The Deep

1000 years ago when I was youth-group teenager with deep thoughts and questions without the right language around me to navigate them, I came across a Christian band, Out of the Grey.  I’ve long since stopped listening to explicitly Christian music–so bad, so hackneyed–but I came across some scraps of Out of the Grey lyrics I’d written down long ago.  I googled them just now and found the song “The Deep.”  I remember being startled by this song when I first heard it, and how I understood it from a place that again, I didn’t have language for.  Upon revisiting it I find it just as startling–the central metaphor in it is simple but not simplistic, which is rare in contemporary Christian music lyrics.  And it stands alone as a good poem.  It’s not flawless, but it speaks.  Enjoy.

The Deep

I am a wave upon the sea
The wind catches me and throws me
To a rocky beach
Dashing me to pieces
I am scattered on the sand
Then gathered back again

I am a wave upon the sea
Clinging to the surface
Above the waters of the deep
Where the voice of quiet
Calls out to me
From the ocean floor
But I keep rushing for the shore

I can hear the deep
Calling out to me
It’s a siren song of peace
And I long to be
Swallowed up
And swept into the deep

I am a wave upon the sea
Someday soon
The tide will take me
Deeper underneath
Where the wind cannot break me
I’ll be sinking in the flood
Completely taken by His love

Oh I can hear the deep
Calling out to me
It’s a siren song of peace
And I long to be
Swallowed up
And swept into the deep

And to the people
Who are stranded on the land
I’m reaching out my hand

Can you hear the deep
Calling you to sea
It’s a siren song of peace
And don’t you long to be
Swallowed up
And swept into the deep
Come follow me
Be swallowed by the deep