A mainstream artist who says in his own words that his purpose is to love God and Jesus, and whose debut album is framed as a journey from lust and anger toward Christ. It is not worship music, and one Christian reviewer found the album lingers too long in temptation.
David Alan Kushner II was born September 6, 2000, in Chicago and raised in its suburbs, according to Wikipedia and AllMusic. He wrote his first songs with a friend while living in Florida, later moved to Los Angeles, and went viral on TikTok in January 2022 with "Miserable Man," followed by the EP Footprints I Found, which included "Mr. Forgettable." "Daylight," released April 14, 2023, reached number 33 on the Billboard Hot 100, and his debut album The Dichotomy followed on August 30, 2024 through his independent label, Miserable Music Group. Clash reports that the debut went three-times platinum. He released the EP 20 Years from Now in 2025, is now based in Nashville, and has a second album, Devotion, due November 13, 2026.
Kushner has said plainly, in his own interviews, that his faith is central. In a 2023 Paper interview he said, "My faith in God has been a foundational thing in my life," and added that he writes music he hopes will speak to people. Speaking with RELEVANT, he said his purpose is to love God and Jesus and to share that when the opportunity arises, that his faith is embedded in all his lyrics, and that he felt an undeniable push from God toward music. On the day The Dichotomy came out he told his Instagram followers he hoped they would find the hope of God in it, as The Navigator reported.
He is also careful about labels. He told RELEVANT he is not a Christian worship artist per se and compared himself to a plumber who believes in Jesus: the plumber does not brand himself a Christian plumber, but if you ask about his faith he will say he is a Christian. The Navigator likewise notes that he does not consider himself a Christian artist but is not ashamed to credit his faith. That distinction is why his music sits in the mainstream and not in contemporary Christian music, even though The Dichotomy reached number one on the UK Christian and Gospel Albums chart, according to its Wikipedia entry.
The Dichotomy is built as a story. According to the press release quoted by Jesus Freak Hideout, it follows his personal story of overcoming darkness and sin and his growing desire to honor Jesus, and its seventeen tracks move through four sections, from the struggle with lust, jealousy, conflict, and anger toward a desire for Christ and his healing. "Daylight" is the clearest example. The Wikipedia entry for the song says Kushner wrote it from Paul the Apostle's teaching about overcoming evil forces and from biblical stories he loved as a child, and Jesus Freak Hideout hears in it a spin on Paul's struggle in Romans 7.
That reviewer is also the most useful critic. The review found the concept strong but said the first thirteen songs spend so long in the struggle with sin that the album crosses into "nearly celebrating and wallowing in temptation," and it warned that listeners who stream single songs will miss the hopeful turn in the final four tracks. We take that seriously. A testimony of struggle can slide into dwelling on temptation, and a younger listener may hear the temptation without the turn. We found no documentation of profanity or explicit sexual lyrics in the sources we read, but we have not reviewed every track lyric by lyric, so check each song's explicit tag before handing the catalog to a child.
His second album, Devotion, is due November 13, 2026, with 14 tracks, and the singles "Electrified" and "Ritual" are already out. Kushner describes it as an album about devotion and how it can elevate you or destroy you, and retailers list themes of love, faith, doubt, longing, and surrender, per Clash and PM Studio. We have not heard the album, so this guide makes no claim about its lyrics, and we will re-score if its content differs.
Paul's cry in Romans 7 is the honest center of this music. He does not understand his own actions, wants the good and does the evil, and ends by asking who will rescue him from this body of death and answering that it is God through Jesus Christ (Romans 7:15-25). A song that stays inside that tension and points to Christ is doing something Scripture does. First John supplies the turn, that confessing sin brings forgiveness and cleansing (1 John 1:9), and Ephesians describes the believer's story in the light-and-darkness terms Kushner uses: once darkness, now light in the Lord (Ephesians 5:8). Because he is twenty-six and early in his career, Jesus's caution is the right one: we recognize people by their fruit (Matthew 7:16), which shows over time, so we judge his record as it grows and leave his heart to God.
David Kushner scores 88/100, Spiritually Safe. He names Jesus in his own words, his debut album is framed as a journey from lust and anger toward Christ, and we found no documented profanity or explicit sexual content. Our scoring keeps anything above 88 for work centered on Jesus, such as worship music, and Kushner says plainly he is not a Christian worship artist, so 88 is the highest a mainstream artist who professes faith can reach. The one honest reservation is the reviewer's point that the album lingers in temptation. We recommend his music to Christian listeners who can hear a testimony of struggle for what it is, with a preview first for younger children.
Critics compare Kushner's sound to Hozier's, and our guide to Hozier shows how a very different artist uses religious language. For music built openly on faith, see Forrest Frank and Phil Wickham, and for a mainstream artist whose faith record is thinner and whose catalog is far more explicit, see Bruno Mars. Our Christian discernment guide explains how we weigh an artist's stated faith against their work, and the Christian musicians hub lists the artists we have scored.