Since its release as part of Brandon Lake's 2020 studio album, House of Miracles, ‘Gratitude’ has blossomed into one of the most popular worship songs of the past decade.

It finds Lake crooning about how his faith in God and Jesus has saved him over the years, before admitting that he doesn't really feel as though he has much to offer in return. All he can give, he decides, is the most heartfelt ‘Thank you’ possible, which becomes the foundation for this soul-stirring, heartwarming meditation on salvation.

Today, it's not uncommon to hear ‘Gratitude’ playing out on Sundays across churches in North America and beyond, with Lake's track cementing itself in the modern worship canon. The song received an added boost when it was selected to appear on Christmas with The Chosen: The Messengers in December 2021, with the ‘Hard Fought Hallelujah’ hitmaker recording a special music video on-set.

Few songs are able to convey such a tangible sense of gradual joy and relief over the course of four or so minutes as movingly as ‘Gratitude’ can. Much of the composition throughout the first half is intentionally pared-down and intimate, as Lake sings humbly about wanting to thank Jesus, but not feeling worthy of doing so.

As he croons gently about carrying around this feeling of remorse and imperfection, we hear a delicate piano twinkling in the background alongside atmospheric strings.

But then, as it dawns on Lake that Jesus doesn't need him to be perfect or blameless to be able to approach Him in prayer, he reaches the freeing realisation that all God and Jesus want from us is our praise and love. As he does so, we get a rousing and stirring progression, with the swelling strings, keys and drum pattern highlighting the spiritual and emotional journey our narrator has been on.

Lake greets this burgeoning instrumental and outpouring of gratitude in the only way he can - by letting out a raw, untethered roar into the abyss. The reverb on this helps to give it an ethereal ambience. It all comes together vibrantly for one of the most visceral, evocative crescendos in Contemporary Christian Music.

Lake's ‘Gratitude’ - penned with Dante Bowe and Benjamin William Hastings - captures the vivid feeling of hope and the sudden jolt of euphoria that he sings about as he reflects on how Jesus has helped him. He feels overwhelmed with a sense of gratitude, but as he considers Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, our protagonist confesses he feels a strong sense of inadequacy in anything he has to offer in return.

As he sings that all he has to offer is a heartfelt ‘Hallelujah’ and words of praise, Lake outlines how Jesus’ sacrifice and forgiveness is unconditional, and that we don't need to find an impressive, shiny gift to offer as recompense. Rather, as Lake expresses throughout this offering, our praise and gratitude is all God and Jesus need from us.

In turn, we get this powerful image of a man kneeling down on the floor, with his arms raised up to the sky. It's a scene of ultimate humility and gratitude before the cross, and at the same time, Lake frames this as a scene of ultimate triumph and freedom.

When he sings about having a ‘lion’ inside of your lungs, he is instructing listeners to praise with every essence of their being, and to believe they have more to let out. Jesus, of course, is often referred to as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, so here Lake is suggesting that, because everyone has the Holy Spirit within them, they can draw on that power and that energy to give their prayers and praise extra vivacity.

When asked by JOY FM what song from his discography is his favourite to sing in church, Lake immediately responded, “Man, I have to say ‘Gratitude’. It’s everything I want to say to the Lord, and I love that for me, it even just sonically, musically, it kind of hits both end of the spectrum of like, really pretty… but then it has a roar at the end. And it gets aggressive and rowdy. And so I like to say that I like showing both ends of the spectrum of reflective and rowdy. And so that song kind of goes from this reflective and just thankful and pretty angelic kind of feel to like rowdy and you got the lion in your lungs type thing. And then it’s like so vertical, it’s just to the Lord. But then that bridge…it takes a moment to be like, “Hold on, let me command my soul to wake up! Like, I’ve got more to offer God than I think I do. Let me let that lion out.” You know? That lion size praise. And so yeah, that one’s been the most fun. And obviously God’s been using it in a crazy way. The craziest thing about that song is it almost didn’t make my record”.

“All my words fall short
I got nothing new
How could I express
All my gratitude?
-
I could sing these songs
As I often do
But every song must end
And You never do
-
So I throw up my hands
And praise You again and again
'Cause all that I have is a hallelujah
Hallelujah
And I know it's not much
But I've nothing else fit for a King
Except for a heart singing hallelujah
Hallelujah
-
I've got one response
I've got just one move
With my arm stretched wide
I will worship You
-
So I throw up my hands
And praise You again and again
'Cause all that I have is a hallelujah
Hallelujah
And I know it's not much
But I've nothing else fit for a King
Except for a heart singing hallelujah
Hallelujah
-
So come on, my soul
Oh, don't you get shy on me
Lift up your song
'Cause you've got a lion inside of those lungs
Get up and praise the Lord
-
Oh, come on, my soul
Oh, don't you get shy on me
Lift up your song
'Cause you've got a lion inside of those lungs
Get up and praise the Lord
-
Come on, my soul
Oh, don't you get shy on me
Lift up your song
'Cause you've got a lion inside of those lungs
Get up and praise the Lord, hey
-
Praise the Lord
Praise the Lord
Praise the Lord
-
So I throw up my hands
Praise You again and again
'Cause all that I have is a hallelujah
Hallelujah
And I know it's not much
But I've nothing else fit for a King
Except for a heart singing hallelujah
Hallelujah”

For more on Brandon Lake, see below:

Brandon Lake

Artist