Chris Tomlin
6 songs checked against the passages they lean on. Each one was graded on its own, against what that song does with the text.
How the 6 checks landed
- ~ FAITHFUL 1
- NOT A QUOTE 5
This is a count, not a verdict. We grade songs, one at a time, against what each one does with the text. A tally of those checks describes a catalogue. It is not a judgment of the people who wrote or sang it, and no number here puts anyone on or off The List. Most drift is craft pressure, not deception. Read the proofs, not the arithmetic.
The songs
NOT A QUOTE
“Whom Shall I Fear (God of Angel Armies)”
Chris Tomlin
Sing it. Nothing here is presented as scripture. The question is Psalm 27's, the armies are the ones Elisha's servant saw with opened eyes, and the name that carries them comes from a paraphrase Bible's wording, not from this scene.✓ The scene behind the chorus is real and documented: the writers point to 2 Kings 6, and what the chorus says about presence, always at the singer's side, is verse 16's own point, those with us are more
⚠ No verse is cited and no translation is named, so the lyric gives a singer no road to Psalm 27, 2 Kings 6, or the title's own addresses. The links live in interviews and worship write-ups, not in the song
NOT A QUOTE
“How Great Is Our God”
Chris Tomlin
Sing it. It quotes nothing and never says it is scripture. Verse one carries Psalm 104's opening pictures honestly, the chorus is a true sentence with several scriptural homes, and the Trinity verse is the church's creed, knowingly added.✓ Verse one's pictures nearly all have addresses inside Psalm 104 itself: royal splendor and the garment of light (vv. 1-2), creation startled at His voice (v. 7), the trembling earth (v. 32)
⚠ The Trinity verse is the songwriters' creedal addition. Psalm 104 names no Trinity, so a listener sent to the psalm by the origin story will not find that verse in it
NOT A QUOTE
“Our God”
Chris Tomlin
Sing it. Nothing it says of God outruns scripture, and the bridge keeps Paul's question in question form. Just remember what the next verse grounds the "for us" in: God gave His own Son. That is the proof the song leaves out.✓ The bridge keeps Paul's question as a question. It asks rather than asserts, which is the verse's own rhetorical mode, and it planted a Romans 8 conditional in one of the most-sung choruses of its decade
⚠ In Romans the "if" concludes verses 28 to 30. "These things" have a referent, and the "us" is the people God called and justified. The song sings the conditional without the chain it rests on
NOT A QUOTE
“Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)”
Chris Tomlin
Sing it. Nothing here is offered as scripture. It is Newton's hymn with a 2006 chorus added. If you want the text behind it, read 1 Chronicles 17:16-17 alongside the song rather than expecting to find it inside.✓ Never says it is quoting, anywhere: no verse cited, no translation named, nothing framed as scripture
⚠ The chorus is Tomlin and Giglio's, written in 2006. Many people now sing it as part of "Amazing Grace" without knowing it is not part of "Amazing Grace"
~ FAITHFUL
“Forever”
Chris Tomlin
Sing it, and answer the way the psalm does. The answering line is the psalm's refrain and the call-and-answer shape is the psalm's own liturgy. The verses are summaries, so let the psalm's named deeds fill them back in.✓ The answering line the room repeats is this psalm's actual refrain, and the call-then-answer form is the psalm's own; Ezra 3:11 shows the same refrain sung responsively by a whole people
⚠ No verse is cited and no translation is named; the refrain matches the NIV's wording, which a listener has to recognize rather than check
NOT A QUOTE
“Holy Forever”
Chris Tomlin
Sing it. It is a song about the holiness Revelation 4:8 describes, not a quotation of the verse. The threefold holy is there; the verse's title and its closing clause are not.✓ The threefold holy keeps the shape of the creatures' cry, and the title phrase carries the verse's point that the cry does not end
⚠ The song never quotes the verse. Its title, Lord God Almighty, and its closing clause about the One who was and is and is to come are not sung, so a singer who wants Revelation 4:8 by heart will not get it here