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Genesis 6:1-9:29

The Ark Above the Deep

Lyrics · Genesis

The Ark Above the Deep

Genesis 6:1-9:29

Lyrics

About this song

About this song

This song belongs to the Genesis collection. One recording is available to play here, with the complete lyrics below.

Bible book
Genesis
Collection
Genesis
Musical styles
Rock
[Verse 1] Violence filled the earth and every thought ran wild, Yet Noah found grace and walked before God undefiled. Room by room the ark arose beneath a warning sky, While the world kept moving as though judgment would pass by. [Pre-Chorus] Seven days of waiting, then the fountains broke, Rain erased the mountains under thunder, wind, and smoke. [Chorus] The ark rode high above the deep, While every promise God would keep. When the storm had spent its breath, Mercy carried life across the waters of death. [Verse 2] The LORD shut the door, and the rising flood prevailed, Till a wind crossed the waters and the mountain tops unveiled. A raven crossed the silence, then the dove came home once more, With an olive leaf announcing there was earth beyond the door. [Bridge] Noah built an altar when the ground was dry again, Seedtime, harvest, cold and heat would follow after rain. A bow appeared in clouded light, a covenant in view, Never would a flood again destroy all flesh anew. [Final Chorus] The ark rode high above the deep, While every promise God would keep. From the judgment came a sign, Mercy arched in color through the clearing sky. [Outro] The waters fell, the seasons turned, And in the cloud the covenant burned.

Named in this songNoahArkOlive leaf

About the passage

Genesis 6: A world filled with violence and an ark for life

Genesis 6 moves from mysterious figures and famous names to a verdict that leaves little ambiguity about the earth’s condition. However the “sons of God,” the Nephilim, and the hundred and twenty years are interpreted, the chapter itself soon centers on something far clearer: human wickedness, divine grief, corruption, and a world filled with violence. Against that setting Noah is described as just and as walking with God, not as a man of special genetics. Grace appears before any ark is built, and then the preservation plan is given in exact enough detail to make obedience concrete. The ark is designed around the repeated purpose “to keep them alive,” including Noah’s household, male and female creatures, and food for all. Covenant first appears in Genesis inside this announcement of judgment. The chapter therefore places destruction and continuation side by side. Noah’s recorded response is simply that he does what God commands, and the vessel is ready for life to enter.

Study Genesis 6 in depth

Genesis 7: The waters rise and the door closes

Genesis 7 slows the approach of the flood through commands, numbers, categories, dates, and repeated notices of entry. Clean animals and birds complicate the familiar picture of simple pairs, while the seven-day interval makes the final approach deliberate rather than sudden. Then the waters come from above and below, reversing the separations that had made dry land habitable. The most decisive door in the chapter is closed by the LORD, not by Noah, placing preservation within the same divine action that governs judgment outside. As the waters rise, creation’s catalogue becomes a catalogue of loss: birds, cattle, beasts, creeping things, and human beings disappear from the dry land. The ark rises on the very waters that destroy everything outside it. Forty days of rain do not finish the crisis, either. The chapter closes after one hundred and fifty days of prevailing water, with life preserved inside but no restored world ready to receive it.

Study Genesis 7 in depth

Genesis 8: A remembered household and a slowly returning earth

Genesis 8 is a chapter of gradual return. God remembers Noah and every living thing with him, and remembering immediately becomes action as the waters begin to retreat. Yet nothing happens all at once. The ark rests before mountain tops appear; a raven and repeated dove flights test conditions beyond the vessel; an olive leaf gives one small piece of evidence that living ground is returning. Even when Noah can see dry surface, he waits for the command to leave. Departure then echoes creation as animals are released toward fruitfulness and multiplication. Noah’s first recorded act on the restored ground is to build an altar, and the clean animals preserved in extra number now have a purpose in sacrifice. The closing promise is striking because it does not depend on a declaration that humanity has become innocent. Human evil is still acknowledged, yet seedtime, harvest, seasons, and day and night are promised continuity while the earth remains.

Study Genesis 8 in depth