In this series, I explore some of the very modern worship songs as an old guy 😀.
Select the arrow for my “general intro” (which I’m reusing for all the modern hymns that I explore)
I grew up with rock music, so it’s not such a shocking thing for me to explore these. Back in my earlier years as a Christian, we had the old hymns and some modern choruses that originated in the 1970s charismatic movement. As time went on, I started to prefer the older hymns.
Nowadays, I try to maintain an interest in all Christian music. It’s easy to find “trendy” Christian music annoying, even as a Christian 😀. I don’t know why. But I’m trying to overcome that prejudice. Perhaps the older hymns give us a sense of history, but many of these would have been similar to popular music of their day. So maybe people cringed when they first heard some of these too 😀.
Anyway, today’s hymn is Oceans (Where Feet May Fail). It’s from 2013.
The song is inspired by Matthew 14:22–33, where Peter walks on water toward Jesus but begins to sink when he loses faith. I particularly like the chorus:
I will call upon Your Name
And keep my eyes above the waves
When oceans rise
My soul will rest in Your embrace
For I am Yours and You are mine
I remember walking around a local hardware store here in Limerick (Ireland) and hearing Oceans playing. I found it strange to hear a worship song outside the context of church or the evangelical scene, but seemingly it has become widely known and popular.
When I first became a Christian back in 1980, pop and rock music were often the subject of much debate and discussion. Some considered it worldly music and simply wouldn’t listen to it. Others, like myself, did, but acknowledged that there was much in it that seemed at odds with Christian culture. Back in the 1950s it became associated with rebellion. And that carried on throughout the second part of the 20th century and even into this century.
And when someone such as Cliff Richard would release a song with a Christian theme, it seemed a little odd. But worship music in the pop/rock genre is a big industry nowadays, though some are still not OK with it.
I just happened to be looking on YouTube yesterday to see if there were any Virtual Reality (VR) concerts. There were a few bits and pieces, but then I happened to notice a Christian one. You can watch it without VR, but it’s more immersive in VR.
For me, it’s still a bit of a challenge to embrace Christian worship music. I suppose much of it relates to habit. For example, in pop music, you get many songs about romance. But you wouldn’t get many songs where someone sings about how much they love their wife or husband 😀. You might get that in country music, but then again, it would probably be more likely to focus on unhappy marriages; for example D.I.V.O.R.C.E.
And you might get some left wing “protest” political songs, but I can’t think of any right-wing political songs. And then you get so many with obscure lyrics. But if you believe in God, I don’t see what’s so peculiar about singing his praises. The first “cool” pop/rock song with a religious theme that I remember was George Harrison’s My Sweet Lord in 1971. He wasn’t singing about Jesus, but seeing a cool pop star singing about his devotion to his Lord inspired me to start investigating spiritual truth myself.
And by the end of the decade, Bob Dylan was singing about Jesus. It was around that time that I committed my life to Christ. I wasn’t a Dylan fan at that time, but I did cherish his Christian albums and I have got into his earlier stuff since then.
But its often said that rock and soul music was rooted in Afro American spiritual music. So, its nice that we’re going back to our roots. I don’t find much Christian pop music that impresses me hugely, but it impresses me more than most of the secular stuff nowadays 😀.
Anyway, here are some other interesting versions of Oceans.
Hibernia Gospel 