What "Try Again" means
The title is its own small sermon. The willingness to try again implies that something has failed, that a previous attempt did not produce what it was supposed to produce, and that the person standing in front of this new moment has a choice about what to do with that history. Phil Wickham is writing about failure and perseverance, but in the way Christian perseverance actually works: not through gritted teeth and self-discipline alone, but through the renewal of something that comes from outside the person who failed. The failure, perseverance, and courage tags sit together in the metadata and together they describe the full arc the song travels. Failure is named, not glossed over. Perseverance is the response to it. Courage is what makes the perseverance possible rather than merely demanded of people who are already exhausted. At 84 BPM in G, the song has enough forward energy to feel like it is moving toward something rather than away from something, which is the appropriate musical posture for a song about choosing to try again rather than remaining in the place where something went wrong.
What this song does in a room
In a room, this song lands most powerfully on the people who have recently failed at something they cared about. That is not a minority of the congregation on any given Sunday. In most rooms, it is closer to the majority. Public failure, private failure, relational failure, spiritual failure, the failure of a plan or a commitment or a season of faith, the experience is broadly distributed across every demographic in a congregation. What the song does is name that failure without condemning it and then point forward. The room tends to respond with a quality of relieved engagement when the experience of failure is named directly without being spiritualized away into something easier. People who have been carrying shame about something they have not managed to succeed at often find that this song gives them a place to stand that is honest and forward-facing at the same time, which is a combination that is harder to find than it should be.
What this song is saying about God
The song is saying that God is not finished with people who have failed. This is a claim with deep roots in the biblical narrative, which is extensively populated with people who failed significantly and were not disqualified from God's purposes as a result. Peter denied Jesus three times and became the rock on which the church was built. Moses murdered someone and spent forty years in the wilderness before his actual calling began. David committed adultery and engineered a murder and is still described as a man after God's own heart. The pattern is consistent and the song inhabits it. The God this song addresses is not surprised by failure, not deterred by it, and not in the business of rescinding assignments because the first attempt did not go well.
Scriptural backbone
The most direct scriptural frame is Micah 7:8: "Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will rise." Behind it stands Lamentations 3:22-23, "Great is your faithfulness," which is the theological ground for the possibility of trying again: God's mercies are new every morning, which means every morning is a genuine new start rather than a continuation of yesterday's failure with interest. The New Testament offers Peter's reinstatement in John 21, where Jesus explicitly calls back a person who has just suffered his most significant public failure and restores him to purpose. The pattern is consistent across the whole canon: failure is not the end of the story unless you decide to stop reading there.
How to use it in a service
This song belongs in services addressing failure, repentance, restoration, or the call to perseverance. A sermon series on the life of Peter, a service on grace after failure, or any service where the congregation needs to be given permission to stand back up rather than remaining defined by what went wrong. It also works in a new year service or any seasonal transition where the congregation is being invited to begin again without carrying the weight of every previous beginning that did not go as planned. The courage tag suggests it can function as a commissioning song at the end of a service where people are being sent back into a challenge they have not yet conquered. The forward energy of the song makes it useful as a closing declaration rather than only a reflective mid-set song.
Things to watch for as the worship leader
The risk with this song is that it becomes superficially encouraging rather than truly gospel-rooted. "Try again" as a message can sound like motivational self-help if the theological ground, the grace that makes trying again possible rather than merely recommended, is not present in how you lead the song. Make sure the frame is theocentric: the congregation is not trying again because they believe in themselves. They are trying again because they believe in a God whose faithfulness is the actual ground under every fresh start and whose mercies are truly new in this morning and not only in theory. Watch also for the tempo. At 84 BPM the song has a natural forward energy that the arrangement should honor without letting it tip into breathlessness or a feeling of being rushed past the lyric.
A note for the team behind you (techs, vocalists, band)
Instrumentalists: the G key at 84 BPM in Wickham's catalog calls for a bright, driving arrangement that builds meaningfully across the song. The verses should feel like they have room for the lyric to develop and land, with the chorus opening up dynamically and sonically to reflect the declaration quality of trying again. A strong acoustic guitar foundation with a driving drum pattern and full keys on the chorus gives the song the anthemic quality the content requires without overwhelming the intimacy of the verse. Vocalists: Wickham's earnest delivery style is the model. The lead vocal should feel like someone who has personally needed to try again and is leading from that experience rather than from comfortable success. Background harmonies should be full and bright on the chorus, matching the forward energy of the lyric's declaration and giving the congregation something to sing toward. Techs: a bright, energetic mix with the lead vocal present and clear throughout. The dynamic contrast between verse intimacy and chorus fullness should be reflected in the overall mix level. Keep the low end controlled enough that the forward motion of the song is felt without becoming heavy or preventing the words from cutting through clearly.