The CCM Praise Songs we have trouble with Meme

I was tagged for this meme by Sam who, unusually, seems to have bottled it. The rules are: Please try to name ONE (I know, there are so many to choose from) CCM praise song that you find unbearable and at least 2-3 reasons why, pointing to specific lyrics if you must.

I'm going for a song choice that will no doubt be controversial as it is the song that fans of Delirious? chose to send to No. 4 in the singles chart last year as part of the band's swansong. Martin Smith can write a great lyric - Deeper is evidence of that - but History Maker is far from being among his best:

Is it true today that when people pray

Cloudless skies will break
Kings and queens will shake
Yes it's true and I believe it
I'm living for you

Is it true today that when people pray
We'll see dead men rise
And the blind set free
Yes it's true and I believe it
I'm living for you

I'm gonna be a history maker in this land
I'm gonna be a speaker of truth to all mankind
I'm gonna stand, I'm gonna run
Into your arms, into your arms again
Into your arms, into your arms again

Well it's true today that when people stand
With the fire of God, and the truth in hand
We'll see miracles, we'll see angels sing
We'll see broken hearts making history
Yes it's true and I believe it
We're living for you

History Maker, it seems to me, is a classic example of hyperbole. It is full of those things that we think we ought to want to see as Christians - the dead rising, miracles, angels singing - but generally don't actually experience literally (although we love hearing stories of these things happening to others) and which, because we fixate on supernatural experience, then lead us to overlook or dismiss the miracle of life itself and the hard graft of compassion in the here and now.

History actually demonstrates that those who make a stand are as likely to be crushed as they are to see miracles and angels singing but this song doesn't deal in those kinds of paradoxes or realities and only inhabits an optimistic triumphalism. The comparison with Deeper is instructive as that lyric does deal in contrasts. Deeper contains the same yearning for God as History Maker but with a greater sense of reliance on God for any kind of achievement. History Maker is full of I's. In other words its focus is on me - what I'm gonna do, what I'm gonna be, what I'm gonna achieve - and it's attempt at reliance on God (running into the arms of God) is ambiguous at best and disconnected from the rest of the lyric at worst.

More than this though, much of the song makes little or no sense. How does a cloudless sky break or a broken heart make history? The blind set free conflates recovery of sight for the blind and set the oppressed free (Luke 4. 18) in a phrase that is either meaningless or offensive. I'm gonna stand, I'm gonna run - well, which is it to be? Ultimately, these are emotive phrases with little or no substance to them.

If you are reading this, you're tagged. 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Delirious? - Deeper.