“Grace Like an Ocean”

A discussion about lyrics

We have a new ethereal shoegaze grace song that’s very popular right now (and you can download the mp3 for free here).

I thought I might talk about the ideas behind lyrics.

Shoegaze tends to be very symbolic lyrically, very dreamlike, and the lyrics might seem a bit inaccessible at first but there’s real meaning behind the words that may not seem obvious the first time you hear the song.

We started with idea that the ocean is a metaphor for grace. Okay, great. Love it.

We incorporated into the song a progression from night to morning and from striving to resting, which is fairly common for us.

Verse 1

Moonlight sleeping on the tide
Silver waves where fears can hide

This establishes a kind of dreamy, nocturnal atmosphere, common in Shoegaze. I picture a calm ocean at night with moonlight reflecting off it. But “where fears can hide” introduces the emotional state of the singer. She comes to this ocean of grace carrying fears, regrets, wounds, and anxieties.

Every current knows my name
Still, Your love remains the same

The ocean isn’t impersonal anymore. If the ocean represents God’s grace, then she isn’t getting lost in something vast — she is known within it. “Still” is important. Despite everything the singer is carrying, His love hasn’t changed.

Then we get one of my favorite images:

Hands once full of broken glass
Now they open... let it pass

The broken glass represents all the painful things we insist on holding onto like guilt, hurt, failure, depression, resentment, perhaps even our attempts to fix ourselves. Holding broken glass only wounds the person clutching it so tightly. So opening the hands becomes an image of finally ceasing to cling to all of that. Letting His grace free you from all that pain.

That flows into:

Nothing left for me to earn
Only endless waves return

That’s the doctrinal heart of Verse 1. She’s stopped trying to earn God’s acceptance. His grace doesn’t come because she successfully swims toward it. His grace just keeps arriving — wave after wave after wave.

And that prepares for the chorus: “Grace like an ocean / Over my soul.”

Verse 2

Now notice the first line:

Morning blooms across the sea
Colors washing over me

We’ve moved from night to morning. Verse 1 begins in moonlight. Verse 2 begins with sunrise. That’s intentional emotionally even if we didn’t spell it out. The singer is moving from fear and uncertainty into understanding and freedom in His grace.

Then comes:

Every mile I tried to swim
Only brought me back again

She’s been trying to swim through the ocean of grace.

She’s exhausting herself trying to get somewhere spiritually — trying to become accepted, secure, worthy, forgiven, whatever the case may be — only to discover that she was already surrounded by the very things she was trying to get.

In other words: you can’t swim your way around in His grace in order to get all these spiritual things you want. If you’re in the ocean of His grace, you’re already surrounded by all these things you always wanted spiritually.

That connects with Verse 1’s “Nothing left for me to earn.”

Then:

All the weight I used to know
Sinks beneath the undertow
Now I’m lighter than the tide
Because You carried all my life

An undertow is usually threatening, but here it’s a good thing. The undertow pulls all her broken glass, all her weight, all her issues, beneath the surface. The guilt, striving, fear, and weight disappear beneath the ocean of grace, and she’s free.

“Because You carried all my life” can be viewed in two different ways, which I like. Christ carried the burden of her sins at Calvary — which she could never bear herself — but there’s also the sense that He is now and always will be carrying her all along in His grace until she reaches her heavenly destiny.

The discovery in the song isn’t really “I finally found His grace.” This is more about after she’s saved and she realizes she is surrounded by His grace already having every spiritual blessing she could’ve ever wanted from God.

And this is why “There was never any bottom / Only love” is used as a payoff. She keeps expecting to reach the limit of God’s grace — but there’s no end to it.

I also once made a whole Christian Shoegaze album, which is fun. More grace songs can be found here.

Grace & Peace!