40 Days

Matt Maher's “40 Days” is a song for the season of Lent, the forty days before Easter that echo Jesus' forty days in the desert. It begins with a list of what the forty days are for: wandering, dying to self, growing stronger as faith breaks open the gates of hell.

The first verse says the jubilee is over but grace is far from gone, and it speaks of the faithful as broken on the wheels of love. The chorus explains why the desert matters. In the desert of temptation lies the storm of true conversion, where springs of living water drown and refresh you. As the Jordan pours out change, only your true self remains, and the water both binds and breaks you. The second verse turns to Easter, calling the days a time to remember the Paschal sacrifice and to discover that his passion calls us to new life. It closes by saying mercy is far from gone, in the arms of the Father as the wayward child comes home, an echo of the story of the prodigal son. Maher writes as a Catholic songwriter, and the language of Lent and the Paschal mystery shows it, but the picture of repentance as a trip home is familiar to every tradition. The song suits Ash Wednesday, Lenten services and personal reflection during the weeks before Good Friday.

Jesus fasting forty days in the wilderness is Matthew 4:1-2. Rivers of living water are in John 7:38, and the father running to the returning son is Luke 15:20.