“A Thousand Shores” (not Hallelujahs, Names, Tongues or Reasons. For real, I’m starting to get all of these “thousand” songs mixed up. 😂) is written by Leeland Mooring, Leslie Jordan, and Zachary Bolen. It ‘s part of Citizens’ 2023 album I Can’t Find the Edges of You, the home of certified banger “Good Ground,” which I love and have reviewed already.

While “Good Ground” and “Everything and More” were my initial favorites from this release, “A Thousand Shores” grew on me every time I heard it, and some of my fellow worship leaders agreed, so we introduced it at Christ’s Church a couple weeks ago. The band has really enjoyed it, and the congregation has grabbed ahold of it as well, but is “A Thousand Shores” biblical, and will it worship? Let’s figure out what we’ve been singing!

Focus

This song expresses the wonder and joy of being known by Jesus and filled with his life-sustaining love. The most repeated line and heartbeat of the song is “Jesus, You are my everything,” an expression of devotion to Jesus and a statement of his all-sufficiency.

This song is about the closeness of Jesus to the believer, so there’s lots of “my” in the song, and also lots of “You” referring to Jesus. Jesus is the only member of the Trinity mentioned specifically.

Lyric Analysis

VERSES 1 & 2
These verses express wonder at how deeply Jesus knows us and at the sovereign way he works in our lives. The author says God can read our hearts like a book, a sentiment the Eleven Disciples share in Acts 1:24, and that he knows what is in our minds before we ask it, an important principle Jesus teaches along with the Lord’s Prayer (Matt 6:8).

When this song says, “You write my story and call it good,” I think it’s paraphrasing Romans 8:28, which says “for those who love God, all things work together for good.” God is the author of our faith journey (Heb 12:2), and we can trust that his plans are good even as we are unable to imagine or comprehend his ways (Job 9:10, Isa 55:8). The phrase “You’re in my future, You’re in my past” reminds me of Psalm 139:13-16, where David praises God for knowing him and every one of his days even before he was formed in the womb.

As a response to this God’s wondrous knowledge of our inmost being and his unsearchable plans, we cry out with Moses, “Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?” (Ex 15:11).

CHORUS
“You give my lungs the air to breathe // You are my everything”

In the chorus, we praise Jesus for things that he gives us. We’re not really talking about material blessings here; we’re more describing the experience of knowing Christ and walking with him. He gives light to our eyes (Pro 29:11), words to our lips (Matt 10:19), and breath to our lungs (Gen 2:7) as well putting a song in our soul (Zeph 3:17) and giving us every beat of our hearts. Jesus doesn’t just give us life when we’re born or when we become Christians, he sustains us by his power every moment, and the whole universe only holds together because of his active involvement (Col 1:17). “In him, we live and move and have our being.” (Ac 17:28) This is what we mean when we say, “You are my everything.”

I think it’s important to note that calling Jesus our everything does not dishonor the other Persons of the Trinity, devalue the community of the church, or denigrate our bodily and emotional needs. Regarding the Trinity, all of God fully receives all worship offered to Jesus. He is creator, sustainer, the head of the church, the beginning and the end, given preeminence in all things. The fullness of God is pleased to dwell in him (Col 1:15-20). The Father and Spirit are never threatened by honor given to Jesus but are fully included in it. The church is the very body of Christ, the fulness of his presence, the earthly epicenter of his all-in-all-ness (Eph 1:22-23). So participating in Christian community is part of what it means to have Jesus as our everything. Regarding physical needs, Christ promises that his Father provides for them when we seek after him (Matt 6:32-33). Trusting in Jesus as our everything means subordinating all those needs because we know that we need him more.

VERSE 3
This short verse is about the immensity and infinity of Jesus’ love. Much like the uncountable grains of sand on a thousand shores, the love of Christ can never run out. It is eternal, abounding, steadfast, forgiving, and perfect (1 Jn 4:18, John 3:16, Ps 136:26). I can’t imagine a greater truth than that either!

BRIDGE
The phrase “too wonderful” appears in the Bible when the speaker acknowledges that he can’t comprehend God’s power and wisdom and love. Job says this of God’s tremendous power in creating and sustaining the world, and of the way God has been active even through Job’s suffering (Job 42:3). David says it when praising God for how deeply and perfectly God knows each one of us (Ps 139:6). It conveys an inability to understand, but also a deep awe, reverence, and amazement.

If you are in Christ, you never have to worry about what life or eternity would be like without Jesus, because nothing can ever separate you from his love or rip you out of his hand (John 17:11-12, Rom 8:39). I’m not going to get into the once-saved-always-saved debate here; suffice it to say that the Bible warns us against falling away from Christ, but it also reassures us that nothing short of a full rejection of the Son of God can ever sever our relationship with him (Heb 6:4-6, 2 Tim 2:12-13).

Accessibility

While God’s ways and his love are incomprehensible, “A Thousand Shores” is not. It uses easy-to-understand language to describe and celebrate beautiful, biblical truths about God and his relationship to us. You don’t need a theology degree or a lifetime of accumulated Sunday school lessons to understand this one. 👍👍

I don’t see any danger of serious misunderstandings in this song. Some church people might think the song excludes the Father and Holy Spirit, or that it takes a particular stance on eternal security, but that’s just not the case, as I discussed above.

This song is highly congregational, as long as your congregation isn’t scared of a little syncopation! The melodies are highly repetitive, making them easy to learn, and the range is only a sixth! That’s super rare in contemporary worship songs and it means that just about anyone can find a comfortable place to sing this song whatever key you put it in.

Music

Simple, repetitive chord changes. Repetitive melody. Nothing insane going on rhythmically. The basic drum pattern of kick and snare is easy to grab onto. There’s lots of synth in this one, so I like to use a track for those arpeggiators and atmospheric effects. The only real challenge for the band is going to be the highly syncopated lyrics. It’s a little tricky to stay in time when the melody seems to avoid the beat.

The key to the dynamics of this song is contrast. The dramatic entrances and exits of different instruments, the octave jumps, the nearly yelled vocals on the bridge with almost no instrumentation, all of it makes this song exciting and easy to engage with.

I mentioned earlier that the range of this song is only a sixth. That’s not quite true for the lead vocalist. 😬 There is an octave jump from verse 3 to the chorus, so that makes the range for the lead singer an octave plus a sixth. Yikes! Fortunately, this is easily fixed by just not singing the first part of the song an octave lower, or having a singer of the opposite sex sing that portion. I’ve found that if I include the octave jump, it is helpful to have another man continue singing the melody an octave lower to give the men in the congregation an anchor so they don’t have to jump up high with me.

Conclusions

Will it worship? Totally. “A Thousand Shores” revels in the mysteries of Jesus: his love, his deep knowing, his life-giving presence. It is an exuberant anthem of joy and devotion, and I plan to keep on singing it!

Image by Mitchell Shwartz on Unsplash

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