It has been 7 years since Sarah Reeves released her indie album Broken Things. Since then, Sarah has spent time on her marriage, releasing covers of popular Christian songs on YouTube, including Hillsong United’s Oceans (see my review), Jon Foreman’s Your Love is Strong, and Bethels’ Ever Be. She has been writing music for other artists, including Jesus Culture, Kari Jobe, and Natalie Grant. Though she released a few singles along the way, outside of covers and holiday albums, Right Where You Want Me is part of her first album release since 2011.

How will it stack up against The Berean Test? Read on to find out!

Update: Commenter praiser gave correct verses about prayer used as an enemy; however, reexamination of this line uncovered another error, which does not affect my score.

Lyrics can be found at https://genius.com/Sarah-reeves-right-where-you-want-me-lyrics.

Note to new users: This is a different kind of review site! Read About the Berean Test and Evaluation Criteria prior to reading this review.

1. What message does the song communicate?

Overall, I thought the lyrics were positive and uplifting, yet, bland and unnecessarily repetitive. To summarize the song, Sarah has victory over the war raging inside of her. “You” is the one who has the victory, the King of Heaven, the One in whom she places her trust.

Score: 7/10

2. How much of the lyrics line up with Scripture?

Most of it does; however, I have some concerns.

[Verse 1]

Lines 1 and 2: Not necessarily. Sure, it is true that when we follow Jesus, we become enemies with those who hate Jesus (Matthew 10:16-23, Luke 21:12-17, John 15:18-25); however, it could also be because of our own stupidity.

Lines 3 and 4: Ultimately, God will have the victory over our enemies, exacting His vengeance upon mankind for breaking His Laws (Deuteronomy 32:34-43, Psalm 94:1-2, Proverbs 20:22, Romans 12:19, 2 Thessalonians 1:5-8, and Hebrews 10:26-31). This comes to fruition during God’s final judgment upon mankind (Revelation 20:11-15).

[Pre-Chorus]

Lines 1 and 2: Comes right out of Hebrews 12:2. Also, see Psalm 42:1-11, 1 Corinthians 2:2, Galatians 6:14, Philippians 1:21-24, and Philippians 3:8.

Lines 3 and 4: There is a whole list of things that cannot separate us from the love of God in Romans 8:31-39.

[Chorus 1]

Line 1: This is a loose connection to the sovereignty of God over all creation, which includes Genesis 1:1, Deuteronomy 4:39, Deuteronomy 10:14, Joshua 2:11, Nehemiah 9:6, Psalm 29:10, Psalm 45:6, Psalm 93:1-2, Psalm 115:3, Psalm 135:6, Isaiah 43:13, Isaiah 45:9-10, Isaiah 46:10, Lamentations 5:19, Daniel 4:35, Romans 9:19-21, Ephesians 1:11, Hebrews 1:8, James 4:15, Revelation 4:11, and Revelation 20:11.

Line 2: Repeats idea in Pre-Chorus, lines 1 and 2.

Line 3: Quoted from 2 Corinthians 3:18.

Line 4: Repeats line 1.

[Verse 2]

Line 1: II Chronicles 20:22, Joshua 6:20, and Acts 16:25-40 are examples where praise is used as a weapon against others.

Line 2: This is problematic. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that our “praise” is the only weapon we can use. The Word of God is our weapon (Ephesians 6:17), also known as the Sword of the Spirit.

Lines 3 and 4: This is because God is sovereign (see Chorus 1, Line 1).

[Chorus 2]

Repeats lines from Chorus 1.

[Bridge]

That is, firm in our faith. See 1 Corinthians 16:13, 2 Corinthians 1:24, Ephesians 6:11, Philippians 1:27, Philippians 4:1, Colossians 1:23, 2 Thessalonians 2:15, Hebrews 3:6, Hebrews 3:14, Hebrews 4:14, Hebrews 6:11, Hebrews 10:23, and 1 Peter 5:9.

[Chorus 3]

Repeats lines from Chorus 1.

Score: 7/10

3. How would an outsider interpret the song?

I cannot tell if an outsider will understand that Sarah is speaking about God. The only hints that we have are pronoun capitalization and the “King of Glory”. Given my comments in section 1, few will be inspired to consider Christ as a result of listening to this song.

Score: 2/10

4. What does this song glorify?

While I am disappointed in its message and evangelistic outreach, the intent is to glorify God. Sarah deserves some credit for that.

Score: 8/10

Closing Comments

Right Where You Want Me is a mixed bag. On the one hand, it has a positive message of God’s victory over His enemies, which happens to be ours also. On the other hand, it contains lazy, repetitive writing, some of which is unbiblical. While some will find it uplifting, I find it disappointing at best.

Final Score: 6/10

Artist Info

Track: Right Where You Want Me (listen to the song) (buy the song)

Artist: Sarah Reeves

Album: Easy Never Needed You (buy the album)

Genre: Contemporary Christian Music (CCM), Pop

Release Year: 2018

Duration: 3:26

Agree? Disagree? Don’t be shy or have a cow! Calmly and politely state your case in a comment, below.

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