Songfacts®:

• This is the title track of CCM/Worship singer-songwriter Chris Tomlin's seventh album. He starts off this song by singing, "I'm no hero of the faith. I'm not as strong as I once thought I was. I'm just a shepherd boy. Singing to a choir of burning lights." Tomlin explained to Worship Leader magazine that the song was inspired by the thought that just because he's a worship leader standing on a platform, it doesn't mean that he has it all together. "Worship leader's can really sing that from their heart and know what it is to say 'I'm no hero of the faith, I'm not as strong as I once thought I was.'" he said.
  "I want to find myself just like David, " he continued, "long before he was made king, long before there was a platform, long before people knew his name. He was singing the songs, he was writing songs of worship, just watching over his little flock. He was just a humble kid, and I want to be the same way. If no one ever bought a record again or if I didn't tour again, I'd still want to have the same heart. Lord, just find me being that shepherd boy. You know that's who we are; I just want to be singing to a choir of burning light. And obviously it's twofold, the burning lights are just singing to God's creation, the stars, but also the people. And Jesus is the light of the world who we're singing to, as well. What a privilege it is, Sunday after Sunday night, that God would give you the responsibility and give you the platform to sing over people-to lift people's souls and lift people's spirits with a song, and that's the heart of it."
• The Burning Lights album debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 chart, Tomlin's first visit to the top of the tally and only the fourth time in history that a Christian music album had entered that chart at the peak position. The three previous discs to do so were Bob Carlisle's Butterfly Kisses (Shades of Grace) and LeAnn Rimes' You Light Up My Life - Inspirational Songs, which both reached the peak position in 1997 and TobyMac's Eye on It, which topped the chart in 2012.
• With more than 72,000 units, Burning Lights marked Tomlin's biggest first-week sales numbers of his career to date and the largest sales week for any Christian or gospel set since Casting Crowns' Come to the Well debuted at #2 on the November 5, 2011 chart with 99,000.