Florence + The Machine – Bedroom Hymns lyrics

This is about any desire in your life that you held so high it became your idol, obsession and your world. Blindly you have everything you have to it and now it's tearing you apart leaving you black and blue because it ate you up and spit you out. And it's saying jesus's love is all you need but humans are so selfish we pray about ourselves and forget the sacrifice his body was for us.

The essence of this song is very hard to grasp, particularly because of its heavy use of christian imagery.
To me, this song is about struggling with the overwhelming power of temptation, most likely of a sexual nature, and how it can be so intoxicating that one not only caves into it but embraces it, welcomes it.
'cause this is his body, this is his love' is a reference to christ's atoning sacrifice and redemption for man and call to live the righteous life. Fatm is saying that they acknowledge this and hence know what is right- and they remember this even as they flirt with temptation.
On the other hand, 'such selfish prayers and I can't get enough' refers to the struggle with the intoxicating nature of sin, like when one is 'caught up in the moment'- that is what the heart yearns for, it trumps even god.
That is what the first 2 verses are about- the pervasive nature of sinful desire that make you even, for that moment, want to replace god with sin.
Fatm also acknowledges that sin is not without consequences- that's what the third verse is about- the one that starts with'spilled bitter tears. '
The moment when one chooses to sin is captured by 'I'm not here looking for absolution, because I've found myself an old solution'. Absolution refers again to the redemption of christ. The old solution is a reversion to 'old ways', that is the sinful past. This is not to say that fatm are rejecting christ's salvation, but rather about how and why christians, who consider themselves redeemed, still sin.
This is a very haunting song, with a very complicated meaning, but it is an honest take of faith, the sinfulness of man, and the need for redemption. Unfortunately not something the church will forthcomingly acknowledge.

It's about the dirty feeling of having s** with someone who you know is just using you. The male figure she refers to is many men, not just one. Her desperate search for pure love is tainted by the love of many as she gives herself to them. The religious imagery is only to emphasize how methodical unsolicited s** is, just as catholic doctrine is methodical and monotonous. I probably only feel this way about the song because I've felt the same way in my search for true love, giving myself willingly to men who only used me for s**.

At the unregistered person who wrote their comments at 4: 24 and 4: 28 on march 10th, 2012 -- I don't really see that. I think it's just that her lyrics meld together violence, religion, and s**; the three major vices of man, the three things that lead to sinning and death. And yes, I classify religion as a vice, as it gives people an excuse to be cruel. But we all have our vices, and that's not necessarily bad. Not every song with religious imagery has to lead to "musicians make deals with satan for their success! " this one makes s** into something at once "the undone and the divine. " it looks at the dichotomy of s** in our society's views, which is in major part due to the abrahamic religions' view that it's something vile. *Shrugs* I think it's rather brilliant.

Part 2 of below- she sld her soul to the highest of beast to be where she is now, like many in hollywood. The devil runs everything- if you cannot open your eyes and ears to the truth, it make someone like me laugh at how ignorant all of you really are, you deserve to be in hell" or battling for the truth, you can't see it when it is staring you in the face. Soul for fame. If all it was about s** why would she have to showcase that, its not her type of personality, and that's obvious.