Comments on Electric Thoughts: Odd things we sing 5 - What the Lord Has Done In M...

Hello cherubs - as we're singing this on Sunda...

2010-03-11T16:19:19.355Z

Hello cherubs - as we're singing this on Sunday morning I thought I would chip in my tuppence ha'penny...

Personally, I think you're all a bit nuts. Ultimately what Mr Morgan has done is used a nice, watery metaphor based on baptism in the River of Life - enter the water a sinner, come out pure, redeemed, sanctified and have a nice big cuddle with the Creator God, shout a nice "Woop" and ackowledge Christ as saviour and redeemer.

Think, but don't over-think, just sing and be joyful... hooray!

Ta da

Your esteemed Worship Pastor

Yes, the church's song database is fairly ridd...

2010-02-13T23:03:16.626Z

Yes, the church's song database is fairly riddled with mistakes (I'd do some proofreading for not too high a fee) - I personally find the American spellings of words quite annoying. Let's not even get onto pronunciation.
I do giggle sometimes at the occasional "Welsh word" which comes up on the screen though!

Hmmm, very true. Deep.

2010-02-13T17:20:50.528Z

Hmmm, very true. Deep.

Gavin - yes, I'd heard that before. The Israe...

2010-02-13T16:15:30.129Z

Gavin - yes, I'd heard that before. The Israelites were not renowned for being a seafaring nation, so the ocean held that particular terror of the unknown for them. Which adds an extra layer of depth (ahem) to stories like Jonah's - he must have really wanted to run from God!

Chow, I had indeed corrected it from heaven's ...

2010-02-13T16:12:32.958Z

Chow, I had indeed corrected it from heaven's or heavens' (I can't remember which) on whatever lyrics website I grabbed it from.

Also, the words database we use at church is appalling - missing or extra punctuation, spelling mistakes on most songs, and in some cases random extra syllables or words inserted into lines. (Extra lines or verses I can live with, given that different churches might well sing different arrangements of the same song.) It doesn't give a good impression.

I suspect you have never heard of the theory of ri...

2010-02-13T13:23:46.049Z

I suspect you have never heard of the theory of river-deep duality then..?

In all seriousness I agree it is a bit of a potentially confusing overlay of two metaphors.

Deep waters were held to be mysterious and otherwordly by ancient near middle east cultures which Hebrew thought stands out on as stating they are totally subject to God and not chaos so yes, good imagery that we emerge from them at God's calling... but I don't exactly thinking wading into them is good either...

(I make no apologies for the state of my spelling or punctuation in this comment.)

You are most definitely a pedant, Jo. But then aga...

2010-02-12T23:36:08.160Z

You are most definitely a pedant, Jo. But then again so am I, a lot of the time.
However, being a bit of a spelling/grammar/punctuation pedant (only when I know what I'm talking about), I'm not quite sure what the problem is with "from the heavens mercy streams" - unless you have omitted an apostrophe which is usually put there incorrectly.

I deleted my last comment to add a comma!

I remember now: haggis is scrumptious.

2010-02-12T23:31:36.430Z

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This is a weird song...well the verses are weird. ...

2010-02-12T17:14:05.391Z

This is a weird song...well the verses are weird. I wonder if the 'waters deep' is something to do with that bit in Isaiah - 'through the waters they will not overflow me' etc?

Hmm...it's confusing.