Like a mighty river flowing

Riding the Severn Bore
cc-by-sa/2.0 – © Ian Capper

Today’s hymn from Sing Praise is “Like a mighty river flowing” by Michael Perry, coincidentally the same composer as yesterday, to a tune by Noel Tredinnick. Its five verses all take the same form: “Like… is the perfect peace of God”.  What that peace is compared to is mostly nature at its most peaceful: flowing rivers, flowers, hills, clouds, summer breezes and trees in the wind, morning sun and evening scent, ocean and jewels. There’s nothing specifically Christian about that, of course: these may all be aids to meditation or mindfulness whether you have religious faith or not. 

Some of the lines are more about our inner life: “like the heart that’s been forgiven”, “like the lips of silent praying”, “like a friendship never ended”. Again, not specifically Christian, although you might say more specifically spiritual.  The peace of God, then, as described here, might equally well be called ‘wholeness’ or ‘inner peace’.   Nothing wrong with that, of course, but I’m surprised it finds a place in a Christian hymn book without something more specific to our faith.

One thought on “Like a mighty river flowing”

  1. I have known this hymn since the days of my theological training, since it is in “Hymns for Today’s Church” and I did a placement in Leicester with Rev’d David Wilson who was one of the musical editors of that hymn book. And I have never really questioned whether it belonged in a Christian hymn book, as it is only really a development of the thoughts of Psalm 113, and uses words in the same way – to bring together a series of images which conjure up the atmosphere being described.

    Actually the Severn Bore is not a particularly peaceful phenomenon – I’ve watched it from a narrowboat!

Comments are closed.