Hillsong UNITED - Relentless Lyrics

Video

Relentless (Acoustic) - Hillsong UNITED

Meaning & Inspiration

The trap we often fall into when curating a set list is choosing songs that function like a mirror. We want the congregation to see their own feelings reflected back at them, usually because it’s easier to get a room of people to sing about their own happiness or their own struggles. But looking at Hillsong UNITED’s "Relentless," I find myself checking the mechanics of where the focus actually rests.

There’s a line in the bridge that cuts through the noise: "Fighting for the furthest heart."

When we sing that, are we singing about ourselves? If the song becomes a meditation on my own heart being pursued, it’s easy for it to turn inward—a nice, cozy feeling of being sought after. But that’s not what the lyric says. It’s an objective observation about the character of God. He is a fighter. The imagery of "tearing through the veil of darkness" shifts the gaze entirely away from the pew and toward the act of the crucifixion itself. It references that moment in the temple, the curtain ripping top to bottom (Matthew 27:51), signaling that the separation between a holy God and his creation was violently—gloriously—removed.

From a structural standpoint, the song relies heavily on the repetition of the word "relentless." In a live room, repetition is a gamble. You can either drive a truth into the marrow of the bones or you can turn it into a mantra that loses its edge. If the band plays this as a high-octane celebration of our own excitement, the word "relentless" loses its weight. It just becomes noise. However, if the leader keeps the focus on the "why" of that relentlessness—that He gave His life for all to see—the repetition serves as a necessary anchor.

My concern with a track like this is always the "landing." When the music stops, what are the people left holding? Is it just the adrenaline of the chorus, or is it the unsettling reality of the "furthest heart"?

Truthfully, I struggle with whether we actually mean it when we sing about the "furthest" heart. That’s a uncomfortable concept. If we truly grasp that His love is relentless enough to reach the person we find most difficult to love, the song stops being a comfortable sing-along. It becomes a diagnostic tool.

If we approach the Cross in this song, we have to acknowledge that the "tearing of the veil" wasn't a soft, gentle transition. It was an act of war against the darkness. When we reach the final note, if we aren't careful, we just move on to the next announcement or the next transition. We leave the room feeling like we’ve been loved, which is good, but perhaps we miss the call to mirror that relentless pursuit in our own lives. I wonder if we’re actually ready to have our own shadows chased away by that kind of light. It’s a messy business, being found.