn writer. “Holy, Holy, Holy” was composed c. 1820–1821 and published posthumously in 1826–1827. The tune NICAEA was composed by John Bacchus Dykes (1823–1876) for Hymns Ancient and Modern (1861). The hymn is listed in Hymnary.org across thousands of hymnals in virtually every Christian denomination and has been described as appearing “in just about every hymnal.”
How a young man’s private moment with God — and a song he almost never shared — became one of the most beloved worship anthems in church history
The Unfinished Chorus That Changed Everything
It was the end of a long night at a Christian songwriters’ gathering, and Pete Sanchez Jr. had already played his two best songs. The room had heard dozens of writers perform throughout the evening, and the host was wrapping things up. Almost as an afterthought, he turned to Pete and asked: “Do you have anything else before we close?”
Pete hesitated. He had one more thing — but he wasn’t sure it counted. “I have this unfinished little chorus,” he said. “Let’s hear it,” the host replied.
So Pete sat at the piano and began to play and sing something simple, something he had been turning over in private for months — something he had never intended for anyone else’s ears:
“For Thou, O Lord, art high above all the earth…Thou art exalted far above all gods…”
And then came the chorus:
“I exalt Thee… I exalt Thee… I exalt Thee, O Lord!”
Something happened in that room that Pete Sanchez later described as an “out of body experience.” The entire gathering — every songwriter, every musician present — rose to their feet. Hands went up. The room filled with worship. Nobody asked. Nobody prompted them. They simply couldn’t stay seated.
The unfinished little chorus had found its congregation. And it would never be just Pete’s again.
Pete Sanchez Jr.: A Man Called Back to the Psalms
To understand “I Exalt Thee,” you have to understand the unusual circumstances that produced it. Pete Sanchez Jr. was, by his mid-twenties, already an accomplished Christian musician. He had served as a music director, a youth director, and a touring musician with a Christian group called One Song. By any measure of ministry career, he was doing well.
But Pete was newly married and wrestling with something personal. He had come from a divorced family — a wound that cut deep — and he was determined above all else to be a good husband and a good father. The ministry career, the performance, the platform — none of it mattered if his home fell apart. So he made a quiet, deliberate decision: he withdrew from active ministry.
He turned instead to the Psalms. Not as a songwriter looking for raw material, but as a man looking for God. His plan was straightforward: he would meditate on each psalm, one by one, and write a song that expressed what he found. It was a private discipline — a daily act of devotion between him and the Lord, with no audience in mind and no publication planned.
He worked his way through the psalter slowly, prayerfully. And then he arrived at Psalm 97:9.
The Verse That Stopped Him Cold
Psalm 97:9, in the King James Version that Pete was reading, reads:
“For thou, LORD, art high above all the earth: thou art exalted far above all gods.”
The verse stopped him. Something about it felt immense — not just as poetry, but as a declaration of reality. This was not a polite religious sentiment. This was a cosmological claim: that the God of Israel towers above every power, every competing claim, every false god that has ever seduced a human heart. The word translated “exalted” in Hebrew is nā’lāh — to be lifted up to an incomparable height, to be set apart as supreme.
Pete went to his piano. A melody came quickly — but only part of a song. He had a verse, but no chorus. He had a declaration about God, but no personal response to it. The song felt incomplete, unresolved, like a question without an answer.
He set it aside. He came back to it. He set it aside again. For the next 18 months, he kept returning to those opening lines, unable to finish what he had started. Later, he would explain it simply: “The only way I can explain it is, in that moment, it seemed like I stepped into another place… it was a divine encounter.” The chorus — “I exalt Thee, I exalt Thee, I exalt Thee, O Lord” — finally came. Not as clever songwriting. As response. As worship that had been waiting for its moment.
He copyrighted the song in 1976. And then, for years, he kept it mostly to himself.
Lyrical Analysis: What the Song Says and Why It Matters
The Verse — God’s Absolute Supremacy
For Thou, O Lord, art high above all the earth; Thou art exalted far above all gods.
These two lines are not metaphor — they are theological assertion drawn verbatim from Psalm 97:9. The psalmist is speaking into a world full of competing gods: the Baals of Canaan, the gods of Egypt, the idols of every nation surrounding Israel. His claim is total and uncompromising: none of them come close. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is not the strongest among many strong gods — He is exalted far above all of them, in a category entirely His own.
The phrase “high above all the earth” also establishes God’s transcendence — He is not contained within creation, not subject to its limitations. He reigns from a position that is, by definition, above every earthly throne, every human power, every circumstance that threatens to feel larger than it is. This is the theological ground on which the rest of the song stands.
Psalm 97 as a whole is a royal coronation psalm — a song celebrating God’s kingship over the whole earth. It opens with “The Lord reigns; let the earth rejoice!” It describes His throne founded on righteousness and justice, clouds and darkness surrounding Him, fire going before Him, lightning illuminating the world. Verse 9 is its climactic declaration: after all the drama of the preceding verses, the conclusion is this — above everything, it is the Lord who is exalted.
The Chorus — From Declaration to Devotion
I exalt Thee! I exalt Thee! I exalt Thee, O Lord! I exalt Thee! I exalt Thee! I exalt Thee, O Lord!
This is where the song pivots from theology to participation. The verse tells us who God is. The chorus asks: now what will you do with that? It is an act of the will — “I exalt Thee” — not a passive observation. The worshipper is choosing, actively and repeatedly, to lift God above everything else in their life, above every competing priority, every alternative source of security and worth.
The repetition is not redundancy — it is liturgy. The six-fold “I exalt Thee” builds like a wave, each declaration reinforcing the one before it, until the act of exaltation becomes something felt as much as said. This is the ancient logic of Hebrew poetry: not to convey information with each repetition, but to immerse the singer deeper and deeper into the reality being declared.
The word “exalt” itself — from the Latin exaltare, meaning “to raise up high” — is a strong, physical-sounding word. It implies active lifting, not passive acknowledgment. You don’t accidentally exalt someone. You make a choice. You set them in a position of honor. Every time the chorus is sung, the worshipper is consciously repositioning God above themselves, above their circumstances, above every competing claim on their allegiance.
The Structural Genius of Simplicity
One of the most fascinating things about “I Exalt Thee” — noted by worship scholars and music ministers alike — is that most of the Christian world only ever learned the chorus. The verse, which provides the entire theological foundation for the chorus’s declaration, became largely invisible as the song migrated into congregational worship. As one observer noted, this is both its greatest strength and its most significant vulnerability.
The strength: a six-word chorus that anyone can learn in thirty seconds has the power to unite an entire congregation, regardless of background or musical ability, in a single act of worship. The vulnerability: without the verse, “I exalt Thee” could become a worship reflex rather than a worship conviction — a song you sing because it sounds beautiful, rather than a song you sing because you have first been staggered by the reality it proclaims.
Pete Sanchez designed both parts to work together. The verse provides the theological argument; the chorus provides the personal response. Sung together, they form a complete arc of worship: behold who God is, then respond to who He is. That arc — statement followed by surrender — is the heartbeat of biblical praise throughout the Psalter.
Timeline: The Life of a Song
Year
Event
1975
Pete Sanchez Jr. writes the verse of “I Exalt Thee” during a personal Psalms devotional study, based on Psalm 97:9
1975–1976
Over 18 months, Pete keeps returning to the unfinished song until the chorus finally arrives in a moment he calls a “divine encounter”
1976
Pete copyrights “I Exalt Thee”
Mid-1970s
At a Christian songwriters’ gathering, Pete reluctantly shares the “unfinished chorus” — the entire room rises in spontaneous worship; he later receives a cassette of the song being sung in 10 languages
1983
Trumpeter and gospel singer Phil Driscoll records “I Exalt Thee” as the title track of his album on Sparrow Records; the album receives a Grammy nomination for Best Male Gospel Performance
1984
Phil Driscoll wins the GMA Dove Award for Instrumentalist of the Year largely on the strength of the album
1986
Pete Sanchez Jr. releases his own worship album I Exalt Thee! on Integrity’s Hosanna! Music label — further cementing the song in the praise and worship movement
1987–1990s
Integrity’s Hosanna! Music distributes the song globally through its direct-mail worship series; it becomes a staple of charismatic and evangelical worship worldwide
1990s
Petra records the song; it enters the CCM mainstream and is sung in churches across denominations
1998
Phil Driscoll re-records the album as I Exalt Thee: 1998 under his own label, adding new tracks
2000s
Hillsong Worship incorporates “I Exalt Thee” into live worship sets; Gateway Worship features Pete Sanchez in a Song Story teaching series
2022
Gateway Worship releases a full “I Exalt Thee Song Story” video featuring Dr. Pete Sanchez telling the origin story
2024
Dr. Pete Sanchez visits Mill City Church in Fort Collins, Colorado, personally sharing the story behind the song nearly 50 years after writing it
2025
Pete Sanchez receives a Distinguished Alumni Award; “I Exalt Thee” continues to be sung globally in countless languages
Phil Driscoll and the Song That Found the World
For nearly a decade after Pete Sanchez wrote “I Exalt Thee,” the song existed in a relatively small orbit — beloved by those who encountered it, but not yet globally known. That changed in 1983 when Phil Driscoll — a Grammy-winning trumpeter and gospel vocalist who had played with Blood, Sweat & Tears before his conversion — recorded it as the title track of his Sparrow Records album.
Driscoll’s version was extraordinary. His trumpet playing elevated the song into something majestically orchestral, and his powerful gospel voice gave the simple chorus an emotional weight that matched its theological depth. The album received a Grammy nomination for Best Male Gospel Performance and won Driscoll the 1984 GMA Dove Award for Instrumentalist of the Year. Suddenly, “I Exalt Thee” was being heard by millions of people who had never encountered Pete Sanchez.
This pattern — a song written in obscurity, released quietly, then catapulted into global worship through a single high-profile recording — is one that echoes throughout church music history. But what makes “I Exalt Thee” particularly remarkable is what happened next: it did not remain a CCM radio hit. It migrated into the pews and became a congregational anthem — a song that ordinary people in ordinary churches around the world could sing together and mean.
Integrity’s Hosanna! Music and the Global Spread
The song’s deepest penetration into the global church came through Integrity’s Hosanna! Music — the pioneering worship music label founded in 1985 that became the primary vehicle for distributing praise and worship music directly to churches through a subscription model. Pete Sanchez Jr. was not merely a songwriter in this ecosystem — he became an integral part of it, eventually serving as Vice President and Dean of the Integrity Worship Institute.
Through Hosanna! Music’s direct-to-church cassette and CD series, “I Exalt Thee” reached denominations and traditions that might never have heard it through CCM radio — Pentecostal churches in Africa, Baptist congregations in South America, charismatic fellowships across Asia. Pete Sanchez later recalled receiving a cassette of the song being sung in ten different languages, sent to him by a missionary who had carried it to the ends of the earth. The man who withdrew from ministry to protect his family had, through one act of private devotion, reached more people than most full-time ministers ever would.
Sanchez went on to become Executive Pastor of Worship for New Life Church in Colorado Springs and a professor of worship at multiple universities in the United States and Belgium — a career of remarkable breadth built, in part, on the foundation of a song he almost didn’t share.
Legacy and Modern Worship
“I Exalt Thee” occupies a unique place in the history of modern Christian worship. It was not born in a recording studio, a church growth movement, or a worship conference. It was born in a man’s apartment, in a season of deliberate withdrawal, in a private act of biblical meditation. That origin gives it a character that is different from many worship songs written for a stage and a sound system — it is, at its core, a song of intimacy and surrender.
Over the last four decades, it has been recorded and performed by artists spanning the entire spectrum of Christian music, from Phil Driscoll’s orchestral gospel to Petra’s rock arrangements, from Hillsong’s stadium worship to quiet acoustic renditions at small-group Bible studies. Gateway Worship has featured it extensively in their training resources. Hillsong Worship has incorporated it into their live sets. Countless churches around the world include it in weekly worship without knowing anything about the man who wrote it or the story behind it.
Notable Recordings and Covers
Artist
Recording / Context
Year
Phil Driscoll
Title track, I Exalt Thee (Sparrow Records); Grammy nominated
1983
Pete Sanchez Jr.
I Exalt Thee! album, Integrity’s Hosanna! Music
1986
Petra
Recorded and performed widely through the CCM era
1990s
Phil Driscoll
I Exalt Thee: 1998 — re-recorded album with bonus tracks
1998
Hillsong Worship
Featured in live worship sets globally; medley with “A Thousand Hallelujahs”
2000s–present
Gateway Worship
Song Story teaching series featuring Pete Sanchez Jr.
2022
Various artists
Sung in 10+ languages across six continents in churches of every denomination
Ongoing
The Man Who Almost Kept It to Himself
There is a haunting quality to the origin story of “I Exalt Thee” that deserves a moment of reflection. Pete Sanchez Jr. wrote this song with no intention of sharing it. He considered it unfinished. He thought it was too small — just a private chorus, not a real song. When he finally did share it, it was only because someone pressed him at the last moment, at the end of a long night, when he was the last person at the microphone.
This is one of the recurring patterns in the history of great worship songs: the writer almost didn’t write it, almost didn’t finish it, almost didn’t share it. The song that transforms millions begins in obscurity, reluctance, or apparent incompleteness. The songwriter who thinks they have nothing to offer turns out to have the very thing the room — and eventually the world — needed to hear.
Pete Sanchez withdrew from ministry to be a good husband and father. He did not withdraw to write a worship anthem. He withdrew to be faithful in a small, private, unglamorous way — meditating on the Psalms, one by one, day by day. The song came as a byproduct of that faithfulness. It was not manufactured. It was discovered, the way you discover something that was already there, waiting to be found.
He said the only way he could explain the moment the chorus finally came was that he had stepped into another place. For those who have sung “I Exalt Thee” in worship and felt that same displacement — that sudden, overwhelming sense of standing before something infinitely larger than yourself — his description rings true. The song doesn’t just describe that experience. It transports you into it.
Why This Song Still Moves Us
Nearly fifty years after Pete Sanchez wrote “I Exalt Thee” in the quiet of his apartment, the song continues to be sung in churches around the world, in languages its author could never have imagined, by people whose names he will never know. The reasons for its endurance are not mysterious.
First, it is rooted directly in Scripture. Every word of the verse is drawn from Psalm 97:9 — not paraphrased, not interpreted, but lifted almost verbatim from the ancient text. When you sing “I Exalt Thee,” you are singing the Bible. That gives the song an authority and a resonance that no amount of clever songwriting can manufacture.
Second, it does something theologically essential: it places God in His proper position before the worshipper enters anything else. Before petitions. Before problems. Before praise for what God has done. “I Exalt Thee” begins with who God is — exalted, supreme, high above all the earth — and invites the worshipper to orient their entire life around that reality. This is what theologians call doxology: starting with God, not with our needs.
Third — and perhaps most powerfully — the song carries the weight of its own origin story. Every time it is sung, it is, in some sense, the continuation of that night at the songwriters’ gathering when an entire room rose to its feet without being asked. The worship that began in Pete Sanchez’s apartment, spilled into that gathering, traveled around the world in ten languages, and continues to echo in churches everywhere — has never stopped. It simply keeps spreading, one voice at a time, one congregation at a time, finding its way into hearts that are ready to say, with everything they have:
I exalt Thee. I exalt Thee. I exalt Thee, O Lord.
Pete Sanchez Jr. founded Gabriel Music Incorporated in 1991, a music publishing company named after the biblical angel. He served for many years as Executive Pastor of Worship at New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and as a professor of worship at universities in both the United States and Belgium. He holds a Doctor of Ministry degree. “I Exalt Thee,” written in 1975 and copyrighted in 1976, remains one of the most widely sung worship songs in the history of the modern church.
