U2: Yahweh Meaning
Yahweh Lyrics
Click clacking down some dead end street
Take these shoes
And make them fit
Take this shirt
Polyester white trash made in nowhere
Take this shirt
And make it clean, clean
Take this soul
Stranded in some skin and...
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1TOP RATED
#1 top rated interpretation:Man I'm in church every sunday, and was schooled throughout the catholic education system but this is far too heavy for me.
"take this soul stranded in some skin and bone"
"take this soul and make it sing"
"take these hands teach them what to carry"
how anyone with a balanced life can see these lyrics as blasphemous is beyond me, this is clearly a publicly devout christian husband and father acknowledging his faults and offering them up to god.
I really think a few people on here ought to relax for a while and allow people to express themselves, let he who is without sin.... -
gods name originally was YHWH which means i am the i am in hebrew and then mankind added consenents to it.
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This song always reminded me of the passage
Matthew 25: 38-40. -
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I've to confess that i typically get bored to learn the entire thing but i feel you possibly can add some value. Bravo ! -
This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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I think I named Job instead of Jonah. Nonetheless, the Ninevities were committing atrocities by burying people alive and impaling criminals and so forth. God was not so interested in them converting to Judaism but in eradicating their immorality. We all see immorality in small as well as large things today. But the prophecy of Jonah speaks of a forgiving God of love, just like the message of Jesus. The prophecy also calls on us to love the sinner but hate the sin. And it calls on us to speak of this mercy to all the bad as well as the good people we meet.
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Unfortunately, it seems that religion is a club. Most every religion speaks of a future apocalypse, a critical mass, a return to amicability, a future otherworldly hegemony of their particular faith in the far environs of this world. What Bono seems to be about is more of what Yahweh was about with Job. God did not want Job to castigate Nineveh over their idolatry. Yahweh wanted him to preach against their immorality--the impaling of their heretics--or, something like that--maybe their criminals--check the Prophecy for yourselves. It was really the impaling that Yahweh was so concerned with.
Unfortunately, most Christians are hardly conscious of the Hebrew Bible--the Old Testament--perhaps because it is so complex with history, books of wisdom, and the poetry of Prophets--it's confusing. It takes patience and study. We all agree that God exists. We see in our prayers and our surrender the workings of God in our lives. Today most everyone you meet on the street will dismiss sin as an obsolete, erroneous conception, created out of man's ignorance. The scientific age started this, and, if we are not faithful examples of God's love, this age of science and technology will all but crush belief itself. Most men and women travel a long way in the wrong direction before they confess and amend their ways. This God stuff works.
The speaker of the song, "Yahweh," is in deep suffering. We have all been there and we will all go there again. We recognize the evil in others simply because we know ourselves as evil too. We have been hateful and cruel. It takes a strong faith to destroy evil in our hearts. And we never truly can without God's grace. We think we're strong enough. And we rationalize all sorts of approaches, but it is only in surrender and trust that we finally allow God himself to make our enemies our footstools. And sometimes we are our own worst enemies. I have seen very dark days. It is only by studying the Bible--bit by bit, slowly--that I have begun to grasp the workings of God in the evolving of history. But, remember, history is manufactured. In the Bible, it mostly comes to us through passed down oral traditions--we never know the whole truth of things. There are contradictions throughout. The Nicene creed, as well as all the other controversies, we're resolved by men, not God. And these men were not the lowly and poor in spirit, the persecuted (these men were not matyrs to the Christian faith--they were not the audience that Jesus chose for his Beattidudes (sp). They were men (not a woman among them) of authority, a deadly authority. Peter was not the first pope--and if he was that's just dandy, but he also betrayed Jesus three times--so that says something about him. I just finished a class taught by an agnostic scholar called, The History of God. The ancient Hebrews borrowed from the Canaanite religion. All these myths go back thousands of years. The jews refined it down to Monotheism. All of this is very confusing to me unless I just keep it simple and study the words of Jesus. It is, for me, a nascent struggle. I go to Church, not because I'm dead certain of everything Christian, but because I wish to start again to love my neighbor as myself. It is hard to love your neighbor as yourself, when you despise yourself. The devil, or satan, or the accuser of man, wants us to despise ourselves. And he seems to have an easy time of it. So my struggle is hard--just like the struggle the speaker is going through in U2's song "Yahweh." In the end, God is too incommensurable for our puny brains. We only get prophecies that are figurative more than literal, and then we get the parables of Jesus, which, we most all admit, are sometimes quite perplexing (e.g. The Unjust Steward). I hope I haven't offended anybody, but I'm sure some of you might be. All I can say is that I'm attempting to apply all the Biblical principles to my suffering and sin, thereby, attempting to figure it all out and get that sin out of me. But I can't do it alone. It's impossible. But in God all things are possible! -
This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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I thought it would be interesting to look up the dictionary definition of the word blasphemy:
NOUN:
pl. blas·phe·mies
1a A contemptuous or profane act, utterance, or writing concerning God or a sacred entity.
1b The act of claiming for oneself the attributes and rights of God.
2 An irreverent or impious act, attitude, or utterance in regard to something considered inviolable or sacrosanct.
Without knowing for sure the exact meaning of the song and Bono's motive for writing it, I think one needs to be careful condemning him as a blasphemer. We are merely speculating as to its meaning; Bono is the only one who can say for sure.
A good example is The Beatles song, Hey Jude. This was at one time thought to be about drugs. However, Paul McCartney (who wrote it) subsequently explained that the song was originally called "Hey Jules" and was a song for Julian Lennon at the time that his father (John) left his mother for another woman (Yoko). However, he changed the title to make it less obvious.
For what it's worth, I was at Twickenham when Bono introduced the song as "This is our prayer". Whether, or not, the prayer is appropriate from the Almighty's perspective is ultimately for Jehovah/Yahweh to decide.
Is Bono showing contempt or profaning Jehovah/Yahweh in this song? I'm not convinced either way - and probably never will be until I here from the horse's mouth. -
wow this is deep. I sincerely object to Theresa1 saying that U2 are not 'real Christians'. That is entirely up to God to decide. doesn't the bible say not to judge?
yes, they promote activities which are sinful. but is that not better than being 'false prophets' - preaching and then sinning in private? bono openly admits his faults - something all of us should do more of.
the song is clearly a prayer, as I think the first post said. There is NO WAY U2 are promoting Satan in their songs and tours. get a grip.
the line in vertigo: "All of this, all of this can be yours/ All of this, all of this can be yours/ All of this, all of this can be yours/ Just give me what I want/ And no one gets hurt." YES this is a paraphrase of Satan tempting Jesus. BUT take it in context. The whole song is about God being the world's one true salvation. This line is bono talking about the temptations of chosing the other path.
BUT in theresa1's defence - no need to make it personal guys. She probably did forget her password. and don't diss Jehovah's witnessess - although I am not one myself I have a lot of respect for someone who will devote their life so entirely to something they believe so strongly in.
and HOW HOW HOW HOW can you claim that U2 don't do enough for charity and to help victims of AIDS? they are one of the few bands /celebrities that do anything for those less well-off than themselves. and definatly more than everyone posting here put together. Including you.
lindz -
Wow!! There are some very interesting and deep interpretations of this song. Nonetheless, I truly love this song:). It really puts a smile on my face every day. I just feel a very deep warm feeling inside me when I listen to it. Especially the beginning and the end. "take this shirt", "take this shoes and make them fit"...That just reminds me of how powerful god is. He can make everything possible. Now, I am not an expert of the holy bible so I cannot critic the above comments. I only know one thing, we are all imperfect humans here who make mistakes. This are just interpretations of the bible, it doesn't mean someone is right or wrong. Is all about what we beleive in our hearts. Additionally, let's not forget about the millions of people who have been killed in the name of god. Let's keep it peaceful here. We already have enough religious conflict going on. This is were coexist comes in handy. We need to coexist and love "our neighbors". That is my interpratation of bono's use of coexist. I feel that he loves and respects everyone regardless of their religion. I beleive in a god of peace in love. I really hate when people protest and kill in the name of god. Coexist simply means that we all need to coexist instead of having a dangarous desire to have a universal faith. If we look back in history, this has not been succesful. Let's just coexist and continue to excersice our faith with peace and love.
May god bless everyone.... -
Theresa, your passion for christ is admirable, but in this case, I would think that you have severely misintepreted u2.
One point to note in your first accusation against u2 is that u2 were not blatantly blaspheming the name of god in an attempt to disrespect him. On the contrary, the so called pagantry and idolatry symbols used throughout the tour were most prominent in a large sign reading "coexist", which is u2's manner of making a point against the violence and bloodshed used today in the name of god. With all due respect, which is more of a blasphmous act to our father, using his name to urge and encourage peace amongst people, or committing murder, using his name as a pretense? In this manner, you could say that they are fulfilling the 2 greatest commandments of all as set dow by jesus in matthew, namely, to lave god and everyone else. Note that jesus does not say, love your fellow christian. He does not say love your brother. But love your neighbour. That includes everyone and anyone that lives on this planet today. For further exploration of this point, I suggest you listen to u2's "sunday bloody sunday".
As for your point that u2 paraphrases satan in the song vertigo, it is important to take the part in context. The part was mainly featured the 2nd bridge, a part where messages antagonistic and contrary to the song's message is normally featured to show contrast.The fact that the song is even more obviously not antichrist is evident in the chorus,
" hello, hello
I'm at a place called vertigo
it's everything I wish I didn't know
but you give me something
i can feel"
taken in context and reading between the lines, it could be said that this song is about how the rocknroll lifestyle of celebrity( as inferred from the word vertigo, a feeling of nausea resulting from heights, suggesting the elevation of celebrity) could have led them astray, but how god's grace keeps them rooted in his word.
As for the song yahweh, itself, it can be seen, and quite truthfully, very hard to not be seen, as a backslider's prayer.
The chorus is sympathetic of most people who feel that god has rejected and forsaken them when they go through tough times, saying, " why the dark before the dawn"? To this aspect, u2 shows that pain and suffering is directly because of original sin, as evidence from the line before, " always pain before a child is born". This is a paraphrasing of what god says to adam and eve when he punishes them for their sin, with the pain of childbirth being one of them. Interestingly enough, reading a few verses down you will find evidence of god's plan of salvation even from the beginning. Praise god. But anyway.
From the bridge, u2 begins to answer the questions posed in the chorus. " the sun is coming up on the ocean," they say. Dawn has come. But what's the ocean, you say. The next line answers the question. " this love is like a drop in the ocean." indeed, human love is incomparable to agape, god's unconditional love for us, as it says in 1st john. The 2nd bridge is really about how the answer of pain and suffering is jesus the christ, the dawn of light into this world of sin.
One last point. The song ends with how bono implores yahweh to break his heart. For anyone who thinks this is a challege to god to inflict the worst on them, I would suggest listening to hillsong united, hillsong church's youth ministry, where one of their praise songs, "all about you", says this phrase too. In this context, hearts breaking represent total and unconditional breaking of the self to god. Because its no longer I who live. But christ in me.
Theresa, it is good that you love god so much that you are heartbroken over the state of this world. But do not be like the pharisees and sadducees, who were so resentful of jesus's different methods of teaching that they didn't recognise the messiah. "you are in the world, but not of the world," jesus says. " go now therefore, and makes disciples of all the nations." in this broken down world, christian witness is needed more than ever. But people who are not even convinced of god's existence will not be brought to god by traditional hellfire and brimstone proclaimations. Paul says in crinthians that we must do everything we can in whatever methods to bring people to christ as long as it is acceptable to god. People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.
U2 is the best example of holy living and yet excellence in the world without compromise. Thank god for their gospel-charged messages. Thank god for their faith. Most of all, thank god for their moments of feeling faithlessness, because that is when the songs that represents our moments of feeling faithless too are brought out. And that's how god can heal us.
God bless you. -
Theresa, I applaud your passion in spreading the Word of our God, however, you are way off base.
U2 is one of, if not the most, saliently Christian bands in the world today. No they are not a Christian band, but they are Christians and their music expresses this. You're right about the temptation of Christ by Satan in Vertigo, but U2 is using this as well as other tempations to hold a mirror up to our world - to show us how these temptaions can be avoided. The cry out to the Lord as the only source for avoiding this temptaion - Hence them saying "That you give me something... I can feel your LOVE teaching me, Your LOVE is teaching me, How to kneel, kneel" The Lord's Love has them kneeling in prayer as the only way out of this Vertigo created by Satan and Secular Humanism.
This is further echoed in "All Because of You." They sing "all because of You, I Am, I Am." All the blessings in their world are bcause of Him, the one who called himself "I Am, I Am."
Yahweh is a desperate prayer for salvation. Maybe not the way we are taught to pray in church, but a prayer none the less. It is far from blasphemos. -
I usually do not care too much for music. But I do appreciate U2 and have since I was a kid. They have always been a favorite for me. I was listening to the song, "YAHWEH". As a born again Christian-I was intrested to know what exactly what the lyrics were. I landed onto this web site.
I feel that this song is basically is a prayer to God. We are all unclean and unfit until Jesus takes the sins away.
I saw the interpretation by "theresa1". I feel that this interpretation is Christian "Legalism" at it's finest. This interpretation reminded of the people who protest outside solidier's funerals.
God is a God of love, peace, GRACE, and justice. Not of LEGALISM and Craziness.
A prayer can be a song; and all of us express ourselves differently and individually to Our Lord and Savior. Plain and simple-this an artist's way of praying to the Lord to change me and break me. Break me to be more like you (Jesus).
So, as for the crazy, legalistic, prior interpretation...
please remember legalism and judgment do NOT change people. Only God's grace, love, and kindness do.
J.
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