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Mon, 06/23/2025 - 14:55 — Dean Carey
Hi folks.
Got a question about the words in the song ‘Enter In’.
There’s a phrase in the first verse that goes like this: ‘In a world of pain and sorrow, where the best so often fall, when the prayers all go unanswered, when the shadows seem to overwhelm, when the light of hope has dimmed and and leaves no hope at all…’
This song is so beautiful and the words hit my heart so powerfully, but what is the intent behind the words ‘…prayers all go unanswered…’?
We know God hears and answers. —May not be the answers we want to hear, but he always answers.
How do I square the rest of this beautiful song with this phrase? Please help me understand and thanks.
Dean
Comments
My best guess
I imagine the thing to do is to ask the author of the lyrics. But speaking as someone who is not familiar with the song in question, my guess, and it's only a guess, would be that it is intended as an expression of the subjective thought of the person suffering (and observing) all this pain and sorrow, and praying and/or hearing prayers which appear to go unanswered, rather than a theological or soteriological assertion of fact. Compare it maybe to the famous line from Psalm 22 which Jesus recited during his suffering on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” This is Scripture, but it does not mean that in any ultimate sense Jesus' Father had forsaken him, though he may well have felt so at that point. Again, I'm not familiar with the song, just guessing based on what you've written here. (Now I'll go look at the song, maybe listen to it, and if I think my first guess was in error I'll come back here and elaborate.
Unable to proceed
I have not been able to determine which of a number of songs titled or beginning with “Enter in” is referred to here. My first guess (the one by Carol Mundy) is probably not the one meant here, at least the only “full text” I've found (at Archive.org) is only four lines and doesn't say anything about unanswered prayers.
Found it
The song is apparently by Hallal Music, and does not appear to be in the database. But having looked at the lyrics at Musixmatch, I think my initial guess is pretty obviously correct. The singer is starting out in a dark and drear world, and God in Christ overturns the darkness and replaces the pain and sorrow with joy; the prayers are answered, just not when and where one hoped when praying them.
Hallal Music
What a name! It sounds like a subgenre of hymnody consisting of songs to sing while working in a Muslim butcher shop!
thanks for confirming
I think this too. The prayers ‘appear’ to go unanswered because they are not the answers we want or when we want them. --As if we have the prerogative to make demands of the King.
Appreciate the commentary.