Single - Dusty Bibles - Josiah Queen artwork

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‘Dusty Bibles’ by Josiah Queen - Lyrics & Meaning

By Maxim Mower

July 24, 2025 9:50 am GMT

Josiah Queen - ‘Dusty Bibles’

Label: Independent (Josiah Queen Music)

Release Date: June 20th, 2025

Album: Mt. Zion

Producer: John Michael Howell

Songwriters: Josiah Queen, Dylan Thomas, John Michael Howell & Zac Lawson

The Background:

After the explosion in cross-over (no pun intended...) popularity enjoyed by Contemporary Christian trailblazers such as Forrest Frank and Brandon Lake in 2025, Josiah Queen returned with a brand new single, ‘Dusty Bibles’, on June 20th. It proceeded to rapidly spread across TikTok, with Queen's anthemic, folk-infused sound combining with his relatable, yearning message to produce an immensely viral hit.

It didn't take long for ‘Dusty Bibles’ to surge towards the business-end of Spotify's Top 50 Viral charts, with the track amassing close to 10 million streams in its first month.

Queen released a soulful acoustic ‘Mt. Zion’ version of ’Dusty Bibles’ on July 18th. The original appears on his sophomore studio album, Mt. Zion, which drops on August 22nd.

The Sound:

In recent years, Contemporary Christian Music artists have increasingly been broadening their sonic horizons, embracing trap, folk and country impulses, rather than feeling boxed in by the traditional gospel blueprint. Josiah Queen embodies this, with ‘Dusty Bibles’ sounding like a modern folk earworm that just happens to carry a spiritual message, with the uptempo, galvanising track drawing just as much from Noah Kahan, Caamp and Mumford & Sons as it does from Chris Tomlin.

It finds Queen's warm, introspective croons coasting across the gentle strum of an acoustic guitar, as he reflects on how he's been struggling to find time with God due to being addicted to his phone. Then, as he makes the breakthrough and realises he needs to adjust his priorities, we get a euphoric gang-vocal for the hook. He injects an added sense of vitality into the backing, too, with the banjo, hand-caps and energising beat giving this the feel of a campfire sing-a-long.

The Meaning:

“Hey, how you been?
It's been a while and I'm just checking in
I miss the way things used to be back in 2017
And I just miss my friend
Hey, I've been fine
I've been struggling to find some peace of mind
It's the problem of our nation and in our generation
We're too busy and can't find the time
Are we busy or is it all a lie?”

The curtain opens on Josiah Queen starting up a conversation with an old friend that he hasn't spoken to in a long time. He immediately confesses how he's been feeling restless and uneasy of late, lamenting how modern life always seems too busy.

It quickly becomes clear that the friend he's talking to is Jesus, with this verse being conveyed as an intimate prayer. Queen concludes with the realisation that our lives aren't actually as rushed as they feel - we're just filling our days with the wrong things.

This evocative verse demonstrates the way in which prayer is often described as being more like a personal conversation with God and Jesus, rather than a one-way street.

“We got dust on our Bibles, brand new iPhones
No wonder why we feel this way
We walk with our eyes closed, blind leading blind folks
And I'm donе with those idols and dusty Bibles”

During the hook, Josiah Queen highlights the key problem in how he is spending his free time through a powerful piece of juxtaposition. He contrasts how shiny, new and well-used our mobile phones are with our dusty, old and forgotten Bibles.

Queen muses that it's no surprise we're wrestling with existential angst and anxiety, when we're spending more time scrolling through social media and comparing ourselves to others, than we are focussing on our spirituality and relationship with God.

The idea of the “blind leading blind” appears throughout the Bible, such as in Matthew 15:14, when Jesus advises his disciples, “If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit”.

Josiah Queen also references there being misleading “idols”, another Biblical concept that showcases how people often put their trust in ‘false gods’. In ‘Dusty Bibles’, Queen is seemingly touching on how we are guided by influencers, celebrities and other public figures that, in reality, are spiritually ‘blind’. He encourages listeners to be guided by God, Jesus and the Bible, rather than social media.

“You only get this onе life
I don't wanna sit and watch it pass me by
I'm so done being complacent, there ain't no replacement
For a life in the light of Your way
Oh I'm done, had enough of my way”

Throughout the second verse, Queen adds some further weight behind the message of the song, as he explains why he has decided to start putting Bible study and time with God at the heart of his daily routine. He emphasises that he doesn't want to wake up one day and wonder where all the time went, due to him spending it mindlessly scrolling through social media, rather than living with intention.

What has Josiah Queen said about 'Dusty Bibles’?

When he first started teasing ’Dusty Bibles’ across socials, Queen admitted, “Wrote this one after doomscrolling for an hour. This might be the most honest song I’ve ever dropped”.

He went on, “Poured my heart and soul into this one. It’s a journey into the presence of God”, before revealing he “almost didn't release” ‘Dusty Bibles’, but “God had other plans”.