Odd things we sing 5 - What the Lord Has Done In Me (Hosanna)

I thought there was something slightly odd about this one when we sung it a few weeks ago and, having sung it again last week, I think I’ve worked out what it is.

Let the weak say, "I am strong"
Let the poor say, "I am rich"
Let the blind say, "I can see"
It's what the Lord has done in me

Hosanna, hosanna
To the Lamb that was slain
Hosanna, hosanna
Jesus died and rose again

Yep, fine, brilliant. (“Hosanna” - a Hebrew expression meaning "Save!" which became an exclamation of praise back in ye olde bible times. The people shouted it as Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the donkey.)

Into the river I will wade
There my sins are washed away
From the heavens* mercy streams
Of the Saviour's love for me

After a little bit of searching through biblegateway, I’m guessing (feel free to enlighten me) that we’re talking about the River of Life mentioned in Rev 22, and/or the River from the Temple in Ezekiel 47, and/or the image of baptism. Again, no problem with that, as long as we all know what we’re talking about.

(*momentary side rant: please get your punctuation right! In this particular context neither heaven’s nor heavens’ makes any sense. Okay, I’m a pedant. Why do we tend to write song words with inadequate punctuation? It can make all the difference between perfect sense and abject confusion.)

I will rise from waters deep
Into the saving arms of God
I will sing salvation songs
Jesus Christ has set me free

Okay, fine with that image too (although, if we’re being pedantic, as is my wont, perhaps we might prefer an image involving God reaching down into said waters deep with his saving arms and lifting me out, rather than me somehow learning to levitate. I digress.) - at least in isolation.

I think what I’m getting at is the mixing of the water images:
v2: river of life - providing purity, life, health, etc - definitely a good thing.
v3: waters deep - symbolic of something negative/dangerous/threatening that we need saving from - or at least that’s how I read it - am I just reading it wrong?

Mixed metaphors can be confusing, but this one’s interesting because it’s almost the opposite problem: applying one metaphor (water) to two opposing concepts in one song.

All this really to highlight the following: songwriting technique is so important, and never more so than when songwriting for other people to sing in corporate worship. I think everyone needs to understand the words which are coming out of their mouth before they can truly use them to worship God. That means not just packing in all the Bible images you can because they sound good. It means not drowning people in archaic imagery and christianese. (We’re so used to singing about lambs and shepherds that we forget that the average punters (including ourselves) aren’t that au fait with ancient Hebrew shepherding practices. And don’t get me started on refining processes - is there some kind of underground smelting culture in our church which I’m unaware of?!**) It means using your creative talents to construct clear and helpful images which inspire awe of God in people and worship to him. It takes hard work and practice to craft a decent set of words (I know, and I’ve only ever written songs for one person (me) to sing, which is infinitely easier than writing for a bunch of people!).

I’m not writing this series just to bash songs I don’t like. In fact, I love a lot of these, and I‘ll say again that I have the greatest respect for those gifted songwriters who can produce the wonderful songs that we sing. But because songs and songwriting are things that I care about, I tend to get bugged by things which could be done better. Keep striving for excellence people, and don’t give up!

J

**Okay, I nicked this particular observation from Nick Page’s excellent “And Now Let's Move into a Time of Nonsense”.