King of Hearts by Brandon Lake: Lyrics & Song Review

King of Hearts by Brandon Lake is a poetic witness account of the repentant thief by the side of Christ on the day of crucifixion, recounting how he was most graciously saved. The song is the title track of Brandon’s album, King Of Hearts.

The story of the repentant thief is astounding. A thief, criminal by order of the law, vile, and rightly deserving of death by a cross, received salvation on the instant by acknowledging Christ was just, and asking for Christ’s consideration into His Kingdom.

Looking at the story, many wonder at the fortunate thief, who having lived a life of evil, eventually received salvation at the nigh of his life. In the same manner, King Of Hearts by Brandon Lake introspects the story, while featuring elborate imagery through poetic expression.

Brandon Lake’s King of Hearts employs lots of eisegetical freedom to deliver such a poetic narration. Does the song preseve scriptural meaning? Do its words glorify God? Let’s dive deep into the song.

Song factsheet

Song Review

Main themes and scriptural basis

Over the song, the following themes are evident:

Atonement

Christ gave His life to take our away our sins. He humbled Himself to the point of a shameful death and paid the ultimate price for our salvation.

As the thief, when a sinner recognizes their fallenness and seeks salvation, Christ blots out all their iniquities.

‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭53:5‬ ‭KJV

‬‬[5] But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. 

‭‭Philippians‬ ‭2:8‬ ‭KJV‬‬

[8] and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

‭‭1 John‬ ‭1:9‬ ‭KJV

‬‬[9] If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 

Salvation by grace

The story of the repentant thief exemplifies grace. Unto grace, no prior merit is demanded, only to believe and turn hearts unto Christ – a thief only confessed and believed. We could never earn grace, it is a gift.

‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭2:8‭-‬9‬ ‭KJV

‬‬[8] For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: [9] not of works, lest any man should boast. 

Eternal life

Through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, we who were once enemies of God have now received an adoption into the kingdom of God, unto an eternal dwelling with God in heaven.

‭‭John‬ ‭3:16‬ ‭KJV‬‬

[16] For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.  

Lyrics review

Now onto the words of the song — we examine verse after verse. You can listen along as we examine:

Song lyrics:

Sing title review

From the far distance, looking through a secular lens, King Of Hearts is a rather fitting title. In the world of cards, it connotes a person of virtue, with compassion, love, empathy and suchlike qualities. This title can be traced to the practice of divination through Tarot cards reading.

In the Bible, Christ’s title in Kingship title is King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. This title invokes the ultimate authority and power of Christ, far superceding all earthly authority. King of Kings is used in Revelation 19:

‭‭Revelation‬ ‭19:11‬ , 14, 16 KJV

‬‬[11] And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. 

[14] And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. 

[16] And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND Lord OF LORDS.

In view of scripture, King of Hearts is a foreign title, without any association to Christianity. Having it as a title on a Christian song can be misleading, especially given its connection to divination.

While the title may have been intended to depict a relational King in touch with the hearts of His people, it deviates away from the original context, which is that of a supreme, all-powerful judge and ruler.

Verse 1 review

From the first verse, one can tell that the personna is a witness to the crucifixion of Christ. It becomes apparent later on in the second verse that it is the repentant thief.

• The witness account narrated on the first verse is largely imaginative, and it does well to set the scene at Calvary ‐ with the thief observing Christ crucified. However, this is not recorded in scripture
• The last line of the verse, “But in silence we both trembled” brings about a sense of fear in both Christ and the thief. Fear might have been evident on the th⁶ief, perhaps due to the impending judgement for his evil past, but not with Christ. Knowing the magnitude of the burden of sin he was to bear and the momentary separation from His Father, Christ was filled with anguish.

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭26:38‬ ‭KJV‬‬

[38] Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me.

Chorus review

• The first line tells of salvation by grace – we received, and yet gave nothing in return
• “I poured You poison” – this characterisation of response to grace is not consistent with Biblical descriptions. Often, the Bible describes response to salvation, good news or grace as rejection, with symbolisms such as they have ears yet do not hear.
• With all that I’ve done, could I be forgiven – looking at the magnitude of our sins, we all ask this question. But the right posture is to fix eyes on the cross Christ, where hope lies, and to see that He paid the ultimate price.

Verse 2 review

• The first four lines describe the thief’s plea to Jesus to remember him. Brandon’s poetic expression gets the scene well depicted, albeit with an extra-scriptural bit, “I only had seconds.”
• It’s not clear how much time the thief had. However, the duration from crucifixion to Christ’s death was 6 hours (from the third to the ninth hour). It’s possible the conversation between the thief and Christ only lasted a short time. Perhaps, the brief window depicted in the song serves to demonstrate the urgency to repent, imparted by immense pain on the cross.
• Son, this time tomorrow, we will be in paradise – From scripture, Christ promises that the thief would be with Him in paradise on that same day:

‭‭Luke‬ ‭23:42‭-‬43‬ ‭KJV‬‬

[42] And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. 

[43] And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.

Bridge review

Here, Christ’s Kingship is devolved, which distorts the original intended meaning — that of ultimate authority.

To preserve the authority of the title King of Kings, there are a number of salvation, compassionate, and relational titles that could have gone well with the bridge

• Saviour
• Deliverer
• Redeemer
• Comforter
• Friend
• The Way, The Truth and The Life
• The bread of life

Key takeaways

• Unconditional grace ‐ that Christ is willing to save the vilest offender, if they repent and believe
• The love of God – the cross of Christ is the greatest symbol of love, evident with the salvation of the repentant thief

Potential pitfalls

• Poetic liberty in such a song is effective in immersing the listener into an emotive state. However, with such liberty comes ease of eisegetical error.
• Straying from scriptural accounts, and giving precedence to creative narration before scripture diminishes the authority of scripture.

Worldly patterns

• The song adopts a title associated with divination, pointing to a laxed adherence to Godly standard.
• Overally, there’s a sense of duplicity in the song. On one hand, the song recounts of one of the greatest displays of grace, while on the other hand, it has deviations from scripture, and an assimilation of a secular practice.

Audience

To some, the pitfalls highlighted may seem minimal, insignificant and inconsequential. But to an infant in the faith, there could be a detrimental impact. Scrutiny should be employed unto every word, to take in the good, leave the rest out.

Check out more song reviews on Unleash Mag. Thank you for reading!

[Featured image: Brandon Lake’s King of Hearts album cover. Credits: Facebook/Brandon Lake]