I’ve been exploring some of the very modern worship songs as an old guy 😀. But now, I’ve decided to alternate between very modern hymns, old hymns, and in-between hymns, namely the worship songs from the 60s to the 90s that feature in hymnbooks such as Mission Praise. Today it’s the turn of the very modern hymns.
Today’s song is My Lighthouse by Rend Collective. It’s from 2014.
I first heard it a few times on Sounds Sacred, a hymns show on Radio Ulster every Sunday at 5pm. When I listen to or watch shows featuring hymns, I generally expect the older hymns. It used to irritate me if some “happy clappy” modern song made an appearance 😀. But nowadays, I try to be more open-minded.
I’d only recently heard my kids talking about the “millennial O”, which became especially common among millennial pop singers in the 2000s and 2010s. So, when I heard My Lighthouse, I focused on the “millennial O”, or at least it has a lot of “Os” or “Ohs”. My kids are an awful lot more critical of the modern world than I am.
They introduced me to this short funny video contrasting young people of old to what we have today 😀.
But getting back to My Lighthouse, there’s no need to limit ourselves to specific music genres in worship. As I get older, it’s a joy to see new generations worshipping God. And when you focus on the lyrics, they’re reflecting Scriptural teaching. One of my favourite verses is John 8:12
John 8:12
12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
I like how honest the lyrics are:
In my wrestling and in my doubts
In my failures You won't walk out
Your great love will lead me through
You are the peace in my troubled sea, oh oh
You are the peace in my troubled sea
In the song, the lighthouse imagery represents God’s guidance, safety, and constancy during storms and uncertainty. Rend Collective are an Irish group – Northern Ireland, but that counts as Ireland even though it’s part of the UK. But they do come down south too. In church circles, the border means little. And in Rugby, Ireland has one team. Players come from all four provinces: Leinster, Munster, Connacht, and Ulster.
Here are some other renditions of the song:
Hibernia Gospel 