Oceans (Where feet may fail)

In Matthew's gospel, after Jesus has fed the 5,000 (Matthew 14:13-21), we read the following:

Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds.  And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray.  When evening came, he was there alone, but the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them.  And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea.  But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, "It is a ghost!" and they cried out in fear.  But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, "Take heart; it is I.  Do not be afraid."

And Peter answered him, "Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water."  He said, "Come."  So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus.  But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, "Lord, save me."  Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?"  And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased.  And those in the boat worshipped him, saying, "Truly you are the Son of God." 

(Matthew 14:22-33, ESV) 

There is quite a story behind the song Oceans.   It was written by Hillsong United as part of an album project.  The music was written at the beginning of the project, and the word 'oceans' seemed to go with it, but it wasn't until the last couple of days of recording that they were inspired, by the story of Peter getting out of the boat to walk on the water, to complete the words.  They didn't have an obvious female vocalist to sing for the recording, and almost stumbled across Taya Smith, who was a member of Hillsong Church, but not established as a vocalist.  You can hear the whole story in this video: Stepping Out: the Story of Oceans.

Oceans speaks (sings?!) poignantly and powerfully into the situation in which we all find ourselves now, across the globe.  Life as we knew it has disappeared - we don't know for how long.  The future is unknown, and the unknown is always scary.  Of course, we all find ourselves facing a scary and unknown future at various points in our lives - but it's unparalleled in living memory that everyone across the globe is facing this experience at the same time.  Oceans speaks powerfully about trusting God.  At the beginning of the video mentioned above, we hear the testimony of a young man called Ansley Madrigal, to whom God spoke clearly through the words of this song.  He says that Oceans gives "hope, that no matter where we find ourselves in life, that God wants something more, that God is not going to leave us, and that we can trust in the future that he has for us."  I trust that as you listen to this song, you too will be able to respond to God's call on your life, and be able to trust that he will keep you safe in the "great unknown" - unknown to you, but not to him.

You can watch the official lyric video of Oceans here.

Hillsong recorded a version of this song on the Sea of Galilee here (this video does not show the song lyrics).

The image above Ocean (Where Feet May Fail) by Redeemed By His (Christ) Grace is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0