Mercy

Shane & Shane's “Mercy” is a worship song written around the cross and communion. The singer kneels in the dust at the foot of the cross, where mercy paid for him and the wrath he deserved is gone and past. He says that God's blood has hidden him.

The chorus calls mercy as endless as the sea and promises to sing God's hallelujah for all eternity. The second verse moves to the table, saying that believers lift up the cup and break the bread, remembering his love. They were fallen from grace, yet he took on their shame and nailed it to a cross. The bridge is a prayer to never lose the wonder of his mercy, and the song closes with a sung hallelujah and amen. The writing is spare, and that helps the words about the cross carry their own weight. The duo's harmonies and acoustic guitars give the arrangement a calm, reverent tone, which suits the moments around the Lord's Supper. A church can sing it as a response after a sermon on forgiveness, as a communion song or at a service on Good Friday. Because the lyrics are simple and the melody repeats, a congregation can learn it in one pass and then sing it from the heart without a screen.

Mercies new every morning are in Lamentations 3:22-23. The cup and bread in remembrance are in 1 Corinthians 11:25-26, and the debt nailed to the cross is Colossians 2:14.