If you were to take a stroll down Scott street near downtown Houston this weekend you would find yourself walking past a little hole-in-the-wall cafe called Etta's Lounge. There's no sign on the door, there's no lighting to tell you that you have found it - but there is something else to let you know you are at the right place. Through the open door the soulful sound of a growling saxophone, the lamenting cries of an electric guitar and the sorrowful sound of a man singing fills the air. It's captivating and hauntingly beautiful. As you stop and listen something deep in your soul begins to resonate with this sad sorrowful music. Emotions pushed down from the hectic pace of life begin to seep up from your gut. The trials and tribulations in which you live now find a voice in the music filling the air. Your head begins to nod and you feel yourself agreeing with the chords and the rhythm, and though you've never met the people playing or singing you feel as though you've known them your whole life. It's the blues!
It's not a new style of music. The structure and form and the instruments have certainly changed as the years have gone by, but the message has never changed: This ol' life is hard, The whole world is against me, When is the sun gonna shine on me again? Some of the lyrics change to reflect specific circumstances, the melodies have different variations and people sing them in different keys, but as soon as you hear the first few notes and words - you know they're singing the blues. In fact you don't even have to hear it sung, you could just read the lyrics and you know that this person has the blues. You know instantly that this person is dealing with some serious suffering and the only way for their soul to find relief is to sing.
Ironically - people have been singing the blues for thousands of years. Let me introduce you to one of the first people to sing about their suffering. You're not going to find this tune on the top 40 R&B charts - this one is found in the Bible. In fact it's not just one song - it's a collection of a lot of songs. It's the book of Psalms. Psalms is a collection of songs written for the people of Israel to sing when they gathered to worship God. About half of the Psalms were written by King David - who is described in that same Bible to be a man after God's own heart (1 Samuel 13). The songs that this man wrote were inspired by God and recorded forever as God's Word to us in the Bible. This means that we would do well to study these songs and take care to implement their message into our own lives and our own times of worship.
Most people generally think of the Book of Psalms as a collection of Praise Songs. Songs that declare the Glory and Majesty of God - and they are partially correct. The Psalms do help us worship God in the splendor of His holiness and majesty - but if that's all we get out of the Psalms then we are guilty of ignoring the other half of the message of that book.It's that people have the blues!
A careful study of the book of Psalms reveals that praising God is the ultimate destination, but most of the Psalms do not begin with praise. What first shapes these songs is not praise but pain, not joy but grief, not communion but abandonment, not intimacy but isolation, not love but betrayal! The songs usually start with the blues! Isn't it interesting that God thought it necessary to teach His people how to weep before He taught them how to praise Him? I think we spend most of our time worshiping together focusing on the goodness and grace of God and too little time singing our blues. We've moved away from the biblical precedent God gave us - sing the grief, sing the suffering, and THEN sing My praise. People connect with the blues because it's a song about their life. Everyone gets disoriented when suffering comes along - some of us try and live in denial and just continue to try and worship God as though there's really no tension between us, some of us give mention to the pain, but then move to praising God as quickly as possible, refusing to embrace the pain; and others hold it in as long as they can until they find the courage to deal with it, but even then it's in the privacy of a counselors office or in the confidence and security of a trusted friend. Seldom do you ever see it displayed publicly, let alone in a house of worship. But to read the psalms is to find all of these approaches unthinkable!
David had no problem confronting God when life's circumstances seemed contrary to God's promises. In fact, it was David's trust and security in God's promises and in God's unfailing love that prompted him to voice his feelings of dismay and doubt and even betrayal. God recorded this for us to learn from. One of the most important aspects about these songs is that they all begin through the doorway of honesty. If we are not willing to go through that door when we worship we will not grow in our understanding of what worship is. Our growth in worshiping God will be stunted, our praise for Him will be lacking the depth and richness that only comes from the soul willing to embrace suffering honestly and openly before God.
So singing our suffering is not only normal - God expects us to do so! I know I need to grow in this as I'm sure some of you reading this do as well. Our society and culture is not one that promotes dealing with suffering and pain openly - but as Christ followers we do not take our cues from culture but from God's Word! Get those vocal chords warmed up....
Looking forward to singing the blues with you!
