I love this song so much! I’ve been meaning to add it to our “new song blog” for a while. It isn’t quite new to us anymore but I still feel the need to give you some explanation behind it. The New Song Cafe video will give you some background on the song.
The reason I love this song so much is the way it defines our value through the love of God. The chorus defines God as good and it defines us as loved. The beauty in that is that our our deepest value has nothing to do with us. Romans 5 reminds us that God’s love for us is NOT based upon our actions. In fact, God loved us while we were his enemies. That proves that we didn’t earn this love.
Who you are is NOT defined by what you have or haven’t done. It is not defined by where you are from. It is ultimately defined by the sum of the fathers love for you. If you are perfect and have never made any mistakes that might not be as beautiful as it is for me. If you are like me and have messed up, hurt people, struggled with the same old sins over and over again, and all together deserve justice, then this might be a beautiful truth.
A few notes on verse 3:
For a song I love so much, I have wrestled with verse 3 quite a bit. I think I have made peace with the intention of the verse but I need to address it anyway. I don’t like introduce songs to corporate worship that have confusing ideas. I also don’t want to fall into the trap of stifling the beauty and power of poetic expression in our worship. If we must ensure that every line of a song has the precision of a systematic theology book we would likely drain the power of music right out. A great work of art causes you to see something from a different perspective OR it expresses an emotion that demands language that implies things beyond the words. Art makes us slow down and feel something deeply.
The reason I still bring up this verse is that I think it could be too easy to misunderstand. I want to invite you briefly into my journey with this song because I want us all to feel AND think when we sing together.
The verse says, “love so undeniable I can hardly speak. Peace so unexplainable I can hardly think.” The challenge I’ve have with that is that it implies that God’s love somehow makes us mute and His peace makes us mindless. I am confident this isn’t what the writer of the song is saying at all.
The first phrase: If we meditate on the lengths that God went to love us, it may cause us to be speechless in our response to him. In that sense the first line is okay. I wouldn’t feel the need to change this line if I were not addressing the next line already. I believe God’s great love is, in fact, one reason we DO speak. God’s great love may cause us to be speechless in our response to Him but demand that we worship out loud and tell others at the same time. The greatest impetus for evangelism and missions is that love demands we speak of it. In that sense we could be singing, love so undeniable I can’t help but speak. One slightly less significant issue with the line is that we are singing when we say we can’t speak. That is a minor issue to me since we often speak of kneeling, raising hands, and then don’t do those activities. I’ll let you decide weather you should fall to your knees every time we sing that we are.
The second phrase: This line is the most problematic to me and the reason we will probably not sing the radio version’s lyrics from now on. I will grant that the song writers intentions are almost certainly sound. The peace that God gives us is described in scripture as being “beyond understanding (Phil. 4:7).” I believe that is exactly what the song writer is getting at with the line about peace. The challenge they had was that the word understanding doesn’t sing as well the word “think” in the song.
Peace doesn’t cause us to be mindless (to shut down thinking). Instead the presence of peace doesn’t make sense unless you factor in the comfort of God. Just to be sure that I’m not overly splitting hairs, I went back to the Philippine passage to get a bit more clarity.
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:4-7)
The challenge Paul gives is to not be anxious about anything. The way you get away from anxiety is to bring everything to God in prayer. By inviting God into those things we remember his goodness, his faithfulness, his wisdom, and peace about the situation. The peace that God gives us is actually a byproduct of thinking about our situations as they compare to God. in John 16:33 Jesus says that it is in him that we find peace. Even this passage says that our hearts and minds are guarded “in Christ Jesus.” As a side note, the opening line of verse four challenges the church to let their reasonableness be known. Reasonableness seems like a very mentally active idea.
So, is the idea of peace causing us to be unable to “think” accurate? I believe you would have to change the definition of the word “think” a bit to much to call it accurate. Could I sing this song and still worship God in spirit and in truth? Yes, but I would be injecting my study of Philippians 4 into that little word “think.” For all these reasons I have changed the last light of verse 3 to reflect more closely the ideas I see in the passage. Peace swells up inside of me, when I see how you guard me.
What I love about lots of songs that are being written these days is how I can find scripture behind every line. Even in this case it was easy for me to find scripture that connects to each idea in the song. I love that and I am so grateful for songwriters who work so hard to sing things that are so deep and significant.
Lyrics
Oh, I’ve heard a thousand stories of what they think you’re like
But I’ve heard the tender whisper of love in the dead of night
And you tell me that you’re pleased
And that I’m never alone
You’re a Good, Good Father
It’s who you are, it’s who you are, it’s who you are
And I’m loved by you
It’s who I am, it’s who I am, it’s who I am
Oh, and I’ve seen many searching for answers far and wide
But I know we’re all searching
For answers only you provide
Cause you know just what we need
Before we say a word
You’re a Good, Good Father
It’s who you are, it’s who you are, it’s who you are
And I’m loved by you
It’s who I am, it’s who I am, it’s who I am
Cause you are perfect in all of your ways
You are perfect in all of your ways
You are perfect in all of your ways to us
You are perfect in all of your ways
You are perfect in all of your ways
You are perfect in all of your ways to us
Oh, it’s love so undeniable
I, I can hardly speak (I can’t help but sing)
Peace so unexplainable (Peace swells up inside of me)
I, I can hardly think (when I see how you guard me)
As you call me deeper still [x3]
Into love, love, love
[x3:]
You’re a Good, Good Father
It’s who you are, it’s who you are, it’s who you are
And I’m loved by you
It’s who I am, it’s who I am, it’s who I am
You’re a Good, Good Father
(You are perfect in all of your ways)
It’s who you are, it’s who you are, it’s who you are
And I’m loved by you
(You are perfect in all of your ways)
It’s who I am, it’s who I am it’s who I am
