What "His Mercy Is More" means
The comparative in the title is not decoration. Matt Boswell and Matt Papa built this song around a single theological claim that they wanted to be as large as it is true, that mercy exceeds every measure of failure that could be brought against a person. This is a new hymn in the oldest sense of the form: it takes a doctrine, turns it over in the light of lyric and melody, and gives the congregation something they can carry back into the week. The writers are working in a tradition that trusts language to do doctrinal work, not just emotional work. When the verses name specific categories of failure, the act of naming is itself a theological move. It says that God's mercy is not a generalized offer addressed to vague sinners. It is an address to the specific weight you are carrying today. The song earns its title by the time it reaches the chorus. You have been brought into the full weight of what mercy is meeting, and then the declaration lands with the force of something that was set up rather than something that was assumed. For a congregation of worship leaders who often carry a particular burden, the gap between the role and the reality, this song is as much a gift to the person holding the microphone as it is to anyone sitting in a seat.
What this song does in a room
Confession and assurance need each other to function. This song holds them in the right order, and that sequencing shapes what happens in the room. A congregation that is invited to name the weight before they are invited to declare the relief will arrive at the declaration with a different quality of engagement. They are not performing gratitude for a mercy they have not felt the need for. They are receiving something that has actually addressed something real. At 78 BPM in G, the song has enough forward movement to feel like progress rather than stagnation, but not so much that the confessional verses feel hurried past. The chorus, when it arrives, can carry the room into something close to corporate relief, which is a different emotional experience than corporate celebration. Both are valid. Both are needed. Relief is often more honest, especially in congregations that have learned to perform the celebration without doing the confession. Watch for the quality of the singing in the congregation during the chorus. When the confession in the verses has landed, the chorus tends to be sung with a fullness that is different from how people sing when they are just tracking melody. That is the song working.
What this song is saying about God
The God of this song is not reluctant in mercy. That matters because the human heart, shaped by every experience of conditional love and performance-based acceptance, defaults to imagining a God who is reluctant. Who forgives, yes, but who does so with a kind of weary resignation at having to do it again. The song is pushing against that image. The mercy described here is not minimized by the amount of need brought to it. It is not a limited resource. It is not running low. The character of God that the song is asserting is one in which mercy is not the exception to God's justice but the expression of God's fullness. There is justice in this song, the reality of the record is acknowledged, but what answers the record is not minimization. It is mercy that is larger than the sum of the record. That is a word the congregation needs to hear not just once but regularly, because the functional theology of performance reasserts itself quickly in the daily life of a person trying to follow God.
Scriptural backbone
Micah 7:18-19 sits behind this song: "Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea." The delight is the word worth pausing on. God does not reluctantly grant mercy. God delights to show it. That claim reshapes the posture of the person asking. Romans 5:20 provides the doctrinal spine in the New Testament register: "But where sin increased, grace increased all the more." The comparative grammar of the song is borrowed from here. The more is not a problem for God. It is an occasion for grace to do what grace does.
How to use it in a service
Because this is a duplicate entry for the same song, it may appear in a different service context from the other editorial. A few additional placement options worth noting: this song works exceptionally well in a small group or midweek setting where the room is smaller and the lyric can breathe at lower volume. In a house church context, the hymn character of the song fits naturally with a conversational before-and-after. You sing it and then talk about what it says. That kind of engagement is underused in worship settings and this song rewards it. For a Sunday when the congregation has collectively walked through something hard, a public failure, a community crisis, a stretch of organizational difficulty, the song names the category of experience without requiring people to name their particular version of it. That universality with specific grounding is rare and worth using when the moment calls for it.
Things to watch for as the worship leader
Because this song appears in the index twice, you may be tempted to treat the second placement as a backup or a casual choice. Do not. Every time this song is in a service, it deserves the full weight of its content. The repetition of a great song in a congregation builds rather than diminishes its effect when the song is led with the same intention each time. Watch for the tendency to speed up in the chorus as the energy of the room builds. The tempo stability in the verses matters, but the stability in the chorus matters just as much. If the tempo drifts up as the congregation engages more fully, you are letting the energy of the room override the architecture of the song. Hold the pocket. Let the congregation's engagement intensify without letting it accelerate. The song is more powerful at tempo than above it.
A note for the team behind you (techs, vocalists, band)
If this is your second or third time programming this song in a season, bring the team into the conversation about why it is returning. A band that understands the pastoral reason for a repeated song will play it differently than a band that is just executing a set list. Vocalists, if you have sung this song multiple times, be intentional about going back to the lyric before the service and reading it as text rather than just running the notes. Let it land on you fresh. The congregation should not be getting a polished delivery of something rehearsed to smoothness. They should be hearing someone sing something they mean. Sound techs, if you have a previous mix profile for this song, use it as a starting point but do not lock it in without checking the room. A congregation that is larger or smaller than a previous service will need different gain staging. Trust your ears over your saved settings.