I can answer your question, Steve. The imagery, references, whatever you want to call them are, for many, anyway, figurative. Or one could say, "Literary, not literal." Hymns, prayers, and such like are personal expressions, written by people who were simply trying to express their own feelings and ideas in a way that others could understand them--they are exactly like non-religious poems, pop songs, and other like, in that you look for what is personally meaningful in them, and if they doesn't speak to you, you move on.

Dearie me. What a cop-out! All that is fine (even though I don't believe it), except that you pass all that stuff down to your kids without telling them it's "all figurative, not literal, just like non-religious stuff". You teach them quite cheerfully the exact same prayers and hymns, filled with explicitly-stated certainties, that you learned yourself. By the time they are able to understand that these are merely figurative, not literal, etc., they've been chanting them and singing them for ten, twelve, fourteen or more years. Admit it. You get the kids to do the singing and chanting before they understand a damn thing about what they're singing and chanting because you're scared you'll lose them from the faith if you don't catch 'em early. We have a wonderful language that can be used to express those doubts you claim in a clear and simple way for your kids, yet you choose to make them chant the bogus certainties. I call that dishonest and I call it letting your kids down badly. It's all a little bit Chairman Mao, n'est-ce pas? If you lied to children in that manner in any other field of education, you'd end up in court!