What "Isn't He (Wonderful)" means
Three words carry the whole song. "Isn't he wonderful" is the question the hymn asks on repeat, and the repeat is the point. John Wimber wrote worship songs that made room for the congregation's interior life rather than filling that room with lyrical density. This one makes the most room of all. Its simplicity is not a limitation. It is a theological choice.
Male voices find this in G. Female voices in E. The tempo sits at 76 BPM in 4/4, slow enough to be contemplative, grounded enough to hold a room that might otherwise drift.
Isaiah 9:6 gives the question its Messianic weight. "Wonderful Counselor" is one of the four Messianic titles the prophet assigns to the coming king. Jesus is not wonderful in the vague sense of being pleasant or affecting. He is wonderful in the prophetic sense: the one in whom all of Israel's hope converges, the fulfillment of the expectation that God would enter human experience as the incarnate Word. Asking "isn't he wonderful?" is not a soft sentiment. It is the worshiper standing inside the fulfillment of prophecy and responding with the only word that fits.
The Song of Solomon's language of the Beloved, "he is altogether lovely," gives the question a bridal depth. Song of Solomon 5:16 has been read by the church as a love song between Christ and his people. Wimber's question lives in that tradition.
What this song does in a room
The pace drops. Whatever tempo the service has been running before this song, it slows. Not because the music forces it but because the simplicity of the question requires a different quality of attention than most songs ask for.
When a room full of people asks "isn't he wonderful?" in unison, there's a participatory quality that more complex lyrics can't achieve. Everyone can sing it. The visitor who doesn't know any other song in the set can find this one within eight bars. The person who is wrestling with God and hasn't decided what they believe can ask the question tentatively, in the form of honest inquiry, and that is still a form of worship.
The repetition does its own work. The first time through, the congregation is locating the melody and orienting to the text. By the third or fourth time through, people are no longer managing the logistics of singing and are beginning to inhabit the question. Something shifts. The song makes space for that shift and then gets out of the way.
What this song is saying about God
That God in the person of Jesus is worthy of wonder as a posture, not just as a theological conclusion. The song refuses to explain what makes Jesus wonderful. It invites the congregation to arrive at its own recognition of that. This is not theological sloppiness. It is theological restraint, a recognition that some truths are better received through direct encounter than through propositional delivery.
Psalm 145:3 says "great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom." The appropriate response to unfathomable greatness is not systematic analysis but open-ended wonder. Wimber's song creates the conditions for that response.
There is a correction built into the song's form, though it never states it explicitly. Many worship contexts train people to experience God primarily through what he does for them. This song repositions the attention toward who God is, the person of Christ, which is where sustainable worship actually lives. Feelings tied to circumstances fluctuate. Wonder at a Person who is "altogether lovely" can persist through seasons when circumstances are not lovely at all.
Scriptural backbone
Isaiah 9:6 provides the Messianic root of the word "wonderful" as applied to Christ. This is not accidental vocabulary. It is a prophetic title the song is claiming.
Psalm 145:3 provides the unfathomable greatness that the question is reaching toward. Song of Solomon 5:16 provides the bridal register of intimacy and delight. Luke 4:22 records the crowd's response to Jesus in Nazareth: "all spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips." John 1:14's "we have seen his glory" is the apostolic counterpart: wonder in response to direct encounter.
How to use it in a service
Best positioned as a transition between sections of worship, after praise that has addressed God's actions and before or during a period of direct address to God's person. The song changes the angle of approach and helps a congregation that has been singing about God begin singing to God.
Can repeat many times without losing its power. The repetition is not filler. The first pass establishes the song; subsequent passes deepen it. Watch the room to know how many times is right. When voices are thicker, slower, and more internally focused than externally performative, the song is doing its work.
Works in small groups, in large congregations, and at the bedside. The simplicity is scalable in ways that production-dependent songs are not. In intimate settings, try it without full accompaniment. The question asked by a few unaccompanied voices is its own kind of extraordinary.
Things to watch for as the worship leader
If the leader is performing this song rather than inhabiting it, the congregation will sense the gap immediately. Wimber's music is particularly transparent to the leader's interior state. A smile of genuine delight is different from a stage smile. The congregation can tell.
Watch for the temptation to add material, a bridge, an interlude, a spoken meditation, to fill what feels like empty space. The empty space is the point. The congregation is filling it with their own interior response, and that is the song's most important content.
Tempo drift is a risk in a slow, repeating song. 76 BPM needs a player with a steady internal clock or a click in the in-ear. If the song slows further than intended, it can become heavy rather than contemplative, and the question starts to feel like a burden rather than an invitation.
A note for the team behind you (techs, vocalists, band)
Less is more here. Piano alone works. Acoustic guitar alone works. A soft pad without percussion can open the room without filling it. The melody is simple enough to stand without harmonic support, and the less that surrounds it, the more room the congregation has to add their own voice.
Vocalists adding harmonies should keep them transparent and close to the melody. This is not a song that benefits from vocal arrangement complexity. The arrangement's job is to hold a space open, not to fill it.
In settings that allow a cappella moments, removing all accompaniment for a verse is worth trying. The effect of a congregation singing an unaccompanied question about the wonder of Christ is worth the risk of the silence that might happen first.