Matthew West is preparing to release his new album, Jesus Is King, on Friday, September 25, 2026. The 12-song project follows his 2024 album Don't Stop Praying and opens with a direct declaration in its title track. But West's question across the record goes deeper: who is Jesus when life feels uncertain, shame is difficult to leave behind, or the future seems out of control?
West's team describes the album as a series of answers to the phrase "Jesus is ____." Its songs explore faithfulness, goodness, strength, redemption and grace before returning to the declaration that gives the project its name. The track list reinforces that progression: Jesus Is King begins with the title song and closes with a reprise, placing stories of struggle and hope between two statements of faith.
Listeners have already heard several pieces of the album. The track list includes "Good," which West's official store identifies as a No. 1 radio hit, along with "Back to Jesus," "Here & Heaven" and the title song. The final advance release, "Younger Me," arrived on September 18. Written by West alone, it looks back on his faith as a teenager, rejection in Nashville, and the family life that followed. Rather than pretending every chapter was easy, the song addresses the person he was becoming through them.
"Here and Heaven" takes a wider view. West has explained that the song grew from his habit of writing about heaven during heavy seasons. Its message, he says, is that hope is available in the present as well as in the life to come. That idea helps explain the album's central claim: calling Jesus King is meant to speak to what happens here, amid ordinary fears and unresolved circumstances, as well as to what believers hope for beyond them.
Other titles suggest how personal those circumstances may become. "Don't Give Up on Me," "Shame Is Not My Story," "Come Alive" and "Found" sit beside "Heaven Will Tell" and "The Good Fight" on the announced track list. Their full stories will be heard when the album arrives, but together they point toward the kinds of questions West has long brought into his songwriting: Can a person begin again? What does faith sound like when the fight is still going on?
The release is part of a busy season for West. He is already taking the new music on the 17-stop Jesus Is King Tour, scheduled to run through October 4. A limited-edition CD with a signed booklet is also listed for preorder through his official store, while the album is available to pre-save ahead of Friday's release.
West has made a career of putting listeners' experiences into songs. On Jesus Is King, he turns that gift toward one question that connects the personal tracks to the album's bold title: if Jesus is King, what changes for someone still wrestling with disappointment, shame or uncertainty? The songs released so far offer part of his answer. On Friday, listeners will hear the full one.
