Songs for Summer 2019

Micah 6:8; John 8:12, 12:35-36; Colossians 2:6-7, "You’ll Never Walk Alone" (1945) Who are you going to walk with? (08/30/19)

"You'll Never Walk Alone" is one of those extremely meaningful songs that don't actually seem to have any meaning when you listen to the lyrics:

Really? If I hold my head up, unafraid, and hope is in my heart, I'm all of a sudden walking with someone? Who? I mean, does this alien from Mars suddenly appear out of the storm, or what?

Now, after I wrote this, my friend and fellow-reader Terri L. pointed out that in the stage and film version, it's clear that you actually are walking with a family member who has passed on. So the real question we need to be thinking about is who we are going to walk with. "Walking" is a biblical idiom for "behaving." For example, "walking in darkness" means behaving in sinful ways, just as "walking in the light" means behaving in Godly ways. Walk in the light; walk with God.

Job 31:35-37, 38:1-21, "What the World Needs Now is Love, Sweet Love" (1965) True, but it isn't safe to imply that you know better than God what the world needs or doesn't need. (09/05/19)

Even as a young person, I cringed a little at the lyrics

What the World Needs Now is Love, Sweet Love

So far, so good: scripture agrees with that part 100 percent. So why did I cringe? Because it goes on to say

Is the singer going to be struck by lightning for implying that God doesn't know what's needed? More to the point, am I going to be struck by lightning for even listening to this song? Job has spent many chapters asserting his righteousness, complaining that God had done him wrong, and demanding an explanation. In short, God doesn't know what's needed, and Job wants to set him straight. God answers him, all right, but the answer is, "Who are you to ask? Let's see what you know!"

Reader Comment:

Could it be a prayer to the Lord for more love in the World? Perhaps the lyricist is not good with words and phrases it as informing God, rather than asking. I’ve seen this in movies, where someone demands that God save someone’s life or something similar. The movie "The Apostle" also comes to mind. As I remember, he did a lot of demanding of God and I think telling God what he needed to do.

Mark 1:1-5; Revelation 22:1-5, "The River" (2016) Is he talking about the river of life? Of baptism? Maybe. (09/06/19)

Here's a song I'd never heard until it was suggested for this study. I like it a lot, even though I'm not certain that Blues Saraceno meant what I hear. The great rivers of the world – the Nile, the Ganges, the Amazon, the Mississippi – are huge and powerful, with the power to kill and the power to keep alive. It's not at all surprising that one people or another has considered them to be sacred or even to be gods. Jews and Christians recognize the significance of water, in rivers or not, without attributing any divine powers to them. "The River" starts out

This reminds me of the River of Jordan, or in fact of any water of baptism. In another verse, we hear

And that reminds me of the river of the water of life.

Bad Theology

James 1:12-18; Mark 10:17-27; Romans 3:23, "The Last Kiss" (1962) Two strikes: 1. The Lord didn't take her away from you, and 2. You don't get to heaven being "good enough." (08/12/19)

"The Last Kiss" has two strikes against it, theologically speaking.

First, the Lord didn't take her away. If you listen to the song, the kid was driving too fast and caused a wreck that killed his girlfriend. This was not God's fault! James warns us against blaming God for our own sins and mistakes. (And as we'll see in the next phase of our study of salvation, God doesn't want people dying prematurely, so I suspect it especially annoys him to be blamed for this particular sort of thing.)

Second, you don't get to heaven by being "good enough." Jesus says that "no one is good except God alone," and Paul reinforces the idea that we have all sinned and fallen short of God's goodness. In particular, the kid in the song has already driven too fast and gotten his girlfriend killed, so it's too late for him to be "good enough." That doesn't mean you should give up trying to be as good as you possibly can, only that it certainly won't get you into heaven once you have committed a sin. (Real babies - those who are too young to choose good or evil – may be a special case.)

Nehemiah 9:9-21; Matthew 1:18-23, "From a Distance" (1985) Apparently the writer never met Emmanuel. (08/13/19)

One of the readers who suggested "From a Distance" said that it's a "beautiful song, terrible theology," and that's exactly right.

Wrong. God has never been watching us "from a distance." We are not God's television program, we are his favorite hands-on hobby. God has always been right here with us, in good times and bad, leading us, nurturing us, and trying his best to save us. I mean, look at the names: God-Saves, God-With-Us, Shepherd of Israel, Rock of Israel, Redeemer. Which one of those says that God watches from a distance? Terrible theology.

John 15:12-17; Romans 3:20-26, "Spirit in the Sky" (1969) The reason we need a friend in Jesus is that we are sinners! (08/21/19)

"Spirit in the Sky" is catchy, and the idea that we'll be taken up to the Spirit in the Sky when we die is, we hope, correct. Everything is fine right until it gets to

The reason I need a friend in Jesus is that I am sinner! If we had never sinned, God wouldn't have had to go to all the trouble of sending Moses and the prophets, let alone sending Jesus to die for our sins! Jesus calls us friends if we keep his commandments (John 15:14), but everyone has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). It is only Jesus' righteousness and my faith in him that "sets me up with the Spirit in the Sky." So "I got a friend in Jesus" is true, but "I never sinned" is false.

Acts 8:4-24, "Stairway to Heaven" (1971) You can't buy your way into heaven. (08/22/19)

"Stairway to Heaven" is one of those songs that are immensely popular for reasons that are completely obscure to me. The tune is, frankly, boring, and after the first verse, the lyrics make no sense whatever. When the singer says, "It makes me wonder," I think he's talking about his own song!

Nevertheless, more than one fellow reader suggested it be included, so here it is. The lady in the first couple of verses is exactly like Simon, the wonder-worker of Acts 8. When Simon saw Peter and John lay hands on the new converts and the Holy Spirit descend upon them, he thought, "Wow! I need to get in on this!" He asked them to sell him this power, just like the lady in the song.

Instead, Peter gave Simon a word: "May your money come to destruction with you, because you had the idea that what is freely given by God may be got for a price." You can't buy your way into heaven, and you shouldn't expect a monetary reward for doing God's work.

Matthew 7:21-29; Psalms 1, "Jesus is Just Alright" (1966) The point is, are you right with Jesus? (09/09/19)

"Jesus is Just Alright with me" is one of those simple rock songs with about six words, repeated several times. It's catchy, but not deep. Scripture, however, says that the thing I should be concerned about is whether I'm all right with Jesus. And the way I get to be all right with Jesus is to do the will of the Father in heaven.

Now, when the song gets to

that's a little more scriptural. Psalms 1 tells us that we are blessed when we reject the advice of evil people and do not follow the example of sinners or join those who have no use for God.

John 11:1-6, 17-27, 34-44, "Unanswered Prayers" (1990) God answers; try to understand the answer! (09/11/19)

Have you ever been asked a question by your children, or maybe students, or employees, or people who call you on the phone wanting you to donate to some charity you've never heard of? Have you ever said, "I've got a better idea," or even "No"? Those were answers! They just didn't happen to be the answer your questioner wanted.

In "Unanswered Prayers," the singer is thanking God that instead of "answering" his prayer by letting him marry an unsuitable woman, God "didn't answer" by finding him the right wife. He says

He's wrong about God not answering prayer, and right about the Lord knowing what he's doing. When Mary and Martha sent a message to Jesus telling him that Lazarus was ill, Jesus didn't "answer." (Considering the travel times involved, Lazarus was probably already dead by the time he got the message.) Instead, Jesus went to Bethany, because he had a better idea.

The next time you are tempted to say, "God didn't answer that prayer," ask yourself some questions:

Do I really mean, "I didn't get what I wanted?"
Did God have a better idea?
Was there some reason that the answer was "No"?

God always answers; sometimes we need to work harder at understanding the answer.

Truly Weird

2 Samuel 11:1-9; Judges 16:15-22, (1984) "Hallelujah" confuses David with Samson. (09/10/19)

I'm not sure whether this is truly weird theology or just truly weird story telling. "Hallelujah" has been covered by at least 60 artists, so I guess many people must like it. I'm not one of them, however. My primary objection is that it confuses two completely separate biblical stories: David and Bathsheba with Samson and Delilah.

That's definitely David. But then the very next lines are

which has got to be Samson, since he's the only guy we know about who was tied up by and whose hair was forcibly cut by a woman. About the only thing the two stories have in common is that the guys lusted after the wrong women and got into trouble, so why are they combined in this song? The other verses just ramble around without making even this much sense. This just goes to show that a song can be popular for no particular reason.

And aside from that, I object to his pronunciation of "hallelujah." Say "hallelu-yah," not "hallelu-yuh." "Hallelujah" means "Praise YAH," one of the names of God. "Hallelu-yuh" means "Praise YUH," whom I believe to be the god of bad speech habits. HAHAhahaha!

Exodus 20:1-7; Judges 2:7-19; Matthew 6:24, "My Sweet Lord" (1970) A truly weird song praising both God and Krishna. (08/14/19)

Okay, I promised you some "truly weird" theology, and here it is. "My Sweet Lord" contains the lyrics

Now, you know from our study of the names of God that halelu YAH is Hebrew for "all of you praise God!" The God in question is, of course, the God of the Jews and Christians. (And possibly of the Muslims; scholarly opinions differ about that.) Meantime, Hare Krishna is Sanskrit, and according to Wikipedia it could have multiple meanings; however, all of them invoke or praise Krishna, a major or even the supreme Hindu god.

I have no way of knowing what the Hindu stand on the worship of God is, but I can tell you for sure that our God does not tolerate the worship of Krishna. Either God is the supreme God, or Krishna is the supreme god, but not both! Referring to both of them as "my" Lord in the same song makes no theological sense in any religion.

My Favorites

Isaiah 63:7-9; Galatians 6:1-2; Philippians 2:1-4, "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" (1969) (09/12/19)

On your behalf, brothers and sisters, I listened to quite a few songs, quite a few times, for this study. Some of them – old and new – I liked, and others – old and new – I disliked. For you, I even listened repeatedly to old songs that I knew I disliked! Now it's your turn. We're going to complete our musical interlude with seven of my very favorites, and I hope you like them as much as I do.

God has carried us from days of old and urges us to do the same for one another.

He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother

Genesis 8:1-13; Luke 3:21-22; John 1:32-34, "Wings of a Dove" (1958) One of my childhood favorites, self-explanatory. (09/13/19)

My dad arranged "Wings of a Dove" for organ and played it often. I loved it then and I still do. It's scriptural and self-explanatory.

Psalms 148, "Morning Has Broken" (1971) Praise with elation! (09/16/19)

Well, who knew that "Morning Has Broken," made immensely popular by Cat Stevens in 1972, was written and published before he was born? The song originally appeared in a 1931 hymnal, although the sentiment of "praise with elation" is much older than that. Throughout the scriptures, we hear songs of praise for God, and Psalm 148 is one of my favorite examples. Praise the LORD!

Isaiah 49:13, 44:23; Revelation 14:13, 15:2-4; 2 Corinthians 1:3-5; Matthew 13:44-46; Luke 15:4-10; Revelation 21:10-24, "My Blue Heaven" (1923) Heaven will be a happy place. (09/17/19)

We just finished a book about heaven in Sunday School, and it turns out that we all had different ideas about what heaven will be like. Nevertheless, we all want to go there, because it's going to be great. Fats Domino's version of "My Blue Heaven" gives one of the best descriptions I know of, one that makes me smile. Heaven is a place of

music – "when whippoorwills call" ;
rest – "and evening is nigh,"
light – "a little bright light,"
comfort – " a cozy place, a fireplace, a cozy room" ;
safety – "a little nest,"
beauty – "where roses bloom," and
joy and celebration with loved ones – "just Molly and me and the baby ... be happy in my blue heaven."

Joshua 24:1-25, "You Gotta Serve Somebody" (1979) Bob Dylan is my favorite theologian. (09/18/19)

After God installed the children of Israel in the land he had promised to Abraham, Joshua got everybody together and summarized everything God had done for them. Joshua said, "You gotta serve somebody, and you've got choices. You can serve the gods from the old country, or you can serve the gods of this new country. Or you can serve the LORD, the God of Israel. Choose today."

Bob Dylan says the same thing:

You Gotta Serve Somebody

Choose today. Choose wisely.

P.S. Dylan won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Male, in 1979 for this song, and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016. He received nominations for the album "Saved" and the songs "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" and "Gonna Change My Way of Thinkin'." When I say that Bob Dylan is my favorite theologian, there are reasons.

John 8:12; 1 John 4:7-16, 1:5-7, "Love is Eternal Sacred Light" (2010) God is love; God is light. (09/19/19)

I have heard it said that the only definition we have of God is "God is love." That's not exactly right, because the same writer, John, also gives us the definition "God is light." It seems to be true, however, that these are the only two: God is love, and God is light. Consequently, I have to say that Paul Simon's "Love is Eternal Sacred Light" is pretty scriptural.

We could just as easily read the creation story in Genesis with this song, though. I especially like

Never be afraid to laugh if something strikes you as funny when you read your Bible!

1 Peter 1:1-9, 17-19; Revelation 7:9-17, "Saved" (1980) And I'm so glad! (09/20/19)

And now for my all-time favorite gospel song. Just like Bob Dylan,

Saved

And speaking of salvation, on Monday we'll return to "What Must I Do to be Saved?" God's plan for your salvation is broader than you think.

More Songs for Summer

Songs for Summer, 2019
Invocation, Angels (mostly badly represented), and Good theology
Mixed, Bad, and Truly Weird theology and My Favorites

Songs for a Summer Pandemic, 2020
We're All In This Together, the Great Physician, and more Good theology
The Devil, Bluegrass and Country, Show Tunes, and Our Future

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