This song was always problematic. It's gone through a few re-writes already but it was too experimental, theologically. I was trying to define faith by Hebrews 12:2. I still like the idea, but it wasn't working. I did a re-write today toning that side of it down. Thoughts?
Beyond Horizons
1. Beyond horizons, we will see
Our home, our promised land
Across the oceans waits for me
My Lord upon the sand.
Looking past today
To a world away
Our eyes in faith can see
CHORUS:
Beyond horizons, across the oceans
Life awaits, a brand new day!
A flowing river, a shining city
Where our tears are wiped away!
So today we take our cross and bear
All things for joy will meet us there.
Beyond horizons.
2. Beyond horizons Christ prepared
A land of pure delight
He sought a bride to share it all
And bought her with his life
We stand redeemed
Washed pure and clean
And soon our eyes will see
3. With all the saints of ages past
We have glimpsed her shores
And long for her as for a home
That we have known before.
And though today
be dark and grey
our eyes still strain to see
4. Beyond horizons we will see
That faith was not in vain
For every promise Christ will keep
And every glory claim.
Now his word’s our guide,
Our vision, light
Until our eyes will see
sar 2011, 2013
Haha...resurrected...oh, you're cracking me up ;-)
ReplyDeleteAfter the rewrite, the Tolkien thing is even stronger. I'm not sure that we have any license to imagine heaven has a beach. (Heresy for an Aussie, I'm sure). Though I suppose you've got John Bunyan in your ear, talking about how wide his river was...
My niggle remains though: salvation comes from heaven, not from going to heaven. Joy won't meet us there; there will meet us here!
That being said, I still like the idea.
Even though I was reading it to myself in my head I found myself tripped up with 'glory claim' - I found myself thinking 'glory glaim / clory claim' - it's the 'l' as the second letter thing [I'm sure if I had time to look hard enough I could find a technical term for that but I don't :-)]. That's the only 'flow' issue I have on a first reading.
ReplyDeleteI like it, but on a first read I would hesitate to use it congregationally, as the poetry is not immediately accessible (that could just be my context coming to bear), but then, not everything has to be congregational, right?
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure about this one. This is probably just me, but I react to the duality - tears and sorrow here, joy and peace in heaven. Are we to have no joy and peace here? It's kind of fatalistic and pre-millennial, although I guess it's also true to some extent. You can't say everything in every song.
ReplyDeleteI really like V2 and would love to see you sustain the metaphor to the end of the verse. V1 - should that be "across the ocean" singular? I think in general apart from V3 the last three lines of each verse kind of peter out rather than finish strongly.