TIS: Ellie Goulding – Explosions

I’m not sure if I’m supposed to like Ellie Goulding’s music openly. Is it for teenage girls? It doesn’t seem that way. She has an interesting voice and an unusual style. So much so, in fact, that when I recently revealed I was a bit of a fan to a number of friends, I was sure that it would increase my already cool standing with them. Instead I was mocked, not only for my tastes, but also because I insist on pronouncing her surname as ‘Ghool-ding’, as opposed to ‘Golding’ (though I’m confident I’m correct on that).

Here’s the latest single release from Goulding’s second album ‘Halcyon’:

We’ve been looking at the story of Noah recently at Firwood, and so I currently have a heightened sensitivity for any mention of ‘floods’. Here, Goulding sings:

And as the floods move in
And your body starts to sink
I was the last thing on your mind
I know you better than you think
Cause it’s simple darling, I gave you a warning
Now everything you own is falling from the sky in pieces
So watch them fall with you, in slow motion
I pray that you will find peace of mind
And I’ll find you another time
I’ll love you, another time

As Goulding laments a broken relationship, she describes the destruction that her loved one brings upon himself. The consequences of his life sweep in, and bring about his own fall into abandonment. Goulding watches, saddened but powerless: Having provided warning but finding herself unable to save, Goulding’s last hope is that perhaps in some other time, they might meet, after he has found a way to survive the flood.

A drowning person is not interested in whether you wish them well or not. They want to be saved! They have no time for taking down a date in their diary on which they might meet you for coffee, if they happen to be able to escape their own impending death!

Goulding’s poetic description of this flood is quite powerful:

…Now everything you own is falling from the sky in pieces
So watch them fall with you, in slow motion…

Who can rescue us from the flood of our own doing? That judgement about which our consciences (however muted) cry out, when we consider our standing before a God who is perfect: Am I good enough? Are the things I have built up going to save me, or will they crumble into the flood with me?

Jesus saves.

He saves a dying people to a life we don’t deserve. Indeed, just as Goulding’s love held her as the last thing on his mind, Jesus died for us whilst we were still sinners, haters of God (Romans 5:8). He rescued me when I had no intention of calling to him for help. He saves the unsaveable.

Good news for drowning people.

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(You can catch the previous Truth in Sound here.)