Calvin Harris and Stuart Townend were both born across the pond, are alive, and write songs. That’s about where the comparison ends. You know Calvin Harris because you heard that “I Found Love” song featuring Rihanna roughly 3.2 million times on the radio. Harris actually surpassed Michael Jackson for the most top ten songs on one studio album on the UK Singles Chart, so it sounds like he’s a pretty big deal. Stuart Townend, on the other hand, is older and writes songs that are much less dance-y; he wrote In Christ Alone back in 2002, which you’ve sang if you’ve been to church more than five times (I know, I thought that song was written in like 1561, too). He also wrote my favorite hymn, How Deep the Father’s Love for Us, back in 1995. If you haven’t heard it, scroll to down to the bottom and give it a listen. It’s absolutely breathtaking. But why are we talking about this?
Well, Calvin Harris released a song last month with the artist Disciples called How Deep is Your Love (embedded below) that peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart and number five on the Billboard Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart. I was driving home listening to the radio, a practice that helps me stay angry (I’m a preacher after all), when I first heard the song. Full disclosure: it’s catchy and I danced for at least 30 seconds. But as I listened, couldn’t help but hear my favorite hymn, and my enjoyment quickly morphed into despair.
Let me demonstrate why with a lyrics comparison, beginning with Harris’ hit. To prevent the breaking of your scrolling finger, I put it all into one nauseating paragraph (in fairness, it is a dance song):
I want you to breathe me in Let me be your air Let me roam your body freely No inhibition, no fear How deep is your love? Is it like the ocean? What devotion? Are you? How deep is your love? Is it like nirvana? Hit me harder, again How deep is your love? How deep is your love? How deep is your love? Is it like the ocean? Pull me closer, again How deep is your love? How deep is your love? Open up my eyes and Tell me who I am Let me in on all your secrets No inhibition, no sin How deep is your love? Is it like the ocean? What devotion? Are you? How deep is your love? Is it like nirvana? Hit me harder, again How deep is your love? How deep is your love? How deep is your love? Is it like the ocean? Pull me closer, again How deep is your love? How deep is your love? How deep is your love? So tell me how deep is your love could go deeper So tell me how deep is your love could go deep So tell me how deep is your love could be go deeper So tell me how deep is your love could go deep (How deep is your love?) So tell me how deep is your love could be go deeper So tell me how deep is your love could go deep (How deep is your love?) So tell me how deep is your love could be deeper (Pull me closer, again) So tell me how deep is your love could go deep How deep is your love? How deep is your love? How deep is your love? So tell me how deep is your love could be go deeper So tell me how deep is your love could go deep (How deep is your love?) So tell me how deep is your love could be go deeper So tell me how deep is your love could go deep.
It’s almost depressing to read without the music, isn’t? There is this desperation to it. There is desire for intimacy without shame, without fear, without sin, for a love that will “open my eyes” and “tell me who I am.” Intriguingly, almost every sentence is a question. How deep is your love? Is it like the ocean? Will you be devoted? The desperate lover wants to know and, presumably, be known. But the lover is left in the dark and thus the song reads like a pagan prayer (Matthew 6:7-8).
Now let’s look at the lyrics of Townend’s hymn:
How deep the Father’s love for us,
How vast beyond all measure,
That He should give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure.
How great the pain of searing loss –
The Father turns His face away,
As wounds which mar the Chosen One
Bring many sons to glory.
Behold the man upon a cross,
My sin upon His shoulders;
Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice
Call out among the scoffers.
It was my sin that held Him there
Until it was accomplished;
His dying breath has brought me life –
I know that it is finished.
I will not boast in anything,
No gifts, no power, no wisdom;
But I will boast in Jesus Christ,
His death and resurrection.
Why should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer;
But this I know with all my heart –
His wounds have paid my ransom.
Different, to say the least. The lover found in Calvin Harris and Disciples’ song is the incarnation of our culture’s childish approach to sin and shame: to pretend they don’t exist. But the Lover found in Townend’s hymn is the incarnation of God’s approach to sin and shame: to face them head on. In fact, Jesus Christ is the incarnation of the God who is love stepping into a world of hate. The only possible end was a cross. But in that agonizing moment of darkness, the Beloved Treasure of God was made a wrath-bearing Wretch so that we wrath-deserving wretches might become beloved treasures of God. Therefore we are not left in the dark wondering, will He be devoted? Rather, we “know that it is finished.” In Christ, sin and shame are finished, and we are free to worship in breathless wonder: how deep is your love?
God is our air. We live and move and have our being in the One who breathed life into us. On the cross, He put an emphatic end to the sin that causes shame to separate us from Himself and others. His love opens our eyes, tells us who we really are, and discloses to us the unsearchable riches of secret wisdom (Psalm 119:18; Romans 8:16; Colossians 2:2-3). The confused lover in Harris’ song wants to roam the body of the nameless beloved and at the same time longs to experience a disembodied nirvana. The love of God is better; He invites us into the very body of His Son. God’s love is infinitely deeper than any ocean.
We in the West now live in a disenchanted world, but the gnawing hunger for transcendent love remains. Many have found that the love of other finite people, when depended upon to fulfill this ache, simply does not go deep enough. The sparks of early love fizzle out and in its place come blameshifting and shame. This is why those with ears to hear will find in the anthems of our exhausted age love songs to God:
“You’re gone and I got to stay high
All the time to keep you off my mind, ooh ooh
High all the time to keep you off my mind, ooh ooh
Spend my days locked in a haze
Trying to forget you babe, I fall back down
Gotta stay high all my life to forget I’m missing you” – Habits by Tove Lo
Listen, the high will end. You can only run for so long on the fumes of self-love and self-serving infatuation with others. But here’s the good news: God is not gone. He is alive and He is near to the brokenhearted. His love never fails, it never gives up, it never runs out. He will forgive you. Even you. Why? I cannot give an answer. But this I know with all my heart. His wounds have paid my ransom.
In Christ, there is love to be found in even the most hopeless places. Here is my prayer for you today:
“And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:17b-19, NIV).
